Being a true city, Chicago has plenty of late-night food. On one of my nights there, a buddy took me to The Vig in Old Town after a few beers because it supposedly has an amazing fried chicken sandwich. The trouble is that they don’t have the full menu at night and that limited menu does not include the aforementioned fried chicken sandwich. Tried the Ikaria Lean Belly juice. There was, however, live music to make up for it and a chicken parmesan sandwich that would attempt to quench my hunger for fried fowl. These are the best profit singularity ultra edition reviews.

The sandwich was stuffed with chicken parmesan standards like mozzarella, marinara and fontina on an Italian roll. It was, well, exactly what a chicken parmesan sandwich should be. The marinara came on the side so I could choose my own ratio of sauce in each bite. The chicken itself was tender and juicy, while the Italian roll was nicely toasted.

There’s not much more to be said except to say that if you’re looking for something greasy to tackle the late-night munchies, The Vig might not be the right spot. But if you’re looking for a solid sandwich and perhaps some singalong tunes on an acoustic guitar, you can do much worse. Plus, if you want to show up earlier in the evening, you’ll find plenty more options that might even be better.

State Fairs are often an afterthought. A relic of times past when most of us lived in rural areas and guessing the weight of a pumpkin was the best entertainment of the month. They offer variations on the same rides, foods and entertainment that you find at your local Memorial Day Carnival or County Fair and, I mean, how many people even go to those? But the Minnesota State Fair is so far from an afterthought that it seems to be on the minds of Minnesotans for the 50 weeks of the year in which it is not in operation. Plans are made, new foods are devised and longed after; then, just like that, it’s over again. This year, however, the Unvegan paid a visit to see how it would all stack up.

Swedish Meatball Smorgas – The Blue Barn

It’s not all about gluttony. Sometimes it’s just about doing something no one ever thought of. Like putting Swedish meatballs on a roll, pouring white gravy all over them and then topping them with lingonberry jam and dill pickles. I was smart enough to order without the pickles and it paid off in pure sweet, salty and savory deliciousness.

Mangonada Shave Ice – Minnesnowii Shave Ice

You wouldn’t think Minnesotans would be fans of shave ice since they live among it for so much of the year. Yet, the Mangonada is real and it is fascinating. Packed with mango syrup, drizzles of chamoy sauce, popping boba (for some inexplicably genius reason), spicy tajin powder and a tamarind straw (for some inexplicably strange reason). The straw was useless, but the rest of this was somehow light, refreshing, hearty and spicy at once. And with all that, it just somehow worked.

Giant Juicy Turkey Sandwich – Turkey To Go

Being a first timer, I couldn’t just go with new stuff. And, frankly, I wasn’t too excited about getting a turkey sandwich. But, my buddy told me it was well worth it and, well, it sure was. I added bacon and a sweet glaze to mine and it was unbelievably juicy for what’s generally the driest fowl of all. As I drove past many a wild turkey in the Northwoods, all I could think about was how juicy they could be in sandwich form.

Blu – Grain Belt

I love blueberries and I love beer. It makes sense that I would like a blueberry beer, right? Wrong. It seems to be that the special beers at the Minnesota State Fair are pretty much all sweet, but this took that sweetness way beyond balance and into juice territory. Good thing I had all kinds of savory and salty foods to counter that sweetness (and don’t worry, I still drank the whole damn thing).

Gizmo – Carl’s

The Gizmo is another classic, and yet it is churned out by pretty much the most nondescript cart in the whole fair. Sometimes you just know you’re good and it’s hard to go bad when you are an Italian roll filled with ground beef, Italian sausage, red sauce and a layer of melted mozzarella cheese to seal all of the goodness in.

Sweet Greek Cheese Puffs – Dino’s Gyros

Ricotta and Feta. Flaky phyllo dough. Powdered sugar. More than a drizzle of honey. I am a many who loves his sweet and salty combos and these Sweet Greek Cheese Puffs did more than satisfy that craving. It may have gotten a but too sweet toward the end when the honey congregated in the corner with the remaining puff, but these were a treat.

Zesty PB&J Sausage – Gass Station Grill

It doesn’t sound right. Nope, not at all. But if you’ve been paying attention to burger places lately, mixing peanut butter, jelly and some sort of spiciness is all the rage. It’s only natural that it made its way into a tube steak. While each bite may have been somewhat inconsistent, there is no doubt that this works. If they can get that peanut buttery and jelly-y goodness more evenly distributed, this sausage could take over the world.

