Blue Door Pub - St. Paul, Minnesota

I visited the Blue Door Pub on October 10, 2010.  This was 15 days before the episode on this place was due to be aired on the DDD TV show.  I sometimes wonder if the attention that the TV show brings to a restaurant might spoil it a little because of all of the extra customers that it brings.  That thankfully wasn't the case here.

The Blue Door Pub in St. Paul, Minnesota was another in long line of triple-d neighborhood bar restaurants.  They had free flowing beer and lots of burgers being served.

The burger that caught my attention was the Pad Thai Burger.  I’ve had Pad Thai plenty of times before but, I only knew it as an egg-noodle dish from Thailand.  I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of having this on a hamburger bun.  The execution was really well done.  It was kind of like a really awesome egg sandwich.  They had a slice of thick-cut cheddar cheese on the sandwich which was a dominant taste that complimented the egg perfectly.  It was really innovative and expertly executed.

Also a mind-blower were the beer-battered green beans.  The concept of battering and frying green beans just seems weird.  Again, they were great.  The green beans had an intense green bean taste and were really juicy.  They are perfect for dipping into the ranch sauce that comes with them.

The service was excellent.  The waitress was super busy because we went there during the lunch hour rush.  That didn’t take away from her attitude.  She was super friendly and efficient.

I give the Blue Door Pub a 9 out of 10 on the triple-d scale. 

The Blue Door Pub
1811 Selby Ave
St. Paul, MN 55104
(651) 493-1865

Psycho-Suzi's Motor Lounge - Minneapolis

Psycho Suzi's is a northern exposure tiki bar. There is lots of bamboo and kitschy polenesian statuettes and beach paraphernalia everywhere.  The lights are turned down low to make you feel like you are at a luau.  There were lots of island drinks with colorful little umbrellas in them flying by on serving trays. I was suspiciously alone at my table as the intrepid individual business traveler. Most of the other tables were filled with groups of revelers.

You can order a pu-pu platter, sandwiches, pizza or any other type of bar food that you want. I opted for the pizza. I chose the Hawaiian pizza in keeping with the Polynesian spirit. They call it their “Paradise City.” It had canadian bacon, pineapple, pineapple rum-soaked raisins and red onion.

The pizza was pretty good but, the service was a little bit weak. I think that because I was just a table of one and I was only drinking diet cokes that my waitress was probably preoccupied with better paying tables requiring more frequent calls for replenishment. I had to waive at her a few times to gain her attention. If I was not on a triple-d mission to review this restaruant then I might have just picked up and walked out after having to wait so long to get an order in.

I would give this place a 4 out of 10 on the triple-d scale mostly because of the service. They will be moving locations down the street as of this writing. Hopefully they will revamp the whole operation at that point. Maybe I just had a stroke of bad luck one night. Who knows?

Kramarczuk Sausage Company - Minneapolis

The Kramarczuk Sausage Company is very different than most triple-d restaurants in that it is neither a diner, a drive-inn nor a dive but, it was funky enough and good eats enough to pop up on my radar screen.

The first thing that you notice when you walk in is that it is a European butcher shop.  They have all kinds of meats, mostly sausages that were prepared according to mostly eastern European recipes.  There are a lot of other dry and canned products that came from Europe.

The other side of the store is a cafeteria style restaurant.  The food is all eastern European derived dishes.  I got the combination plate on the advice of the girl behind the counter.  Not only didn’t I know what most of the items in the chafing dishes were, I couldn’t even pronounce the names of almost all of it.

The combo plate consisted of three different types of pyrogies, some sauerkraut, a big cabbage-meat burrito-type thing and your choice of sausage.  It was all covered with a hollandaise sauce.  I got the Ukrainian sausage.  It also came with sour cream  To wash down the meal, they also offer a selection of East European beers.  I got the Zywiec.  It was a pilsner with kind of a beer-spicy taste.  It reminded me of Urquell from the Czech Republic.

The dishes were born out of the need to put food that would stick to the ribs of hard working people.  It was really filling.  I showed up really hungry ready to eat and I could just put a dent in the food put in front of me. 

