Category: United States

Diners Drive-Ins and DivesIllinoisRating: Very GoodSandwichUnited States

Al’s #1 Beef – Chicago, Illinois

Gil Garduno7:48 AM

Assume the position!  It’s been called the “Chicago Lean,” the “Italian Stance” and simply “The Stance.”   It’s  the time-tested, traditional art and science of eating Italian beef sandwiches, a Chicago specialty.  Trust me, it’s not the same as eating an ordinary sandwich.  If you don’t follow the process, you’re bound to spill shards of beef, bits of giardiniera and drippings of spice-laden beef gravy onto your clothing.  Italian beef sandwiches are as messy as they are delicious.  Some Italian beef sandwich shops don’t even offer seating.  Instead, they provide high, thin counters with or without stools where you’ll park yourself and proceed to assume the position.  I’ll let the professionals take over from here.  Courtesy of Italianbeef.com: (1)  Put your sandwich on the counter and stand in front of it, with your chest about 12 inches from the edge of the counter (2)  Lean forward so your chest is at a 45-degree angle to the counter (Note: if you’€™re wearing a tie, make sure it’s tucked inside your shirt) (3)  Pick up your sandwich, resting your elbows on the counter (4)  Angle the sandwich at a 45-degree angle to the counter, with the top end towards your mouth. (Imagine…

Closed in 2017Gone But Not ForgottenIllinoisRating: N/R (Not Rated)SteakUnited States

David Burke’s Primehouse – Chicago, Illinois (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:48 PM

By day, my friend James Sorenham was an architect of his business group’s data warehouse and business intelligence strategies.  By night and on weekends, James was a gentleman farmer tending to a small herd at his Broke Again ranch outside Portland, Oregon.  James took immense pride in raising prized beef cattle and kept his colleagues apprised of their progress through his weekly status reports.  Alas, his writing skills weren’t in the same zip code as his data management skills so when he reported that he had “personally inseminated sixteen cows,” he got teased mercilessly about his deviant bestial activities. The fact that David Burke is the first chef to own his own bull means “personal insemination” of beef cattle can best be left to the bovine persuasion.  That leaves Chef Burke to follow his passions as one of America’s most pioneering chefs and self-proclaimed chef, artist, entrepreneur and inventor.  The New York-based Burke is a practitioner of culinology, a revolutionary approach to food that blends technology and the culinary arts.  By experimenting with interesting ingredients and cooking techniques, he has developed such culinary innovations as an edible bacon candle which can be lit, smelled and eaten.  His innovative style translates…

Fine DiningIllinoisMichelin: Bib GourmandRating: ExceptionalRestaurants Which Have Earned Michelin HonorsUnited States

The Purple Pig – Chicago, Illinois

Gil Garduno4:52 PM

Poet Carl Sandburg bestowed the nickname “hog butcher for the world” upon the great city of Chicago at a time when the city was the epicenter for meatpacking in the United States. Companies such as Oscar Mayer, Swift and Armour operated large plants in the city, employing hundreds of residents. Unfortunately, Chicago’s streets became frequently overcrowded with pigs and cattle being herded through the streets to the plants. Ultimately the largest companies banded together in 1865 to build the Union Stock Yards next to the railroad tracks. Henceforth animals were ferried to the plants by train instead of through city streets. The 1970 closure of the Union Stockyards brought an end to the time when Chicago was nicknamed the “hog butcher for the world.” Perhaps if Sandburg were alive today, he might be inspired to write about the rebirth of the presence of the pig in Chicago. More specifically, he might write about one particular Purple Pig, a restaurant recognized by Bon Appetit as one of America’s top ten best new restaurants in 2010. In his inimitable fashion, Sandburg could explain the genesis of the restaurant’s name being from a legend that if a pig drinks red wine, it will…

