A Family Breakfast!

We were up in the Cleveland area visiting our grandsons, David III and Emmett Lee, as well as their parents…and we decided to have breakfast out.  Amy had to go to work, so it was just the boys, David II and ourselves, Nana and Papa…

We decided to eat at the Sunny Street Café in Concord Ohio.  As you can see, it’s a bright cheery looking place…and, given the fact that we tend to be late morning ‘starters’, the good news is that it serves breakfast from the time it opens at 6:30 AM until the restaurant closes at 2:30 PM.

The interior of this Sunny Street Café is pretty standard…bright with a comfortable décor and lots of light…nothing fancy, which is just fine.  Of course, this group does significantly brighten up the restaurant!  Here we have Nana, David III and Emmett Lee…

My ‘little boy’, David II, had the Homemade Corned Beef Hash with scrambled eggs and rye toast. ($7.99) It looked good and as per his feedback, it was good!

The breakfast menu is fairly extensive and it seems to contain something to please anyone.  There are 6 Breakfast Combos, ranging from $6.49 to $9.69…the latter being an 8 oz. Steak and Eggs.  You can build your own omelet, ($7.49), order one of 5 ‘Handheld’ Breakfasts, ($6.99 - $7.99), or 3 different Eggs Benedict dishes. ($7.49) There are also pancakes, waffles and French toast options to choose from as well as 5 House Specialties. ($3.99 - $7.99)

The most interesting House Specialty is the “Stuffed Biscuits and Gravy” breakfast entrée.  This consists of 2 Biscuit ‘loaves’ stuffed with sausage, green peppers and onions…smothered in homemade sausage gravy and accompanied by 2 eggs.

Both David III and myself had the Smoked Sausage Breakfast with 2 split smoked sausage links…split and grilled…with 2 eggs, toast and hash browns. ($6.99) I had the rye toast and my eggs came over easy.  The hash browns and the eggs were cooked just right!  I decided that I prefer standard or spiced up breakfast sausage vs. the smoked version, but David III liked his just fine.

Sunny Street Cafe is a small chain of restaurants.  In my research I noted that the menus vary somewhat between the 3 states where Sunny Street Cafes are located.  This is to allow for varying tastes in different marketplaces. 

Laurie had the same breakfast as did David III and myself…but she had bacon, (her favorite), instead of the sausage and she went with the sourdough toast.  She gave her breakfast two thumbs up!

The lunch menu includes 12 different sandwich choices plus 5 hamburgers, a number of salads as well as a daily quiche plus the soup and salad combos.  Luncheon prices range from $5.49 to $9.98.

Ordering from the Kid’s Menu, where all items are $2.99 inlcluding a drink, Emmett Lee had the Dinosaur Pancake with blueberries and ‘Brontosaurus’ bacon. 

Sunny Street Café is a franchise operation.  The parent company is Rise and Dine Restaurants, Inc. based in Columbus Ohio.  There are currently 14 restaurants…in Ohio, Missouri and Texas.  Deals have been reached with large franchisees to open 40 restaurants in Texas and 4o additional locations in Western Canada.  Two to 4 new locations should open in Texas this year as well as the first Canadian restaurant in Edmonton Alberta.  FYI…The franchise fee is $35,000 plus 5.5% of each restaurant’s gross receipts.

‘Our’ Sunny Street Café was located at The Shops at Grist Mill at 7531 Grile Road in Concord Ohio.  Phone: 440-392-9800.  For more information on Sunny Street Cafes, just go to www.sunnystreetcafe.com.

Just click on any photo to enlarge it…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Miami Beach - Wine and Food Festival

Miami Beach Wine and Food Festival

Now, Laurie and I are not exactly Miami Beach types…much less part of the ‘in-crowd’, ‘wanabes’ or true epicurean types that you would expect to find at an upscale Wine and Food Festival.  However, when Dawn Marie came up with tickets to this South Beach event that coincided with our February Florida trip, we of course jumped at the opportunity to see what one of these happenings was all about! 