There were some folks eating at the restaurant that were clearly visiting from some eastern European country and they seemed to like it.  If it was good enough for them then it was good enough for me. I’d rate it a 9 out of 10 on the triple-d scale.

215 East Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414
(612) 379-3018

Town Talk Diner - Minneapolis, MN

I’ve been to the Town Talk Diner twice now.  The first thing that hits you when you walk in is that this is probably a popular place to come just for drinks.  The bar area is tiny but there are lots of martini glasses filled with all kinds of neon colored concoctions.  Everything is well worn from a steady flow of human  traffic.

Town Talk has an industrial feel to it.  There is lots of stainless steel and exposed brick everywhere.  They even use stainless steel hose clamps like you’d find in Home Depot or a plumbing supply store as napkin rings.

Service was very good both times that I was there.  The waitstaff provides just enough service without over doing it.  You can sit and talk in peace for a long time if you want. 

My first time in, I had the brat burger.  This was the one that was featured on the TV program.  It was very good but definitely a heart attack on a bun.  It was a sausage patty with bacon and sour kraut on top.  It had some lettuce and tomato.  The bun was a thick soft bread bun.  The sausage had a bit of a spicy kick to it, kind of like a breakfast sausage.  It looked like a beef burger, so that’s what I was expecting when I bit in.  I wasn’t really all that impressed.  I’d call the brat burger a 4 out of 10 on the ddd scale.

My second time in I had the kitchen sink burger.  That is a basic bacon cheeseburger with some other stuff on it.  It came with a steak knife stabbed straight down into the burger.  The six-inch blade didn’t even pass all the way through the burger to touch the plate.  It was a lot of burger but very tasty.  Also a heart attack on a bun.  I’d score this a 7 out of 10 on the triple-d scale.  It was very good but not outstanding.

Both meals came with garlic fries.  My first experience with the garlic fries was mediocre.  I left expecting more from the fries.  They tasted very flat and ordinary.  My second time was differnent.  They seemed to have a bit more punch and I liked them a lot the second time around for some reason.   I’d score the fries an 8 out of 10.

A guy across from me got the onion rings and they looked like breaded versions of the onion rings that you get at a high-end Japanese hibachi grill all piled high like Mount Fuji.  They looked cool and the people seemed to enjoy them.


2701 1/2 E. Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN 55406

Pawleys Front Porch - Columbia, South Carolina

Pawleys Front Porch is another Triple-D Hamburger bar-restaurant.  It was a good burger but, by Triple-D standards, I'd say that it was mediocre. 

They liked to play up the "Guy Fieri ate here" thing which was kind of cool until you figure out that they probably got featured just by the grace of God.  I was not convinced why this was anyplace special.  The menu was okay.  They had some heart-attack inducing mega-hamburger options that might have caught someone's eye.  But, I can't eat too much of that nor should anyone, in my humble opinion. That alone is not enough to hook me.

The atmosphere was just okay.  It was a neighborhood bar that served burgers and other things.  There were a few people knocking back beers in the middle of the day.  There were a few tables of retirees hanging out jibber jabbering.  I get the impression that it is probably a pretty popular after-work place to come for drinks.

Unfortunately, I would probably drive by this restaurant next time.

Skylark Diner - Edison, New Jersey

The Skylark Diner in Edison, New Jersey is probably one of my top-5 of all Triple-D restaurants.  I rank it up there with Chef Point Cafe as a place that I will go long out of my way to visit if I can.

I have been to the Skylark Diner probably about five times.  I've had several of the dishes here and it has never disappointed me.  I have even taken some work friends here.  The verdict is pretty much unanimous.  When near Edison, we go to the Skylark Diner for at least one meal.
 
There are a lot of diners in New Jersey.  Guy even did a Jersey diner special on them.  This was one of them.  For one diner to stand out amongst the many diners in the state is really saying something.  One of my favorite things to order is the lobster bisque.  I can not quite describe the flavor.  All I can say is that it is the best that I have ever had.   They have a chocolate counter near the cash register.  I saw a flavor that I could not have even dreamed of, olive oil and sea salt chocolate.  A dude behind the counter that I assumed was one of the managers was talking my ear off about how good their chocolate was.  Being the gullible traveler that I am, I decided to pony up the $5 for one little ball of this stuff to see how good it was.  It really was good.  I don't know how many times I would be willing to pay that much for any chocolate but, at least I can say that I've experienced it once in my lifetime.