IllinoisMexicanRating: OutstandingUnited States

Frontera Grill – Chicago, Illinois

Gil Garduno1:20 PM

Not everyone has the relentless drive and impassioned fortitude to parlay their most ardent desires and zealous fervor into a wildly successful thematic venture, but then not everyone is Rick Bayless, America’s Mexican chef and restaurateur nonpareil. His single-minded passion for the Mexican culinary experience is reflected in multimedia ventures such as his successful PBS television series “Cooking Mexican” and “Mexico – One Plate At A Time” as well as his genre-redefining, award-winning books. One of those books, Authentic Mexican was heralded by the New York Times as “the greatest contribution to the Mexican table imaginable” while another, Mexican Kitchen was chosen best cookbook of the year.  Mostly, however, his passion is reflected in his restaurants. In 1987, Bayless launched the vivacious and hyper-energetic Frontera Grill restaurant in Chicago, a veritable pantheon to his unique interpretations of contemporary regional  Mexican cooking.  The walls of the Fronter Grill could be decorated with all the plaudits and accolades it and its proprietor have earned. Instead its walls are festooned with museum quality folk art from throughout Mexico, some whose whimsical quality will bring a smile to your face.  It’s more likely, however, the edible culinary arts played a more significant part in…

ArizonaBurgersUnited States

In-N-Out Burger – Chandler, Arizona

Gil Garduno2:48 PM

During a 2011 episode of Break the Chain, the enlightening and entertaining food-centric radio program hosted by the brilliant Ryan Scott, Larry McGoldrick, the professor with the pulchritudinous palate, made some rather unkind comments about Blake’s Lotaburger, an exclusively New Mexico institution.  I cautioned him that local listeners might show up at the radio station armed with pitchforks and torches. That’s how much New Mexicans love the burger franchise whose motto reminds them that “If you are what you eat, you are awesome.” It’s not always easy to express your opinion about something as sacrosanct and beloved as Lotaburger, but inspired by Larry’s honesty, let me share my thoughts about In-N-Out Burger, a California institution that’s beloved beyond the Golden State, a burger restaurant National Geographic named the second best burger in the fruited plain in its “Top 10 Best of Everything” for 2012.  When it comes to In-N-Out, I’m most definitely in the minority.  I don’t get it at all… I first found out about In-N-Out Burger in 1987 while developing psychometrics for the United States Air Force in San Antonio, Texas.  Two of my test-writing colleagues were native, In-N-Out Burger obsessed Californians who never seemed to take off…

AmericanCaliforniaRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Indigo Moon Cafe, Wine and Cheese Shop – Cambria, California

Gil Garduno5:34 PM

It might be easy to dismiss Cambria as a “jumping off” point to some of California’s most spectacular and  popular sites…until you actually visit Cambria.  That’s when you discover that there is plenty to see and do in this picturesque seaside village on the Central California Coast which Forbes.com declared “one of America’s prettiest towns.”  It’s a town virtually surrounded on three sides by towering pines and Monterey Cyprus which form a natural canopy over the beachside boardwalk.  To its west is the shimmering Pacific Ocean with some of the most pristine, unspoiled beaches in the state. Cambria virtually unfolds along the fabled Highway 1 at exactly the halfway point–240 miles–from both San Francisco and Los Angeles.  Just barely above sea level, Cambria may not have the dramatic cliff-side vistas for which Big Sur is renowned, but its beaches are much more approachable.  So are the elephant seals which frolic and lounge on the Piedras Blancas rookery a few miles away.  The most popular draws in the area are Hearst Castle, the European-style home of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hurst, and the numerous wineries and vineyards throughout the area. Within Cambria, you’ll find an eclectic shopping district with something for…

AmericanCaliforniaRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Nepenthe Restaurant – Big Sur, California

Gil Garduno11:11 AM

With all the travails and vicissitudes of  modern life, we can all use  a respite or safe harbor to which we can escape…where we can take a break from all our worries.  Big Sur, California, which most would consider an escape in and of itself has a dining destination which has been nourishing diners both physically and spiritually  for more than six decades.  It’s called Nepenthe, a Greek word which can be translated to “isle of no care,” “a place to find surcease from sorrow.” Lest you get the impression Nepenthe is a real-world Cheers tavern, it is oh, so much more.  First, if there’s a true paradise on Earth (other than New Mexico, of course), it may well exist on the Central California coast in Big Sur, a seaside idyll which will take your breath away and calm you with its vast expanse of tranquil waters and spectacular views of towering redwoods and precipitous cliffs in a climate that can only be described as perfect. If such a seaside idyll has a heart and soul, it is Nepenthe. The word “Nepenthe” first appears on the fourth book of Homer’s Odyssey, though its reference wasn’t as a place of respite,…