This is the main walkway to the venue on the beach… It’s just after Noon and the crowds were just starting to gather.  The weather was warm but beautiful.

The South Beach Wine and Food Festival is an annual event.  Expected guests included Emeril Lagasse, Guy Fieri, Bobby Flay, Rachel Ray, Geoffrey Zakarian, Michael Chiarello, the Neely’s, Charlie Trotter, and Anthony Bourdain.  Note that these appearances were primarily for special events…which required special tickets. (For example, tickets for ‘The Q’, an event with Lagasse and Fieri, were $300.00 each) We did see a couple of the celebrity chefs…but it was at the restaurant in Miami where we had dinner the night before our visit to the Festival.

This is the entrance for ticket holders for the South Beach Wine and Food Festival.  We had trouble connecting with Dawn Marie’s contact that was providing our tickets, so by the time that we were able to get in line, it stretched for at least 3 city blocks. (Just go back to the previous photo, take the walkway back to the street, turn right and keep going until you’re another 100 yards out of the photo!)

Once we entered the venue, we were issued a wrist band valid for the afternoon and, more importantly, our own wine glass!

I threw this photo in just because this home is right across from the Festival, it’s a beautiful home and it was the home of famed fashion designer, Gianni Versace.  He was gunned down by a serial spree-killer in 1997, right in front of this house.

This is a view of the South Beach itself on the day of the festival.  The Festival was staged in a number of large to very large tents set up on the sand just about as far back from the water as this photo shows.

In 2011, the Festival sold 57,000 tickets from around the world for the 4-day event.  Complete weekend passes to the Festival were priced at $1,280.00.  Tickets for the 2012 event initially went on sale in October 2011…and scalpers were still getting premium dollars for hard to get tickets from eager out-of-town visitors.  The 2012 iteration of the Festival was the 11^th in Miami Beach.  The primary sponsor is the Food Network but other sponsors included Moet Hennessy, Miami Magazine, Amstel Light, the Fontainebleau, Wine Spectator, Living Social, the Bank of America and American Express.  

This is another nifty building on South Beach that caught our eye… It’s the Beach Patrol’s Headquarters.  We’re pretty sure that before each day of the Festival was over, there would be more than a couple of arrests for public intoxication, lewd and lascivious behavior and disorderly conduct!

This is The Grand Tasting Village at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival.  It was a circus and a bit of a zoo as well.  Tickets to this event were priced at $225.00.  So much for the recession!  This place was wall-to-wall!  There must have been 100 or so different wineries represented in this tent!  All we had to do was walk up to any of the ‘booths’ and tell the winery’s representative which wine or wines you wished to try…and they would pour some in your wineglass!  There were a number of liquors available as well...

Laurie and I sampled more wine in a couple of hours than we have in the past several years as we toured wineries across America!  The only thing that saved us from really getting ‘stupid’ was that several of the booths or stations in the tent were also serving snacks and some very nice appetizers.  Sorry for the lack of photos from the Festival, but it’s hard to take pictures when you have a wine glass in your hand!  

I didn’t want to disappoint those who view Miami Beach as a center for hedonistic pleasures, sin and bikini clad women… I don’t even know what wine these young ladies were representing but I’m guessing that it wasn’t some old and honored winery!  Their booth did draw a lot of attention…mostly from the 20/30 something crowd of young and somewhat inebriated males.  Note: This was the only booth in the tent that was staffed in this manner…

Attending the Miami Beach Wine and Food Festival wasn’t on our bucket list…but it was an interesting experience.  While I would never shell out the money needed to fully experience an event like this, we’re glad that Dawn Marie provided the opportunity for us to mix with the food and wine crowd…and to drink quite a bit of very good wine!

For more information about the 2012 South Beach Food and Wine Festival, just go to http://2012.sobefest.com/.  I’m sure that you’ll be able to link up with information for the 2013 event…

Just click on any photo to enlarge it…

Thanks for stopping by to share part of our Florida 2012 trip with us!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Family Dining in Ashtabula Ohio!

