the vig Fillmore — neighborhood tavern 1914 bungalow, fish tacos
Coronado cafe, historic district, crab cakes
Astor house – BBQ
The main ingredient – beer
Cibo – pizza
Binks midtown, veggies
The house brasserie — Scottsdale
Lon’s at hermosa house
Roosevelt arts district
The mystery castle
Cool restaurants to check out in Phoenix
Filed under Phoenix
Pointe hilton tapatico cliffs resort Phoenix and Arizona shuttle.
It didn’t occur to me that a shuttle, as opposed to a flight, could be delayed by there I am outside the Phoenix airport waiting for the delayed shuttle to Tucson. Hope it’s not more than 45 minutes behind schedule although heck, just sitting outside the airport terminal in sunny 70 degrees or so weather is a tonic for this Midwestern snowbird.
I am leaving Phoenix after two days of work meetings. We were lodged at the very nice pointe hilton tapatico resort in north central Phoenix. Nice place with more pools and hot tubs than I could count, easy access to good hiking trails, a lovely mountaintop restaurant with good food and a spectacular view, especially at sunset. The layout is very confusing with lots of stucco two story spa is buildings rambling up a hilly compound.
Didn’t see much beyond our meeting room and the bus taking us to and fro. Did have a good dinner last night at del frisco’s grill near the Biltmore.
Filed under Phoenix
Blue Tomato Kitchen in West Des Moines
Tried out Blue Tomato Kitchen, a casual Italian restaurant operated by Baru 66’s french chef David Baruthio. It opened in January a former coffee shop in what I guess is West Des Moine’s Valley Junction. It was hopping on a Friday night and we found one open table. Service was swift and we were in and out in an hour or so (although not in any particular rush.) The food was fine – didn’t bowl us over. We had a thin crust pizza with anchovies (on my side at least, my husband doesn’t like them) olives, chilis, tomatoes. Good. Salty. Light. And spaghetti bolognese which didn’t have the long-cooked meat flavor of my version – more tomato-ey. Good enough. We also shared a little piece of lemon ricotta cheese cake topped with gooey dark cherry sauce. Good too. We’ll give it another go and nice to have as an easy option.
Filed under Des Moines, DINING
good burger at NorthPoint one the Milwaukee Airport
I was sad to learn that usinger’s, the famous sausage maker, no longer has an outpost in the Milwaukee airport but I had a very good burger with cheddar cheese and grilled onions at NorthPoint in the main terminal. I could see the cook flipping the burgers on a grill through a window by my table. good frozen custard too. Best of all my flight left ahead of time. Only wish it was a direct flight to Des Moines, which used to be available a few years ago. Now you have to take two puddle jumpers, via Minneapolis.
Milwaukee in the snow
Amtrak finally got me to Milwaukee, but three hours late. Our 10:25 am train was delayed and delayed until it merged with the 1:05 pm. Oh well. Much of the ride was thru a white out of snow. In Milwaukee I had to trek through pelting snow up the hill to my hotel, the hilton city center. I was one of the few people on the street at 3 pm and although the snow was so intense I couldn’t look up without pf getting hit in the face with snow, I made it to the Milwaukee public market where I had a very late lunch at a salad/sandwich/juice bar called The Green Kitchen and then wandered thru the snow to explore the Third Ward warehouse district. I had an early dinner at Kiku, a Japanese place near the hotel, and returned to the hilton looking like the abominable snow woman, my boots caked with snow, my jeans wet, snow covering my blue coat. very happy to be in bed watching white and Davis from my home state of Michigan win the gold Olympic medal for ice dancing.
Filed under Milwaukee
Long day at union station…trying to get train from Chicago to Milwaukee
My amtrak train from Chicago to Milwaukee has been delayed 2.5 hours so far. Mechanical problems. hope snow here and there doesn’t further complicate matters. I may have to buy some Girl Scout cookies from the traveling sales kids for lunch. Argh
Filed under Uncategorized
World Food Prize Headquarters and Howard Buffett photo exhibit in Des Moines: worth a visit
I finally got to walk around the renovated downtown library in Des Moines that is now the headquarters for the World Food Prize and was blown away by the restoration/renovation effort. It was always an elegant 19th century building but it got pretty shabby in the mid 1990s when my children visited the library there regularly as Downtown School students. With all its stain glassed windows and murals and wood it always hinted of a previous, more elegant life. Now it’s back to its former glory and well worth a walk around. The restored WPA murals on the bottom floor are particularly interesting, tracing the history do Des Moines from prehistoric era to 1941. And the Howard Buffett photos of people from across the world facing hunger issues is mesmerizing. So visit when
You can. (There was an open house last weekend.)
