Old B-Dubs Remodeling

The original Sioux Falls Buffalo Wild Wings location on West Avenue is under construction. The place is still open and serving icy beers and spicy wings, but it is a bit of a mess. Apparently the game plan is to generally update the appearance. Presumably you are going to see more of the corporate cookie cutter sort of motif like the new West Side location.

When chatting with out server about the changes, we learned that part of the plan is to expand the bar area. Presently, errr, previously, when entering, the bar was on the right and a more resturanty seating area was on the left. Separating the two was a sort of no-man's land. I am pretty sure that center area was not open seating, but I know for a fact that it was treated that way more than once. Not that I know anything about commandeering a table before a Stampede game when the place was packed and a line of people were standing patiently waiting for tables. Anyway, opening up that area and making it more definitively bar is a great idea. My guess is that people who want to take their kiddies to eat wings and drink Mountain Dew are headed to Louise Avenue and the extra bar space will be very handy during televised football games and pre-live games at the Arena.

Keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks if you are heading out there. It looks like the construction is going to get a little more serious and a brief period of closure might be required. You might want to call ahead before making the jaunt.

Breaking News: Shonna Haugen Leaving Parker's

Wow! I was just literally writing a glowing review of Parker's. I think they have done a remarkable job of getting the whole operation into high gear in the last year. Shonna Haugen, Executive Chef at Parker's deserves a lot of credit for that. It's not easy to crank out consistently great product night after night and also to change and develop new twists on familiar ingredients. This is especially remarkable to me, because as far as I know, Shonna does not have any formal culinary education.

As I am working through my post, I just happened to jump over to Shonna's Facebook page and noted the most recent post stating that she just completed her last Saturday evening shift at Parker's and her last day will be Thursday, 9/22. She is apparently heading over to Carnaval Brazillian Grill.

I don't know quite what to make of that. I think Shonna and staff have done a remarkable job with the food at Parker's. (Despite a slight leaning toward Asian-Fusion on occasion that I personally do not particularly care for.) I am not necessarily a Carnaval fan, but will be interested to see what touches Shonna brings to a menu that is comprised mostly of protein on a stick. Best wishes to Shonna with her new endeavor.

As for Parker's, I am sure Stacy Newcomb-Weiland has her bases covered. Stacy and Parker's have undergone a change in the culinary team line-up previously. The guys who opened Bros. were the original Parker's culinary staff. That transition was seamless and I am sure the next one will be, as well. It will be interesting to see what changes a new Executive Chef might bring.

New B-Dubs is Open!!

Buffalo Wild Wings has finally opened the long-awaited new location on the West Side. The new location is in the former Sportsman's Warehouse building along with some furniture stores.

For those of you who have only experienced B-Dubs at the West Avenue location by the Arena, this will be quite a change for you. From what I know, the new spot is created in the image of the standard B-Dubs layout. If you have been to B-Dubs in Rapid City, or another community, you know what I mean. Much different feel with the black and yellow color scheme everywhere. Family/restaurant style seating is in the front, and a big bar area in the rear.

One of my foodie friends, the Secret Soup Spoon, and I love B-Dubs at the West Avenue location. It sets a pretty high bar for tasty, spicy, suck-the-sauce-off-your-fingers wings and good service. The Secret Soup Spoon and I were worried the new Louise Avenue location wouldn't be able to live up to the high standards set by the original location. In a word, they have. Good service. Tasty wings.

Two cool features to check out at the new location. First, there is some upper deck seating above the bar area. A person could perch themselves up there and have a commanding view of the entire place. It's pretty cool. Second, the place is absolutely loaded with TV screens, including what has to be the biggest projection screen in Sioux Falls. So big in fact, that you might want some Dramamine if you have to sit up close to the huge screen in the bar. This place is seriously loaded with TVs. If you suffer from epilepsy or an advanced case of ADD, you might want to head back to the cozy confines of West Avenue.

First Trip to Luciano's... and it might be the last.

I recently got around to trying Luciano's recently. Luciano's is located on the main level of the Falls Center, the space formerly occupied by Food & Fermentation, the Brickhouse, and the Sioux Falls Brewing Company. It's gorgeous space-- open, rustic beams and brick and wood floors. There is also seating available outside with really nice views of the courthouse and the Cathedral. Great place to sit on a nice evening.

Luciano's here in Sioux Falls is an off-shoot of the eatery of similar name in Sioux City. I don't spend much time in Sioux City. Like most people from Sioux Falls I am rather skeptical of almost all things Sioux City and pretty much limit visits there to hitting the occasional concert. But, word on the street is that the Sioux City Luciano's is pretty decent and, hey, the place is new, so gotta give it a try.