It was March and we were up in the Cleveland Ohio area visiting our grandsons…and their parents during the boy’s Spring Break.  Amy and David II had found a restaurant that they thought that we’d enjoy over in Ashtabula Ohio. 

It was a bit of a drive...but I love seaports...and Ashtabula is the 50th largest US port, shipping almost 11,000,000 tons of product, mostly coal, in recent years.

Here we are headed down the street toward the restaurant…with Emmett Lee mugging it up as usual.  David III is almost as tall as Laurie now, and he’s only 11! (This photo was taken by Amy)

That’s David III posing in front of Briquettes Smokehouse in Ashtabula Harbor. Briquettes bills itself as an authentic southern style BBQ Restaurant and Craft Beer Bar… (Make note of the front door)

This is Amy, our daughter-in-law and mother of our two wonderful grandsons, and her husband and my namesake, David II.  This month David will add a law degree from Case Western Reserve to his MBA from Michigan State University.

We started out with a bowl of corn chips accompanied by a bowl of "Mississippi Caviar"…black beans, black-eyed peas and corn salsa with onions, bell pepper, garlic, jalapenos, cilantro and Italian dressing. ($4.99) While the ‘Caviar’ wasn’t my kind of thing, everyone else seemed to really enjoy it…

Although this was Amy’s entrée, I’m showing it with the appetizers so I don’t repeat myself with an almost identical photo…

We ordered a “Rib Taster” appetizer…with 4 smoked and glazed St. Louis Ribs. ($8.99) We actually got 5 ribs instead of 4… This ½ rack entrée shown above, came with 6 ribs, chips and Mississippi Caviar plus jalapeno cheddar cornbread. ($14.99)

We tried them and the ribs were good, certainly a cut above average, lightly smoked and glazed with a sweet sauce.  Laurie and I rarely order ribs when we go out any longer… This fact is thanks to our blogger buddy and ‘smoke master’ Larry, aka “Big Dude” and his BBQ/Smoker.  To check out Big Dude’s blog site, go to http://bigdudesramblings.blogspot.com/. 

We also tried 3 different iterations of Briquettes smoked chicken wings… This was a basket of the wings tossed in the Garlic Butter sauce.  This was easily our favorite of the 3 versions of sauces that we’d ordered.

These were the Maple Mustard Wings.  Each order consisted of 12 pieces. ($9.99) They were quite good…and they disappeared rather quickly.

Other available sauces that the wings can be tossed with include Sweet BBQ, Hot Sauce, Hot BBQ, R.I.P., Bleu Fire and Mild.  If someone wanted to order 6 pieces instead of 12, the price is $5.99…

These were the Cajun wings… They were our least favorite of the 3 choices we’d ordered.  There was just too much ‘stuff’ on them to really enjoy the smoked chicken flavor…

Other appetizers include: Buffalo Chicken Dip ($4.99); BBQ Nachos ($5.99) and; Super Nacho’s ($9.99).  The latter item sounds like a major indigestion challenge!  It includes smoked chicken and pork with chili and Mississippi Caviar on corn tortilla chips, smothered in cheddar cheese, nacho cheese sauce, onions, black olives, jalapenos and sour cream!

I decided to take a chance I ordered a Blueberry Milkshake…a flavor that I’d never had before. ($4.99 for this large shake) It was good but strawberry shakes have more overall flavor…

In addition to the 10 milkshake flavors offered, other available non-alcololic house-made beverages include Southern Sweet Tea or Unsweetened Tea, ($1.59), Smoked Sweet Tea, ($1.99) and Fresh Squeezed Lemonade. ($1.99 or, $2.99 if you want ‘bottomless’ Lemonade…

Another entrée delivered to our table was the Two Meat Combo, (beef brisket and pulled pork), that came with the Jalapeno Cheddar cornbread, mac ‘n cheese and baked beans. ($10.99) David II declared that this was a winner!

Laurie jumped out there.  She didn’t feel like anything heavy after that pile of appetizers, so she ordered the Brunswick Stew. ($5.99) It was described as a hearty blend of pork, chicken, and beef in a tomato broth with corn, carrots, onions, celery and special seasonings… She reported that it was very enjoyable and perfect given what we’d already eaten.