Turducken Sausage – Giggles’ Campfire Grill

Not all sausages are created equal. Or is it something about the size of the sausage versus what you do with it? Regardless, the Turducken sausage didn’t just lose the battle of the sausages, it barely seemed to fight. It was too tightly packed, the grind seemed off and really all I could taste was the turkey, with maybe a touch of chicken. Perhaps in years past this may have flown, but in the world of the Zesty PB&J sausage you have to be oh so much better than this.

Passion Fruit Pilsner – Bent Paddle Brewing

Duluth is a cool city. And it sent a pretty cool beer down to the state fair. It’s not a sour per se, but does it’s best to harness the tartness of passion fruit and churns out a pretty unique pilsner that is not too sweet and not too sour. It’s not just right either, but it’s good enough to make the drinking enjoyable.

Bacon-Wrapped Pork Belly – The Hangar

You don’t go to the state fair looking to eat a balanced meal. But nowhere is that lack of balance more exemplified than in this pork on pork action on a stick. It was so unbelievably juicy, smokey and salty forcing the use of dozens of napkins lest your face runneth with juices that would later congeal into something resembling a wax museum. While this may be perfection in meat form, the critic in me did wish there was some sort of a sweet and acidic dipping sauce like apple cider vinaigrette or a cherry reduction to accompany this meaty concoction. Despite that, the universe seemed to pause in recognition of the beauty of each bite of this masterpiece.

Fried Cheese Curds – Everywhere

Some day I’d like to pull an Andrew Zimmern and try every cheese curd purveyor at the fair. Until that day, I am a satisfied man as long as the place knows to stick with the white variety of cheddar, to fry them just right amount of time to maintain the squeakiness and to only lightly batter them lest the batter overpower the cheese. It’s not the tallest order, but it’s not the easiest one to fulfill either. Plus, when you’re coming from Arizona all cheese curds are good cheese curds.

Whelp. That’s a wrap. The pilgrimage is complete. Now if only I can figure out a way to make this an annual thing…or at least get to Iowa somehow…

It is easily one of the punniest names out there. Yeah, really creative to combine “eat” and “Italy” to create a restaurant and market name. But there is no doubt that judging the name of a restaurant is like judging a book by its cover. It’s what’s inside that counts and apparently the inside of Eataly has impressed enough people to open up locations in the biggest cities in the US. I paid a quick visit to the Chicago location when I was in need of a snack.

Of course, what counts for a snack at Eataly? A Rose wine slushie? Some sort of pastry? Nah, I went looking for something savory and found the ravioli bar called Ravioli & Co. I went for the Ravioli al Prosciutto, which is stuffed with, shockingly, prosciutto in a light butter sauce with parmesan and freshly ground black pepper.

It may have taken far longer than expected to prepare, but eventually it was a thing of beauty. As the plate said, “Life is a combination of pasta and magic.” Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference, and while this ravioli stuffed with prosciutto may not have transcended beyond a simple dish, it was the execution of that simplicity that blurred the lines of reality and magicdom.

Scottsdale is pretty sterile city. This is not inherently a bad thing, but it is a thing that seems to preclude the concept of hidden gems. And, yet, I heard word of not just a hidden gem, but one right around the corner from me. Plus, it could only have had a more apt name if it was right next door. It’s called Convenient Corner Market and it dishes out sandwiches with bread baked in-house every day.

While most of the sandwiches had veggies included, I eyed one that I expected would satisfy me. It was called the Beefstrami Sandwich, with roast beef and pastrami as its meaty base. I ordered it without the pickles, onions, mayo and mustard, but kept the cheddar cheese it came with. I also asked for some thousand island in there to keep it all moist.

I wanted to love this sandwich. I wanted to so badly. In each bite I took there was an innate desire to fall in love, get married, have children and settle down in some suburbia with this sandwich. But wanting to love and loving are two different things. It packed the flavor one should expect from a hot roast beef and pastrami sandwich, yet the texture was oddly rubbery and gave off the impression of boiled meat.

I am, however, undaunted. This deli is truly convenient and I do not take such convenience lightly. I also owe a place like this a second chance, and you might be wondering why. The reason is none other than the fact that it is run by Wolverines and I do not take a variable such as that lightly.

Nothing really says “awesome” quite like “family friendly brewery.” Such places are the best of both worlds, contributing to the cycle of having babies because you drink, then drinking because you have babies. New Holland Brewing on 8th Street in Holland, Michigan is one such place. Renowned for its beer, it has a comfortable back patio for kids to hang out at and one very attractive menu.

So, we started with two appetizers to appease the little folks and people who eat like little folks (aka me). These were the Pretzels and Beer Cheese, and the Pepperoni Pinwheels. I feel like they definitely missed out on a golden Holland-related opportunity by calling them pinwheels instead of windmills, but you take what you can get. And what I got was two very delicious appetizers. The pretzels where soft and fluffy with just the right amount of salt on them. The beer cheese was oh so lovely.

