Historic Downtown Burlington Walking Tour

      As regular readers of this post know, (OK, all three of you), I love history. So when we spotted a walking tour of our own local city, we jumped at it. We also recruited Sis and Bro-in Law to come along (Mike may love history even more them me !!). Saturday, 9/17, turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL fall day here in Vermont. Perfect for walking. The walk was sponsored by the Burlington Preservation Society and I knew we were in for a good time when our tour guide turned out to be Britta. She is the same tour guide we had last year for the Historic Waterfront Tour. A few pics from our walk;

      Burlington is a fascinating city and it's history well worth learning about. We had a great time hearing about some of the buildings and individuals that made this city into what it is today. And on top of it , the money goes to Preservation Burlington, a non-profit, helping preserve unique Burlington architecture. Look them up, and if you are in town when they are doing a tour, I highly recommend you take a walk with them. Just a few more pics;

Cool Runnings Review

     FINALLY, back to reviewing places close to home. Cool Runnings is a new restaurant? take out place? Caribbean grocery store and head shop selling prepared foods? all of the above? in Essex Junction. Located in the front of the Park Place bar. Having never been to Jamaica, I can not comment on the authenticity of the food. But to me it tastes like something your Jamaican grandmother would cook, (if, of course your Jamaican grandmother also blared reggae music at ear splitting levels and sold hash pipes).

      Exhibiting not much charm, Cool Runnings is basically a one room store. You enter and place your order from a list on the wall of what is available that day. Your food is scattered around in several locations, outside on the grill, stove top, in the stove and around the corner in big rice pots. It appears to me the food is probably made in another location and brought here once a day? Not sure about that but nothing I bought was made to order but rather loaded onto plates by a rather "laid-back" young man. There is one table for four in the middle of the room, but looking at the amount of plastic forks, paper plates, etc. loaded onto it , I'm thinking eating here is not much of an option.

      So if you have read this far you are probably thinking to yourself , let's avoid this place at all costs. That would be a mistake, despite the ear shattering music, despite the Caribbean attitude for service, the food is really good and the portion to price ratio is INCREDIBLE. For my meal I got goat Curry, two huge scoops of rice and beans, another scoop of vegetables (mainly cabbage and a few carrot and beans cooked down all day) and two big spoons of curry. While very tasty, goat curry is ALOT of bone and a little of meat. Probably won't order this again. Not so the Jerk Chicken, two complete thighs with drumsticks attached, chopped up into pieces, with said two scoops of rice and vegetables for ...wait for it...wait for it, $6.50!!!!!! WHAT, are you kidding me ! In addition, I noticed the patties sitting in the stove , huge fried dough size patties filled with either spiced meat or chicken,  one each of those please. Now how much for this veritable feast of Jamaican goodies , UNDER $20.00. People, this was enough food to last the two of us over four meals.

      Now for true, authentic, jerk chicken fans, be aware the sauce was not baked into the chicken. The chicken came lightly spiced (better for Vermont palates) and you could choose which sauce to put on. Spicy but bearable or OH MY GOD, and yes, I did take a large taste of each before picking. Both of these sauces came from jars you can buy at the store/restaurant/head shop, along with many other food items and the previously mentioned "tobacco accessories".

On a scale of 1 to 5;
Food,                Quality means much more to us than quantity.

Beer and Wine,  Based on selection and pricing

Service,             Speaks for itself
Ambiance,          Does the look fit the food and pricing 

Price,                 And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

Food,                     4   Huge quantities and very tasty

Beer and Wine,   No No alcohol is served
Service,                 3  Very "laid-back" but friendly

Ambiance,             1  What ambiance?.

Price,                     5  Really? This much food for this price? Really?

Overall                  3.25  Don't let the score scare you too much. Think of this as a takeout place and not a restaurant and you will be fine. A bigger concern for  me would be is it going to stick around. They are doing no advertising that I can see, they are not in a really great location, and their food to price ratio (while appreciated) is really off, though maybe "tobacco accessories" have a major profit margin . Go while you can and let me know what you think.  

A photo vist to Mineral Point

      On our last day in Wisconsin, Dean took us to Mineral Point. This is a very cute artist community/old time small town. We walked around the town, looking at all the old buildings, visiting art galleries;

      If you visit though, you may want to skip Mondays, as alot of the town was closed down. I will say the folks that were there were some of the friendliest ever. We could of spent hours and hours talking to one artist who worked in huge 3d clay murals. fascinating man. Oh, and at another gallery we met a man, (great artist himself), who was friends with Pedro E Guerrero,( they were having dinner that night, and he showed us some projects in the back Pedro was working on)! Who is Pedro E Guerrero you ask, (C'mon, someone must of asked!!). He was the official photographer for Frank Lloyd Wright, (small world HUH??) . Some of his original photography was available in the Taliesin gift shop, beautiful stuff, to the tune of $1200 to $1500 per shot. And here we were touching some work he was currently working on, COOL HUH !! I will leave you with a few more pics from this very cool, little town;

      Last post from Wisconsin, coming soon reviews from many local Vermont restaurants and a great history walk, taken right in our backyard, Downtown Burlington. Not to mention our major remodeling project. And some great, easy, Fall recipes, so stay tune.