I love good chili…but I don’t like big chunks of onion that haven’t cooked down and I really don’t like bell peppers.  For these reasons, I rarely order chili when we go out. (Actually, Laurie makes my favorite chili)

In this case, I questioned the waiter and then I ordered the “7 Layer Chili”. ($9.99) This chili is billed as Briquettes “Award Wining Chili”…with elbow noodles, cheddar cheese, jalapeno’s, yellow onions (really cooked down), sour cream and beef brisket.  This is great chili!  All the flavor buds popped…very satisfying as well.

The only downside to our visit to Briquettes Smokehouse was their front door…the one in the second photo with David III standing in the doorway.  It’s an old-fashioned heavy wooden door with a automatic door closer that doesn’t, or at least didn’t, work.  The door slammed shut on Laurie’s fingers… I give her credit for not swearing a blue streak in front of our innocent grandchildren…and she was lucky that her fingers weren’t broken.  The photo shown above was taken 4 weeks after the accident!  (No apologies were offered…but they did bring a cup of ice…)

OK…In summary, Briquettes Smokehouse is a quirky local restaurant in a rustbelt small town.  It offers some interesting and well prepared food via a limited menu.  We liked the place and we would happily return should the opportunity arise.  This is the kind of place that we like to ‘discover’ and which we hope will prosper and survive for years to come…

Briquettes Smokehouse BBQ Restaurant and Craft Beer Bar is located at 1104 Bridge Street, (Ashtabula Harbor area), in Ashtabula Ohio.  Phone: 440-964-2273.  Website: www.BriquettesSmokehouse.com.  

Just click on any photo to enlarge it…

Thanks for stopping by and enjoying a family meal with us!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave 

The BEST Burger…Possibly Ever!

Laurie and I are always on the hunt for a great hamburger… It is just about our favorite food when it’s done right!  A great burger requires good beef, cooked medium rare on a griddle, (not broiled!), that’s served on a grilled bun.  We do like a slice of cheese on our burgers and sometimes bacon as well…

This is Gilbert’s 17^th Street Grill in Fort Lauderdale Florida… I’d picked up on this restaurant from Trip Advisor, noting that it was ranked #1 out of all 673 restaurants listed in Fort Lauderdale…with 110 reviews!

There is nothing pretentious about Gilbert’s… It’s an updated burger joint…or diner, depending on how you view the menu.  Customer’s place their order at the counter and then the servers bring the food to your table.

Things started out well for us when we placed our order.  I believe that it was the manager, (or perhaps a Gilbert family member), who took our order.  A little friendly banter set the tone for the food that followed… 

I love Split Pea soup but it doesn’t seem to be on many menus in East Tennessee.  I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a bowl of soup to start out my dinner. ($4.95) It was very nice split pea soup…a solid harbinger of what was yet to come.

Dawn Marie ordered the Jumbo Kosher Grilled Hot Dog with French Fries. ($7.00) The grilled hot dog with the nice bun hit the spot for her…

Laurie went with the 8 oz. Certified Angus Beef Brie Burger with Bacon and Fried Onion…truly an exotic burger vs. our norm. She opted for the cole slaw instead of the French Fries. ($11.95) How many ways could she say ‘excellent’…’terrific’…or fabulous!  This was a GREAT hamburger!  The pickle and the slaw were very good as well…

My burger was similar to Laurie’s… The biggest difference was the addition of pepper jack cheese.  She and I definitely agreed on the quality of our burgers!  Have I used the term SUPERB yet!?  The beef and the seasonings were melt in your mouth…and to think that the buns weren’t even toasted!

Gilbert’s service was solid and friendly, the restaurant was clean…and the burgers…well, this is a great burger place!  However, if you’re not into hamburgers, there are plenty of other choices on the menu.  There are dinner salads ($9.95 - $12.95), a wide variety of other grilled sandwiches and 6 dinner entrees ranging from Grilled Salmon with Dill Sauce up through a 12 oz. Delmonico Rib Eye for $28.95.  However, unless I could frequent Gilbert’s on a weekly basis, I would always be stuck on the burgers!

