Dear Bloomington Sandwich Co.

Dear Bloomington Sandwich Co.,

Please invest in a ventilation system. Your restaurant is unpleasant. This was a problem at your previous location and is presently a problem in your new location (and you've only been there for what 4 months now?) It's a total drag to walk away having eaten a mediocre sandwich smelling gross for the rest of the day.

Thank you

Bloomington

More Fishiness in Bloomington

I need to update my take on Bloomington Fish Tacos... which means I need to get to eatin'. Since my initial entry, when at the time there were only three places to get em, the number of restaurant one can order fish tacos has doubled.

Malibu

Upland

Trojan Horse

The View

Cheeseburger in Paradise

La Torre

more at a later date

Beer Time!

In October of 2007, myself and 7 friends gathered at my house to partake in a beer tasting. We threw all snobbery aside and went for the real stuff. The watery, tasteless beer that has made America famous.

We focused on North American Macro Lagers

We tasted the "flag ship" beer of each brewer, thus Budweiser, not Bud Light, not Bud Dry, etc.
All North American beers that are $6 or less for a six pack were considered. However, several brands have more than one "flag ship" for instance Miller Genuine Draft and Miller High Life. Miller High Life is Miller's oldest brand (introduced 1903) Genuine Draft came in 1986. MGB is cold filtered but is not an ice beer, therefore both Miller beers were allowed in this tasting.

Our guideline was simple. We rated beer on the following categories.

Appearance
Aroma
Mouthfeel
Flavor
Aftertaste

Quick analysis of the beer tasting. Not everyone rated every beer, so the results are off a little bit, but basically here are the overall winners in order of the best tasting beer first (by cumulative score). So the next time you go to buy a cheap six pack of beer, consider this list.

1. BERGHOFF score = 89
2. PABST BLUE RIBBON score = 86
3. BUDWEISER score = 83
4. STROH'S score = 81
5. BUSCH score = 73
6. MILLER GENUINE DRAFT score = 72
7. MILWAUKEE'S BEST score = 71
8. COOK'S score = 69
9. ROLLING ROCK score = 64
10. MOOSEHEAD score = 63
11. SCHLITZ score = 63
12. MILLER HIGH LIFE score = 49
13. COOR'S score = 59
14. MICHELOB score = 58
15. OLD STYLE score = 55

Autumn Kiss / Autumn Crush

by publishing this post, I am officially staking my claim on a new cocktail.

Autumn Kiss = your favorite hard apple cider and 1 shot of Apple Jack

Autumn Crush = your favorite hard apple cider and 2 shots of Apple Jack

I prefer a more tart cider than the really sweet ones.

Please beware, although this drink is very easy to drink, it is actually quite potent.

Bloomington's Delis

I don't want this blog to be just complaints about local restaurants. Some of the feedback I have gotten leads me to believe that a lot people think that's what this is all about. It's not.

 

Bloomington has a lot to offer in terms of eating establishments, but our town is also seriously lacking in some fundamentals. There's no lounge (we have bars, not lounges), not nearly enough outdoor seating, no good bakery and no good deli. Sure there's the Bloomington Sandwich Co., Dagwoods, Village Deli, Butch's, Bloomingfoods even the Bloomington Bagel Co. and of course the chains a la Subway, McAlisters, etc.

It all came to light when a good friend of mine was talking about comparing rueben sandwiches in town. After thinking about it for a while and doing some preliminary research, I realized that there is really no need to compare the different ruebens or any deli sandwich for that matter.

Why?

Because they are all fundamentally the same. And that, my friends, is a shame. Different places may have different bread (maybe) and perhaps different condiments (ie Dagwood's special sauce) but the meat and the cheese are all the same. Think about it; every restaurant in town uses Sysco as their food distributor, thus everyone is getting the same thing. The sandwich joints in town all use Boar's Head Brand meat and cheese. And you know what, that's the same stuff you get at the grocery deli (even the butcher on the east side uses all Boar's Head). So why compare the different deli sandwiches when the core of each sandwich is the same.

By the way, I just spent 8 bucks on this corned beef sandwich from Butch's.

Yes, it's Boar's Head brand meat and I think it was starting to turn bad. Now I feel gross, not only because I ate most of this rotten meat sandwich, but also because I paid $8 for it.

Katz's Deli and Carnegie deli in New York City are world famous for their corned beef and pastrami (they also do everything else well) for one simple reason. They make their own corned beef and pastrami. 

Katz's corned beef sandwich for $14.45.

I will gladly pay $6.45 difference for a corned beef sandwich like this. 

You may be saying to yourself: "Yeah but that's New York, of course they are going to have great delis"

A good sandwich can happen anywhere. All it takes is someone caring about making something good.

45 minutes north of Bloomington is Shaprio's $10.15 corned beef:

Step it up Bloomington delis.

Update on Snow Lion

Still sucks

Sahara Mart

So far this year, when the owner was working the checkout, I have caught him overcharging me on four different occasions. This is four out of the maybe 10 times I have been there this year. I never paid attention in the past, but once I started paying attention after the first time I noticed it, it happened, consecutively, three times afterwards. Do your own research and come to your own conclusion.