In terms of atmosphere, this is definitely not a dive.  You might recognize the photo at the bottom of the post because it is the one that I use for my blog title background.  It is a somewhat upscale retro-diner.  The waiters and waitresses could have come from a much more ritzy restarant.  They are all in neat uniforms and are professional.  Nobody at this diner is going to call you "hun."

This is a must try if you are in the area.

17 Wooding Ave
Edison, NJ 08817-3865
(732) 777-7878

The Oinkster - Los Angeles (Eagle Rock), California

L.A. is another one of those cities that has a lot of Triple-D restaurants.  I had hit a few other Triple-D restaurants earlier in the week that I was in L.A. last  August and was still full from my previous caloric overloads.  This was despite the fact that I [for legal reasons, may or may not have] hiked up to the Hollywood sign right before my restaurant visit.  The Oinkster isn't a place that you want to show up with with the "I could eat" kind of appetite.  You need to show up wicked-hungry because this is high-protein and carbs comfort food kind of place.

When in Rome, do like the Romans and when in L.A., you have to order the Oinkster sandwich.  The Oinkster sandwich is prepared with Pastrami, gruyere cheese, caramelized onion and red cabbage slaw.  It is a hunger killer.  I liked it but, I wasn't crazy about it.  To be fair, I think that it was because I was forcing myself to eat.  I just wasn't in the mood for anything let alone a 600 calorie sandwich which I couldn't even come near finishing.

Atmosphere-wise, The Oinkster is a typical Triple-D neighborhood restaurant.  This neighborhood was more on the upscale side than typical Triple-D restaurants though.  It is in Southern California so, they get good use out of the outdoor patio seating.

I'd still say that this place is worth checking out if you are in the neighborhood.  The sandwich alone is almost $10.  That's a little expensive for most parts of the country but, this is L.A.  So, it was a relative bargain.

2005 Colorado Blvd.
Eagle Rock, CA 90041
(323) 255-6465

Fred's Texas Cafe - Fort Worth, TX

Fred's Texas Cafe is tucked away on a side street in downtown Fort Worth.   Right away, you're reminded why Fort Worth is called "Cowtown."  This IS Texas, no doubt about it.

Everything from the loud friendly voices, cowboy boots and Tex-Mex food screams Texas.  It's got a funky vibe at the same time.  I actually got the feeling that we were more in hippie Austin than rough and tumble Cowtown.  There's local music and the feeling of a counter culture,  Lone Star style.

We hit the Sunday brunch just to check this place out.  I got the Migas because I had no idea what it was and was in the mood for an adventure.  I'm glad that I did.

The Wikipedia definition of Tex-Mex Migas described what I ate better than I could: "scrambled egg sauteed in butter or oil with torn strips of corn tortillas, diced onions, sliced chile peppers, diced fresh tomatoes, and cheese, plus various spices and condiments (e.g. salsa, pico de gallo). Migas are typically served with refried beans, and corn or flour tortillas are used to enfold all of the ingredients into tacos."

I can tell you this:  It was GOOD, but there was way too much of it!  We washed our food down with a couple of mamosas.  I thought that serving alcohol on Sunday before noon was against the law but, I wasn't about to complain. 

Fred's gets a solid thumbs up from me!

915 Currie Street
Fort Worth, Texas
(817) 332-0083

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The Nook - St. Paul, MN

The Nook in St. Paul, MN is a neighborhood Irish bar restaurant.  The waitresses all wear green t-shirts with Gaelic-type print.  There is a lighted Guinness sign right in the middle of the place.  It was a friendly restaurant but, this is a place where beer is consumed by the pitcher so, leave the kids at home or take them elsewhere.

There service was maybe not the best that night.  I got the original burger, a vanilla malt, onion rings and asked for A-1 sauce.  At first they didn’t have any A-1.  Then they scraped one up some from the kitchen.  An honest mistake – no big deal.  When I was ready to leave I put my credit card down to pay the bill and had to wait a LONG while until they picked it up.
 
They have several newspaper articles and local magazine covers framed and displayed telling about their many awards for best burger in the Minneapolis / St. Paul area.

