More Diners, Drive-ins and Dives
Page 14
On the final leg of my Route 66 road trip from Cali to Kansas, I find myself in Baxter, Kansas, at a joint that used to be a bank that was actually held up by Jesse James in 1876. It’s called Cafe on the Route, and they’ve got some road food you may not expect.
* * *
TRACK IT DOWN
1101 Military Avenue
Baxter Springs, Kansas 66713
620-856-5646
www.cafeontheroute.com
* * *
You’ve got your apple-and-bacon-stuffed salmon, your nutcrusted catfish, pineapple garlic chicken, rib-eye in a tomato and white wine sauce—and get a load of the twice-baked potatoes and deep-fried cheesecake! Chef Richard Sanell’s done everything from fine dining to amusement parks, filet mignon to corn dogs. But nine years ago he and his wife, Amy, decided to make a change. Their place was an old diner from the 1940s, back in the day when Route 66 was in its heyday. It was hopping then, and it’s hopping again. They’re doing total scratch cooking, like their Aztec chicken, which is battered in egg, and served with shrimp, chiles, avocado, bacon, and a rum glaze. That is outstanding—in it to win it, and why not? Richard’s out to prove that you don’t need to be in a big city to find people who appreciate fine cooking. And they do dig his salmon stuffed with apples, bacon, honey, and chives. He smokes it on the stovetop with hickory, oak, and a little cherrywood dust on a screen for five to six minutes, then finishes it in the oven. He does a pan sauce for it with mandarin oranges and rum that he flames, with butter stirred in—that’d be good on my hand. Talk about an orchestra of flavors—this dude’s like a chef version of Lawrence Welk!
Even the basics here aren’t so basic, like turkey, ham and cheese on a pita, chicken salad with walnuts and grapes, and he ain’t makin’ Grandma’s old potato salad either. His has a nice crunch ’cause he’s deep-frying the potatoes. The sauce is two parts mayo to one part mustard and a little seasoning. That’s yippeeyiyay yummy. Now the Beaunilla Cheesecake…that’s something to check out. Made with tortillas, it’s kinda like a Mexican cannoli, stuffed and fried to a golden brown. A light and flaky crust, cream cheese, cinnamon in there, and he’s knocking the ball out of the park.
Still standing after more than 130 years, this place isn’t the old bank or the old diner; it’s Richard and Amy’s place, and once you’re here, you’re part of the family.
* * *
[GUY ASIDE]
When we went to this place on Route 66, it was still back in the day when we would drive the car from location to location. We used to have just one crew; it was crazy what we would go through. Big props to our viewers—the show is so popular now, and we’re shooting as much as we can with two crews and two locations a day. It’s a big operation, and we have a full-time transportation guy who gets the ’67 from location to location.
So they say this place was held up by Jesse James in 1876,
* * *
“WHADDAYA THINK, JESSE JAMES, CAN WE HOLD ’EM UP FER DINNER FER TWO?”
Beaunilla Cheesecake
ADAPTED FROM A RECIPE COURTESY OF RICHARD SANELL OF CAFE ON THE ROUTE
This dessert looks like it’ll feed eight when you get it on your plate, but not for long; just taste it.
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
1 egg
½ cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
1 pound (two 8-ounce packages) confectioners’ sugar
6 (10-inch) flour tortillas
Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
Whipped cream, for serving
Strawberry, caramel, or chocolate sauce, for serving
1. In a small bowl, beat the egg and cream with a fork to make an egg wash. In another bowl, combine the granulated sugar and cinnamon.
2. Whip the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar with an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment until smooth and light. Pipe or spoon about 2/3 cup of the mixture across the center of each tortilla, leaving a bit of a border at each end. Use a pastry brush to paint egg wash around the edges of the tortillas. Fold the edges in over the ends of the filling, then roll up, applying more egg wash to the lip of the tortilla to seal, if necessary. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
3. Heat the oil in a deep-fryer or heavy pot to about 325°F. Fry one cheesecake at a time until one side is golden brown, and then flip over to brown the other side. Browning can take between 1½ and 3 minutes, so keep an eye on the cheesecakes as you put in one after the other. Remove from the oil, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and serve hot with whipped cream and sauce.
Fried Potato Salad
ADAPTED FROM A RECIPE COURTESY OF RICHARD SANELL OF CAFE ON THE ROUTE
I liked this potato salad so much it has inspired me. I’m working on a recipe called a baked potato salad: cube up all the potatoes and use fried potato chunks with all the baked potato trimmings.
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
2 large baking potatoes
¾ cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup yellow mustard
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Canola oil, for frying
1. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Bake the potatoes until tender, about 1 hour. Cool and cut them into ¾-inch squares. Mix the mayonnaise, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste in a medium bowl.
2. Heat about 1 inch of oil in a deep skillet or small pot until a deep-fry thermometer reads 325°F. Fry the potatoes until golden brown and crisp, about 3 to 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels.
3. Combine the potatoes with the mayonnaise mixture, taste, and season. Serve warm.
NOTE: Serve immediately; the salad does not hold well for long periods.
NOT ME…AH…SOME DISTANT COUSIN.
