CABCO - Reuben

Decided to take my dad out for an early Father's day dinner, his choice was Court Avenue Brewing Company. Crafted beers and solid pub food so you can't really go too wrong. I ordered the...

Black &Tan Reuben

Double decker sandwich, with corned beef, sauerkraut, swiss & 1000 island. 10.99

http://www.courtavebrew.com/documents/filelibrary/documents/Dinner_Menu_012012_9039A1A790ED1.pdf

This was the first time I'd ever ordered a Reuben...ever. It was pretty good--very much like my favorite sandwich in Des Moines (The Earl of Sandwich at Royal Mile). They both have awesome corned beef and a nice soft warm gooey sandwich taste to them. The sauerkraut isn't overpowering which is awesome so there was a nice balance of flavors between all the ingredients. Something that was surprisingly awesome was the side of Crispy Red Potatoes. Holy hell those were good.

The service was good and they have a patio so you can't beat that this time of year. I go back and forth as to whether I like CABCO for food. I never leave unhappy but it isn't in my first 3 choices when I am choosing a place to eat. It is definitely a solid place though. What's your favorite thing from CABCO?

The Rooftop - BBQ Chicken Flatbread Pizza

The Rooftop is a patio bar that opened up a year or so ago on top of House of Bricks. I've been there a couple times for drinks and it is an amazing setting for a drink. Some friends and I were checking out the EV and needed a snack. Little did I know, they serve food there so we stopped in.

We knew we were going to have an early dinner so 4 people split two of their flat bread pizzas. I chose the BBQ Chicken Flat bread...

It was really good. Of course, a flat bread pizza isn't going to be the same doughy/filling pizza we've grown up with so you cannot compare them to normal pizzas. I haven't ordered a lot of flat bread pizzas but this one was definitely tasty. Perfect crispiness and the toppings were amazing--especially the chicken. Very light and perfect for what we were looking for.

The big knock on our trip was the service was really slow (and there wasn't very many people at the restaurant) and the food took a while to get to us. I've never served food at a restaurant so I try not to be too hard on servers as I am sure it can be a tough job. The fact of the matter is, we conversed more about how bad the service was than the awesomeness of the food. Hopefully, it was just a fluke instance because this is a really cool place that I want to continue to support.

I didn't find a website for them but they have a Facebook page and an entry on this site...
http://www.eatdrinkdesmoines.com/restaurant/downtown/american/the-rooftop.html

Buzzard Billy's Cajun Club

It had been a while since I last stopped over to Buzzard Billy's (my first ever food related blog post was about there and that was the last time I visited) so I was long overdue. It was a humid first day of summer but a great one to sit out on their patio and relax with a couple beers. We even tried their Buffalo Ranch wings. They weren't bad but not spicy nor ranchy and very messy.

Buzzard Billy's has a really nice selection of indoor seating with some nice TVs to choose from. I received pretty good service both times I've been there. For this trip, we had one of the coolest servers ever, especially compared to the really terrible service we received for lunch that day. Their beer menu is huge and so is their food menu. I went with the...

Cajun Club

8.49

Shaved ham and Cajun turkey, Swiss and American cheeses, jalapeno bacon, Cajun aioli, lettuce, tomato, and onion on toasted jalapeno bread.

http://www.buzzardbillys.com/des-moines/menu/#specialty-sandwiches

After I got my order, the waiter said I probably got their best sandwich. It was pretty good with the seasoned bacon and bread. The bread was definitely grilled with an ample amount of butter on it and had a perfect soft sandwich texture to it. It had a little gooey-ness that I like from the cheese and aoili. I feel like I should have liked this sandwich more but it wasn't bad. It came with a side of wedge fries which are really crispy and seasoned (awesome) and hush puppies. The hush puppies weren't bad but the only other HPs I've had were from Long John Silver's and these tasted pretty different. Then again, I am guessing LJS isn't the source for the best HPs in America.

So the food was solid and the service was great. The menu has so many things I want to try on it so I definitely plan to go back. I recommend checking them out but skipping the wings. What are your recommendations for Buzzard's?

Zombie Burger - Envy Corpse

One, Spring evening this year, it didn't rain (can you believe that?) and I took Dr. Joe Brady out to Zombie Burger for his first experience. Of course, there was a wait but it wasn't too bad. As you know, I've felt ZB has been a little overrated but it is an experience everyone should check out once. Finally, I found a really good burger...


http://www.zombieburgerdm.com/

Envy Corpse | 8.29 | 10.29 | 12.29

pepper jack cheese, pulled pork, ham, salsa, fried jalapenos, red onion, chipotle mayo

I say I found a really good burger, but really I found a sandwich that had really awesome meat on it. The combination of toppings are right up my alley but the pulled pork and ham that were on this burger were really amazing. So amazing that they would warrant their own sandwich without a burger. In all honestly, the burger got pretty drowned by the other flavors. This burger is a little pricier also which is another downside. Still it did taste good. I would recommend anyone to try this burger just to try the amazingly flavored meats. This is probably the best burger I've had here.