Krik's Picks

Johnny Delmonico’s is a cool, sophisticated steak house that could fit into any capitol city in the country. It’s practically in the shadow of the Wisconsin state capitol , barely two blocks away. The fact that Delmonico’s is locally owned and that you can only enjoy it in Madison, Wisconsin , just adds an intangible sense of enjoyment to the experience of dining there. My guests at dinner work for the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives . Since WFC is significantly a lobbying organization, and several staff members spend significant time at the Capitol. So I was quite surprised to learn that none of them had eaten at Delmonico’s previously. Neither had I. I don’t get to Madison nearly enough. It’s a fun town to visit. The combination of state capitol and University of Wisconsin campus, located on either end of State Street , gives the city a fun combination of moods and experiences. I think the city’s restaurant scene is very creative. There are fun and funky bars and burger ...

It was a pretty cold Friday afternoon, the beginning of the coldest weather we’ve had in Minnesota in several years. I met my friend (and occasional guest blogger) Patty at al Vento , located in a pleasant residential neighborhood in south Minneapolis , near the Minnehaha Creek and Parkway. It was sort of a belated birthday lunch and celebration of Patty getting a new client for her communications consulting business. The décor of the restaurant is pretty sparse. I may have made a mistake choosing a table by the window. We got a draft from the door whenever it opened. Fortunately for us, unfortunately for al Vento, it didn’t open too often. Patty commented that it was a little chilly at our table. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch … which means the service was kind of slow. But we weren’t in any hurry, so that didn’t bother us. The server was friendly enough, just slow. It wasn’t like he was busy with other diners. During the hour and a half we were there, there were only five ...

Here’s another guest review from my friend, Patty Miller (see above post). My golf foursome, aptly named Great Golf Delicious Dinner, continues the delicious dinner tradition at the holidays with a get-together to talk golf and start dreaming of our summer outings. Lani, Linda, Bonnie and I met at Il Vesco Vino this year. It’s the new restaurant at 579 Selby, in the beautiful double brick mansion that once housed The Vintage. Despite its Victorian exterior, the interior is spared any frou-frou. The warm terra cotta-and-cream color scheme, sleek white dishes and contemporary glassware are quietly sophisticated. But the fireplaces and low lighting keep it cozy. The wine list is exclusively Italian and features wine by the quartino (250ml), mezzo (500ml) or the bottle. We all ordered quartinos, which gave us each two+ generous glasses of wine, making the price seem very reasonable. Since we weren’t really familiar with the Italian offerings, our waiter was ve...

When we go on vacation, my wife and I pride ourselves on being able to find interesting, fun restaurants that serve an enjoyable meal. We very seldom make reservations from home. Most of the time we do as I wrote in Chapter 2 when we found Casa del Rey. We wandered down to the Marina , checked the menus at a couple of places, and went in. But as we planned our trip to Los Angeles , we wanted to eat dinner one night at a good restaurant where there would be the possibility of catching sight of a celebrity. So we started our investigation. We talked to friends who travel to L.A. fairly often. We sent e-mails to the children of friends who now live in L.A. We checked numerous web sites – CitySearch , Epicurious Travel , and others. When we would get a recommendation, we’d cross reference with different sources to see if they all agreed. We narrowed it down to two possibilities – The Ivy and A|O|C . The Ivy sounded very promising. One of the web sites we checked noted that a...

I don’t feel like I must review every restaurant I eat at. Most of the time it’s an easy decision which ones to write about and which to not. But sometimes, the decision is not so easy. On our recent trip to Southern California , we had two restaurant experiences that fell into that grey zone. Basically, they were both good restaurants. I just don’t have a lot to say about them. In Chapter 3 , I mentioned that we ate a late lunch in Beverly Hills . The restaurant was Il Fornaio (the bakery). Turns out it’s actually a chain of restaurants and bakeries in California , Nevada , and Washington . It was mid-afternoon by the time we arrived, so no problem getting a table. We kept an eye out for celebrities, but none to be seen. We ordered a salad and an entrée and shared both. The server was very accommodating and brought separate plates to facilitate sharing (and no extra plate charge). The salad was an Insalata Invernale. It was endive, frisee, radicchio, red grapes, gorgonzola a...