Despite the Italian sounding name of the place, the menu is more European than it is Italian. Yes, there is some typically Italian sort of fare, such as lasagna or other pasta dishes, but there are also things like different varieties of schnitzel (complete with German potato salad), and French dishes like Flemish beef. There are also seafood selections.

We started the evening with some antipasti. I love these assortments of meats, cheeses, and pickled vegetables. I didn't notice anything particularly "authentic" on the plate, i.e. a good dried sopressata or mortadella or aged provolone, but still, pretty good. Unfortunately, this was the high point.

We'll skip the unremarkable soup. It was unremarkable. Let's get to the main dishes. I had lasagna. This is a dish that I often puzzle how one can screw up. They did. Overcooked pasta. Practically flavorless sauce, odd ricotta/béchamel. And a really flat, poor presentation to top it all off. The Secret Salad Fork had a fish dish- Salmon Wellington. I had a bite that was mostly the mushroom duxcelles and puff pastry. I kid you not, I nearly had to spit it out, it was that bad. That's a new one on me.

Service got a solid C+ for being friendly and somewhat knowledgable. I give the guy credit, he tried. But I didn't want placation or platitudes at that point, I wanted out.

I am told the place does a great job when owner Ray Hoffman is in the house. I hope so. But even then, it is going to take a great deal of convincing to get me back in the place.

Forget you, Chevy's! I'll make my own beans!

Disclaimer: Look. I know I try to write about the finer aspects of food around here. And when it comes to Mexican food, I have often crowed about the virtues of the extremely authentic Mexican food experiences available. This post is not about that. I freely confess that, sometimes, I want a particularly un-authentic experience and for sit-down dining, when it comes to Mexican, nothing gets much more un-authentic than Chevy's. At least not since Chi Chi's closed. Remember that??? I do! Anyway, there is nothing wrong with un-authentic, if that is what you are looking for.

So, I went to Chev's a little while back and when ordering my entree was extremely surprised to learn that the charros beans are no longer available. What the fork? How does that work? For those of you lacking the foggiest what I am talking about, charros beans were the frijoles that were not refritos. They looked like, well, beans In a spicy sauce. And now they are gone.

So, like Cee Lo Green might say, fork you and your no cans menu-hoo-hoo. Make your own beans. So, with props to Rick Bayless and Alton Brown, here is a method for making your own very tasty beans at home.

Pay attention.

Get yourself about 4 slices of nice, thick smoky bacon. Cut it into small, but roughly cut pieces and cook it in a suacepan, maybe 3 or 4 quart, over medium heat. Let it get crisp and render that fat out. (No, don't drain the damned fat. The beans soak it up and that's part of what makes this so good.) Pull the bacon out of the pan with a slotted spoon and set it aside on a plate. Don't eat it all while continuing the recipe. Now, at this point, you got options. You could saute about a cup of diced onion in there until translucent and then finely chop a couple of cloves of garlic and saute that for a minute. Then you add about a half a can of fire roasted tomatoes and a half a beer. Or, you could totally cheat and add the beer and about 7-8 ounces of salsa. (Know what salsa is? Chopped tomatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic with tomatoes. Duh. Let David Pace do the chopping. Completely fair.)

Oh, that beer? Dos Equis Amber works great, but so does Corona, Tecate, and Miller High Life. B-double "E"-R. It all works.

Simmer that stuff. Drain a couple of cans of pinto beans. Dump them in, toss the bacon back in and simmer the whole shebang on medium-low heat for about 15 minutes. Let them thicken up a bit.

If you didn't use the salsa, chop up a few seeded pickled jalapenos and put them in there. Salt to taste. Finish them with a handful of chopped cilantro-- about a half cup.

Knock yourself out. These are good.

Crawford's

I just can't quite put it another way: This time of year sucks. Sure, the weather is starting to get a little nicer, and the grass is starting to show the slightest signs of coming back to life. But, overall, it is still rather "grey" around here. Hate that.

However, if you find your visual senses needing a little jump start, you might wander down to Crawford's on Phillips Ave downtown. Crawford's is the newest addition to the Sioux Falls fine dining scene. Named after the menswear store that once occupied the same spot, the building is beautiful. Step inside and be prepared for an explosion of styles, textures, and colors. I believe I read the decor is kind of like cowboy meets gypsy. That's a pretty good start. You'll see original brick, a pressed tin ceiling, leather, iron, lighting fixtures fashioned from antlers, cowhide, dark wallpaper festooned with jewels, colored candle holders, silk curtains, etc. etc. etc. A person could probably discover something they haven't seen previously on just about any trip in there. It's quite the experience.

