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

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

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

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

Dining with David: Nellie's Cafe

Nellie's Cafe - Las Cruces, NM - December 17, 2010
My goal of eating out while traveling is to visit the best local restaurant; no chain food for me.  Well, Nellie's is truly a local place; seats less than 50 people in a little building.  We had to wait 30 min to get in the door but the wait was worth it.  This place is locally owned and has many 'regular's' there; we were an outsider but treated great anyway.  I had the burrito with green sauce; now that was spicy.  Menu said red was hot and green was hotter; you have to obtain a taste for the hot peppers.  Very good food though.
Rating: 8

Dining with David: LaPosta de Mesilla

LaPosta de Mesilla - Las Cruces, NM - December 16, 2010
http://www.laposta-de-mesilla.com/
When you visit these nice little towns, it is critical to find the right places to eat.  We asked around and was pointed to a mainstay located in historic Old Mesilla.  This building has been around since mid 1800's and is on the National Register; made of adobe bricks with many themed rooms.  We got to eat in the Blacksmith Room with a wonderful atmosphere.  I wanted something local and ordered their famous enchilada plate. In the south, we know enchiladas as round; true Mexican are flat and served like pancakes.  As with most true Mexican food, it requires a special taste as most seem a little bland to Americans.  The food was good but just not fantastic.  We finished off the meal with a little sopaipilla; a quick fried dough served with honey.  Great building, wonderful atmosphere and decent food.
Rating: 7

Dining with David: Rudy's County Store & Bar-B-Q

Rudy's Country Store & BBQ - El Paso, TX - December 16, 2010
http://www.rudys.com/
Well, it has been since July 2009 since I have had the pleasure to visit a Rudy's.  We passed this location on the way to a customer's site and decided to turn-around and go back; very wise choice.  There is nothing like a Rudy's and just wish we had one in AL.  I decided to get their sliced brisket sandwich.  I love to watch them cut this fresh and serve in a plastic coke carry.  I can not believe how much brisket they put on just one sandwich.  At the wood picnic table, you get to choose mild or spicy sauce; of couse, I did a little mixture of both and had a wonderful sandwich.  To top it off, I got to have a nice bottle of Big Red; wonderful flavorful red drink that tops off a very good meal.  This is one of my favorite places and ranks right up there.  If you ever see a Rudy's, don't pass it up; stop in and have a great meal.
Rating: 9.5

Dining with David: The Cajun Corner

The Cajun Corner - Eufaula, AL - December 14, 2010
www.thecanjuncorner.com
Sometimes it just seems you are supposed to go to certain places?  Remember, God has a plan whether we follow-it or not.  In coming into Eufaula earlier today, we passed a little corner restaurant that looked pretty good.  When we decided on dinner, we decided to go to a great place called River City Grill.  River City, have been there before, was a great place with wonderful service.  Well, let's just say Tuesday night is NOT their strong-point.  After sitting for 15 mins with no help what-so-ever, we finally just got up and left; NO service, no thank you, NO Nothing.  Not a good mark for what I thought was a good little restaurant.
Well, we drove right down the street and went to this corner place called Cajun Corner.  As soon as we walked in, we were assisted and taken to our table; service was great and no comparison to the poor job at River City.
I ordered their special Mardi Gras Stuffed Shrimp.  These were large grilled shrimp stuffed with their special crumbs and seasonings and topped with cheese.  Wow, these were very good.  I also had a cup of gumbo that was good with a side of sweet potato strips.  We somehow got an order of cheese bread (yes, that is cheese on top).  What a great little place with good food.  If you want true cajun, this will not serve your taste but if you want a good meal and service, this is the place for you.
Rating: 8.5

Dining with David: Phil's BBQ

Phil's BBQ - Eufaula, AL - December 14, 2010
http://www.bestbuttsinalabama.com/
Are you ever just driving through a small town and need to grab a quick bit, but just don't want some ole chain food?  Well, that was the case today as we had an appointment down in LA (lower Alabama) and needed some quick lunch.  A big sign said to stop on in at Phil's and get some BBQ.  We did just did and it was pretty good.  This place has a great slogan of 'best butts in Alabama'; not bad.  I had the sliced pork sandwich and the meat had a very good taste.  Phil's uses the Carolina style sauce; vinegar based with mustard.  This is a thin, slightly yellow sauce with a different taste than your normal southern red, sweet, ketchup based sauce.  Great atmosphere and good meal.
Rating: 8

Dining with David: Custred Christmas Cooking

Christmas Cooking - Pleasant Grove, AL - December 4, 2010
It is that time of year again.  The family (and friends) get together and cook all day.  Our goal is to provide a little joy to others with little special Christmas treats.  Of course, the real treat is just having the family together all day working on one mission.  My Mom and Dad are thrilled to have everyone (with all the kids around) at their house.  This day was long, 13 hours, but did include a little SEC championship football game and lots of cooking and fun.  Treats included: lizzies, oatmeal raisin cookies (new), cowboy cookies, date balls, party mix, pecan muffins, raspberry/dark chocolate jelly rolls (new), chocolate peanut butter cookies, dark/white chocolate covered pretzels, and chocolate/raspberry cookie cups (new).
Merry Christmas!

