Dining with David: Bahama Breeze

Bahama Breeze - Orange Village, OH - January 31, 2011
http://www.bahamabreeze.com/
My beautiful bride and I used to enjoy a nice lunch every now & then (when she would take me out) at a place called Bahama Breeze in Birmingham.  Unfortunately, we lost this restaurant (??) and we certainly miss it.  When I had the option to eat there for lunch today, I was all over that.
I started off with my favorite drink, a Lemon Breeze.  Let me just say this is one strong lemonade.  It is fresh squeezed with real sugar and comes in a metal tumbler, enough for two glasses.  The first sip just puckers the ole lips; great stuff.  I then had a light lunch of their wood grilled Angus burger. It is a very juicy, tasty burger with Applewood bacon, pepper-jack cheese, lettuce and tomato.  I topped it off with their island BBQ sauce and mustard/ketchup.  This is one of my favorite burgers and this visit just confirmed why. 
Now, you have to ask, why order a burger at an Caribbean place; well, if you have not had their burger, you will never know why.  This is one messy burger that just begs you to have more; no need for napkins till you finish.  I then topped off my healthy meal with a fresh fruit salad.  The fruit was a good mixture and had a little dollap of mango sorbet; good stuff.  I only wish we still had one of these restaurants around our home town.  Oh well, maybe I can get my wife to take me out for lunch one day (guess I have to get back in town though).  Funny thing is just seeing this Caribbean restaurant with all the snow and a balmy 15 degrees!
Rating: 9

Thought of the Week: January 29, 2011

“Make one person happy each day and in forty years you will have made 14,600 human beings happy for a little time at least.”     ~ Charley Willey

Dining with David: Jack's Bar-B-Que

Jack's Bar-B-Que - Nashville, TN - January 26, 2011
www.jacksbarbque.com
In visiting with another customer in Nashville, got to go to the famous Jack's BBQ.  Now this place has won many awards from best local restaurant to best sauce on planet to winner of National BBQ Expo.  My expectations were set high.
Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. Service was lacking right off the bat.  I ordered their famous Texas brisket which is supposed to be smoked with a great taste.  The beef was very fatty with a basic taste; not really smoked, more of cooked in an oven.  I also got the baked beans and apples; also just there; no real meaty BBQ taste in the beans like most joints.  The sauce is supposed to be the thing.  I tried three.  The Kansas City was good; basic ketchup base with a little taste; just good.  The TN Original was vinegar based and really had no other taste than the oil.  The TX Sweet Hot was tomato based too with some kind of oil and not really that good.
I am a sauce person but the meat has to stand on its own first and foremost.  Unfortunately, Jack's delivers on neither.  If you had to choose a BBQ joint in Nashville, I would go with Calhoun's for the overall package and then Nick's Famous.  I could not recommend Jack's.
Rating: 4

Dining with David: Stock-Yard Steakhouse

Stock-Yard Steakhouse - Nashville, TN - January 25, 2011
http://stock-yardrestaurant.com/
If you want a great steak, you just might have to go to one of the top rated steak houses in the US.  I 'had' to take my customers to a night out and we ended up at the great Stock-Yard Steakhouse.  What a great building; historic in every way; even has the oldest bottle of wine, 1776, known in the US. 
We started off with some little appetizers of Calamari (which was excellent coated with Parmesan) and Escargot, now I don't eat snails but the customers loved them.  I then had their special soup of North Atlantic Seafood Bisque; this was very rich with chunks of lobster and crab meat; yum, yum.  Our main course included steak and seafood.  I had their special of the night, their 12oz bone-in Filet Mignon.  Wow, I have never had a better tasting steak with a great texture; this cut (only 2 per cow) has been aged just right and smoked all the way through.  The bone really savors the flavor and provides a taste that must be eaten slowly and fully enjoyed.  Now, I also had their Stock-Yard potatos with truffle and parmesan coating; wow, I just love the truffle sauce on top on most anything.
My guests also had other specials of Chilean Seabass and this massive 24oz Tomahawk Ribeye.  This steak looked just like a true tomahawk as the bone-in was unreal; yes, he did eat the whole thing.  A great evening at a great restaurant.
Rating: 9.75

Dining with David: Nick's Famous Bar-B-Q

Nick's Famous Bar-B-Q - Nashville, TN - January 25, 2011
www.nicksfamousbarbecue.com
We were having a very busy day with our customer and finally got to break after 1pm; didn't want to go far and ended up at a little restaurant just a couple miles away.  It turned out, this was one of the top rated BBQ places in the city.  I didn't want to eat much and ordered their basic sandwich.  Once again, this was a surprise as this was their BBQ Shoulder sandwich.  Very tender, moist and great tasting meat.  I am a sauce guy and they have three sauces on the table for you to choose.   You can have the Sweet, Mild or Hot; all of these are vinegar based sauces.  I added all three to my sandwich and this was a very good BBQ pork sandwich.  Surprises everywhere.
Rating: 8

