Al's Beef

Address: 169 W Ontario St, Chicago, IL 60654. 312.943.3222.

Review: So, as anyone (if there is anyone) who peruses this blog knows, I'm a sucker for (1) anything Italian, and (2) big meat sandwiches. Thus, when I caught a flight for Chicago to attend a buddy's wedding, I knew a dipped Italian beef sandwich would soon take up residence in my tummy. After some restaurant research, Al's Beef was chosen.

So, an Italian beef sandwich consists of Italian beef (i.e., roast beef roasted with vegetables until it becomes tender as can be), a Italian bakery roll, and roasted bell peppers. I got mine with some hot peppers and celery for good measure.

The meat was tender, salty, tasty, but on its own, it's just okay. What adds tons of flavor and really makes the sandwich is the jus. In fact, the jus is the first thing that hits you upon your initial bite. It's mix of meatiness, veggieness, and saltiness is just plain money. That it saturates the bread and makes it fall apart in short order would normally bother me, but such was not the case here. I simply couldn't get enough of the wonderful, juicy mess.

I seem to remember Al's Beef serves food in addition to the Italian beef sandwich. Honestly though, who cares? Go for the money-maker. You will not regret it.

Rating: 8/10 for the Italian beef sandwich alone (5/10 is average).

Trattoria Brown - Dutch Baby

Having a somewhat (read: entirely) dry sense of humor, telling people I ate a dutch baby for breakfast is pure gold. It's nice that dutch babies taste good in addition to being a conversation stopper. a dutch baby's taste is perhaps best described as a cross between a pancake and a crepe. The fact they're baked adds a different, crusty taste dimension. And while my son will never like them more than pancakes (i.e., his favorite food on planet earth), dutch babies are a nice change up.

(Attribution: This is based on an Alton Brown recipe.)

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons butter, melted and divided
• 1 cup AP flour
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup whole milk, room temperature
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• Lemon wedges

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Place 4 tablespoons of the melted butter into a seven quart enameled cast iron French oven and place in the oven. Set the remaining tablespoon of melted butter aside to cool slightly. Wait 10 minutes before assembling the other ingredients.

Place the flour, vanilla sugar, salt, milk, eggs and remaining tablespoon of melted butter into the bowl of a food processor and process for 30 seconds. Carefully pour the batter into the preheated French oven. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until the edges are puffed and brown. Sprinkle with additional powdered sugar and serve with lemon wedges.

This is what you'll have when it comes out of the oven.

O' Falafel

Address: 790 E 2100 S, Salt Lake City, Utah 84106. 801.487.7747.

Review: My buddy at Publius Online loves O' Falafel (O'), so when BYU was getting pasted by USU, my wife and I decided it was time to decamp from the couch and go to dinner.

O' makes Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food, falafel being (obviously) most name worthy. We were in the mood for vegetarian dishes, so we ordered a lentil-spinach soup and majadareh. Let's discuss the lentil soup first.

When you put a spoonful of this to your mouth, the first characteristic that stands out is thick creaminess. This is created, not so much by adding thickening agents, as it is by blending the lentils and allowing their inherent starchiness to do its thing. Because lentils were (1) the primary ingredient, and (2) don't possess a great amount of flavor on their own, the soup was quite mild. Spinach was more a hint than a predominant flavor. A splash of lemon woke up the soup, but it was still very mild and a bit one dimensional. Sometimes simple is just too simple.

The majadareh is a dish of caramelized onions, mixed with lentils and rice, topped with crispy onions. It's served with a green salad heavy on greens and cucumbers, and a side of yogurt cucumber mint salsa. The majadareh itself is a starch bomb, and without accompaniment there wouldn't be much to it. Thankfully, O' provides you with a chili-vinegar sauce that rocks the world. It's hot, salty, vinegary, and full of gorgeous, fruity chili flavor. When matched with the majadareh, the dish sings. (I've never experienced a dish that is so totally made by a topping.) Likewise, the yogurt cucumber sauce brings out the majadareh's great onion overtones. The salad is a nice departure from the starch on the other side of the plate. In all, a quite enjoyable dish.

The next time we go, we'll be trying some meat, which I understand is quite good, as well as, because you gotta, some falafel. And we'll be returning soon.

Rating: 7/10 (5/10 is average).

Cotton Bottom Inn

Address: 2820 E 6200 S, Cottonwood Heights, UT 84121. 801.273.9830.

Review: The Cotton Bottom Inn is a total dive bar. Oddly, however, it rakes in a rather high-end clientele. When my friend and I showed up for lunch, we noticed Audis, BMWs, Mercedes, etc. in the parking lot. As we walked in the entrance (which is actually the backdoor, far as I could tell), we were flanked by people robed in business attire.

We sat down, and a waitress promptly greeted us with, "Are you here for lunch?" I thought that an odd question asked at 12.30 p.m. That was until I looked around and noticed more than one table with patrons downing pitchers of beer with no food to be seen. Eventually, we responded, "Yes, we are." In response came the query, "Garlic burgers?" In reality, she meant to ask, "Do you want to order the only food item we produce at this establishment?" Needless to say, we ordered the garlic burgers.

