I usually prefer not to wake up early in Vegas, but when I do it is either to hit the pool or to find some awesome food. Fortunately we found the latter with Hash House a Go Go. Located in The Quad (some confusing newfangled hotel/casino), Hash House is some sort of farm fresh. This I don’t quite understand because I feel like there aren’t any farms anywhere within a 200 mile radius of Las Vegas, but I digress. Whatever you want to call it, it looked good.
Las Vegas in unquestionably a land of excess. So not surprisingly there is Guy Fieri restaurant on The Strip called Guy Fieri’s Vegas Kitchen + Bar. It’s not exactly the most inspiring name, but it was enough to pull me in from the street when I was on my way to eat elsewhere. The menu was not far from this, but seemed somewhat more edible. The prices were a bit high, but I figured in the land of excess, this would result in an excessively large meal.
With a name like Green Pepper, you might think an unvegan like me would be scared away. But, upon hearing it called the best Korean spot in Pittsburgh from an actual Korean I knew I had to check it out (their awesome website and payment policy didn’t hurt either). After all, I got hooked on Korean food in LA and it was about as meaty as food gets.
Oh Hofbrauhaus, how you manage to put items on a menu like “Kartoffelpfannkuchen” amazes me considering the size of your beer steins. I can’t pronounce things like that without beer in me, and it doesn’t get much better afterwards. Nonetheless, at least in Pittsburgh (as opposed to Germany) I can get a good explanation of what each dish is.
In a world filled with fancy brunch spots, it’s comforting to know that greasy spoons like Ritter’s Diner still exist. Because after a night filled with too many vinos, I don’t want some newfangled omelet or polenta cake, I want cheese, bacon and a side of grease. And in my head, what better place to satisfy this need than Ritter’s Diner?
Station Square is one of Pittsburgh’s older buildings, having formerly housed a train station and currently housing some of the nicest stained glass in town. It also houses the Gandy Dancer Saloon, which should not at all be confused with the Gandy Dancer in Ann Arbor that was also connected in history and proximity to a railway. This Gandy Dancer is certainly nothing fancy, a bar with mostly seafood options, but since I’m not exactly a fancy man this seemed right up my alley.
After a failed attempt to visit a Detroit Coney-style restaurant in Phoenix, we made our way to The Chuck Box in Tempe. This was by no means a lesser choice because The Chuck Box is a local legend, just an unanticipated one. When we arrived, the place was nearly empty. Although being as early as we were this was not a surprise, yet there was still a smell char-grilling in the air and a ragtag group of guys looking to take an order.
When on a quest for more food in Phoenix/Scottsdale, we unsurprisingly found ourselves at another Mexican restaurant. This should not come as a surprise because nearly every restaurant in Phoenix is Mexican, but this was another classic: La Fonda Del Sol. The name means something or another about the sun, and once again I found myself face-to-face with burros instead of burritos.
While Phoenix has Pizzeria Bianco, it isn’t exactly a city known for its pizza. This may be because pizza isn’t exactly what you crave on a super-hot day, yet Phoenix has managed to import Chicago-style deep dish through Oregano’s and New York style pizza with Grimaldi’s. Grimaldi’s does coal brick oven pizza and actually started out in New York so I was expecting it to be pretty good.
As one might expect, Phoenix is known for having some delicious Mexican food. One of these supposedly good Mexican spots is Tee Pee, which opened in 1958 and predates approximately every resident of the state of Arizona. Having been around since forever, Tee Pee not only has a wide variety of Mexican food, but also some American mixed in. None of these is more American than the Cheese Crisp.