The food was pretty good by normal standards but, by triple-d standards, I would say that it was just okay.  I have a feeling that they are known for their double-stuffed burger.  I thought about it but, I just didn’t have the appetite for it that night.  So, maybe this review isn’t being totaly fair to the restaurant.  But, the triple-d reviews aren’t always fair to my cholesterol level.  So, we’ll just have to live with some balance in life.

If you're in the area then I would give it a try.  If you have the appetite for the double-stuffed burger then let us know what you thought.

The Nook
492 Hamline Avenue South
St. Paul, MN

Chef Point Café - Fort Worth (Watauga) Texas

Chef Point was my first Triple-D restaurant and is the standard by which I hold up all of the other restaurants that I visit.

Chef Point is no secret.  Guy Fieri has visited there and so has Paula Dean.  The wait to be seated can be well over an hour even at odd times of the day during the week.  If you come on the weekends then plan to wait a long time.  Just know that you won’t regret it.

Chef Point is not too far from my home.  So, I have the ability to get back there often, and I do.  It probably is my favorite restaurant anywhere.

Chef Point Café is located litteraly in a gas station.  Evidently, when they were starting out the owner couldn’t get a bank loan to start a restaruant but, he could get one to start a gas station.  So, they opened a gas station with a little restaurant area.  They could proabably easily aford to move into more upscale digs now but, that would ruin a big part of their charm.  They might be located in a gas station but, the menu is full-priced.

My favorite dish is probbly the Cioppino Soup.  This is an Italian fish soup.   It is a seafood soup with lots of mussels, scallops, bits of salmon, clams, calamari, shrimp and vegi’s cooked in a broth.  The last time that I was there, they served me an entire lobster tail on top.  It is absolutely incredible!  You get to enjoy it more than once because the servings are ridiculously large.  Only the most robust people can actually clean their plates.  Most of us will leave armed with shopping bags of take-home leftovers. 

On Sundays they serve their comfort food.  I've had the meatloaf each time.  The first time that I went there on a Sunday the hostess recomended it.  It was so good that I won't try anything else.

Save room for desert though.  The bread pudding is also incredible.  They featured it on Diners, Drive-Inns and Dives.  It is the hot cognac sauce that really makes this wonderful.  You can get just one and four forks if you want.  It’s that big and very filling.

5901 Watauga Rd.
Watauga, TX  76148
(817) 656-0080

Dari-Ette Drive-Inn - St.Paul, Minnesota

Dari-Ette Drive-Inn in St.Paul, Minnesota was my first Triple-D drive-inn.  There have been plenty of dives, some of which were diners but, this was my first genuine drive-in.

I went there in the beginning of September which turned out to be about the nicest time to be outside as it could have been.  There were neighborhood people just walking up for ice-cream.

Dari-Ette kind of reminds me of a Sonic with a slower pace and much better food.  It is definitely a throughback kind of place.  They could have used this place in the movie American Graffiti.  Who knows, maybe they did?

There were some people just enjoying the evening outside their cars, listening to the car radio play while just soaking in the great weather. I could see how this might be a social meet-up place later in the evening.

I ordered the pork chop sandwich, jalapeno poppers and a vanilla milk shake.  I’ve had pork chop sandwiches before but, only at home using leftover pork chops.  This tasted like something I would have made at home.  It was served on thick toasted white bread, kind of like Texas Toast without the butter.  It had a little bit of mayonnaise and some lettuce on it: Very good.

The jalapeno poppers were the real treat.  Usually poppers are filled with cheddar cheese which I would have fully expected this far north but, these were filled with a light white cheese.  It might have been ricotta.  The real surprising thing though was that they served it with duck sauce.  The duck sauce really worked well with the poppers.  There was a little bit of spicy heat from the jalapeno but, most of it came from the sauce. It was a nice little Asian twist on the concept.

1440 E. Minnehaha Ave
Saint Paul, MN, 55106
(651) 776-3470

Emily's Lebanese Delicatessen - Minneapolis

I always feel good eating middle eastern food because I feel like I’m doing something good for my body.  A lot of the Triple-D restaurants serve tasty but, not necessarily heart healthy foods.  There's often a lot of red meat, salt and butter involved.

