A Program Developer's Take on Things (pg 1 of 5)

Disclaimer: Former BER program developer, Sandy Anderson, has kindly provided her list of favorite restaurants around the country and the following descriptions are verbatim from her notes with the addition of formatting and hyperlinks by myself. Enjoy!

Sandy's Restaurant Reviews - Updated Version for Fall 2000

I always enjoy the opportunity to try out innovative, fresh cooking (or maybe decadent, wonderful cooking). So I thought I'd pass along some of my favorites - if you have favorites, I hope you'll let me know, and I'll add to the list.

Albuquerque (Santa Fe), NM

My favorite is the Coyote Cafe (map) in Santa Fe - incredible southwestern food and well worth a trip to Santa Fe. They also sell some of the spices and sauces in their gift shop.

Alexandria, VA

Try Le Gaulois (map) for great country French cooking. It's in Old Town on King Street - great fireplace for a cold winter day.

Anaheim, CA

If you're int he mood for Italian, consider Pavia in the Anaheim Hilton (map). The prawns were incredible. Tutto Mare (map) in Newport Beach offers upscale contemporary dining at reasonable prices. They always feature a wide assortment of fresh seafood and shellfish. You can eat to your heart's content and then shop until your plastic melts at Fashion Island (map) right next door. The sushi restaurant at the Disneyland Hotel (map) has excellent sashimi and roll assortments created by a talented crew from the Land of the Rising Sun using only the freshest ingredients. Try the Ahi roll or California Roll - they're outstanding.

Atlanta, GA

Buckhead has a number of restaurants that are outstanding, but one of my favorites is Cafe Tutu Tango (map), which serves incredible tapas. They also have one in Orlando.

Boston, MA

If you like seafood, try Legal Sea Foods (map). There are several of them in the Boston area.

Chicago, IL

The list is unending, but some of my favorites are Cafe Spiaggia (map) near the Drake Hotel (map) serving Italian, the Cape Cod Room in the Drake Hotel with incredible seafood soups and chowders, Prairie in the Hyatt on Printers Row (map) where I had a portabello salad, and Cafe La Cave (map) near the airport for wonderful seafood and/or Italian food. A new favorite is Maggiano's (map) for Italian food - the portions are oversized so plan on sharing or eating a lot - there are multiple locations, including downtown, Oak Brook, Schaumberg, and Arlington Heights.

Actual Food. From Vegans.

Hol-eee Shee-it.

Once every couple of months, I decide to become a vegetarian (again).
But because I am as fanatical as a cult member, being a vegetarian always seems like the sissy way out. After a couple of days, I try to be a vegan.
It never works, though, because vegan food tastes like doormat. A few weeks into my new vegan leaf-turnover, I get angry and belligerant, say, "Fuckit", and order me some baby back ribs.

But on Wednesday night, I went to the Chicago Diner, whose slogan is "Meat-Free since '83" (where can I get a t-shirt?) and had the BEST GODDAMN VEGAN MEAL OF MY LIFE.
It was amazing!!

Get the rueben. It looks like a rueben, smells like a rueben, and tastes exactly like a greasy, corned-beefy, glorious rueben. But it's vegan! It slops all over you. And it comes with gorgeous sweet potato fries. And then I had a peanut-butter cookie dough "milkshake" that was actually better than any real milkshake I've ever had!

And the waitresses are hot.

Chicago Diner is in Boy's Town, downtown Chicago. Go go go!

I could actually be a vegan if I could eat here every day.

Chain Gang #1: Potbelly

Yeahyeahyeah, chainsarethedevil.com, but I thought this might be a good time to expound upon my love for certain restaurants with multiple locations scattered across the United States. And I thought we might cleverly call the series the Chain Gang. OMGPUNZ! So here is entry #1:


Inspired by AH's gentle nudge, I'm going to debut on the PM food blog with a post about my favorite sub shop in the entire universe, Potbelly Sandwich Works (which I incorrectly refer to in the possessive as Potbelly's, just like grandma used to do). The first restaurant started out as an antique shop on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, and since 2003, Potbelly's has been adding locations both in and outside of Chicagoland. According to their website, the PB's empire currently reaches 12 states and one national capitol.

Anyway, ABOUT the FOOD. Potbelly subs (and acoutrement) are so good, I have been known to drive as many as 30 miles out of the way when a craving hits. Most of the subs are served hot (don't worry, this is no Quizno's, which I loathe and is a whole 'nother story), but a few, like the PBJ and chicken salad, are cold. My favorite is the classic Turkey Breast served with melted swiss, but the perennial favorite, especially for MEAT-LOVIN' MEN, is the Wreck, with salami, roast beef, turkey and ham. They've also got an I-talian with mortadella, capicola, pepperoni and salami. All of it is sliced nice and thin and positively LOADED on the yummy, fresh-baked bread. PB's has only got a few veggie options (including the aforementioned PBJ, which is not just for kids), but those they do offer are d-lish-us, just like the rest of the menu.

Ok, so we've got our meat, and bread (I recommend wheat for the road, of course, for regularity), which is all hunky dory but this kinda sounds like 'Bway, right? So, devastatingly wrong. The thing that sets Potbellies apart are the mmm mmm good fixins that complete your scrumptious sando (I know, right, why aren't I writing ad copy for a living????). Of course, you can choose from the classic lettuce/tomato/onion/pickle/mayo/mustard/oil/vinegar/seasoning, but I heartily recommend the hot pepper mix that keeps me coming back and back and back and back. OMG! They are so good! It's basically a mixture of carrots, cauliflower, red peppers and jalepenos that are more or less "pickled" to make the sandwich pretty darn spicy. But something about this mixture brings out the flavors of the individual elements of your sandwich more than mask them like plain jalepenos tend to do. So pretty much Annie+hot peppers=LURVE.
***WARNING: if you have tastebuds like a baby, these might be too hot. If I were to rate them on a scale of 1 to 7, I'd give them a 6***

BUT IT DOESN'T STOP THERE! In addition to amazing sandwiches and pretty darn good salads (with unconventionalforfastfood yet tasty toppings like artichoke hearts and chick peas), PB's also has to-DIE-for desserts. Think hand-dipped shakes and malts (whuzzat? asked one of my Seattleite friends in college...drinkable Whoppers, I told her) and delectable almost-raw oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I love these cookies so much, I made the cashier bake a little of the next day's dough when they had run out yesterday. I'll wait, I said. They're almost raw anyways.

So there you have it: America's best sandwiches, accompanied by America's best cookies, all for the low price of under $10.