CaliforniaRating: N/R (Not Rated)SeafoodUnited States

Schooners Coastal Kitchen & Bar – Monterey, California

Gil Garduno8:20 AM

Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.” ~John Steinbeck Cannery Row, 1945 During basic military training in the Air Force, several of us who could speak multiple languages were asked to take the Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB), the test the military services use to measure aptitude to learn a foreign language.  Fewer than five percent of people who take (or retake) the DLAB pass it.  Somehow I managed a high score and was extended an opportunity to attend the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center at the Presidio of Monterey.   My response, one borne of ignorance and stupidity, was “I don’t want to go to Mexico.”  It had not dawned on me that the Monterey being offered was in California.  Over the years, I’ve revisited my decision frequently.  On one hand, the Air Force might have decided to have me learn Arabic or Iranian then stationed me on a remote mountaintop to listen to and decipher chatter.  On the other, the year or so spent in Monterey would have been glorious (other than the hours of poring over language tapes…

CaliforniaFine DiningRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Sierra Mar at Post Ranch Inn – Big Sur, California

Gil Garduno2:34 PM

Famous French mime Marcel Marceau once remarked “do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words.”  Without words, a rare state for someone who uses so many of them, aptly describes my reaction at gazing for the first time upon Big Sur with an awe and reverence few sights outside of New Mexico have ever inspired in me.  It eventually dawned on me that my friend Señor Plata may have best described Big Sur when he declared “God spent just a little more time creating Big Sur.”  Translating literally from the Spanish words “El Sur Grande” meaning “the Big South,” Big Sur is a fabled 90-mile expanse of coastline with breathtaking views of precipitous cliffs which plunge into the sea, rolling fog which creeps in slowly and shrouds those cliffs, towering redwood groves reaching toward Heaven, steep flower-strewn mountains, deeply turquoise waves made frothy by being beaten on jagged rocks,  and unspoiled beaches secreted in coves.  National Geographic Traveler named Big Sur one of the “50 Places of a Lifetime” and “One of the World’s Greatest Destinations.” Big Sur’s spectacular coastline twists and winds along the western flank of the Santa Lucia Mountain Range  on Highway…

CaliforniaContinentalRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Casanova Restaurant – Carmel, California

Gil Garduno9:50 AM

For they could not love you But still your love was true And when no hope was left inside On that starry, starry night You took your life as lovers often do But I could have told you, Vincent This world was never meant For one as beautiful as you ~Don McLean When Vincent van Gogh painted “The Starry Night” depicting the view of a swirling night sky from the window of his room at the sanatorium Rémy-de-Provence, there’s no way he could possibly have known that its fame would be spread by the heart-rending lyrics of a song.  In 1970, his painting was immortalized in pop culture on the refrain to Don McLean’s 1970 poignant Vincent.  Throughout his 37 year life, van Gogh’s “suffering for his sanity” was exacerbated by the fact that his work and lifestyle were more widely criticized than they were recognized. van Gogh spent the last seventy days of his life as a tenant at the Auberge Ravoux, a country inn in a small village some  22 miles northwest of Paris.  The Auberge Ravoux was a favorite among Dutch and American painters and still attracts art enthusiasts from throughout the world.  It also continues to…

ArizonaClosed in 2019Gone But Not ForgottenRating: ExcellentThaiUnited States

Mint Thai – Gilbert, Arizona (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno8:41 AM

You might assume that because of my unabashed online promotion of culinary adventures, I would be the classic prostheletizer seeking to convert to the joys of more adventurous dining all lost and wayward souls who frequent chain restaurants. Alas, when traveling with colleagues who are either pedestrian about their dining preferences (they eat to live) or are wholly resistant to trying anything new or different, I tend to defer to their lifestyle choices. It beats listening to comments such as “yech, how can you possibly eat that?” and “that’s not in any of the food groups I know.” The offshoot is that I eat in more chain restaurants than you’ll ever hear me admit to (I don’t write about them for risk of being called a nattering nabob of negativism). By being able to compare and contrast restaurant chains with my beloved independently owned eateries, I’m able to derive a sense of perspective that hopefully makes any disparaging comments I may make about those chains more credible. At the very least, visiting chains heightens my appreciation for mom and pops all the more. Traveling with colleagues to the Phoenix area has meant choking down chow at a lamentable litany of local…