The personal authentic travels of a world-wide drifter, you'll always see pics of me at the locations being described (if the other blogs you're reading don't do that, odds are they were NEVER there, just saying…)
Located on Route 66 in Oklahoma city, Ann’s Chicken Fry House & Gift Shop is touted on all of the “what to do on route 66” sites as one of the MUST-sees if you want to have that classic 66 experience, and the best Chicken Fried Steak in town. In retrospect, I was really annoyed to discover that the place only opened up in 1971 (i.e, barely a historic 66 restaurant, if at all), and I didn’t really enjoy my meal… NOT worth the calories.
First, Let’s keep in mind, that I-44 was bypassing Route 66 in Oklahoma city as early as 1958, when it was first built to link it to Saint Lewis. In fact the interstate STARTED there, and then worked itself out sideways… That said, HISTORICALLY even though 66 hit its cultural hey-day in the early 1960’s, and wasn’t officially disbanded till 1985, by the late 1960’s/early 1970’s it had essentially been made irrelevant. By the late 1980’s, when I tried driving parts of it, it was sort of an impossible struggle — and it’s revival as a scenic byway (the program officially began in 1991) really didn’t start till 1990. As such, I’m sorry, but for Ann’s place falls right into the years of 66 irrelevance as anything other than highways that people don’t even think of AS highways because of just how many paved roads there now were, and their function eclipse by the expressways. As such, for Ann’s to promote itself as an authentic route 66 business is kind of false advertising. I’m sorry but it is. That, and, to add insult to injury, it isn’t even considered one of Oklahoma city’s better restaurants by any of the locals (seriously, read Yelp, or any of those other sites) … i.e., it’s essentially a MAJOR tourist trap and nothing more.
That said… Be warned, they are a CASH ONLY business… they do NOT accept credit cards. (The mind boggles)…. and they are closed on Sundays and Mondays… Their specialty is supposed to be the chicken fried steak… so that is what I ordered… but I didn’t take any photos of it (it looked like chicken fried steak, and there was nothing impressive about the plating)….
that it was much better than the previous order of the stuff I’d had along the route — And I ate so much chicken fried steak over the few weeks I was doing 66 that when I got back to Chicago my liver numbers had once again spiked.
Chicken Fried Steak is one of my very favorite dishes, so I HAD to try ever one of the places that was advertised as offering the best example of the stuff.
One day someone should count up the number of Route 66 restaurants that tout their Chicken Fried Steak as the best in the city or the best in the state, or the best along the route …. the number of restaurants is probably very high…
but, all said and done, 9 times out of 10 when I’ve eaten it at these places I’ve been seriously let down to discover it is still just a hamburger fried in chicken batter … and RARELY, is it the much tastier and more expensive pounded filet-of-steak — and personally I’m spoiled; I MUCH prefer it when it’s a piece of steak that’s been pounded —- I love how in republican states they will insist that somehow its NOT a hamburger, and will call it ground steak as though somehow that isn’t just hamburger without a bun. And I’m sorry but hamburgers, no matter how good, don’t taste like steak. So NO, I do not really suggest their Chicken Fried Steak.
That said, I DO suggest finding an excuse to go inside the place as the interior is very kitschy and fun. Its one of those place where not only will they allow you to write on the walls…. they’ll even hand you the pen
That and, according to the owner, her husband (R.I.P.) had been kind a huge Star Wars fan, hence all the high-priced paraphernalia of the sort I’ve always lusted over but would never purchase because … “where would I put it?” … well I guess if you own a kitschy tourist trap restaurant… you can legally deduct it as a business expense.
[Updated, Aug 2019]
This blog post offers a fairly comprehensive description of every business in the Fish Market, and what their offerings are. It starts with with Fresh fish, and then moves through all the prepared food offerings, based on my visit in 2018.
Anyone who is a fan of fish (as in eating it) should consider a few hours at the Sydney Fish Markets, located in the Pyrmont neighborhood of the Greater Sydney area. According to their site, they are the largest market “of their kind” in the southern hemisphere (but that’s actually a very vague statement, so I’m not sure what it means exactly). That said, the place is fairly large, a bit labyrinth like, and offers an almost overwhelming number of options to the first time visitor (so reading a blog post like this before going really could help you make some decisions). While I’m guessing at these numbers, the place seemed to be 50% a full-fledged fish market offering freshly caught raw fish (or what the Aussies call “wet fish”), about 40% is fast-food stalls where you can gorge-out on pre-cooked (displayed) fishy delights — a lot of deep fried or smothered in cheese– until you need to loosen your pants, and about 10% is normal sit down restaurants (for the boring) that specialize in fish — most of which are Chinese food (probably because the majority of the tourists that like to come here seem to be from China — and in my whole life I’ve only met ONE person who didn’t like Chinese food).