Great Dane Pub Review

      Our last stop on the Great Wisconsin Pub and Brewery tour may have been the best. So good in fact, we ate lunch at the airport location on our way home the next day. The Great Dane looks more like a professional chain restaurant than a local place full of character. That may be because they now have five locations and plan on growing even more. We visited the Fitchburg location. Located in a mall area full of other stores and restaurants, the Great Dane is a stunner to look at. Lots of brick on the outside, beautiful dark woods and copper beer tanks on the inside. We chose to eat out on the patio, as it was a warm and sunny, summer night.

     Our first disappointment, was that some of the beers were sold out ?? It's a brew pub, shouldn't you have beers in stock. Since the Fitchburg location list only 6 beers ALWAYS on tap and of those, two were sold out, that left slim pickings, I settled for Old Glory American Pale Ale, it was quite good , not an exceptional ale but cold and refreshing on a hot patio. Next disappointment was our server, she was all smiles at first, but maybe because we moved to the shade without asking she got sullen? Not sure why but her attitude wasn't the greatest and she would disappear for long stretches at a time.

      When I first glanced at the menu I was intrigued and frightened at the same time. We have all been to those chain restaurants that have a hundred item menu of which NONE of it is local, or even tasty. All of it brought in frozen, in nicely pre-packaged servings, by big trucks with names like Cisco on the side, BLAH my absolute LEAST favorite restaurants in the whole, wide world. Give me a local hole in the wall place making food bought fresh from within the area ANY day. Now that you heard the rant I have to say I was wrong. The food was the best part of this experience. We all tried something different and every meal was great.

      To start we shared the Tuna TaTaki, this was very good, maybe a bit unexpected as we were far from water here, but the tuna was very fresh and the Cajun spice dusted on top gave it just the right amount of heat. For our entrees we visited around the world, starting with wifey and India. Her tandoori chicken was not a true "tandoori" but more tandoori spiced, still very good but what she truly raved about was the almond flavored Israeli cous cous that came with it. Along with tomatoes, olives, artichokes, grilled flat bread and a lemon yogurt dipping sauce, this was the U.N. on a plate.

      My meal was no less exotic for the mid-west. Called "Drunken Jerk", (NO comments please), it was
tender pork shoulder, soaked in spiced rum and jerk marinade,slow-cooked and wrapped in banana leaves, then finished with coconut-lime butter and pineapple salsa (yes I copied from the menu,and no I can't get the fonts to match ). Served with incredible, sweet, fried plantains, this was an exceptional meal. And it was a hoot for everyone at the table, because the amount of pork in the banana leaf wrapper seemed never ending, just when I thought it was done, I'd notice another fold and even more yummy tender meat. For his meal , Dean went with a great American city, New Orleans. His smothered and covered chicken read like this,a hand-breaded fried chicken breast topped with shrimp, andouille, artichoke hearts, mushrooms and tomatoes in a Cajun butter sauce. Served with jalapeno cheddar mashed potatoes and market vegetables. All in all we were extremely satisfied and VERY full after the meal. No dessert for us.

On a scale of 1 to 5;
Food,                Quality means much more to us than quantity.

Beer and Wine,  Based on selection and pricing

Service,             Speaks for itself
Ambiance,          Does the look fit the food and pricing 

Price,                 And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

Food,                     4.5  Excellent all the way around.

Beer and Wine,    3.    How can you run out when you brew it here.
Service,                 3     Efficient but not really friendly

Ambiance,             4     Patio was great, bar looked inviting, I never saw the main dining room but overall nice ambiance for a Brew Pub.

Price,                     4      This is not a "cheap" place to eat, but the portions are HUGE, you will leave full and happy.

Overall;               3.70    Our final stop on the great beer and pub tour, and certainly the best and most creative food of the bunch. So good in fact, we arrived at the airport early, so we could eat at the Great Dane in the terminal. Food was just as good (just not as many choices), it was more expensive (DUH, it's in an airport) and they had a full selection of beers (Go figure).  If your in the Madison area , make sure to stop by one of their many locations.You won't be disappointed.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin

      I am a huge history buff. Where ever and when ever we travel, we love to visit at least one historical site or go on a tour of a famous place. Our spring trip to California afforded us a chance to visit the Hearst castle and on this trip I jumped at the chance to visit, arguably, America's most famous architects studio, Franklin Lloyd Wright's Taliesin. I won't go into alot of detail, but what a life this man led. Three wives, one mistress, the murder of said mistress and her children by a deranged employee, feast or famine in his business which saw him go from nothing to world famous and back several times and finally settling down with a woman 30 years his junior. This is a man, who never got an engineering degree by the way, who truly was larger than life. Oh and less we forget, Taliesin burned down twice, (once by said deranged employee), and then some nasty business with Frank's body being dug up, as he was buried next to the mistress and not the final wife, and his remains disappearing forever. Read the book, it's fascinating.