The menu is pretty interesting. Kind of standard fine dining fare, in my opinion. Steaks, fish, lamb, pasta, salads, soups, appetizers. On our visit, we started with some calamari, steak bites, and smoked chicken wings. Nothing terribly exciting, but all prepared well and sent out without error. The calamari was some of the largest cut and tenderest squid I have had here. We tried the onion soup, which featured something like four onions. Hard to tell that, though, because of the smoky gruyere melted on top that gave it a definite smokiness. The entrees were good. Fairly big portions.

Service was good. We had a great waitress who was friendly and eager to serve. That can get a person a long way. Her only fault was a general lack of knowledge of fine food and the nuances of the menu. Crawford's makes a pretty big production out of the service. Our entrees were delivered by at least two people from the kitchen.

However . . . decor alone won't carry the day. Even though Crawford's is off to a great start, especially for being open only a week, I would offer the following thoughts:

• I personally thought the approach to the entrees was a little ham-handed. The food was well prepared, but the portions were a tad large. Big and pretty don't necessarily go together. I hope the chefs will start to experiment and get out a little more toward the "edge" like the guys at Bros have done. The food just needs a little more, well, finesse.


• I'd like to see some awesome off-menu specials. I learned a long time ago that if a place is featuring a really special dish that isn't on the menu, that's probably what you want to go for.


• Get that staff educated.

I also have one general question about fine dining downtown, in general. Let me preface this by saying that in my humble opinion, thanks to Parker's, Bros, and K's, downtown has wrestled the fine-dining epicenter back downtown, where it should be. But, are Crawford's, Bros, and Parker's too alike? Time will tell. Anyone who pays attention around here knows that almost any food place will be jam packed for the first several weeks it is open. Hell, Senor Wiener probably hit it out of the park for a month before everyone figured out they were serving hot dogs from a difficult to access location. Crawford's is definitely the "it" place right now. Can they sustain it, and what does this mean for other establishments?

I think David Graham should do well with this endeavor. By decor alone, Crawford's has quickly set itself apart from other venues, but in time it is going to take great food and support from the dining public. Personally, I prefer Parker's and Bros, but I will definitely be back to visit Crawford's many times, I am sure.

Revisiting old favorites- do they change or do we?

I was recently in Pierre and had the opportunity to visit one of my favorite places, La Minestra. Over the years, I have had many very enjoyable dinners there and have raved about it here. I re-read that post and puzzled over whether I felt the same now. I mean, the meal I had with some friends and family was perfectly good, but it really wasn't anything terribly special. The question I kept pondering: Had LaMinestra had changed or had my experiences and expectations changed? Probably, a little of both.

If you have read any of the older posts on this blog, you probably know that I have had the extreme fortune of being able to dine in some of the very top-tier restaurants in the country. These aren't places that merely make good food, they are on the cutting edge of food preparation and techniques. The sort of things a chef like Grant Achatz of Alinea in Chicago is experimenting with today may appear on a plate somewhere else years from now. You don't think some line cook at Chili's in suburban Atlanta invented molten chocolate cake, do you? Anyway, eating really great ingredients prepared in extremely innovative ways can change the way you think about the ingredients and how they are used. At least, that's what should happen if you are paying attention.

The other factor, for me at least, that I believe has changed my perspective a bit is that we are enjoying an embarrassment of riches here in Sioux Falls right now. I credit the efforts of places like Parker's and Bros along with an absolute smathering of really excellent richly ethnic spots. We have reached a point where if you want something more interesting than a steak with baked potato or even a brick oven pizza, you can get it. Thanks to really excellent seared duck breast (Parker's) or unctuous, slow cooked pork goodies, including pork belly (Bros), even a trip to old standards like Minerva's don't look quite so attractive. Thanks to beef tongue tacos and really decent Pho, we know there are more exotic flavors out there.

My recent meal at LaMinestra was really pretty good. Steak cooked correctly and good service. But it was just lacking pizzaz. The sauce for the steak, a take on beef bourgignon, fell short. Too acidic. Lacked richness of the dish it was meant to replicate. The potatoes- eh. It was good. It just wanted something more jacked up, so to speak.

There is always going to be a place for safe, mildly-seasoned, old favorites served in familiar settings. After all this is South Dakota, and there are still plenty of people around here who believe that too much salt and black pepper can render a dish too spicy. But for those of us who understand the criticism of a judge on Top Chef that the food is not well-seasoned, and who have eaten outside our comfort zones, the old standbys begin to look, well, old.

Please make an effort to visit a small, independent restaurant in South Dakota. Order something other than a steak, stuffed chicken breast, or basic pasta dish. Treat your server well and thank the chefs- if you think they do a good job. See if your perspective changes, even just a little.