Dining with David: Anton's Restaurant

Anton's Restaurant - Waite Park, MN - December 1, 2010
http://www.antonsrestaurant.com/
Coming back to St. Cloud, I could remember a quaint little restaurant located on a river with great food.  Well, I just had to take my travel partner to this place and it did not disappoint.  This is an old log cabin converted right on the Sauk river; great atmosphere and great food.  This place also has themed rooms and we sat in the River Room; looking over the river, of course.  The 'Original' room has several covered wagon style booths; very neat.
Our meal started with the famous Popovers; these are fresh mushroom looking style bread served with honey butter; wow, these are good.  How could a place be bad if they are specialize in great bread?  I then had their homemade chili which was very good.  Main course was their Bacon Wrapped Scallops.  These were large scallops wrapped in smokehouse bacon with a side of hot butter for dipping.  These were very good scallops; just the right balance of meat, bacon and butter.  I also had their hashbrowns asiago.  If you want a great meal at a local place, this is it.
Rating: 9.5

Dining with David: Nelson Bros. Bakery

Nelson Bros. Bakery - Clearwater, MN - December 1, 2010
http://www.clearwatertravelplaza.com/
Well, who would have 'thunk', a great bakery at a truck stop.  When traveling across I-94 in MN, just stop at exit 178 and go visit the Nelson Bros. Bakery and Restaurant at the Petro fuel station.  I had heard this was a great place and known for their famous Fritter Bread.  We just had to stop and sure enough, they have these wonderful loafs of bread in apple, blueberry, cinnamon and raspberry (my favorite).  These are soft on the bottom and inside with a nice crunchy crust on the top drizzled with a little sugary topping.  If only my wife & kids were with me to enjoy this goodness.
Rating: 8.5

Dining with David: Custred Kitchen

Custred Kitchen - Adger, AL - November 18, 2010
Decided to do a little cooking tonight for the office Thanksgiving party tomorrow.  Whipped up a little treat I had seen on good ole Food Network; Jelly Rolls.  This is very simple but just takes a little time. I decided to make most of them as raspberry.  My first batch was ok, and then decided to add some sugar to the top for just that little glaze; much better.  I then made some special ones as dark chocolate raspberry; wow, now these were good.  They had that tart raspberry with the distinct dark chocolate taste; just melts in your mouth.  I decided to finish off the last batch as Apple Barn apple butter.  Yes, this is the special apple butter you can only get at the famous Apple Barn.  Not bad for a little appetizer treat for the team.

Dining with David: River City Grill

River City Grill - Eufaula, AL - November 16, 2010
www.rcgrill.com
Well, I just thought that Eufaula, located down in LA (lower Alabama), was a small town, but no way with this type of quaint, nice restaurant.  This was my first time down in Eufaula and it did not disappoint.  What a nice little place and I loved the wonderful houses coming into town; historic, prestige houses right down main street; my wife would love this place.  The restaurant is right in the middle of town and in an historic building.  Great service and wonderful, friendly people.  The food was great too.  We started with a little tuna and then moved to a chicken and wild rice soup.  I ordered their special; the petite filet mignon wrapped in bacon (yum, yum) and a side of blackened/grilled shrimp.  I was forced to take a bit (or two) of  a shared dessert; their famous bread pudding.  Now I was just in Louisiana last week and had several versions of bread pudding but this one was very good.  Great place to go.
Rating: 9

Dining with David: Poor Boy's Riverside Inn

Poor Boy's Riverside Inn - Broussard LA - November 10, 2010
www.poorboysriversideinn.com
Well, you cannot come to Lafayette without having some Cajun.  Was directed to one of the local hot spots, a converted house in a local district.  We started with their famous Seafood Gumbo or Gumbo Aux Fruits De Mer.  Very different stew with a thick, grainy sauce.  For my main course, I had the Grilled Tilapia fish with fries and salad.  The fish was good.  This was a business/work meal so spent most of the time reviewing for my presentation tomorrow rather than enjoying the food.  The food was good and great locale but food was really just normal; nothing special
Rating: 7

Dining with David: Tortugas Pizza

Tortugas Pizza - Hoover, AL - October 30, 2010
http://tortugaspizza.com
Well, it has been over a month since I have been to this great little spot in Birmingham.  I had the pleasure to spend the day with my Dad on Saturday.  He had wanted to go to Pasquale's Pizza but they have now closed in Hoover; what a shame.  So, we made the best of it and just 'had' to go to Tortugas for lunch.  I had the Carne Stuffed Pizza Slice while my Dad had the CTA Sub.  My huge slice of pizza had it all; sausage, Canadian bacon, bacon and pepperoni.  The crust is fabulous.  As usual, Tortugas never fails; this was a great lunch.  Best of all was the time able to spend with my Dad.
Rating: 9