Dining with David: Darfons

Darfons - Nashville, TN - January 24, 2011
http://darfonsrestaurant.com
As a good option, it is always wise to ask the hotel clerk, what is the best place around?; most of the time you will be good. This was one of those times that worked out very well.  We were sent to a local place several blocks down from the hotel, Darfons.
We started out with the crab cakes and combo appetizer which included wings, chicken tenders, cheese sticks & fried loaded potato bites; the cheese sticks were more like logs with a slight crunchy batter; very good.  For the main course, I ordered the special of the night, Herbs de province seared Salmon.  This was one large piece of salmon coated with a chiptle-tomato sauce, sitting atop sauteed spinach with garlic-basil oil with a base of crispy fontina polenta.  The polenta was very thick and filling while the special tomato sauce really set off the salmon.  The garlic oil also helped keep everything loose and moist.  My favorite drink, Sprite with extra limes, really provided a good balance to the salmon.  A very good meal.  Don't let the outside fool you; this is a very good restaurant with great service to boot; a must to stop by when in Nashville.
Rating: 8.75

Thought of the Week - January 22, 2011

“Faith goes up the stairs that love has built and looks out the window which hope has opened.”
     ~ Charles Spurgeon

Thought of the Week - January 15, 2011

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”
     ~ Henry David Thoreau

Dining with David: California Pizza Kitchen

CPK California Pizza Kitchen - Birmingham, AL - January 13, 2011
www.cpk.com
I had the pleasure to take my two babies (18 & 14) to lunch today.  We ended up at CPK and had a good little lunch.  Now, CPK is not my best of all best places but is a good, basic pizza place.  It does not compare to the local favorites but the BBQ Chicken with Bacon pizza is not bad.  Of course, my daughters wanted dessert and wow, was I surprised.  They have added this new item to the menu.  They call it the Butter Cake.  Now this thing is a big individual pound cake with a slight layer of cheese cake on the top and drenched in Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream.  I love the crust of pound cake and since they coated it in sugar and singed the outside layer ole so slightly, you get a lot of crust.  The vanilla ice cream just melts down into the cake and has a nice off-set to the warm, mushy inside cake with the little layer of cheesecake.  Now, since I didn't get that much, I think my babies liked it too.
Rating: 8.5

Thought of the Week - January 09, 2011

“Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence.
Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear.
Perhaps the action you take will be successful;
Perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow.
But any action is better than no action at all.”
      ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Dining with David: The Bistro of Green

The Bistro of Green - Uniontown, OH - January 4, 2011
www.thebistroofgreen.com
Got the chance to take some customers back to a nice little local bistro/restaurant.  What a great little place with excellent atmosphere and service; not to mention the food.  We started off with some crab cakes, goat cheese bruschetta, calamari, and Hungarian hot peppers with sausage.  I was then forced to order the 10oz center cut Filet Mignon with whiskey peppercorn sauce.  This was great and shared half with one of my customers as they only got the scallops and needed some real meat.  Their sides were great of huge potato cakes, deeply fried with some slight seasoning, along with their special Bistro Mac & Cheese w/bacon; now you know how I just hate bacon and even though I am not your normal mac & cheese guy, this was good.
We had to clear our palettes with a little dessert.  Ordered their special Kahlua-Chocolate Truffles which are homemade rich chocolate truffles garnished with raspberries and homemade carmel sauce covered in dark chocolate.
Rating: 9

Dining with David: Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A - McCalla, AL - January 3, 2011
www.chick-fil-a.com
Spicy Chicken Biscuit
A great marketing ploy from their own bowl football game to pre-give-away their new chicken biscuit; being released next week.  This is a spin-off of their spicy chicken sandwich on their famous regular chicken biscuit.  Now, I like their spicy but do miss the regular slightly crunchy crust.  The spicy seasoning is mixed with the crust and batter rather than the chicken coated with spicy and then dipped in the regular crust.  I think this is a big mistake!  The spicy seasoning makes the crust too soft and juicy, not crunchy like you expect a fried chicken to be.  The chicken is the normal best of breed but something about the soft, spicy shell of crust just does not compete with their famous crust.  Good effort but I think I will stick with the normal.
Rating: 7.0

Thought of the Week - January 01, 2011 (Happy New Year)

Every once in a while, get off the merry-go-round and ask yourself these questions:

• What are we doing?
• What should we be doing?
• What should we be doing next?
• What should we not be doing?

~ Communication Briefings (Adapted from 'From 36,000 feet')

Thought of the Week - December 24, 2010

“Christmas is a spirit that flows from one heart to another.  It is more precious than rubies and better than gold.”       ~ Agnes M. Pharo ("What Is Christmas")