Gilbert’s 17^th Street Grill is at the Harbor Shops…1821 Cordova Road in Fort Lauderdale Florida. (Open Monday through Saturday) Phone: 954-768-8990.  Website: www.gilberts17thstgrill.com.  To check Gilbert’s out on Trip Advisor, go to http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g34227-Fort_Lauderdale_Florida.html. 

Just click on any photo to enlarge the picture...

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Our Grandsons and the Cleveland Aquarium…

When we visit our family in Ohio…the Cleveland area…one of our favorite things to do is to do something special with our Grandsons!  We learned that there was a new attraction in Cleveland…The Greater Cleveland Aquarium…and, the best news of all is that both David III and Emmett Lee chose the Aquarium instead of a movie!

Here are Emmett Lee, (almost never with a straight face or simple pose), and David III in front of a model of giant prehistoric shark jaws. 

Note the beautiful old walls behind the boys.  The Greater Cleveland Aquarium was built in the 120+ year old repurposed First Energy Powerhouse.  It’s part of the Nautica Entertainment Complex that has been developed on the west bank of the “Flats’ in Cleveland.  For more on the powerhouse as well as the overall entertainment complex, you can go to http://www.nauticaflats.com/venues/a/firstenergy_powerhouse.

The Aquarium occupies roughly 70,000 square feet of space with 35 exhibit tanks and 10 exhibition areas.  There are about 1,000,000 gallons of water in the exhibits.  While this isn’t a big aquarium…as compared to the Shedd in Chicago, the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga or Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies…it offers a couple of advantages from a kid’s point of view.  Number 1…It’s not overwhelming.  Number 2…The exhibits such as the one shown above, are the right size and at the right sight level for kid viewing!

We thought that this turtle was posing for a fashion magazine…or at least the cover of “Nature” magazine!

The exhibit areas include Ohio Lakes and Rivers, the Everglades, Key West, Weird and Wonderful, Coastal Waters, a Coral Reef and the tunnel where visitors walk ‘through’ shark infested waters.

Much to our satisfaction, fear of the unknown were overcome when Emmett Lee got up close and personal with this snake held by one of the Aquarium’s staff members.  In another interactive aquarium exhibit, he also touched a starfish and a Hermit Crab in his shell…  

For those who might wonder, there were plenty of hand-sanitizer stations near any of the hands on exhibits…

For some distance, visitors to the aquarium follow an old coal tunnel.  Lining the sides of the tunnel, there are large “portholes” or windows where you can view exotic fish and sea life.  In one passageway, there is this ceiling mounted exhibit tank full of Spiny Lobsters…

Of course, the kids loved looking among the rocks and in the crevices in the many tanks for Moray Eels and other spiny or weird sea creatures.

The Greater Cleveland Aquarium project cost roughly $33,000,000.  It is expected to attract 400,000 to 500,000 visitors per year to downtown Cleveland, generate a local economic impact ranging from $10,000,000 to $27,000,000…and to create 50 full and part-time jobs with a payroll of $1,600,000.

As you’ve already noted, reptiles were well represented in the Aquarium.  Here are a couple of baby Alligators. 

For the most part, the exhibits don’t include some of the giant fish of the sea that other aquariums do… No whales or porpoises inhabit the tanks.  There are plenty of freshwater fish…trout, catfish, sunfish, piranha, etc. as well as many, many smaller saltwater tropical fish and other sea critters. 

This exhibit was fun for Emmett Lee, David III...and for me.  Nana, aka Laurie, as usual was our photographer.  This tank contained rays and nurse sharks and visitors are allowed to reach down and touch the animals as they swam by… The boys reported that the ray’s skin was super soft…and a couple of them actually swam up to the outstretched hands…as if they wanted to be stroked. Note: Papa aka, Big Daddy Dave, does admit that his coat sleeve got wet at this exhibit.