MIDWEST
DARI-ETTE DRIVE-IN
EST. 1951 AMERICAN GRAFFITI GOES ITALIAN
After fifty-five years, the Dari-ette Drive-In is about as classic as they come. They’ve still got carhops, speaker boxes, and meals on a tray. But get a load of what’s on that tray: made-from-scratch Italian food that’ll spin your head around.
* * *
TRACK IT DOWN
1440 Minnehaha Avenue East
St. Paul, Minnesota 55106
651-776-3470
* * *
One Dari-ette regular claims, “Most of the Italian food up here in Minnesota, I don’t know—it must be made by Swedes or something. So this place is just a treasure.”
They’ve got homemade sausages and meatballs, in sandwiches or over pasta, drenched in homemade sauce and delivered straight to your car. Owner Angela Fida has been going to the Dari-ette all her life. It was opened more than fifty-five years ago by her grandparents. When they retired, her mom and dad took it over, and a few years ago they passed it on to her. And she says she loves it; it’s what she was born to do. Born to crank out forty gallons of homemade tomato sauce at a time, and the recipe’s a family secret. She lets the staff stir once in a while, but that’s it. And she lets them roll three hundred meatballs at a time, also a family recipe. But get this—you know what they do to them? They deep-fry them. And they deep-fry their own homemade sausage, too. Now, top that sausage with mozzarella on fresh Italian bread, cover with homemade sauce, and steam until the cheese is running, and you’ve got the Italiano, their best seller. They do a mac-daddy meatball sandwich, Italian cold cuts, all kinds of pasta, and great old American cooking, too, from burgers and onion rings to something that looks like a pterodactyl breast, it’s so big—fried chicken dipped in batter, then each piece fried to order. Nothing under a heat lamp here. It’s all done the way Angela’s grandparents did it. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
ARE THEY RIOTING?…OH, YEAH, DANCING…COULDA BEEN RIOTING!
OWNER’S NOTE: A little more history of the “ette” from Angela Fida.
My father’s parents, Sarafina and Michael Angelo Fida, opened the restaurant in July of 1951. Sarafina (Mama) hired my mot
her, Lois, as a carhop. Mom met Dad and fell in love, and they worked side by side for forty-eight years, minus the time Dad spent in the navy during the Korean War. They raised four girls. All of us worked at the “ette” through high school. I started when I was twelve years old, when minimum wage was $1.64 an hour. I’ve been here thirty-six years.
The “ette” was supposed to be a large full-service Italian restaurant, but because the government was rationing supplies for the war, they built smaller, with the hope of adding on later. Minnehaha Avenue was the main road to Wisconsin before I-94 was constructed and was called Yellowstone Trail. Now we sit in the middle of a residential area.
The “ette” started with a small menu of ice cream and American foods. In the 1960s Dad added his Italian dishes—spaghetti, meatball sandwiches, Italian hamburgers, and the famous trademarked Italiano sandwich. Other trademarked foods: the Burger-ette, the Gondola, and Chick-ettes. We still serve original cherry and vanilla colas. We also make a mean Fresh Banana Malt and have a reputation for our hand-dipped deep-fried chicken. Everything on the menu is cooked to order.
I cook forty gallons of red sauce three times a week. I make six batches of meatballs and seventy-five pounds of sausage a week. Everything but the bread is made on the premises. The ice cream machine is from 1977. One fryer is from 1967, and the fountain sink is from the forties (it was in one of my grandfather’s bars). All of them are in great working order, and the stainless shines like new. And I have a lot of customers who either worked here or their parents or grandparents worked here. Sometimes both.
Dari-ette Meataballas
ADAPTED FROM A RECIPE COURTESY OF ANGELA FIDA OF DARI-ETTE DRIVE-IN
Note from Angela: To make our bread crumbs, we use the heels of the Italian bread we serve; we set the leftover bread aside on a rack overnight. Then we run the hard, dried bread right through the grinder to create the bread crumbs; you could use a food processor. Note that the Italian bread we use is baked on cornmeal. We think that little bit of cornmeal adds significantly to the final meatballs, so look for that if you can.
Start these a day ahead, because the meat mixture needs to chill overnight.
MAKES 40 MEATBALLS
3 large eggs
½ cup milk
2¼ cups dried bread crumbs, preferably homemade from day-old bread
½ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1½ tablespoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1½ teaspoons finely ground black pepper
3 pounds ground beef
Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
* * *
[GUY ASIDE]
Wow, what a crazy place. We went there back in the beginning of DD&D for the special: seven locations in one hour. We were in Minneapolis, and this was the last shoot. Picture the quintessential drive-in—you pull up on a summer day in a convertible, right out of American Graffiti, but it’s not French fries and hamburgers but bomb Italian food you’re getting. If it were in my town I’d eat there twice a week: old-school American Italian, spaghetti and meatballs, but they also do fried chicken. They deep-fry the meatballs; I remember thinking you’ve got to be kidding me.
I played around, messing with the carhop thing—they made me tuck in my shirt!
* * *
1. Whisk the eggs and milk in a large bowl. Stir in the bread crumbs, parsley, salt, garlic salt, and pepper. Chill for 1 hour.