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THE WORLD FOOD PRIZE HALL OF LAUREATES is open to the public for tours from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., free of charge, on most Tuesdays and Saturdays. Please call 515-247-2222 for open house dates. Click here for more information. |
Filed under Des Moines, museum exhibit
Taking the el from midway/Kendall college dinner/joes stone crab/Joffrey ballet…Chicago!
Whirlwind trip to Chicago but well worth it. got to see some of my favorite people, my aunt, my son, my sister and niece. Got a dose of big city culture and crowds– a fantastic contemporary program danced by the Joffrey Ballet, a stroll along Michigan avenue! shopping in Eataly? some good food too including dinner at Kendall college, where the food was prepared and served by the students who go to hospitality and culinary school there. (Pretty good food, okay service but the kids are trying their best!). We also had a nice lunch at Joes stone crab which I haven’t been to since I was in ninth grade and in Miami beach(not south beach back then) with my grandma Betty. had a fabulous crab Louis salad that was even better than the one I make (must remember deviled eggs using the sauce Louis, hearts of palm, avocado, greens) and yes, sublime key lime pie. Onto Milwaukee tomorrow on the train, hoping to beat a snowstorm here also,there will probably be one in Milwaukee. Ahhh winter in the Midwest.
Ps flew into midway on southwest and took the el to my aunt’s. Piece of cake. Orange line to Roosevelt then red line north to Clark/division.
When in LA – maybe visit Chef Roy Choi’s Kogi or Pot
Chef Roy Choi made a big splash on this season’s “Top Chef” by being remarkably candid and foul-mouthed about how much he did not like the food the poor frazzled chefs had cooked up for him. Padma looked aghast. But apparently HIS food is worth a try so maybe we will give it a go when we’re visiting my brother in LA next month. Maybe he’ll prove to me that Korean food is worth all the hype. Our options appear to be Kogi, kogi website which the NYTimes travel section dubbed “the city’s hottest food truck, selling his now classic Korean taco” and Pot, “a veritable Korean market, at the Line hotel in Los Angeles’s Koreatown.”
The Pot website lists only drinks (“only” isn’t quite the right word since the menu sports four pages of drinks!) but the Line Hotel plugs the food….
POT – COMING SOON
KOREATOWN AND KOREAN FOOD THROUGH THE EYES OF AN AMERICAN WITH KOREAN BLOOD. HOT POTS, BLOOD SOUPS, FRENETIC ENERGY, BBQ. IT’S THE LATE NIGHTS ON THE STREETS, IT’S A JOYOUS CELEBRATION OF LIFE. MOST OF ALL, IT’S GOOD TIMES AND GOOD FOOD IN THE HOOD.
Filed under DINING, Los Angeles
What to see en route from Ames Iowa to Coffeyville Kansas?
Largest Community Rolled Ball of Twine in Cawker City, Kansas
From time to time, I field questions from friends like the one below (a Kansas native, I might add, who is a longtime Iowa transplant.)
A friend is driving down to Coffeeville, Kansas from Ames and wants to know what weird and wonderful things he should stop and see along the way. So up your alley!
Is the biggest ball of string even remotely along the way? He’s willing to go a little off the beaten path, and loves quirky things.
What can you recommend?
Wow – that route is a challenge. If he takes 169 south from Kansas city – which appears to be the fastest route – he’ll just miss the Flint Hills, which are one of my favorite Kansas places. If he takes 69 south, another option, he’ll go through some places I remember as interesting – Fort Scott, Baxter Springs and Pittsburg. He should check out this story on southeast Kansas from the NYTimes Frugal Traveler done http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/07/travel/in-kansas-museums-fried-chicken-and-yes-oz.html last summer.
As for the aforementioned “biggest ball of string, ” it is actually “the second largest ball of twine” (or sometimes the largest depending on the definition) and it’s in Cawker City – in North Central Kansas so not on your friend’s route, alas. How weird is it that I know this stuff?
Route 66 Soda Fountain, 2008 in Baxter Springs!
Filed under Kansas, Kansas misc
TakeBetsywithyou 