My experience with middle eastern is that it usually contains  a lot of fresh bean based dishes, smaller amounts of high quality meats, rice, tomato and salads.  Emily's was no different.

I ordered the Hummus appetizer and the #8 Lebanese Chicken & Rice with Lubin for lunch.  Lubin is yogurt.  It comes with Tabouli salad.  Tabouli salad is parsley, tomatoes, onions, cracked wheat and lemon juice.

The main dish of chicken and rice had thin slices of almond in it.  The yogurt was served on the side.  The combination of the starchy rice mixed with the citric yogurt was very good.

The more traditional way to prepare this dish might have been with pine-nuts instead of almonds.  That's what their menu says.  They had a sign up saying that they were substituting almonds in place of pine-nuts for some reason.  I don't know why.

The humus comes with flat bread and is practically a meal in itself.  I was making a concoction of humus and tabouli on the flat-bread and sliding some of that back while I waited for the main meal.  I had barely eaten any of it before I started filling up.  There was a lot of humus left over.  Humus is basically a garbanzo bean dip that you put on the tortilla-like flat-bread.

Like many Triple-D restaurants, Emily's is a neighborhood place.  Most of the people who sat down after me didn’t need to see the menu.  The whole restaurant is probably only 30 square feet inside.  They also had an outdoor seating area that isn't apparent if you walk up from the back parking lot.  The paneling was the pride of probably 1960.  There are faded framed posters promoting travel to Lebanon.  The Lebanese flag is thumb tacked to the wall.  There was a sign behind the cash register advertising the daily special: lamb’s tongues w/salad or soup $10.

I'm guessing that the neighborhood is comprised of Eastern European and Middle Eastern families.  There was a Catholic church a couple of blocks away that had a colorful dome roof that reminded me of architecture from that area.

I got turned on to middle eastern food when I used to visit Detroit a lot.  Some of the local folks there took me out to various middle eastern restaruants and taught me a bit about it.  I really developed a taste for it but, I don't get to Detroit too much anymore.  Emily's was a nice reminder.

Victors 1950’s Café - Minneapolis

Victor's is a Cuban restaurant.  It is a bit edgy.  If you are afraid of places with graffiti on the walls then this is not the place for you.  The waitresses were all very nice and attentive.  I never saw the dry bottom of my water cup.  They wore cute 1950’s Lucy style dresses and aprons that showed off their tattoo sleeves very well.  Latin music radio is played over the speakers and candles were lighted in front of the plate on display with the picture of Jesus and an angel on it.  There are lots of cool pictures from Cuba around the restaurant.

The booths are wooden with colorful Latin tablecloths.  The booths, walls and ceilings are covered with lots of messages and free expressions of love and war.  One of the messages was “Viva La Cuba!!  Huesa La Vista Fidel.”  There is a poster of a young Fidel Castro with a Soviet Star and the writing is all in Russian.  Right next to that one is another picture of an older Fidel shaking hands with Pope John Paul.

The menu is very Cuban.  Plantains are in several of the dishes.  There are four types of rice that you can order up with your meal.  I had the white rice steamed with a hint of olive oil. 

The crab cakes appetizer was really good.  They were very light and served on a bed of lettuce with a drizzling of some kind of cream sauce.

The Salmon main dish was served on a bed of spinach with a mango sauce and a slice of mango across it.  The rice was white rice with olive oil and it was all served with plantains that had a sweet sticky glaze of probably the mango sauce.

It was well worth the visit.

[UPDATE - Feb. 2012]

I went back to Victor's in February 2012.  The place hadn't changed one bit in the two years since I was here last.  They even sat me in exactly the same spot as last time.  

My previous trip here was for dinner.  This time I came for lunch and had the Sandwich Cubano.  This was a pork, ham and swiss cheese sandwich with pickles and mustard on a bread that is shmushed in a hot press like a grilled cheese sandwich.  I picked the pickles right off of my sandwich just because I can't stand pickles of any kind.  Once that was out of the way I dug in. 

Cuban food to me is very sweet.  This sandwich was no exception.  I'm not sure how they make meat sweet but it was, and very good by the way. 

