Band of Banderas

It is nice to be back in the world of good food, good service and an ambience that adds to the dining experience... Bandera 3821 N Scottsdale Rd. Scottsdale, AZ 85251 Only one word comes to mind when I think of Bandera: excellent. Although we had a bit of a time parking in Old Scottsdale, and there was a few minutes wait, the experience was worth it. In fact, the biggest problem with the waiting time was the fantastic smell, which made 5 minutes seem like an eternity. Talk about your Pavlovian Response.... Rachel, our server, promptly greeted us - such a little thing, but something that is a rarity these days. In fact, as I sat there watching the staff, I realized that they had another quality that you just don't find in many restaurants - teamwork. It was amazing to see how well the servers worked together to make all of their jobs more efficient. Let me take a moment to mention one of my pet peeves, the empty glass. I can make quite a few "allowances", if only my glass is full through the whole meal. The Bandera crew was AMAZING in this area. All of the staff teamed together - a server who had the section next to ours brought me an iced tea... none of the "its not my table" attitude. I was floored. I was never without a half full glass. This is one of the greatest accomplishments I have seen in the food service industry in quite a few years. Even if the food was less-than-stellar, which it wasn't, I would come back.... and THAT is saying something. Our "Dip Duo" appetizer featured a wonderful Chipoltle Pimento sauce - highly recommended. Diane had the lamb sandwich, which was cooked to perfection. I went with a slightly less carnivorous selection... One warning here: vegetarians need not apply. Bandera is all about meat. Diane's cole slaw, with its peanut oil seasoning, was worth the price of admission and the sweet croutons in my salad were notable - something you rarely say about a piece of stale bread! Sadly, we were too full for desert... Professional staff, nice decor, FANTASTIC service, melt-in-your-mouth-good food and the smell... oh, the smell.... enough to convert a patchouli wearing vegan into a carnivore.... Bandera gets a 9.5. We will be back.

On The Road Again

One year, one month and four days later, I return to the scene of the crime. Diane and I have been busy moving back to Arizona, remodeling the house and - as usual - finding the good, the bad and the very, very ugly.... as far as food goes, that is. Our adventures have taken us South of the Border to La Reforma in Agua Prieta, Sonora... to Phoenix's Biltmore for Sam's Cafe... Marathon, Texas gave us Valentine's dinner at the Gage Hotel's Cafe Cenizo... To Sunland Park, New Mexico for the State Line BBQ.... Corrales, New Mexico for the Village Pizza... the Rocking V in Kanab, Utah... and even local Bisbee attractions such as Cafe Roka, Santiago's and the High Desert Market. For the bad side (you know there has to be one), there was some random Mongolian BBQ place in Tucson that was not even good enough to remember the name... and we didn't have to go far for the very, very, very ugly - Bisbee's own Banditos and Lawmen. We are starting out on the "Big Adventure" of 100% travel. So, stay tuned... we are back... and better than ever....

Comedy of Errors

Tony's Seafood 597 Second Street Cedar Key, Florida 32625 First off, Cedar Key, Florida (as noted on the city limits sign) is the #1 producer of farm raised clams in the United States. This may be true, but dinner on Sunday night at Tony's Seafood on Second Street was not evidence of that fact. How exactly does a seafood restaurant who regards itself as the only restaurant in town that uses exclusively local seafood - and charges a premium for that fact - run out of clams by 7:00 PM? How does this same local seafood bastion run out of oysters at the same time? How does this same restaurant take an hour to turn out a burger (ordered well and delivered to the table rare) and a bowl of clam chowder (good but pre made - just heat it up)? How, you may ask, do all of these come to pass in one restaurant? The answer: No Tony, just his stoned brother Eric. Tony may be a whiz in the kitchen, but Eric just stares at the grill trying to figure out what to do next. Tony may be a great host, Eric yells at the nicely dressed woman who came into the kitchen to see why her order was taking hours to prepare. Tony may have earned a reputation that demands that folks call ahead for reservations, Eric allows 9 of 10 tables to be without food for over an hour. Let me be honest, I hope for Eric's sake that he was stoned. If he were that slow and dim witted - and stone cold sober - he has real worries about being in the restaurant business. I am not sure what my favorite dining moment was at Tony's.... from our ring-side seats at the door to the kitchen, we got to see it all in living color! Hmmm... was it Eric staring at the grill and demanding that the waitresses stop bringing him tickets... was it the scene where Eric and his prep chef looked into the freezer, hoping that some frozen miracle would just pop out... was it the waitress suggesting the "Cab-roh-nay Savanne".... If Diane or I had actually ordered one of the $25 entrees, and the service was... well... as it was... I would have given Eric a little Scarface introduction to my "little friend".... Holy shit. The only thing I have ever seen that could compare - other than Nancy Paranha cussing me out - was the lady at Cedar Key's other high end destination, the Blue Desert Cafe... where every meal (and I shit you not) is prepared serially... that is to say that person A gets their order cooked to perfection.... and the the chef STARTS on the next meal.... the end result is that no one gets to eat together... ever. Who are these people? More importantly, how in the hell do they not only stay in business... but have a waiting list for reservations....