As you walk around, especially if you get there earlier in the morning (before 11am), you quickly realize that this place is a bona-fide fish market, in that it is the city’s wholesale (i.e. bulk sales) hub for products to restaurants, and other businesses, as well as offering retail sales (small sales) to the public. I’ve been to a few “fisherman’s wharf’s” over the past few years, and till and as such was expecting this one, like those, to have degraded into a tourist trap (because of changes in the fishing industry) … that is not the case here. This is the real McCoy. The auctions of the morning’s catch begin at around 6:30 am, while the onsite restaurants and other shops intended for the public open up for business a few hours later, at 9am and close at 4pm.
If you spend enough time walking around the various shops (and peak into corners) you’ll find all sorts of workers descaling ….
and deboning some of the freshest fish I’ve ever seen for sale to the public….
…as well as folks who are busy shucking oysters. And, if you pay attention you’ll begin to realize what isn’t there… namely, ANY of that fishy smell that one comes to expect around places that sell ‘fresh’ fish… which usually isn’t actually all that fresh… and ALL of the fish here are clear of eye and firm of flesh [for those of you who don’t know how to identify fresh fish, read the article linked] in a way you just don’t see much of anymore — which tells you just how fresh they are — even at the high end local fish stores with the best offerings… this place is just fresher than anything you’re used to.
Like I said, about half of the market is just that … as in you can buy an impressive variety of fresh fish to take home and cook. There are (to my count) five of this type of fresh fish shops scattered around the fish market area:
De Costi Seafood, which is not in the main building (but rather is in a sort of strip mall that lines one side) was the first of these shops that I entered…
In addition to fish to cook, De Costi’s sells a small amount of ‘prepared’ fish that you can eat outside while gazing out at the bay (at your own risk … the seagulls here are aggressive and will try to steal your food)… such as the ever popular sashimi, which I soon learned pretty much every one of the fresh fish shops offered. This, you can either buy in pre-cut sets designed for one person (usually of the most popular salmon/tuna mixes), or you can ask them to assemble platters of the stuff for your family/group (although there is a minimum number of grams of each fish that you have to buy to qualify for this service).
An older woman is slicing up sashimi grade salmon while a younger worker watches
Although MOST of the customers go for the salmon or the tuna (and as such about half the case was just of those two), at the other end of the case was a wide array of choices that included local cuttlefish, imported surf clams from Canada and scallops from Japan, all of them sashimi/sushi grade [PLEASE do not just buy raw fish, cut it up and eat it uncooked, as it might make you very sick! Please read this to understand the difference between sushi grade fish and fish intended to be cooked. That said, flash freezing is process that deep freezes the fish to super low temperatures that your normal home freezer wasn’t designed to achieve (in effect killing off parasites with cold instead of heat), so NO you can’t just stick it in the freezer at home and save yourself the money.]
In addition to Sashimi, De Costi offers some other foods you could buy and eat including pre-cooked lobster, smoked salmon, fish pâtés, and shucked oysters on the half-shell… as well as some semi-prepared foods, like “marinara” mixes (combinations of raw seafood) for you to take home and cook at home, with pasta, or in seafood soups and stews.
But for the most part De Costi’s is about raw fish… of every shape and variety that the Australian shores offer.
But like I said, De Costi’s is just one of about five different stores in the Market that sell to fresh raw fish to the public.
Musumeci’s Seafood, is another of the fresh fish shops, and is also located in a separate building from the main structure.
Of ALL the shops it’s the only one I found to be handing out samples (from the woman standing behind the little table in the middle of the picture above). These “tasties” were of their smoked and/or roasted salmon, and pâtés made from salmon or trout.
Once inside the offerings were pretty similar to what I found at De Costi’s, only they seemed to have more in the way of shellfish and less in the way of the scaled variety … and what fish they did have looked a little, the worse for wear… just not quite AS fresh… but that could have been because the facilities upon which they were displayed all looked a little long in the tooth and distorted the overall appearance (at a glance).
This store seemed to focus a much larger percentage of their counter space than De Costi had, to the sashimi trade, with more in the way of pre-sliced combo offerings and side dishes like seaweed salad… so more aimed at the tourists than to local cooks… I think…
Hidden behind Musumeci’s (closer to the water) is another store by the name of Claudio’s Quality Seafoods, which to me looked better and fresher (more akin to De Costi) in terms of their fish…
and this place had an even better shellfish selection than Musumeci’s had (so the best of both worlds so to speak), a variety of which was being sold pre-cooked (and of course they had the obligatory sashimi as well)…. and it is also where I found the guys in red doing the filleting in the picture towards the top of the blog… (I was beginning to think that the presence of folks visibly filleting seafood is one of the attributes you want to keep an eye out for when judging these places. If you can’t see anyone actually prepping fish for sale… move on to the next store.
I also saw something at Claudio’s Quality Seafoods that I didn’t notice anywhere else in the market, shark steaks for sale. They have this large piece of shark sitting there (see image above). They can’t display the whole thing since small ones are about 10 feet long, and really big ones can be as large as 20 feet. Instead they put out this very large slab, and then you tell them how many “steaks” you want, and they cut them off with something akin to a chainsaw. (I wasn’t lucky enough to see a slice being cut, but there was a local guy taking around a group of Asian visitors … a small handful of people… and I overheard him describing the process to them.)
That said… From all of the reviews that I read before coming here (which I think I agree with), Peter’s Sydney Fish Market is considered the best of all the shops in the entire Market. It has a very large and bright location within the prime real estate of the main building and sells almost (pretty much) EVERYTHING that all of the other fish stores sell… both cooked and raw (didn’t see any shark) … and in addition includes almost all of the most popular dishes that the food stalls have on offer (although, based on my personal observations, it sells the duplicated dishes at a slower rate, so the food stalls cooked offerings might be more recently prepared — that said, there are dishes here you can’t find elsewhere and these dishes therefore move faster).
In the center of the store Peters offers a VERY large selection of fresh fish and unlike the other places in the market that sell the same, Peters will even cook your fish for you, but for a fee….(in the USA stores that do this do it for free)… But, I noticed that fee varies with, is the fish already filleted or not… if not, it costs about $5 AUD more per kilogram.
Where in the US stores that cook it for you tend to either grill or steam (rarely both), at Peter’s in addition to these two your fish selection can also be stir or deep fried … and with a whole variety of spices and flavorings from which to choose from… and there are also side dishes on offer.
But this was only the start of what Peters offered in terms of prepared foods…. you could also have them prepare shellfish to order, or chose from their pre-cooked offerings….
Among the shellfish you could buy (already cooked), was something I had heard about on a travel Food Channel show, ‘Australian bugs’. From what I learned from the show, these are variety of shellfish that are picked up by accident, i.e., garbage fish that are not considered desirable by the fish trade, that Aussies have taken to eating as a “local dish” but that, like I said, no one else eats. (I tried them, I wasn’t impressed).
[… ironically, even though the gelatinous Blobfish, which you do see for sale in Korean fish-markets, originates in Australian waters, I didn’t see ANY of it for sale in the Sydney Fish Market. I first learned of the fish when living in Korea, when my best friend there while walking me through his town’s food market told me that blobfish was almost inedible with no muscle and just a sort of gelatinous mass of blubber … but he said that Koreans during The War were so desperate for any food source they could fine, that they had figured out a way of processing its flesh with chemicals to make it so… kind of like how olives straight from the tree are very bitter and inedible, and need to be cured first]
Blobfish in a food market in Masan, South Gyeongsang, South Korea, when I visited in 2013
In addition to cooked fish, Peter’s offers a not only the obligatory Sashimi option, but also sells pre-prepared sushi for $2.50 AUD each (fish on rice, rather than straight sashimi) … allowing you to pick and choose from their offerings which pieces you wanted in your set. Be Warned, I noticed — and confirmed this by asking — that once noon rolled around, no new sushi offerings were added, and you will be stuck with what was left over from the morning. So, if you want sushi from Peter’s, buy it early… [That said, one of the food court places offers a much more limited selection of cooked sushi that’s sold adjacent to its hot food (blech — cooked sushi?), and there is also a nondescript hole-in-the-wall sushi joint within the main building called, “Sushi Bar at the Fish Market”, which makes it to order, but from my observations — I left at around 12:30 did barely any business other than selling drinks during the early part of the day when Peter’s offering had not yet sold out]
The woman on the right is teaching the younger male worker how to debone the fish
In addition, Peter’s was selling freshly made before your eyes “Aburi” shellfish … which translates to flame seared … these are scallops completely covered in cheese and other stuff… and hence so far off my diet that I couldn’t taste them…. Almost all of the food stalls sell the same, but these seemed to be the only ones that were grilled to order.
The only major competitor to Peter’s is probably Nickolas’s Seafood, which to my eye was offering a variety of 30% fresh/wet fish and was by far more, like almost 70% a cooked foods sort of place….
Really MOST of what they had, was cooked stuff for the tourist market, like at the food stalls… although like Peter’s it has sushi, but not as much…
but Nicholas’s distinct product seemed to be these very pretty platters of seafood (the little plastic round containers hold the Aussie version of cocktail sauce which is heavy on the mayo… blech). The scallop platter may seem overpriced, but scallops sticks at Doyle’s or Christy’s with five on a stick were $10 AUD… so you sort of have to do the math… and you can of course take home the shells if you so wish.
While Peter’s seemed to specialize in fresh (or what the Aussies refer to as wet) fish, Nickolas’s seemed to do more “swimming” shellfish — live and in a tank. While there I saw this almost comical scene when a customer came in wanting to buy a six ginormous lobsters… which when taken out of the tanks and laid on the floor for the customer to inspect… started skittering around said floor in a desperate attempt to escape and freaked out this little girl.
Pre-cooked foods only options
So, like I said before, while all of the above options also sold food you can eat on the spot such as the obligatory sashimi…. or cooked lobster or sushi in some cased, about 40% of Sydney’s Fish Market consists fast-food type stalls [not made to order restaurants], where you can pick from the displayed pre-made fish delicacies (although most also have some stuff cooked to order, usually for larger family sized trays, etc). So for instance, adjacent to De Costi’s in the strip mall type area is the…
Salty Squid, which while they do make a few things fresh (burgers and the like, for those who do not like fish), is essentially no different than a fried fish fast-food place…
The first such shop you’ll notice as you enter the building is Doles, (it’s at the very entrance)…. here they have a food stall sets up that sells flame grilled fresh fish on a stick…
This was hands down my favorite of the places because they don’t smother it in oil, and will even do with completely without oil if you ask… even corn on the cob (with no butter)… very healthy food.
Right behind this healthy option stall they have a larger restaurant setup that sells oysters, and all foods unhealthy … either deep-fried or smothered in cheese or cream sauce… which in my mind utterly defeats the point of eating seafood.
Across the hallway from Doyles, still at the front entrance is
Christie’s Sea Foods is yet another food court/stall type business whose dishes vary from deep-fried to grilled — but I noticed a lot of oil added to their grilled foods
and adjacent to Christie’s is The Fish Market Cafe — which to me looked to be the least healthy of all of them, but also probably the most popular of these places, as it seemed to be doing the most business in selling prepared foods.
Sushi Doughnuts and Tacos (in a deep-fried seaweed shell coated in panko )
While most of the customers opted to sit indoors to eat their food, the fish market is directly adjacent to the water and there is seating outside for those who want to enjoy a view with their food.
That said, there are more than a few seagulls and such who hang out at this location, and these are fairly aggressive birds who will happily steal your food from you (some online sources I read said that it’s not unknown for them to dive bomb you for it), which is why almost every table is covered with an umbrella or located inside a sort of tent (think not only dive bombing seagulls but also seagull poop)… they’re set up more to help protect your lunch from the bird, rather than you from the sun (although they do that too).
if you ARE intending to make a meal of it, the ONLY cooked veggies I saw were carbs… your choices are corn on the cob … which I had… rice or noodles… if you want veggies or fruit with your meal, at the far end of the market there’s a small fruit and veggies market that also offers up things like fruit salad and chocolate covered fruit.
For your dessert options there is also a bakery and coffee shop inside the main building. And for those in your party who do not like fish... (in addition to the burgers at the Salty Squid) there’s an Italian deli that will make sandwiches. … That said if your traveling companion is like mine, a vegetarian… well those folks should pretty much just stay home because this place will most likely just offend them. [My vegetarian friend is also the only person I’ve ever met who refused to eat Chinese food.]
Sit down Restaurants:
Finally, the fish market consists of about 10% sit down restaurants where you order from the menu like normal. Two of these are located on the same strip mall type building where De Costi’s is located, just past the Salty Squid fast food joint… that said, neither of these seemed to be doing a load of business during the whole time I was there (and I was there till 12:30). The Third is a restaurant I only discovered after I started composing this blog, and looked like someplace I’d like to try, so I went back and did so… Fisherman’s Wharf Seafood is a fancy Chinese place located on the 2nd floor of the Market’s main building via some stairs — there is an elevator to it at the very back of the building, but its hidden behind the fruit and veg market, the elevator at the front of the building will NOT get you there –and during the market’s open hours/lunch they do DIM SUM… yo mama!!! Monday to Friday : 11am – 3pm Saturday and Sunday : 10am – 3pm I checked it out later in this trip and gave it a separate review which you can read if you follow the link.
The only sit down restaurant I took photos of was the Sea Emperor….
Ted Drewes is a family owned Frozen custard business and a Saint Lewis Missouri institution. Founded in 1929, it’s Route 66 location is historic, and it has been included on Food shows by the likes of Alton Brown and Bobby Flay, and in 2017 was awarded the title ‘Best ice cream shop in the world’ by Soolnua, a company that every year produces a world-wide “best ice cream” index. (Wikipedia)
If you’ve never had frozen custard you really need to try it. While the rest of the world is only now discovering it, its capitol” if you will is Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and it is a fairly common treat all throughout American’s Midwest.
It’s essentially ice cream with egg yolks, and as such has a creamier texture, and can be kept at a warmer temperature without melting than ice cream… all while still managing to have a denser consistency. AND Frozen Custard is lower in fat than Ice Cream is, and as such is a lot lower in calories, while having more protein. Seriously… it’s a win win
Frozen custard comes in vanilla only… any flavors are added after the fact, cherries, nuts, caramel, what ever you want from their available list… with each extra adding to the price…
… or from the flavor combos they suggest…
and then, if you’ve chosen to have a concrete (rather than a sundae or malt, etc.) then, just like in a milk shake, the flavors are blended into the vanilla custard, served in a cup and handed to you…. but they hand it over up-side-down, in order to prove to you just how THICK your treat is
I ordered the Cardinal Sin, it was very tasty
One thing that I found personally amusing was that Ted Drewes Frozen Custard is KOSHER… well… most of what they serve is….
Built in 1935 (and on the National Register of Historic Places), the Ariston Cafe located on Route 66 in Litchfield, Illinois is the longest continuously running cafe along the route’s whole stretch. So I planned my trip so as to include a meal here.
According to Wikipedia, with the exception of having added a banquet room and a few other minor tweaks, the interior of the Cafe has not been altered substantially since it first opened. In most other locations would be a bad thing, but on Route 66, it’s a selling point.
As restaurants go it has a highly confused menu; they have: Mexican, Greek, Deli, classic American, Southern, Italian, Steak, and Seafood … with 7 different kinds of fish — where most places would do one or two
but I guess if you’re a restaurant in a small town you sort of have to be all things to all people. That said, they also have an all you can eat soup and salad bar which had some tasty stuff on it… even if it is kind of seriously old-fashioned.
I asked the waitress what the difference was between the pond and fillet catfish dishes. The pond catfish is two big catfish served on the bone for $15, while the fillet is one catfish filleted for $14… as two would have been too much food me, I got the fillet… but if I lived nearby I’d have ordered the pond for $15 and taken home leftovers.
That said, the Catfish was rubbery and had a funny after taste …which I think the chef was trying to hide with all the spices. But with seven different kinds of fish, unless fish is VERY popular in this town, I don’t see how they can be serving anything remotely close to fresh.
There was a large selection of HUGE slabs of various kinds of cake… but passed. When the owner noted that I was keeping notes about meal, posting to social media, etc., he came over and gave me two postcards and a refrigerator magnet.
The Hoito is an unimpressive looking but historically important Finnish restaurant located in Thunder Bay Ontario Canada.
It drew my attention both as being one of the highest ranked restaurants in Thunder Bay on all the customer review websites (pulling four or five stars at each), but also because FINNISH food!!! Seriously how often do see that being offered up.
My airbnb host asked where I was intending to go for my meal and when I said “that Finnish place, the Hoito”, he said, “Good choice, I love that place.”
After I arriving there I discovered the Hoito is historically important restaurant, established in 1918 (Wikipedia). Founded by loggers over 100 years ago, and running continuously since then, the restaurant is co-operative and is so deeply embedded in the labor movement that it is considered to be socialist.
Regular customers buy membership cards that allow them to vote at the Finnish Labor Temple located directly above the restaurant, and until the 1970’s customers could buy meal tickets too, if they ate here regularly, and the food was served on long communal tables. This restaurant was even written about in the New York Times.
I had suolakala (pronounced soo-la-ka-la) which is described as a salted fish sandwich — open-faced. It’s a bit like gravlox, in that it’s cured salmon… only it’s not smoked. Thing is I eat lox sandwiches almost daily so…
— I HAD wanted kalakeitto (a salmon soup) but they have run out. They also gave me a single Finnish meatball (to try) … because I refused the suggestion to order it as it definitely is NOT on my diet
The Kinniwabi Pines Restaurant is located on the Trans-Canadian Highway, Route 1, in Michipicoten, Ontario Canada, and based on the reviews is hands down the best restaurant in the area, if you don’t include chains…
I was staying up the road and according to Yelp, this was the best restaurant in the area where I had a decent chance of getting a healthy meal… and there was BISON on the menu!!!! Love me my bison.
My first impression was this restaurant couldn’t make up its mind about what it wanted to be. Take a look at the menu offerings… at best they seem to want to be all things to all people… There’s German, Polish, Italian, American, Chinese, Caribbean, and lord only knows what offered on the menu
Unfortunately, not only were they out of the Bison, according to the waitress they’d not had it in a while and she wasn’t sure why it was still on the menu… grrrrrr….
The tomato soup was offered to everybody as free with our dinner — mostly I think because it was a full hour wait between when I ordered and when they brought me my food. I talked to some locals and they said this is normal at that restaurant, so if you know this about your chef, if DON’T at least dull the customer’s hunger with some free soup, odds are you won’t have many.
So my dinner, because there was no bison, was the grilled trout– The fish was supposed to come with dill potatoes and some other stuff I couldn’t eat, but they modified it to meet my needs. That said, the food was very good… but clearly the chef has no idea how to cook quickly. So it’s a good thing he hasn’t much competition in the area.
Because the wait was SO long… I asked them if I could wander around their patio and garden while the food was being made, and could they come out and get me….
While they do have a beautiful view and garden — what they did not have was any Wi-Fi … which is particularly egregious as there isn’t any 3G or anything in this town. So all in all, its supposed to be the best place in town, but be ready for a VERY long wait
This is a very upscale highly ranked restaurant attached to the Unsworth Vineyard in Mill Bay British Columbia. It’s not far from where my former work college (we were professors together in South Korea) lives, and since she’d never been there I decided to take her there. By Vancouver Island standards the prices are quite high.
Am doing a bit of catch up, I went to this restaurant during my visit to Vancouver Island British Columbia and had facebooked about it… but forgot to blog about it… oops
All of the customer driven review sites that listed this place gave it 4.5 or 5 stars, so I was looking forward to it. We ordered the Moroccan chicken with Israeli couscous for our appetizer. It was good, but not amazing
My friend then got their soup salad and sandwich combo. Overall the food was good, but it didn’t knock my socks off. And the prices were high enough that it made my friend whose live in the area most of her life, uncomfortable
Meadowlark Restaurant is located on the outskirts of Dayton Ohio, pretty much in its suburbs… and is so impressively good that it’s almost worth the trip. And because it is in a relatively small city the prices are utterly reasonable; were it in places like Chicago or New York they could charge double or triple what they can in a town like Dayton.
(Barely took any photos while here, sorry)
This place ROCKS…and I’m not the only one who thinks so; pretty much ever one of the customer driven review sites gives this place between 4 or 5 stars. Appetizers are around $6-8 each and mains were around $20-$30, so for what it is, amazingly affordable. It is a farm-to-table chef-driven restaurant, i.e., fresh ingredients picked at the height of ripeness at nearby farms, cooked by an honest to goodness chef… I am sorry to say that I forgot to take photos of our appetizers.
I ordered a watermelon Gazpacho with peanuts, mint and a Fried Pork rinds garnish (which I asked them to NOT include) that was good enough that my travel buddy enjoyed it even though he is NO fan of watermelon… While my friend ordered the Shishito Pepper Hushpuppies with pimento cheese (which were deep-fried so not allowed on my diet) which he said were AMAZING… although not quite as good as my soup
For Dinner I ordered blackened catfish with sweet corn butter and “hambalya” which was really really good (I had recently passed my liver blood test with flying colors, and was expanding my diet a bit to include fish dishes cooked as the chef intended… but still steering clear of anything fried.
My friend, who is vegetarian, had the Ricotta&Goat cheese Tacos with Green Chiles in fresh corn Tortillas, topped with Capers and Spicy Tomatoes and served with a dressed cabbage and radish counterpart along with Lemon-scallion rice and creamy, smoky pinto beans ($22), which he also said was more than worth the price — he is not one for pricy restaurants.
For dessert we ordered the Homemade Pecan Pie Ice Cream with pie crust crumbles, which was as good as it sounds.
Route 66 has two endpoints: one is in downtown Chicago, which many people think of as ‘the start’ of the route (because of the order in the “get your kicks on Route 66”, song), while the other is (currently) at the Santa Monica Pier, just west of Downtown Los Angeles, which is where I started my trip. In Chicago route 66 is a little complicated as it exists on two one way streets, Adams, which travels west, and Jackson, which travels east. SINCE most people take 66 going west, that’s where you’ll find most of the signs…
Because Chicago is home and I’ve pretty much walked or driven most of these roads at one time or another without realizing they ARE 66, I have to admit that once I did, I opted to fudge it a bit once I passed Dell Rheas’s Chicken basket in Willowbrook IL (a town I’ve only ever passed by while driving on I-55) and felt that I had for all intents and purposes I had finished the route on the 24th of October. (I admit this is largely because I knew the neighborhoods I would be passing through… knew most of them to HIGHLY unsafe ones with nasty traffic. When I go downtown I stick to safe routes and park my car in safe areas.)
So for instance, the above are some photos of me in 2001 having dinner with friends at what was then arguably the best Greek Restaurant in Chicago’s GreekTown (on Halstead between Adams and Jackson … i.e., 66) the now closed Roditites Greek Restaurant, which used to be one of my favorite go to’s (it was open for 45 years). (All of the old Greektown classic restaurants seem to be closing, I think the children weren’t interested in taking over the businesses)but on the 31st of October I had business I had to deal with downtown, and as such took the opportunity to finish my 66 trek (only this time on foot, cause driving into the city is NUTS). I was staying at my friend’s home in Northbrook, and took the Metra Train from North Glenview station to Union Station, which is also located between Adams and Jackson (again, both are Route 66, it just depends on which direction you’re going) with exits to either street. Ironically, I have only ever been in this station once before. The Metra train line adjacent to my parents home went to a different station, the Ogilvie Center, a few blocks north. Unlike that station, which only services local lines, this station is where you go in Chicago if you’re taking an Amtrak line. As such, the only other time I was ever here was when I took the California Zephyr from Chicago to San Francisco back when I was in my late 20’s.The odds are you’ve seen this station before, even if you’ve never been to Chicago, as it’s been used more than few times in movies. The list includes Public Enemies (with Jonny Depp), My Best Friend’s Wedding (with Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz and Rupert Everett), Man of Steel (one of the Superman movies), Derailed, and most prominently in the movie The Untouchables, about Al Capone (Robert De Niro) and Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) … with a scene steeling Oscar worthy supporting performance from Sean Connery… which had a LOT of Chicago locations in it.
From the station I went straight to my 11am appointment, and then double backed to have lunch at Lou Mitchell’s Restaurant & Bakery (click link for my blog post about it), which is located a half block west of Union Station, and is probably the only historic Route 66 eatery to be in the Michelin guide. After lunch I walked back east, along Adams (Route 66 west bound) past Union station and to the Chicago River which forms the station’s eastern boundary.
The Jackson street bridge (Route 66 eastbound), opening to allow ships to pass
If you ever come to Chicago I strongly suggest taking one of our Water Taxi’s from Union Station (i.e, Route 66) to Navy Pier (the Orange line on the map above) which travels to where the Chicago River meets Lake Michigan… that said I’m about to go a bit off topic, but really… you have GOT to try the water Taxis
Pics of me and my Chinese friend when she visited Chicago in 2013
While at Navy pier, before switching to the next Taxi, you might want to go up on the Ferris Wheel (which is sometimes referred to as the Chicago Wheel, as it actually served as an attraction back in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, i.e., the White City, which was held along the lake on Chicago South’s side) which offers some great views of the city
The skyscraper behind me is the John Hancock (grin) center, where I used to work for about a year back when I was in my 20’s,
but then make sure to take the Water Taxi that travels from the pier via Lake Michigan to Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum, even if you don’t want to go to the Museums.
The skyscraper on the left is the Big Willy (see below), the one in the middle is the Standard Oil building — no self-respecting Chicagoan refers to it as the Aon center and if you asked them where the Aon center was I doubt they’d know, and one to the right is the John Hancock (where I used to work back when I was in my 20’s)….. again, NO ONE calls it 875 North Michigan Avenue. Apparently the John Hancock building, the corporate headquarters for the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co, at around 2013 ceased to be their headquarters, and just a few months ago the name got changed to its address. The pics above were from when I did this back in 2013 when my friend, who I knew from when I was teaching in S. Korea, came to visit during a summer break.
But I digress… returning to Route 66….
From there I continued my trek down Adams (the west bound 66). The above picture is looking west down the street, across the bridge I had just passed over… and, the ‘small’ white building just above the black van is Union station.
Again, this photo is looking west. The sky scraper in the distance is the same one shown in the picture from the Water Taxi. Which I referred to as “The big Willy.” It was originally called the Sears Tower (my best friend from high-school has worked there for almost 15 years), and when first built in 1973 (I remember it going up) it was the tallest building in the world. But Sears then sold it to Willis Insurance in 2009, who renamed it as The Willis Tower. Many Chicagoans to this day absolutely refuse to use that name, but I, personally, LOVE IT… because it allows me to call it “the big Willy” (Willy being a British slang word for penis) and just how great is that?! The GORGEOUS historic building in the foreground of the picture is the SIDE entrance (if you can believe it) of the Rookery Building, which designed by deeply important architectural firm of Burnham and Root in 1888. If you have ever read the best-selling novel The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, about the Chicago world’s fair, you know who they are. I didn’t take any pictures inside, but the lobby was design by Frank Loyd Wright. If you’re an architecture enthusiast you will LOVE Chicago.
Another thing Chicago is famous for, one of which is visible on Route 66, is our collection of public art. The above is Alexander Calder‘s Flamingo (sculpture). I remember when it was first unveiled in 1974, none of us could make heads or tails of what it was… but it’s pretty.
