Category: United States

BakeryClosed in 2022Dog FriendlyGone But Not ForgottenUnited StatesUtah

Les Madeleine’s Patisserie Cafe – Salt Lake City, Utah (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

About fifteen years ago, Becky Mercuri, a highly-regarded food writer from upstate New York contacted me about a book she was working on to recognize the best breakfasts in every state.  I was already a huge fan of Becky’s writing so when she asked for my input on the best breakfast in New Mexico, I considered it a huge honor.  It didn’t take very long before Becky and I began a daily dialogue not only on food, but on virtually every topic under the son.  The more we shared with each other, the more our kindred interests revealed themselves.  We…

AmericanDog FriendlyRating: N/R (Not Rated)SouthernUnited StatesUtah

Sweet Lake Biscuits & Limeaid

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In 2008, Natchez, Mississippi, was officially named the Biscuit Capital of the World, a process which took three years of research by Chef Regina Charboneau.  Just our luck, the Natchez native and French-trained chef began serving her famous biscuits at her Twin Oaks Bed & Breakfast in Natchez a decade after our last visit to the “Antebellum Capital of the World.”  While we didn’t get to partake of Chef Charboneau’s celebrated biscuits (revered by the Rolling Stones), our breakfasts in Natchez were memorable because biscuits in the Mississippi River town are truly “biscuit capital” worthy. In the quarter-century plus since we…

Dog FriendlyFine DiningRating: N/R (Not Rated)United StatesUtah

Desert Bistro – Moab, Utah

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

My Kim didn’t buy my explanation that Moab is an acronym standing for “Mother Of All Buffets.”  She did find my legitimate explanation viable.  I explained that Moab means “a land just short of the Promised Land,” a name bestowed  because the Moab valley was a verdant oasis in the middle of a desert.  Moab first appears in the Old Testament book of Genesis and is situated in ancient Palestine just east of the Dead Sea where Jordan now lies.  Because of the physical similarities to the desert jewel of the Old Testament, the small Utah town founded by Mormon…

Rating: N/R (Not Rated)Soul FoodSouthernTexasUnited States

Delvin’s Restaurant & Catering – Amarillo, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Throughout its storied history, Amarillo’s culinary reputation has been based primarily on one kind of food: beef.  That’s no surprise considering Amarillo-area ranches produce thirty-percent of the nation’s beef and ninety-percent of the beef in Texas.  So when the city on the High Plains is described as a “cow town,” it’s not solely because of the odoriferous emanations from thousands of cattle in the feed yards along I-40.  While researching restaurants to explore during our extended weekend stay in Amarillo, it quickly became apparent that while beef may still be king, cows alone no longer define Amarillo menus.     Among…

Dog FriendlyIndianRating: N/R (Not Rated)TexasUnited States

It’s A Punjabi Affair – Amarillo, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

During our last full year at Intel, my friend Bill Resnik and I had the distinct honor and privilege of working on a project with a team from Microsoft comprised mostly of information technology professionals with roots in the exotic subcontinent of India.  We had expected impeccable technical expertise, but their dedication and focus was far beyond what any of us would have anticipated.  As an example, Kannan, a technical solutions analyst once took a well-deserved vacation in Hawaii and still called in to daily project meetings.  Tropical birds sang in the background as Kannan provided his updates while lounging…

Bar & GrillBurgersRating: N/R (Not Rated)TexasUnited States

The Golden Light Cafe & Cantina – Amarillo, Texas

Gil Garduno12:02 AM

Published in 1938, John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath is widely regarded as one of the greatest American novels ever written. Replete with timeless themes of struggle, destitution, injustice, and the pursuit of a delusive “Promised Land,” the novel centers around the trevails of the Joad family.  Along with thousands of other tenant farmers from Oklahoma who lost their livelihood and property because of the Dust Bowl, the Joads travel the relatively nascent Route 66 toward California and the pursuit of a piece of land to call their own. Every night on their journey, the Joads and their fellow migrants witnessed…

ArizonaNew MexicanRating: ExcellentUnited States

Richardson’s Cuisine of New Mexico – Phoenix, Arizona

Gil Garduno3:34 AM

My friend and former Intel colleague Steve Caine will forever rue the day he asked me to help him with an expense report for a business trip he made to Portland, Oregon. His itemized expense report indicated he had dined twice at Chevy’s, a middling quality Americanized Mexican restaurant which wouldn’t survive in the tough Albuquerque market.   I teased him mercilessly. Worse, when my boss saw what the commotion was all about, he immediately put Steve on double-secret probation. Steve has never lived down visiting a Chevy’s in Portland where he could have had some of the country’s freshest…

ArizonaDog FriendlyItalianRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Fat Ox – Scottsdale, Arizona

Gil Garduno10:26 AM

In the Alpine village of Carrù in the Piedmont region of Italy stands the “Monumento al Bue Grasso” (monument to a fat ox).  Depicting two fat oxen under yoke, the monument celebrates the beast of burden so important to the region.  December’s ‘Fiera del Bue Grasso’ (festival of the fat ox) brings together tens of thousands of visitors who come to gaze at the oxen and eat copious amounts of deliciously warming tripe soup and boiled beef, washed down with a milled wine.   Farmers from throughout the region truck their oxen into town to show them off and vie…

ArizonaDiners Drive-Ins and DivesDog FriendlyItalianPizzaRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

DeFalco’s Deli: Italian Eatery & Grocery – Scottsdale, Arizona

Gil Garduno5:27 PM

My Kim usually leaves the recitation of movie or television quotes to me (apparently it’s a guy thing), but every once in a while she’ll surprise me with an utterance or exclamation she could have picked up only from the big screen or idiot box.  When we strode into DeFalco’s Italian Eatery & Grocery, she approached an employee and–doing her best to channel New Jersey mobster Tony Soprano–asked “where’s da gabagool?”.  She had no intention of buying gabagool and doesn’t even like the stuff much.  The moment just seemed appropriate.   Here we were in an Italian grocery brimming with…

ArizonaEnglishRating: ExcellentUnited States

Cornish Pasty Company – Scottsdale, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:57 PM

There’s a European joke that uses stereotypes to deride British cooking, among the most maligned cuisines in the world culinary stage. As the joke goes, in the European conception of heaven, the French are the chefs, the British are the police, the Germans are the engineers, and so forth, while in the European conception of Hell, the Germans are the police, the French are the engineers and the British are the chefs. Rodney Dangerfield got more respect than British cuisine. While fish and chips are probably what most Americans would answer if asked what constitutes traditional British food, the truth…

ArizonaDog FriendlyHot DogsIllinoisRating: Very GoodSandwichUnited States

Portillo’s Hot Dogs – Tempe, Arizona

Gil Garduno3:24 AM

Portillo’s story is the story of the American dream, a rags to riches saga that began with a single hot dog stand opening in 1963. That single investment has blossomed into a multi-million per year chain with six different concepts and more than 40 restaurants in the Chicago area alone. The Portillo’s Restaurant Group has become, in fact, the largest privately-owned restaurant company in the Midwest. Among Chicagoland expatriates with whom I’ve worked (and one whom I married) Portillos is consistently named as one of the things they miss most about living in the Windy City. Expatriates like my Kim…