Here’s one of the stingrays like the ones that we were able to touch. 

One big negative during our visit was the fact that the 145’ walk through sea tube was spoiled by badly clouded water.  You could only see shadows and blurry images of the sharks and other big fish swimming beside you and over your head.  The Aquarium did discount everyone’s entry tickets…but since this was supposed to be the big attraction, it was still dissapointing.  Kids didn’t mind as much as the adults did though…the sharks swimming by in the murky water added a little sense of adventure for the young minds!

The Greater Cleveland Aquarium is located at 2000 Sycamore Street in Cleveland.  It is open 7 days a week from 10 AM to 6 PM.  Admission is $21.95 for Adults and $15.95 for kids between the age of 2 and 12.  Despite the pricing…which seemed a little high to us…you would have never known the the economy is struggling.  The place was packed and this was a weekday! 

The phone number for the Aquarium is 216-862-8803.  The website is http://greaterclevelandaquarium.com/.  To view a video about the Greater Cleveland Aquarium which provides a preview of many of the exhibits, just go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwWnNvhXcTE.

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Thanks for stopping by and sharing some time with us and our grandsons!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

A Bite of Greek Food…

Laurie and I miss Greek cuisine!  When we lived in the Chicago area, we had many top quality Greek restaurants to choose from…but in East Tennessee, the choices are few and far between. (There is one in Knoxville that we will try out soon…)

So…while we were in southeast Florida, Dawn Marie took us to lunch with Chris, one of her friends and business associates.  She and Chris temporarily satisfied our Grecian yearnings!

Lunch was at the Egg and Dart in Miami.  This restaurant is in the Miami Design District, an area full of decorator, home furnishings, antiques and art shops.  To learn more about the Miami Design District, just go to http://miamidesigndistrict.net/.

The interior of the Egg and Dart is bright, with simple décor and clean lines.  I’m sure that the feeling is meant to evoke the Mediterranean…perhaps even a restaurant on the Grecian island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea.

The meal certainly started out positively!  How can you beat a nice hunk of crusty rustic Greek bread with a nice olive oil dipping sauce?  I could have just filled up on the bread and dipping oil!

We started out with a Mezze, the Pikilia plate. ($15.00) It consisted of Tzatziki, Hummus, Taramosalata, Tirokafteri, veggies with Pita bread…a variety of great flavors and a great way to start out our little mid-day repast! 

Of course, we also had to have some Saganaki…lightly pan fried melted Kefalograviera cheese. ($10.00) This has always been one of our favorite Greek mezze/appetizers.

I have personally missed one of my favorites, Grecian Chicken…a half roast chicken with lemon, oregano, Greek herbs and oven roasted lemon potatoes. ($17.00) It was very good…although not as heavy on the garlic as it would have been in Chicago.

Dawn Marie ordered the Pastitsio…Greek macaroni, ground beef, topped with béchamel and served with mixed greens. ($12.00) She definitely enjoyed her meal…

Laurie ordered the luncheon lamb special…and I failed to note what it was named.  It wasn’t the prettiest of dishes…but she assured us that it tasted far better than it appeared.  However, given all of the other choices on the menu, this wasn’t something that she’d order again.

Laurie couldn’t resist having a cappuccino.  It was a nice Italian way to cap off a casual Greek luncheon!

If we’d been in Miami a little longer, we would have liked to return to the Egg and Dart for dinner.  We both love Greek Grilled Octopus ($15.00); Shrimp Saganaki ($14.00), Lamb Chops ($33.00), Lamb Shank ($22.00) and we might try the Grecian Skirt Steak ($24.00).  The prices are a little steep for a retired couple but when you’re in Miami…or any big city…higher prices are part of the environment.

Hey Chris…Thanks again for lunch!!

Egg andDart is located at 4029 North Miami Avenue in Miami Florida.  Phone: 786-431-1022.  Website: www.egganddartmiami.com.  

Just click on any photo to enlarge it…

Thanks for stopping by and sharing lunch with us!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave