Get Ready for Naperville Ribfest, Celebrity Chefs and the Ribfest Documentary Film

Who’s ready for Ribfest 2011!  It’s been an amazing year-long journey since last year’s Ribfest.  As you may recall, I have been working with the Exchange Club in producing a feature-length documentary film about Ribfest, of which production began almost exactly one year ago on June 18, 2010 and after a final shoot a couple of months ago, post-production/editing is in full motion.  The documentary is a behind-the-scenes look not only at what it takes to bring Ribfest to life each year, but more importantly the human stories behind the festival’s solitary mission of donating all net proceeds to area agencies working toward the prevention of child abuse and domestic violence… over $9 million to date.  Stay tuned for our premiere this Fall at the Naperville Independent Film Festival.

I’m also very excited to announce that another non-profit I’m helping out, America’s Chefs, will be featuring celebrity chef-hosted live cooking shows in the new America’s Chefs Kitchen Arena, including a daily hands-on kid’s cooking demo in which kids’ and parents and learn to make and actually prepare a healthy dish together.   The mission of America’s Chefs is to provide a “taste of home” and food/culinary entertainment to service men and women of our U.S. Military across the country and around the world, including events in the Persian Gulf region and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  Each chef is an alumni restaurant owner from the hit Food Network series “Diner’s, Drive-Ins and Dives” as well as numerous appearances elsewhere, including “Guy’s Big Bite”, the “Guy Fieri Roadshow Tour”, ABC’s “Extreme Home Makeover” and two of which are in the process of starring in their own food TV shows.  Take a look at the image posted up above for more details.  You definitely will not want to miss this one-of-a-kind opportunity.  Below you’ll find a couple of episodes I produced for America’s Chefs TV which provides an inside look at their mission.  Ribfest will be America’s Chefs first major civilian event and they are looking to build support and awareness for their non-profit mission.

See you at Ribfest! SM

Uncle Bub’s BBQ “Day in the Life” Web Series

Among my series of media production endeavors, I produced a documentary style 3-part web TV series for Uncle Bub’s BBQ in Westmont.  Catch the first episode below and you just might be on 75th Street heading to Cass Avenue to Westmont by the conclusion.

Uncle Bub’s BBQ Begins Monster Sandwich Challenge for Chicago and Western Suburbs

Get ready BBQ lovers in Naperville, Western Suburbs and Chicago…

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, my company, Social Frequency Media Communications, has been working with Uncle Bub’s to develop their multi-media interactive social media strategy and this fun contest/challenge, along with their new Uncle Bub’s TV channel on YouTube, Uncle Bub’s BBQ – Facebook , Uncle Bub’s BBQ – Twitter and Uncle Bub’s – FourSqaure is the starting point.

It’s also a continued step in my personal life journey toward my purpose and passion, choosing to connect only with those people and businesses who I admire.  There is definitely a human story behind this one as well.   The Link family, the owners/founders behind Uncle Bub’s, and their long-time BBQ team there are truly a great group of people whose passion for BBQ is equal to their belief and passion in giving back.  Spend some time at Uncle Bub’s BBQ in Westmont and you’ll see it shine through.

Again, I guess it goes back to the many intentional and unintentional lessons I learned from my father in his career as publisher of a small-town shopper newspaper.  As entrepreneurs, it’s so much more about the passion to create and serve people than it is about the money… and those are the businesses which deserve all of our support.  While the destination may ultimately be money/survival, the journey is so much more fun.

Discover your purpose and take the next step in living your dream… today!

 

 

Review of Why Uncle Bub’s BBQ and Catering is the Best BBQ Joint in Chicagoland

To my readers who have joined alongside me in this blogging journey, you will know a couple of things.  First, I not only love BBQ – the food-, but most importantly BBQ -the tradition- and way of life.  Second, I am the son of a one-time BBQ restaurateur back in Kentucky.  Third, I am a backyard amateur BBQ pitmaster (with a lower case “p”).  Fourth, did I mention I love BBQ?

It’s been a great year for my BBQ passion in getting to co-produce a pilot food series in Chicagoland with an episode focusing solely on BBQ, to have had the opportunity to shoot a documentary film about Naperville Ribfest and now to have the opportunity to work alongside my favorite BBQ joint in all of Chicagoland, Uncle Bub’s Award-Winning BBQ, in helping them develop and mange their online and social web presence.

Simply put, behind the very best BBQ you will always find the very best people.  That’s because BBQ takes time, patience and a relentless devotion to tradition, flavor and technique.  Even more, in the South, which is where I’m from, BBQ is a social pastime that creates strong bonds between people in the process and the resulting indulgent meal.  It’s about staying up all night to keep the smoker going and enjoying the good-hearted and good-humored company of friends… and possibly a couple of beers along the way.

BBQ isn’t about love… I say BBQ is love.  Why else would anyone go to great lengths to cook and nurture meat low-and-slow carefully balancing heat and hardwood smoke for anywhere between 5-20 hours depending on the meat.  Apply this scenario to a busy and successful restaurant where a wide array of BBQ is being cooked essentially 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, then you will have discovered the very definition of BBQ love.  Add catering to the mix, and you’ve found Qtopia!

 

Mark Link, Founder and Owner of Uncle Bub's Award-Winning BBQ

 

Thus turns us to Uncle Bub’s BBQ in Westmont, where the only thing better than the incredible BBQ is the family and people behind the operation which is in it’s 13th year of operation.  Having grown up in the catering business, Mark Link and his family built Uncle Bub’s from the ground up and opened its doors in 1997.  From the time Uncle Bub’s was a mere concept to today, Mark has traveled and continues to travel across the country eating at every BBQ joint he comes across not to mention the numerous BBQ competitions Uncle Bub’s participates in each year to not only share the love, but to continue learning from the masters.  I once asked him how many BBQ joints he’s been to and he told me he believes he lost count after about 200.  Alongside his wife, Carri, his daughters, a number of employees who have been there from the start and a very loyal following of customers, who are referred to as the Uncle Bub’s BBQ family, Uncle Bub’s demonstrates at every turn it’s roots as a family business.  I also believe good things happen to good people and when you add the list of celebrities in which Uncle Bub’s has served, such as Oprah Winfrey, and the fact Larry the Cable Guy himself filmed a scene from one of this movies there, there is definitely a good vibe and law of attraction at work.

One of many antiques donated by loyal Uncle Bub's customers

Further evidence of loyalty adorns the walls and flat surfaces of the restaurant itself.  At first glance, you get the feeling as though you are inside a rustic barn with antiques all over the walls, almost like a museum.  You might be surprised to know that nearly half of what you see has been donated by loyal customers over the years who want a piece of their family to become a small piece of the Uncle Bub’s family.

As for the food, the best way I can describe the Uncle Bub’s style of BBQ is “best of regions”.  Mark’s travels and background are truly reflected in the menu:  Baby Back Ribs, St. Louis-Style Ribs, Beef Brisket, Burnt Ends, Rib Tips, Pulled Porked, Pulled Chicken, BBQ Chicken, Hot Links, Smoked Turkey and an array of made-from-scratch side items, including hand-cut french fries and an indulgent favorite, deep fried mac-and-cheese. All of which is available, and more, via Uncle Bub’s Catering which can handle a party of 10 or 1,000.

 

Jay Rushford, General Manager of Uncle Bub's Award-Winning BBQ

 

Finally, I couldn’t possibly write this post and not include a major part of the Uncle Bub’s restaurant team who has his share of responsibility for delivering the best BBQ on a daily basis.  Jay Rushford is the General Manager of Uncle Bub’s.  His passion for BBQ is second-to-none and his welcoming and easy-going personality adds additional flavor to this BBQ institution.  Like Mark, when he’s not working, which is rare, he too is out on the road on his own BBQ journeys.  

I told Mark the other day that working with Uncle Bub’s in helping them share their story with the world is, in a way, keeping my own father’s spirit and passion for bbq alive which is a tradition that anyone in my family can tell you is very much alive and well.

If you’ve never been to Uncle Bub’s, the best way to jump in is to click here and become part of their Uncle Bub’s Facebook Family.  To get the full experience, just head down the road from Naperville to Westmont and experience Bub Love at 132 South Cass Ave. or as I like to think, head east on 75th street to Cass Avenue, turn left and you will eventually see Uncle Bub’s on your left.  SM

The Naperville Wine Festival: A Quick Guide to the Perfect Experience

I had to include the word “experience” in the headline above because there is no other way to describe the Naperville Wine Festival, which will take place this Friday and Saturday (September 17-18, 2010) at one of my favorite places… the Naper Settlement in Downtown Naperville.

First and foremost, train it… cab it… do whatever you need to do to get into Downtown Naperville and keep yourself from being in the position of even thinking about driving home.

Based on my own personal experience, my strongest recommendation is to go in the evening hours just as daylight drifts toward the crisp Autumn night.  There is a certain magic in the air when you combine an Autumn night, the Naper Settlement and your journey through an international array of wines.

You can taste away the night beneath the stars knowing that a portion of your admission proceeds goes to the Naperville Area Humane Society.  Should raindrops crash the party, never fear… just cover your glasstic wine glass and the festival will march right on.

In terms of preparing yourself, I recommend eating something light before diving into the Festival as wine tastings are typically a bust on a full stomach and an early and disorienting night on an empty stomach.

There will be a number of local Naperville restaurants with food offerings at the Festival.  To me, part of the true experience is to snack on a little something at the Festival to pace your tasting and then take a short walk into Downtown after you are finished for a late dinner at one of Naperville’s many fine local restaurants.

After you finish your late dinner, I recommend capping off the evening with some chocolate indulgence at Le Chocolat or one of the many night spots in Downtown Naperville.  Should you subscribe to the ancient belief of “wine before beer, never fear” I recommend hitting the Grumpy Bulldog and watch your head spin for an entirely different reason as you enjoy the process of selecting a beer from their expansive global beer menu.  If you need a little head start, click here.   There is also Quigley’s Irish Pub for the best pint of Guiness in all of the Western Suburbs.  Beyond that, there are many more bars, music and dancing throughout Downtown.

The bottom line is make your Naperville Wine Festival experience a full night out in Downtown Naperville.  Pace yourself and most importantly, please please please do not drink and drive.  Designate a sober driver whose evening entertainment will consist of laughing at you OR take advantage of Naperville’s many local cabs.  Hope to see you there!

I invite you to share your own survival and enjoyment tips via a comment below.  SM

Fresh and Affordable Sushi in Naperville in an Unexpected Place

Today was an ominous day as the pearly white occupants of my mouth were driven to their annual check-up at Wheatland Dental.  After all the scraping, buzzing, suctioning, gum-ripping x-ray mouthpieces and an extra power-scrub courtesy of the Cavitron, I felt it my obligation to reward my teeth to a nice soothing lunch.

Sushi was the first thing that entered my mind, but I often find it hard to shell out the serious dollars for a sushi lunch.  Suddenly, I realized that I was next door to one of my favorite affordable sushi joints that may seem unexpected to some…  Caputo’s Italian Market .  For less than $10, you can choose from an array of fresh daily made sushi trays, which you can actually see being handcrafted in the deli department by professionals.  Today I went for a red chili spicy salmon sushi roll, which consisted of 8 pieces with beautiful slices of salmon sitting atop each piece… all for $8.99… and it tasted every bit as good as some of the higher end sushi restaurants in town.  All the delicious indulgence without the guilt-ridden check at the end of the meal.

A Review of Nagoya Sushi and Japanese Buffet in Naperville

Insane Variety, Extensive Sushi Offerings, Hibachi-on-Call, Reasonable Quality and Inexperienced Service

Let me start by saying that I love sushi.  I’ve eaten sushi from Hawaii to Amsterdam and everywhere in between.  If you read my blog you already know that I’ve reviewed some of my local favorites here in Naperville.  But let’s face it, sushi tends to be a pretty expensive culinary adventure regardless of whether its for lunch or dinner.  At the same time, nobody wants to show up for steeply discounted sushi in a tiny hole-in-the-wall strip mall space.

Years ago, I struck gold while spending quite a bit of time in Los Angeles in discovering a sushi extravaganza called The Sushi Factory.  The offerings were extensive, the quality was good, it was all-you-could-eat and it was constantly being freshly prepared by an iron chef-worthy collection of sushi chefs working in the round in the middle of the restaurant.  Every time I returned to the Midwest, I lamented that it was back to “take-out-a-second-mortgage” sushi.

So you could imagine my excitement when I noticed an entire strip mall space along Route 59 being converted into a single restaurant space that read “Coming Soon… Nagoya Sushi and Japanese Buffet.  After a busy couple of months, Nagoya had opened its doors and though we had yet to walk through the doors, some friends had gone there and offered us mixed review that veered more toward the negative than the positive.  Yet, I had to see for myself.

Saturday night was just right for our trip to Nagoya.  I first want to publicly thank my wife for indulging my sushi obsession as it is far from her favorite.  We met up with another family and headed in early to beat the crowds, which we did.  Tip number one, get there before 6:00 PM because the masses to start flooding in around 6:15 PM.

I was excited as I glanced over and the long spread of sushi, hot dishes, seafood, desserts and yes a full ice cream bar featuring more than 10 flavors.  This was also our first introduction to Nagoya service, which still has quite a few problems to be worked out.  We were seated in the very back room of the restaurant though there were plenty of tables in the main part of the restaurant which had flat screen TVs to keep track of the college basketball tournaments.  Further there were quite a few windows and if I notice it is freezing then that means its sub-zero for everyone else as I’m generally very warm-natured.  We asked to sit in the main area and despite the the hostesses displeased looks we managed to relocate to a large table in the main area.

Our server arrived to take our drink order and I was in the mood for a Japanese beer.  I asked him what types of beer they had and he replied that they have a wide variety of beer, yet couldn’t remember which ones.  I waited a few awkward seconds as he stood there in silence and then asked if they had a drink menu and after a moment of hesitation, he said in almost a surprised voice that they did and he would go get one.  The moment was actually kind of humorous and I assumed he was fairly new.

We approached the buffet and began at a series of cold Asian salads, including a variety of chilled octopus and squid as well as a large stack of freshly shucked oysters on a bed of ice.  While I love oysters, raw oysters are not an item that I would typically approach on a comparatively low cost buffet.  Nonetheless, I gave one a try and it actually tasted quite fresh and tasty.  I tried a couple more and all were equally fresh, except for one that tasted slightly funny and brought me back to earth that wasn’t in the French Quarter or at Elliot’s Oyster House in Seattle.

I by-passed the hot offerings of the usual fried suspects and Asian dishes including spare-ribs, sesame chicken, tempura and more.  As I neared the sushi line, one item caught my eye which was a lobster roll which reminded me of one my favorite Lobster Dynamite rolls at Kiku.  However, these roll were large, deep fried like an egg roll and filled with mostly fake lobster with what appeared to be a few tiny bits of real lobster along the way.  Nonetheless, they were pretty tasty though somewhat greasy.

Alas, I arrived at the sushi as chefs were frantically carving up whole salmon and assembling a variety of rolls.  There was a nice balance of rolls, sushi and sashimi.  I selected a couple of pieces of rainbow roll, spicy salmon rolls, crunch rolls and something I had never had before, spicy crawfish rolls.  As for sushi, they had tuna, salmon, white fish, mackerel, shrimp, eel and the egg.  Sashimi included red snapper, tuna and salmon.  Finally, there were a couple of marinated sashimi incorporating tuna and one other fish I couldn’t determine.  At the end, there was open access to spicy mayo, wasabi and sauces.  The pickled ginger was the sweetest and tastiest I think I’ve ever had.  One constructive criticism I have is it seems there is an excessive overuse of artificial crab meat across their line of sushi rolls which often overwhelms the much smaller quantities of actual fish.

All in all, the sushi offerings were fresh tasting and enjoyable.  I must admit I was a bit surprised and enjoyed the open access to such a variety.  For the price, Nagoya is definitely a good fix for sushi lovers.   At the same time, one cannot expect to have the highest quality you would find at other non-buffet sushi bars.  Even more, because they are preparing so quickly, my first piece of salmon was actually slightly warm which doesn’t make for the most refreshing piece of sushi.  Nonetheless, I will definitely go back knowing it is fresh and won’t cost me $50 to get my sushi fix.

There is a hibachi chef at the end which I didn’t call upon, but my wife did and the quality seemed somewhat comparable to what you might find sitting at a hibachi table minus the irresistible theatrics.

The dessert bar seemed almost as long as the entree line consisting of fresh fruit, cakes, cheesecakes and other assorted confections.  You won’t be able to miss the tiny slice of an ice cream parlor at the end where servers scoop up a selection of more than 10 hand dipped ice creams.  In all, the desserts are what you might expect in terms of quality for a large moderately priced buffet but nothing of “otherworldly” delicious quality.

I won’t go too deeply into what happened when we attempted to split the bill and apply a 10% off coupon we clipped from the newspaper, but needless to say it was a horribly frustrating 30 minutes in which nobody associated with the restaurant wanted to take care of the situation.  Just have them start with separate bills and everything should be okay.

CONCLUSION: If you go to Nagoya, approach it for what it is… a gigantic Asian buffet extravaganza full of goodness, but not the greatness you would expect to find at a higher end sushi bar, like Kiku, or Asian restaurant, such as Joy Yee Noodles.  Let’s face it, most any buffet is a trade-off of “depth” of quality for “breadth” of offering so leave your highest foodie expectations at home and have a good time exploring the vast variety of decent quality.  As for the service, I hope the owners and management of Nagoya will read this and work on it.  As for you, don’t expect much in the line of service and you won’t be disappointed.  I will definitely go back, especially for the lunch price of $11.95 (Dinner is $19.95).

To learn more or to get all the information you need, visit Nagoya’s website here.

A Weekday in Downtown Naperville at Tasso’s Greek Cuisine, Naperville Running Company, Gelati and Le Chocolat

Not Downtown Naperville, but the City Center of Trento, Italy

The sun was shining today despite the swirling winter winds.  It was great to finally reconnect with Downtown Naperville today after having been in Europe for the majority of 2010 thus far.  A long overdue homecoming indeed.

The joy of starting your own business is you move from working most of the time to most days working all the time.  With the pressures of start-up comes the loss of those fleeting moments you thought you would have with all the new found elusive “flexibility” in your life.  Nonetheless, I wouldn’t change a thing!

Today I took  Downtown Naperville “by storm”, meeting my wife for lunch at the newly opened Tasso’s Greek Cuisine. My wife loves Mediterranean food and I thought it would be a “slam dunk”, however, I realized as our meal progressed that March Madness is still weeks away.  Truthfully, I wanted to love Tasso’s as did my wife, but our experience was rather average in terms of food and service.  We will give them another chance and I do hope they succeed.

After lunch, we headed down to the Naperville Running Company to appropriately buy some new running shoes, perhaps subconsciously believing that we could manifest an early Spring in doing so.  As for the Naperville Running Company, you don’t need me to tell you how great they are as their well-known reputation speaks for itself.  What a tremendous approach to small business, passion and service.  If you are a lifelong runner or considering taking up running for the first time… run as fast as you can to Naperville Running Company to get on the right track and make you feel as though you are part of the running community no matter your fitness level.

After buying our running shoes, the only natural next stop was a couple of doors down at Gelati of Naperville for a SMALL cup of gelato.  I will admit it was my first visit AND I was consuming gelato in February AND just after spending three-and-a-half weeks in Italy, so I have agreed to return when the warm weather arrives to give them another shot.  I will say that Gelati of Naperville is definitely the type of Downtown Naperville business I would love to survive as they are both local and fun Downtown Naperville option.

Finally, with shopping on her mind my wife and I parted ways and I headed for my car.  Though, out of the corner of my eye as I began to cross Washington Street was Le Chocolat Bar.  Again, I am ashamed to confess that until today I had not stepped foot into their Downtown location since moving from their obscure former location on 5th Street behind Naperville North High School.  Though I had just consumed gelato, my memories of European chocolate were fresh enough in my mind to curiously lead me through their front door.  Upon walking in, I was floored by what an amazing job they have done in creating the genuine atmosphere of “Chocotopia”.  Retail national and international chocolate to the left, chocolate-by-the-piece case to the right and a long bar farther back in the shop for an assortment of indulgent drinks.  I browsed around comparing my mental notes of the many chocolate shops I had spent time in Italy, buying gifts of course, and the experience felt very familiar.  I had to at least sample something so I approached the chocolate-by-the-piece case and was warmly greeted.  After sharing some notes on different types of chocolate, I was offered a complimentary piece of their own dark chocolate, which was quite firm but a decadent balance between sweet and bitter richness.  This is yet another Downtown Naperville business we must all support as, again, they are local and provide a memorable experience to anyone visiting Downtown Naperville.

It’s great to be back in Naperville and I look forward to a renewal of my regular visits to Downtown AND my postings to the World of Naperville.  SM

White Chocolate Grill Launches ‘WCG Cooks’ Cooking Show with Pumpkin Cheesecake in Naperville

If you were at the White Chocolate Grill on October 21st, it may have looked a bit like Food Network was invading the kitchen.  Though it wasn’t Food Network, the White Chocolate Grill began production of a new online cooking show, WCG Cooks, filming during the dinner rush at its Naperville location.  What is the source of my inside information?  The answer is my new firm, Social Frequency Media Communications, produced the first two episodes.

The series, which features WCG Executive Chef, Robert Kabakoff, and Chef/Owner Bobby Fitzgerald, takes viewers behind-the-scenes into the WCG kitchen to celebrate great food, explore ingredients,  see how menu favorites are prepared and to learn great tasting recipes you can replicate at home.  Episode one focuses on a refreshing spin on a seasonal favorite, Pumpkin Cheesecake.  Hungry yet?  You can experience episode one below.

Another benefit of producing these first two episodes is being able to sample the finished product and let me say WCG’s Pumpkin Cheesecake is amazing.  But you don’t have to produce a cooking show to try this Pumpkin Cheesecake, just head on over to the White Chocolate Grill Naperville for a slice.  SM

The Tale of a Perfect Date Night in Naperville, Complete with a Little Joy Yee and Tutto Dolce

As any of you with a young family will attest, it is truly a rare occasion when the planets align with the stars and moon to offer an evening window for a simple old-fashioned date, free of chicken tenders, plastic kid’s cups, broken crayons and other unexpected outbursts of fatigue-induced pint-size drama.  Simply put, date nights for husbands and wives make us much better moms and dads. 

With the Labor Day Weekend in full “Fling”, one such opportunity presented itself last evening.  Now your first assumption would be that we headed into Downtown Naperville for Last Fling, right?…BZZZZZZ… wrong!  While it was a tempting thought to walk along hand-in-hand amidst the twinkling lights of carnival midway and smell of powder-smothered funnel cakes riding upon the gentle September breeze, we opted to go a different direction all together in branching out to try somewhere entirely new… well at least new to us.

As you may recall, we moved to South Naperville last year and its now easy to understand the geographic divide between North and South given the route and commute times.  Nonetheless, the movie we wanted to see, 500 Days of Summer, was at AMC Cantera so we decided to head somewhere on the Northeast side of Naperville.  The choice was easy as I’d been wanting to go to Joy Yee’s Noodles, well, for about 4 years now. 

Located in Iroquois Center just west of Naper Blvd, Joy Yee’s Noodles lives up to its authentic pan-asian experience which I first learned about from WTTTW’ Check Please program ( click here to see the WTTW Check, Please video on Joy Yee’s location in Chinatown).  We headed over about 6:30 PM thinking that it would be a quiet Sunday evening.  To the contrary, as we pulled up we saw a crowd out front carefully examining over-sized menus.  Had the kids been in tow, we may have kept driving… but hey, this was date night and the world was our oyster… if only for a couple of hours.

Speaking of “pearls”, I will confess that I love fresh fruit smoothie/freeze drinks loaded with those large black tapioca pearls and completed with one extra-wide straw.  At Joy Yee’s, these drinks are a main event as the first thing you see when you walk in is the the wall of fresh fruits and the drink assembly station.  Though the place was packed, we were warmly greeted by the host and a bit surprised when he said the wait would be around 10 minutes.  He was right and soon we were seated among the sea of tapioca fruit freeze slurping humanity. 

The place was crowded and tables were packed close together, but I really liked this fact as it added to the charm of walking into the door of a Naperville restaurant that truly transports you to Chinatown.  Even more, the closer you are seated to others, the easier it is to quickly eyeball the dishes being served up as the commitment-averse should beware, Joy Yee’s menu is a bit mind-boggling with its wide assortment Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese and a touch of Chineese culinary offerings.

We started with, of course, a couple of fruit freeze drinks.   Mine was Strawberry and Lychee with a nice gob of tapioca pearls and my wife’s a Mango and Lychee minus the gelatinous chewy wonders.  My wife spent a number of weeks in China when she was in high school, which is where she developed a fond affection for the exotic tree-fruit lychee.  Perhaps the best part is that Joy Yee not only offers  quality and selection when it comes to the ”bubble” fruit freezes, but their prices in the $3.50 – $4.o0 range is great.  This should be a lesson to the other Asian restaurants in town that offer the same tapioca fruit smoothie drinks for $5.00 and up… and you know who you are.   

As we emerged from our disoriented menu-scanning haze, we were actually more confused than when we first opened the epic volume.  Knowing that we wanted to try a dish that we had never eaten before, we went with our gut instinct which was telling us a relentless blast of hunger was closing in on us, which drove us back to the first thing that caught our eye.  For me, it was the Spicy Korean Pork served on a hot plate and for my wife… well, it was a pot full of rice, beef, cabbage, hot sauce, onions and fried egg on top.  Both dishes were absolutely delicious and only got better as the flavors continued to combine before our eyes once the food reached the table. 

One word of caution, the innocent benign-looking slivers of dark green peppers hanging out on the spicy pork hot plate like a peaceful Friday night at the “Gas-n-Sip” are, in fact, sleeping volcanic daggers of tongue-numbing, head-melting shock waves which burn slowly through your mouth up to the top of your head like a slow-burning explosives fuse.   Once the cute little pepper has you in its merciless clutches, your only choice is to ride out its fury and hope the table next to you doesn’t spot the shower of sweat cascading off your sizzling forehead.

Despite my lapse in judgment as the other peppers on the plate mocked my foolishness for eating their little green cousin, the meal was absolutely delightful leaving us in antipation of our next trip to Joy Yee’s.  The good news continued when we received our bill, which was under $30… including our towering fresh fruit freezes.  A great all-around culinary and cultural experience, which left me lamenting the fact it has taken so long to check out Joy Yee’s. 

Upon emerging from the bright and colorful strip mall space into the crisp moonlit breeze, our only thought was to make the walk to our car as long as possible to “burn” a few minutes as we were still early for our movie time.  Two doors down from Joy Yee’s, we discovered another unexpectedly delightful experience in Tutto Dolce Gelato.  I mentioned to my wife that it might be nice to have something to cleanse the pallet as she said, “what, the giant fruit freeze wasn’t enough?”.   A point well taken, but still we had time to kill and I love checking out new Naperville spots. 

Now I’ve had gelato locally and in Europe which leaves me a bit spoiled, but Tutto Dolce really impressed me in its quality and variety.  The other factor that really impressed me was the service as the owner was more than happy to patiently serve as our host in providing samples from one end of the freezer case to the other.  We talked about the gelato-making process and the fact his humble-yet-affordable strip mall location enables him to spend more money on quality ingredients.  You can see the passion and creativity in Tutto Dolce, which we were told has been around a for a while, but recently changed ownership. 

If you aren’t familiar with gelato, allow me to give you two great reasons to give it a try.  First, it’s less fattening than regular ice cream or custard and, second, it is smoother, creamier and more flavorful in my estimation.  While we were told that Blood Orange is their best-seller, my heart found its home with the Chocolate Orange.  It’s almost like eating the chilled center of a chocolate truffle with a touch of orange citrus.  Is there a better combination?  Tutto Dolce has one full case of fruit-based gelatos and another entirely consisting of new spins on familiar favorites, such as French Vanilla, Coffee, Chocolate and Banana.  For these reasons and more, I can only rave about Tutto Dolce and will be back very very soon.  This is a gem which is deserving of our local support and enjoyment. 

The evening would have been a wonderful success even if it had ended there, but we proceeded to Cantera and really enjoyed 500 Days of Summer… a great date movie which can be truly enjoyed by those of us who are much further down life’s path than the film’s characters, but at the same time remember the trials and tribulations of finding and falling in love.  In a way, a special date night like this one is almost like falling in love all over again as we pause to cherish and reminisce about the past and look toward the future.  All too soon, we were pulling our carriage back into the garage as it returned to the more familiar form the family car, complete with booster seats, matchbox cars and coloring books in the backseat.  SM