I got it with the Yuca Frita which the waitress explained was kind of like stringy potatoes that are deep fried like french fries.  They were indeed as advertised.  They didn't have that heavy obviously fried taste that french fries usually have.  They were lighter and again probably a bit sweeter than regular potatoes.

I didn't die but, after half the meal was over the waitress came by and asked how we liked the Yuca.  THEN she explained that the yuca is actually a poisonous root in nature but the cooking process takes the poison supposedly out of the food.  Okey dokey, thanks for that timely bit of news!

The plantains were every bit as great as I remembered them.  They were both sweet and succulent at the same time. The sugars in the food form a wonderful almost creme brulee-like glaze when pan sauteed.   It is really like a desert. 

I got one of their Cuban Coffee's to go.  Wow!  Now I know why the American federal government won't let us travel to Cuba.  It must be a plot by the Starbucks corporation to keep this secret away from us so that we continue to buy their coffee in ignorance.  It was really strong (the way I like it) but very smooth and flavorful.  Not even a tiny bit bitter.  Really good quality stuff.

The last time I was here, I hadn't yet started to rate my dining experiences.  Victor's is a solid 9.9 on my triple-d scale.  The food is absolutely killer, the atmosphere is over the top cool and interesting and the service was really very good.


Victors 1950’s Café - Minneapolis
3756 Grand Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55409
612-827-8948
victors1959cafe.com

Modern Cafe in Minneapolis

I went to the Modern Cafe in Minneapolis in August 2010.  I had the meatloaf sandwich and the vegan soup.  It was kind of a ying-yang thing, I suppose the healthy vegetables offset the meat/carb celebration.

The meatloaf sandwich was probably one of the best meatloaf anythings that I've ever had.  It had two strips of bacon on a couple of relatively thinly sliced (probably quarter-inch) pieces of meatloaf.  They used a little bit of mayonnaise and the bread was a really good quality white or possibly potato bread.

They claim that that they try to use organic ingredients.  So, it probably wasn't normal white bread.  It tasted pretty good in any event.  The vegan soup was really pretty good also.  The vegetables were still "snappy" so they had to have been really fresh.  The soup had a little bit of a spicy hot kick to it which surprised me because in the northern US most restaurants tend to shy away from spicy kick without giving fair warning first.

The location was in kind of an artsy outer-ring of the city center location.  There were a few galleries, art and printing businesses in the area. 

The restaurant itself was pretty much standard diner on the inside.  It was not very elaborate at all.  Just some basic booths and table and chairs. 

The service was pretty good.  They guy who seated me said that he would send over one of his "friends" to serve me instead of using the term "waitress" which I thought was kind of cool because I think that he might have been the owner. 

It was a relaxed placed.  A nice neighborhood restaurant.  There was a birthday party going on for a little girl, probably about 3 years old.  She was there with her mom and some of her friends, none of which were younger than probably 80 years old.  They all wore silly paper party hats and were having a grand time.



This is definitely worth checking out if your in the neighborhood.

Welcome to Bill's Triple-D Restaurant Review

I’m an unabashed fan of Guy Fieri and his Diners Drive-Ins and Dives show on the Food Network. I’m so much of a fan that I created a GPS database to load onto my GPS so that wherever I am in the country, I can just pull up the nearest restaurants that Guy has visited and choose from them. I’ve visited several of them already; enough to start a blog about them and share my experiences.

I spent a couple of weeks finding the lattitude/longitude coordinates for all of the restaurants that they had visited on the show through about July 2010 and put them into a waypoint database that can be easily uploaded from a home computer to the GPS using Garmin’s Point of Interest (POI) program that is available for free from Garmin. I plan on converting this for use on other GPS brands as well.

I travel a lot throughout the US and Canada. So, the database has been a godsend for me. Wherever I happen to be, I just pull up the database and make my choice. This way I get to be a bit adventerous with a plan instead of just winging it or worse yet, just settling for the easily recognizable national chain restaruants.

Most of the restaruants that I’ve visited have been really good, as you would expect. I would say that probably 100% of them were places that I never would have found on my own and probably 70% were places that I would have passed on without a DDD recommendation just based on outside looks or location. I’m having a lot of fun with it as you can probably tell.