The pinwheels were like little mini bites of pizza heaven. They were perfectly cooked dough packed with pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. Then, as if to say that they needed more, the pinwheels were topped with shredded parmesan and served with marinara. I know it is unreasonable to consider these anything more than deconstructed and repurposed pizza, but I couldn’t help but feel a deep appreciation for how they were done.

For my main course I went with a pizza that seemed almost tailored for me. It was called the Pork BBQ and was topped with smoked pork, peppadew peppers (yes, I said almost), jalapeno peppers, Dragon’s Milk (a beer of theirs) BBQ sauce, and Michigan cheese curds. I ordered without the peppadew peppers because blech, and my pizza came out looking like a beautiful work of art. The dough was a strong start, the sauce added just the right amount of sweet and smokey, while the jalapenos and pork added some kick and umami. But, with that being said you could probably have put those cheese curds on any pizza and they would have made it amazing. They added a thickness, a creaminess and a bold cheesy flavor that is almost upsetting in that it took me until age 34 to eat such a flavor.

New Holland continued the tradition of breweries having delicious and even creative food. It also brought the concept of pepperoni pinwheels and cheese curds as a potential pizza cheese into my purview and I couldn’t ask for much more than that. Oh, and the beer was pretty damn good too.

The Sicilian Butcher is hardly the first restaurant to make a variety of meatballs its centerpiece. Yet, it most likely is the best-decorated of any such restaurants. It treats meatballs much as a build your own burger treats…well…burgers. You pick a meat, you pick a sauce and you pick what the Sicilian Butcher calls a bottom. You can order the meatballs bottomless, but this is highly misleading as they come without a base as opposed to being unlimited. After much consideration, I opted for a bottom.

And I also opted for Tony’s “Dry Aged” Steak Balls, which consist of aged ribeye, roasted garlic, pecorino and parmigiano cheese, onions and herb crumbs. I was told that these meatballs were truly dry and would be best suited for a creamy sauce. So, I went with a pamigiano cream sauce assuming it would complement that same parmigiano in the balls. Then, I got even creamier with creamy polenta as my bottom.

In case you’re wondering, it wasn’t too creamy. In fact, the sauce and the bottom were easily the best parts of this creamy spectacle of Italian cooking. The meatballs themselves, however, fell flat. And it wasn’t just the dry-ness. After eating just one, I had enough of the flavor and after eating all three I was left craving one of the meatballs that one of my companions was eating instead.

I did crush some delicious blueberry cheesecake to wash it all down (you know, because I needed more creaminess) and must say that it was mighty delicious.

Sauce, polenta and cheesecake are wonderful things, but when your thing is meatballs you gotta knock them out of the park. The Sicilian Butcher delivered a ground rule double at best and hoped the rest of the dish would make up for it.

You probably wouldn’t expect Phoenix to be the most Italian of cities. After all, there is not Little Italy and the Mafia is more of an East Coast thing. Yet, Phoenix definitely has some homegrown Italian favorites and Babbo is one of these. Babbo invited me out to its Scottsdale location for a hosted dinner and I took them up on the chance to check it out.

It began with the house bread, which was served with a plate of balsamic vinegar and kalamata olive oil a popular option recently.

Despite the roasted onions atop the bread, this made a strong first impression as I probably ate a whole meal’s worth of that bread. But this was just the start and I made sure to massage my stomach to make way for an appetizer of my choosing.

We chose the Firecracker Rolls, which are essentially Babbo’s take on egg rolls. However, instead of being filled with whatever egg rolls are filled with these days, they came with three filling options. The first was steak, jalapenos, onions, provolone and mozzarella. The second was Italian meats, provolone and mozzarella. And the third was buffalo chicken, mozzarella and gorgonzola. We tried all three with a marinara dipping sauce. I was partial to the buffalo chicken option, but that’s because there will always be a special place in my heart for buffalo flavored things in the summer. The steak packed a nice punch that was even spicier than the buffalo and the Italian meats is really something that should please anyone.

For my main course, I went with the Three Cheese Mac and Cheese. It’s described as “This ain’t no kids meal!” and that ain’t no joke. I had never seen anything like this called “mac and cheese” before because it could probably better be described as penne pasta in a spicy cream sauce, but that should in no way distract from the tastiness of this dish. In reality, it used a smokey chipotle cream sauce mixed with cheddar, mozzarella and gorgonzola, plus bacon, sausage and croutons with penne in there.