After this I pit stopped off at the historic Berghoff Restaurant (click the link for a fully review of the place) for a mug of their root beer (they brew it themselves). For some reason this iconic German restaurant which is a landmark of downtown Chicago, its been there since 1898… is NOT in the Michelin guide… shrug?… I remember the first time my mom took me here, I couldn’t have been more than seven or eight years old. If you look at the image above, and look down the street between the tall building you’ll see the roof of the Art Institute of Chicago, which is not only one of the FINEST art museums in the world, it’s also my Alma Mater. If you love German food, EAT HERE, this place has been rocking my socks off my whole life… if you don’t… at least try the root beer and look around, the interior is just amazing to look at and reeks of Chicago history (photos and murals of Chicago Exposition line the walls)
AND THIS is also a route 66 establishment — and I never realized it was that until this trip. Did I mention I have been eaten here my whole life.
If you look carefully at the building, you’ll see how the sign above… which I’ve never seen before, and keep in mind the roman looking building is Art Institute of Chicago, were I went to school for four years….. and this one below are on either end of the same city block…
The Berghoff Restaurant is a MUST visit traditional German restaurant in downtown Chicago, which is also one of the city’s landmarks. First opened in 1898 by Herman Joseph Berghoff, a recent immigrant from Germany, this restaurant has been run by successive generations of the founding family until it first closed 2006. Unrecognized by the family, the restaurant was so iconic to Chicago residents that its closing created something of major scandal, with outcries of horror and loss so resounding and vociferous that one of the great-grandchildren of the founders, who had not wanted to run it, changed her mind and reopened it shortly there after.
In 2016 that same great-granddaughter (who REALLY had not wanted to run) sold it to her brother, but other than laying off the entire staff and only rehiring the ones who were NOT cantankerous old farts (I will say service has improved MARKEDLY since they did it) nothing has really changed.
They have essentially kept the menu full of its old artery clogging classics, but have added some new newer, healthier options (when people ask me what German food is like I describe it thus, “meat, meat, meat… more meat, a bit more meat… and something white on the side.”). So if you look at the images below it is photos from two different visits one in 2013, with a friend visiting from China, and the other with a one I’ve known my whole life (I actually just went to the Shiva for her mother in law last night) where we got healthy food.
Eating at the Berghoffs with friends: 2013 left, when we got a corned beef sandwich… and the difference in 2017, a healthy plate of grilled fish and veggies with very little oil, on the right
I remember the first time my mom took me here, I couldn’t have been more than seven or eight years old. If you look at the very first image of this post (see above), and look down the street between the tall building you’ll see the roof of what is the Art Institute of Chicago, which is not only one of the FINEST art museums in the world, it’s also my Alma Mater. Every time my mom took me there, that visit was almost always followed up by a meal the Berghoff.
This time, like EVERY other, I got a mug of their Root-beer. I LOVE their root beer, it has a licorice taste to it which you don’t normally find in root beers. That said, during this last visit I noted they were installing a microbrewery INSIDE the restaurant. This place has ALWAYS had their own brew, but I guess having the huge brewing vat sitting in your place makes you a bit trendier (and hopefully more profitable) … but again, no substantial changes.
All through the restaurant are murals and photographs of the Chicago world’s fair, including this one bottom left of the ORIGINAL Ferris Wheel (sometimes referred to as the Chicago Wheel), which served as an attraction back in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, i.e., the White City, i.e., the Chicago world’s fair, which was held along the lake on Chicago South’s side. In its honor Chicago has opened up one on Navy Pier by the lake, which offers some great views of the city
One thing that I had never realized and this is one of my favorite places to go to where I have eaten at my whole life… is that the Adams street, where the Berghoff is located, is also one of the end points for Route 66… who knew?
… well I guess if you own a kitschy tourist trap restaurant… you can legally deduct it as a business expense.
Like I said, about half of the market is just that … as in you can buy an impressive variety of fresh fish to take home and cook. There are (to my count) five of this type of fresh fish shops scattered around the fish market area:
but on the 31st of October I had business I had to deal with downtown, and as such took the opportunity to finish my 66 trek (only this time on foot, cause driving into the city is NUTS). I was staying at my friend’s home in Northbrook, and took the Metra Train from North Glenview station to 
Ironically, I have only ever been in this station once before. The Metra train line adjacent to my parents home went to a different station, the Ogilvie Center, a few blocks north. Unlike that station, which only services local lines, this station is where you go in Chicago if you’re taking an 
The odds are you’ve seen this station before, even if you’ve never been to Chicago, as it’s been used more than few times in movies. The list includes 
From the station I went straight to my 11am appointment, and then double backed to have lunch at 
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