Friday the 13th

David & I decided a little dining excursion was just what we needed to shake the gloom off our rainy Georgia Friday so we headed up to Aiken for Stromboli at Ferando's. They were packed and though our food only warranted a "good" rather than it's usual "really good" we think it was probably due to the deluge of customers who like us came in out of the rain. Also I thing that Pizza really is their strong suit. Service gets an A+ for effort tonight... our young waiter (who had a certain Sean Astin look about him) was personable and attentive even though he looked so overwhelmed we feared his head might actually pop off. The rain let up and we went in search of further adventures..... and ended up at The White Elephant for coffee and dessert. Downtown Augusta just doesn't seem to be very lively at night and there were only a few people in the restaurant. We sat at the bar and had a nice chat with Jai the owner. She'd been stood up by a reservation for 20 but in spite of her dissapointment she was still very good company. I had the bananas foster which is a unique take on the classic in a torte form. It was exceptional and I will absolutely order it again! As we suspected with our previous mention of the coffee we just didn't catch it at the right time the first go-round but this time it was fresh, hot and excellent. We asked for a small taste of the Garlic Dressing that we love so much - I swear I could drink the stuff! I'm trying to make my own version which I thought was pretty good but after tasting the real thing again I am not even in the same league (back to the drawing board)! The combo of stromboli, bananas foster and garlic was pretty bizarre and we decided to make it even more eclectic by tasting some of Jai's Mom's hot sauce - it was hot, sweet and yummy stuff! So much so that we bought a jar to take home - autographed by the Lady herself! Maybe it'll inspire me on some of the 4 lbs of turkey breast I still need to find a recipe for.....

On The Road Again

Creole Red New Orleans "Style" Restaurant 409 West Congress Street Savannah, Georgia "Historic Savannah's ONLY New Orleans Style Restaurant" for good reason. Why could Katrina not have take a slightly eastern course and washed away Creole Red's? I would personally push the plunger that set off the explosives to bring a levy full of water down on Creole Red's. FEMA should be notified as this is definitely a hazard to national security. Are you getting the picture that I didn't like Creole Red's? Well, actually, I sort of liked Creole Red's - my colon however had other opinions. And it is not by accident that I used the plural on "opinions" - Creole Red's was a repeat offender. The first clue should have come when we sat down (all alone in the entire restaurant) and saw that the "New Orleans Style" included Texas Pete hot sauce. Ummm.... For one, Texas Pete hot sauce is from North Carolina - not really New Orleans or even Texas for that matter. How about Crystal or even Tabasco? With no one else in the restaurant, it was amazing that it took almost 45 minutes (I know because we watched the entire Savannah TV news while waiting) for our food to arrive. I ordered a very standard Crawfish Etoufee, while Diane had the gumbo. I guess Diane didn't realize that she had ordered the "bone in" gumbo - Fish bones... we can only hope. Perhaps the Creole Red folks were trying some voodoo thing with the chicken bones, it was hard to tell. For what it was worth, my etoufee was not... well... bad. Good would not be a word I would describe it with either. How about, "It didn't outright suck". Yep, that just about sums it up. Even someone in Fodor's got the repeat offender status from eating at Red's! The ambiance was... notable - and not in a good way. The blaring televisions were only trumped by the extremely wasted woman who came in with her "old man". They went to the back for a while... to do... who knows. Two younger guys came in and sat down across the restaurant from us. They seemed nice - in an upscale drug dealer kind of way. The wasted woman came out from the back and started talking to the two young guys. In order to get her to leave them alone, they passed her some - "go away" token. Sadly for the young drug dealers, it did not work. She felt obligated to sit and chat with them in exchange for their "kindness" - even reluctantly dragging her "old man" over to thank them. Diane and I had choked our meals down so I planned a quick get away in order to avoid the gun play that I thought was about to happen. Mercifully for the drug dealer guys - and the two of us as well - the lady left to go enjoy her token. I don't think that we'll be going back.