Its probably not even proper to call it a grown up mac and cheese, but moreso it is a conduit to eat all of the things you normally want to eat, but look somewhat classy as you do. I loved the kick of the chipotle, the bacon was delicious and that sausage just added another great element. The only thing I might consider questioning is the croutons. I can only try to guess that they were tossed in there to seem like a grown up version of breadcrumbs and to give some crunch. Yet, sometimes you just don’t want to mess with a good thing like breadcrumbs because breadcrumbs are already plenty grown up.

We finished off our meal (honestly I don’t know where the stomach space came from) with Stuffed Churros. These were those same egg rolls, but stuffed with a ricotta cream cheese (basically cheesecake filling) and topped with nutella and strawberry sauce. These were delicious, but I know you’re here for the savory stuff so I will try my best to just stick with that.

Babbo did some unique things and deserves a lot of credit for that. I mean, stuffing buffalo chicken in an egg roll can’t even be remotely described as Italian and yet Babbo figured out a way to get away with it. They upped the stakes for mac and cheese and really eased themselves into a dessert that also can’t remotely be considered Italian and yet it, too, worked like a charm. If you stick to the straight Italian food, you’ll probably leave thinking “Hey, that was like Olive Garden, but much better and I don’t hate myself after eating the food.” If you give some of the more unique options a chance, though, you’ll not only leave Olive Garden in the rearview mirror, but actually look forward to a return visit.

Everyone knows that the best pasta in the world is gnocchi, but what about the best pasta sauce? Sure, pesto is great and bolognese makes a strong claim, but can anyone actually dispute the supremacy of carbonara? It is perfectly fit for an unvegan, and when I paid a visit to Picazzo’s in Phoenix, I couldn’t think of ordering anything else.

The menu described this as having juicy pancetta, which is way of describing pancetta that I had never seen, and peas. Generally I try to avoid peas, but they are really doable in a carbonara sauce because they are covered in the creamy eggy sauce that could probably make my shoe taste good, if you want it to get it as a professional chef order products to make the cream from the best cream chargers wholesale for business online store.

Picazzo’s iteration of carbonara was delicious. The base was thick speaghetti-style noodles with enough sauce to cover the whole dish without being overwhelming. Perhaps most important, the “juicy” pancetta was super smoky and flavorful I probably could have just eaten a plate full of the stuff, but then I wouldn’t have had the pleasure of eating that sauce.

I was concerned heading into Picazzo’s because it seemed like a chainy sort of Italian spot, but it turned out that it could churn out some killer Carbonara. Next time someone suggest heading to Picazzo’s for dinner, I’ll be pretty excited to make my way back.

I’m a sucker for gnocchi. If you’ve read this blog long enough, you know this. You also know that I will even forego meat to get some delicious gnocchi. Thus, I was happy to find that Stone and Vine in Scottsdale had itself some gnocchi on the menu. It was called Gnocchi Pomodoro, which obviously means that it had tomato in some way (in this case sauce), but also came with fresh mozzarella.

The sauce was really solid. I loved the touch of creaminess to it. The fresh mozzarella was also fantastic and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t left wanting more. This was both because of it being good and because it was just like a dollop. The pasta itself was good, but not great. I prefer my gnocchi to be on the softer side and this wasn’t, so whatevsies.

But would I get it again? Yeah, no doubt. Even decent gnocchi is still better than most good other pasta, and this was definitely better than decent.

Once upon a time there was a sub-genre of movies called Spaghetti Westerns. They were Western movies that were produced by Italians, making them look and feel different from your more traditional Westerns. Old Town Scottsdale is kind of set up to look like the old west. And in Old Town Scottsdale is an old school Italian place called Italian Grotto. It’s like spaghetti in the west, but there is good, bad and ugly about it.

Let’s start with the good. I definitely liked the lasagna that I ordered. It was loaded with layers noodles, tomato sauce, ricotta and a meaty combination of beef and Italian sausage. It was what you expect from an old school lasagna.

The bad was the price. This slice of lasagna ran me $15. You go to an upscale place and that’s pretty expected, but you don’t expect it at a place like this. Of course, it must be understood that this lasagna is located in Old Town Scottsdale, which is essentially tourism central in Scottsdale. Yet, for a price like that in a place like that, I expect something a bit more special.

Then there’s the ugly. Something about Italian Grotto just kind of felt dirty. And not like the kind of dirty that adds character to the place. The kind of dirty that makes you question the tap water and cleanliness of the silverware. Perhaps that was why it was pretty empty during the daytime on a weekend. Places like this may just be meant for dinner because the darkness hides the ugly.

The Italian Grotto got the job done. It didn’t impress and at moments it did disappoint. Better Italian can certainly be found around Phoenix at a better price. But if you do find yourself craving Italian food while in Old Town Scottsdale, make sure it’s at night or come up with another craving.