      Taliesin started as a home for Frank and his mistress, after he left his wife in the Chicago area with their six kids, (OK, he was a visionary but really, not a very nice guy). but eventually turned into an architect school where students had the privilege of paying to become indentured servants and learning architecture from the master (while working on his farm and building his houses for him). Enough talk, more pics.

                                          Eyebrow not top of head.

      You start your tour across the road at the visitors center. This is an original Frank Lloyd Wright building also. Originally a high end restaurant and bar, it has been transformed into a visitor's center,  gigantic gift shop (just like Disney except you walk through before you start instead of after you finish), and a restaurant/coffee shop serving expensive lunch food in a really cool setting. Dean was wise to call for tickets before we left the house, as tours on summer weekends sell out fast (just a word to the wise). Here are a few pictures showing the visitors center;
                                                    The Visitor's center

Stacked stone a Wright trademark

This beautiful set can be yours for $12,000

 

      Once your tour is called you are loaded onto a small bus for the long trip across the road . Some more interesting (or boring, depends on your point of view) facts about Frank and Taliesin. First, one reason Frank embraced the Arts and Crafts movement is long straight lines. Frank was only 5 ft 4 after all, (also the reason he insisted on wearing capes). Over the years Taliesin has been expanded to over 37,000 square feet and some students and board members live there today. They do not live in the main house, as this is a museum but in separate apartments off the main house,(must be fun, as Frank thought bedrooms and bathrooms were wasted space). Back to the tour, as you turn into the driveway, you notice a beautiful little pond and waterfall. Seems Frank damned up the local creek and built himself a little hydro electric plant, thus becoming the first house in Spring Green with electricity.

      Once you reach the top of the driveway you notice the house is not sitting on the top of the hill. That's because Frank believed houses should blend with the landscape, not overwhelm it. So his house is at "eyebrow" level not "top of head level". Of course, being he was not an engineer, the house is now sliding down the hill and costing millions of dollars to anchor properly, oh well can't win them all. Some pics of the house;

      By now I am sure you are all bored to death. So I will leave you with a few more pictures of the view, (Frank was a visionary, buying up all the land around the house so the view would never be interrupted) and a bit of the incredible Asian art collection Frank bought with his commission of the Royal Tokyo hotel (two full railcars sent back home). Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take photos in the house itself, that you have to be here to experience. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend this tour, enjoy;

Frank was ahead of his time, these are parts of an old barn he reused as a decorative element for the house.

General Store Cafe Review

      This will be a quick review, mainly because we stopped here for breakfast, and I have sort of forgotten what we all had. Needless to say, this is a funky kind of place, part general store, part gift shop, and big part breakfast and lunch place. You stand in line to order, (and on weekends the line can be LONG), then get a country flag for your table and the server brings you your food, (our country was Wisconsin, go figure*S*).

      After all the food from the day before I wasn't really hungry, so I went with my old stand by, bagel, cream cheese and bacon (smoked in this case). Around the table, there was also a fresh blueberry and walnut pancake, an Italian sausage omelet and scrambled eggs with cinnamon toast topped with maple cream cheese, YUM!! Unfortunately, once again brain freeze caused me to forget to take pictures of the actual food. But I did get a pic of the building;

      This was a fun little place and appears to be a destination breakfast place, as Spring Green is kind of small and out of the way, but the place was PACKED.  Would I travel way up here for breakfast, probably not, but then again I am a very simple breakfast guy. I just can't eat a giant omelet or a huge stack of pancakes, give me some toast and peanut butter (Oh, not that this has anything to do with anything, but Dean made some INCREDIBLE homemade bread for breakfast, Thanks again). But, if you plan a day like we did and do breakfast, some shopping, stop at a nice park and then tour Taliesin (post coming soon) then it is a really great day.

On a scale of 1 to 5;
Food,                Quality means much more to us than quantity.

Beer and Wine,  Based on selection and pricing

Service,             Speaks for itself
Ambiance,          Does the look fit the food and pricing 

Price,                 And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

Food,                     4  Everything was really good. Yes, it was breakfast, but suprisingly easy to mess up.

Beer and Wine,    0  C'mon it's breakfast, Geez I know its vacation but even we have a limit
Service,                 3 This was a tough one, as really there are no waiters. I knocked it down, not because we waited in line for a long time, that's because its popular, but because once we ordered it took quite awhile to get our food. Again, its breakfast so it should be quicker. Everyone was really friendly though.

Ambiance,             4  Great, its a funky old building with lots of rooms and a screened porch and an outdoor porch. Oh, and once a year they have a concert out back called Bob Fest, where all the bands play Bob Dylan songs ,how cool is that ?

Price,                     4 Once again, need I remind you, it was breakfast. But the price were very reasonable for the quality and quantity we got.

Overall,                3.75 A very good breakfast place (and I guess lunch is even better), if your in the area stop by, or plan a full day like we did.

      Finally, a small park we stopped at on the way to Taliesin. Right on the Wisconsin river, with some great sand banks. Looks like it would be a fun spot to go tubing or kayaking. Enjoy;