Here's the spread we received.

I figured there would be fries. I was wrong. This place is all about the burger, so let's discuss it. Garlic burgers are what you think they are: burgers with large amounts of garlic cooked in the patty. Surprisingly, the garlic was not overpowering, but added a distinct flavor. The meat itself was juicy and flavorful. The toppings (onions, pickles, and cheese is what you notice most) complimented the meat. The cheese was nothing super high quality, but was perfectly melty. The bun was not really a bun, but a section cut off a loaf of substantial deli bread. I've never experienced bread like this on a burger, but I'd like to experience it more often. Thankfully, these guys didn't try to dress up this burger with mixed greens or any of that trendy stuff. They know their customers want a fat, cheesy, no fanfare garlic burger, and that's what they serve. Good for them.

Rating: 7.5/10.

Bombdiggitys

Address: 1481 W 12600 S, South Jordan, UT 84065. 801.446.5646.

Review: Bombdiggitys is a restaurant with a plan. That plan, far as I can tell, is to introduce the good people of Utah to beefalo burgers. Beefalo is a cross between, you guessed it, beef and bison (i.e., buffalos). The result is a meat leaner than regular beef (bison meat has very little fat content), but still retains some beefy flavor.

The beefalo Bombdiggitys uses is Utah raised, which is nice in a let's-eat-local sort of way. Of course, the overarching question is "how do beefalo burgers taste?" Let's find out.

I had the quarter pound burger with cheese. It came with fries and fry sauce.

I usually address the bun first when writing about burgers, but since this place's shtick is the meat, let's address that first. The first thing I noticed was the flavor of the meat: it was a cross between bison and beef, although beef was the predominant flavor. The second thing I noticed was the meat was extremely lean, like bison. As with any lean meat, if cooked too long, it becomes dry as a bone. Unfortunately, my burger had been cooked too long and was dry as a bone. The cheese added some fat to the mix, but no amount of fatty cheese can add sufficient moisture to dry patties. The bun appeared homemade. It was soft. By the end, however, the bottom portion was falling apart. Toppings were standard: onions, pickles, tomatoes. Cheese was fine. In the end, it was a dry burger, with a taste a little different than normal.

Fries were okay. I ate most of them, but there was nothing particularly exciting about them.

Bombdiggitys also makes frozen custard. Good frozen custard is one of the better pleasures on earth. Thick, creamy, rich, silky on the tongue, oh so good. I ordered the chocolate variety here.

(Sort of looks like Don King's hair.) So, this frozen custard was a disappointment. It wasn't very chocolatey. In addition, it was hard as a rock. Honestly, there was no give, no silkiness to the custard. Not something I would order again.

Ultimately, I wasn't impressed at all. And while I love little local places that use homegrown products, I won't be frequenting Bombdiggitys.

Rating: 4/10 (5/10 is average).

Greek Festival 2011

Every year, the Salt Lake Greek community puts on a Greek Festival. It's a celebration of Greek culture and an educational tool. Mostly, it's a big party put on by a proud community that wants to keep it's identity. And, as this picture evidences, it was pretty well attended.

And then there's the food. Greeks, like Spaniards and Italians, are very proud of their traditional foods, and with good reason. I had a gyro, some spanakopita, dolmades, and an assortment of olives.

This food was prepared by an army of gracious volunteers.

The food was good and complimented the ongoing cultural celebration. Nothing could be more appropriate than eating a gyro while watching traditional Greek group dances.

In all, Greek Festival is a great time put on by a great group of people.

Tin Roof Grill

Address: 9284 S 700 E, Sandy, UT 84070. 801.566.5226.

Review: Sorry, no pictures with this review. I had good intentions, but when I pulled out the camera to snap the first photo, it didn't turn on. Battery was dead as a doornail. Oh well.

The Tin Roof Grill has a warm, modern, earth-toned decor, as well as an inordinate number of televisions for a restaurant its size. Honestly, I was a bit confused by it all. My confusion only increased when I read the menu. It was part tapas bar, part Italian/pizzeria, with some standard American and Asian fare thrown in for good measure. Chimeric is perhaps the most apt description.

We started with the baked goat cheese. It's goat and asiago cheese baked with herbed tomato sauce, served with ciabatta bread. The name of the dish implied it was primarily about the goat cheese, but, quite honestly, this dish was about a heavily herbed chunky tomato sauce with some quite mild goat cheese mixed in. The bread was the most enjoyable part, if that tells you anything.

For the entree, I ordered the daily special, which was a steak sandwich with horseradish: classic American food. The bread was substantial enough to handle the meatiness of the steak and the toppings. The horseradish was, as it always is, a perfect accompaniment for steak. And the steak. Well, it was juicy, tender, and sliced to just the right thickness. It was also absolutely without one granule of salt, which meant it was completely tasteless.

My friend ordered a sausage pizza. The crust was doughy, the cheese was indistinct, and the sausage was okay. He wasn't impressed.

Look, I'm no restauranteur. I just write about what food tastes like to me and whether I like it or not. That said, the Tin Roof Grill tries to be too many different things at the same time; and, in so doing, doesn't seem to be any of them particularly well.

Rating: 4.5/10.