A little part of me expected to arrive back in Waco from my two-week tour of parts of the United States to find that Freebirds had risen out of the concrete in the parking lot at New Road and Franklin.
But the least bit of reconnaissance on Monday showed that wasn't the case. I'll check on it and hopefully have some information by the end of the week.
In the meantime, I'll wrap up what I learned during my excursions to Orlando, St. Louis and Chicago. I would like for you to believe that I darted around the country for a few days in order to widen my perspective in an effort to be a better restaurant blogger. I even attempted to convince myself of that, but my conscience wouldn't allow it. The truth is that I spent some quality family time at Disney World, then immediately upon returning from that set off on a road-trip adventure with a friend.
But along the way I dined at quite a few restaurants ranging from the ordinary to the semi-exotic to the spectacular. And in doing so, perhaps I accomplished that would-be mission of expanding my restaurant horizons.
And since it's Monday and I haven't dug up any news for you yet this week, I'll offer a rundown of the joints I hit.
Kouzzina — On our first night at Disney, we dined at the Disney Boardwalk at this Greek restaurant which features chef Cat Cora. It was 10 days ago, so I don't remember many of the details except the ribeye I ordered was exceptional and they brought us some sort of bread and cheese appetizer. Oh, and my dad's entree came with feta cheese mashed potatoes, quite possibly the most interesting and delicious side dish I encountered on the entire tour.
Hollywood and Vine — If you've been tooling around Disney's Hollywood Studios all day and just want some place that's air conditioned and where the kids can be loud and no one will care and the food is edible, then this is your place. For me, the most memorable thing about our dinner here was making my nephew Eli laugh by pretending to throw his Woody doll into the kitchen where they were washing dishes.
San Angel Inn — This is the Mexican food restaurant inside the Aztec pyramid in Epcot. It was better than I anticipated, given my Texas-honed Mexican food palate.
Portabello — We enjoyed my mom's birthday dinner here. Three things stand out: 1) they had Peroni, which just might be my favorite beer, 2) they had pork belly on the menu and I ordered it (good but not as good as the pork belly at Peché in Austin) and 3) the cappuccino ice cream looked like gray sludge but tasted much better, maybe my favorite dessert on the tour.
[ Looking back on it now, it seems absurd that I spent four days with my family and only have four restaurants to write about. The reason is that my dad and I played golf every morning and just sustained ourselves on snack bar fare. Actually, this seems like the perfect vacation. ]
McGurk's — My friend Dr. Shawn Skeen and I set out for Chicago on Wednesday night when we dropped off my car at DFW and proceeded to Denison, Texas. On Thursday we made the relatively easy drive to St. Louis where a doctor friend of his recommended McGurk's. We were looking for a good local pub where we could watch hoops while dining on decent food. McGurk's fit the bill, though I wished I'd ordered the grilled cheese sandwich instead of the pork loin sandwich in the picture with this blog. The pork loin sandwich was good, especially with Jack Daniels grilled onions, but I could have had those on the grilled cheese as well. Nevertheless, I drank some good Boulevard beer and watched the NCAA Tournament, which meant I was happy.
Lou Malnati's — I'm proud of the fact that I've accumulated a few Chicago friends, so I polled them on where we should take in some Chicago-style pizza on Friday afternoon. Lou Malnati's won with two first place votes and a solid second place rec. Giordano's came in second. But really, this is key: Skeen booked our room through a company that rents out apartments, so we stayed in an apartment in a neighborhood where Malnati's was just across the street. In fact, we barely left that neighborhood.
The Whiskey — Friday night, before going to dinner at Gibson's at 9:30, we wanted to watch the Baylor game. The Whiskey, located less than 100 steps from the porch at out apartment, couldn't have been more perfect. They had Balvenie 15, which is my go-to Scotch, plenty of TVs for game watching but it felt a little swankier than the run-of-the-mill sports bar. As Dr. Skeen was attending a cardiology conference and I was content to watch basketball, I spent about eight hours at The Whiskey over the weekend.
Gibson's — See Saturday's blog.
Santorini's — Dr. Skeen wanted to eat Greek food in the Greektown area of Chicago. He heard we could just arrive in Greek Town and walk in any of the establishments as they were all great. Santorini's certainly didn't disappoint. I had meat balls in lamb sauce (Keftedes). Dr. Skeen had some sort of Greek lasagna (Pastichio).
The Original Pancake House — Next door to our apartment, this breakfast diner appears to be wildly popular as it had a line out the door every day. The best thing about our breakfast at this family-style seating restaurant was chatting with the couple from Minneapolis on one side of us and a guy and girl on the other side who lived in the neighborhood. The pancakes were buttery delicious.
Wow, this ended up being a long blog. The question, then, "Is Chad a better restaurant blogger thanks to recent travels?" Feel free to make nasty comments to the contrary, but be warned that Stephen has my back.
