Entree Enroute

In February 2011, my principal and I were in transit at Chicago's O'Hare Airport en-route to Washington, DC for an educators conference. It was breakfast time and we had a couple of hours to kill. So we walked around until we were certain that we had found the perfect spot: Tortas Frontera by Chef Rick Bayless. Frontera features Latin American themed sandwiches, or tortas, and even has a handful of breakfast options (eggs & bacon, eggs & chorizo, eggs alone...each with peppers, avocado, and salsa verde). We each made our orders...mine the egg & chorizo...and sat down to enjoy.

And the rest is history...

Every time I know that I'm going to be routed through Chicago for a trip, I do my best schedule enough time to run over to Frontera. Usually this takes commitment because I usually fly American Airlines and Frontera is located in the United terminal. I've travelled alone, with colleagues or friends, or ran into a friend in the airport who was also in transit somewhere and showed them my love of those breakfast tortas.

I'm so glad that my trip to Louisville this year has allowed me another opportunity to dive into a delicious salsa verde covered egg & chorizo torta! Each time I dine here I remember that first trip with my principal (recently retired) and the others with whom I've shared this culinary adventure.

Sticky at Sully's Saloon

It's my first night in Louisville for the yearly conference that I attend. For dinner, my group of friends I walked 4th Street Live for a place to settle for dinner. There wasn't a wait at Sully's (a place we've never visited in previous years--not sure it even existed) so we picked it.

Walking to the table should have been the first hint that this could have been a poor choice. The floor was absolutely sticky!--as in it hadn't been thoroughly cleaned/mopped in a long time. Additionally, there was a strong odor of something that smelled like spoiled beer, but this odor was restricted to one area along our walk to our table. Looking around we noticed that we were basically the only ones present...but that would change somewhat over the next hour or so. Sticky and smelly don't create an atmosphere that is pleasant for a place to eat (or do much else).

As we began looking at the menu and asking our server questions on his personal favorites and other popular items, we were informed that several items on the menu were not available tonight because they "ran out" at a private party the previous night; basically any item which featured pulled-pork was off limits tonight. I settled on the "Good Morning Burger" which featured country ham, bacon, cheddar cheese, over easy egg, maple bourbon aioli on a toasted bun. As I'm writing this and reflecting on what was served...I don't think the country ham ever made it on the burger. each of the other guys got the "Dublin Burger"...a basic burger with tobacco onions and BBQ sauce. Two of us had the cheeses garlic mashed potatoes as a side while e others had French fries.

Over all the food was pretty good!!!

However, that smell and the stickiness greeted us again as we left...it won't greet me again. I don't care how great the food is at a place, if your atmosphere is not condusive to a basic standard of  quality dining then it won't include me as a customer.