2. Work the ground beef into the crumb mixture; be careful not to overwork or the meatballs will be tough. Chill overnight.
3. Heat the oil in a heavy pot over medium-high heat until a deep-fry thermometer reads 345°F. Using your hands, shape the meat into 2½-inch balls (about 2 ounces each). Fry the meatballs until they are just cooked through, about 7 minutes.
MIDWEST
DONATELLI’S
EST. 1976 YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, SCRATCH-MADE ITALIAN
We hit all kinds of joints, but one of my favorites is Italian. Now, there’s Italian, and then there’s Italian. You know, the places making their own meatballs, the dough for their fresh pastas, their sauce. The folks north of the Twin Cities—well, they’re on point, because they get to experience that every day here at this place.
* * *
TRACK IT DOWN
2692 East County Road East
White Bear Lake, Minnesota 55110
651-777-9199
www.donatellis.com
* * *
Donatelli’s has served classic Italian American recipes from a Minnesota strip mall for more than thirty years. Chef and owner Steven Donatelle (yes, that’s how he spells it) grew up next door to his father’s sister, and he says his aunt was the best cook you’d ever want to meet. He learned from her how good food was supposed to taste and how it’s supposed to be made, from scratch—even the pasta. Head cook Aaron Liedl is scratch-making eight different kinds in a contraption that’s like the Medusa of pasta machines. This is when you know it’s legit. And they’re topping the homemade pasta with all kinds of homemade sauce, from creamy Alfredo to classic red sauce, made fresh every morning. They serve up a meat sauce over fresh-made mostaccioli, topped with shredded mozzarella and Cheddar that’s melted, then sprinkled with Parmesan—that’s money mostaccioli.
Then they’re making something called spaghetti pie, super creamy, super cheesy and rich. They’ve got meatball sandwiches, too. The meatballs are a mixture of hamburger and ground pork, with eggs, water, house-made bread crumbs, parsley, basil, black pepper, garlic salt, onion salt, salt, and Parmesan cheese. Aaron rolls the meatballs, places them in a pan, and covers them with water, so they don’t burn, and in they go to the convection oven—nice flavor, not too dense or loose. They lay the meatballs on Italian bread, sauce it with red sauce, put the shredded mozzarella on there, and melt it. They never skimp on the cheese. Great, huge sandwich.
Then there are the pizzas. They serve hundreds of those a day. Jessica Kissel’s been making the dough for ten years. They have about three big bins of dough on hand at any time, and they’re topping the ’za with everything from deep-dish veggie to a monster called the Heart Stopper Pizza. She tops it with sauce, then represents all the great meat groups: first sausage, then hamburger, then pepperoni, then six ham slices, then fourteen pieces of bacon…all atop that super-thin crust. A thick layer of mozzarella and it’s into the 550°F oven. Then she takes a knife that looks like it came from Pirates of the Caribbean and slices the pie into squares. It’s got a nice crunch to it, it’s enough cheese to sink the Black Pearl, and it’s delicious.
* * *
[GUY ASIDE]
I love Italian food, but especially when I hear they’re making pasta, sauce, and pizza dough, I’m a junkie. And these folks have taken a mom-and-pop and made it into an operation, but one that’s true to the right way of doing things. They’re so polished and good it almost didn’t make the evaluation. I mean, these guys are almost too good; it’s a fine-oiled machine. Are they really making it? Yep, they’re using old family recipes in a casual family environment, all homemade. And people love it; a bunch of people told me they still come here even after they’ve moved away. And that Heart Stopper—they put the meat on raw, ground meat, so as it cooks all the fat is on the pizza: serious flavor!
If I were going to say what I’d like to see an Italian chain restaurant look like, one that you’d like to find in every neighborhood, this would be it. It’s all about honest food and people, and quality. What you see is what you get.
* * *
YEAH! DATZ RIGHT! KILLER PIZZA PIE.
Photograph courtesy of Hooker & Co., St. Paul, Minnesota
Baked Mostaccioli
ADAPTED FROM A RECIPE COURTESY OF TRISH APPLEBY OF DONATELLI’S
Do it like Donatelli’s, and don’t skimp on the cheese.
MAKES 3 QUARTS SAUCE AND 4 SERVINGS
For the sauce
¼ cup vegetable oil, divided
2 pounds lean ground beef
1 tablespoon mince
d garlic
Kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 small onion, diced
2 (12-ounce) cans tomato paste
1 (29-ounce) can tomato puree
1 (15-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, with juice
1 tablespoon beef base, such as Better Than Bouillon
1 tablespoon chicken base, such as Better Than Bouillon
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons steak seasoning, such as McCormick’s Montreal Steak Seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley
For the baked pasta
Vegetable oil, for the baking dish
1 pound dried mostaccioli, cooked al dente
3½ to 4 cups meat sauce, warm or at room temperature
2½ cups shredded whole-milk mozzarella cheese
2½ cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
Shredded or grated Parmesan cheese, for garnish
1. TO MAKE THE SAUCE: Heat 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the beef, garlic, salt to taste, and the pepper and cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until the beef is browned. Set aside.