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Davooda, thanks for the tip on the tenderloin sandwich at the Grafton Winery. My mother-in-law comes from Grafton, and my husband has family all over the area down there. It's been a few years, but I usually confine my eating to catfish, catfish and more catfish when I am down there -- I'll have to make a detour on our next trip.

Suzy

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" There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life."
- Frank Zappa

Grafton has other delights as well. There are a couple more wineries, plus one (can't remember the name) which has an adjacent wine store featuring lots of MO and IL wines. Keep your eye peeled especially for Norton-Chambourcin blends, which have fared *extremely* well in judgings. I've had a couple of these blends from local Southern IL wineries that offer excellent value for money.

Also, there's a fish market, Beasley's IIRC, that has several sorts of smoked fish. Delish.

Wonderfully funky little town, Grafton, ALWAYS worth a visit!

Geo

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Sooo, you like wine and are looking for something good to read? Maybe *this* will do the trick!

We started our second RV trip of the spring May 8 and planned our route across I-80 in Illinois.  We arrived at the Village Grille in Naplate, Illinois near Ottawa just as it was closing at 2 PM. Luck was with us. The cook agreed to stick around and fry up a tenderloin for us. Knowing in advance from online reports they were monster size we asked for two buns for the one sandwich so we could split it. It was thick, juicy and delicious.


We camped overnight at the Indiana Dunes State Park and easy drive onward to Huntington, IN. The next day Nick's Kitchen was closed when we got there due to a power outage. Fortunately, the owner, JeanAnne Bailey knew we were coming and let us in. Also, fortunately, the gas deep fryer runs without electricity and with the aid of us shining our iPhone flashlight apps to see we were able to fry up a couple BPTs along with still cold XXX Rootbeer and some homemade butterscotch pie. So, if you were one of the unfortunates dropping by for lunch peering in the windows and seeing an old gristled white hair guy sitting in the dark and wondering, it was me having this...


We continued on to Northern, VA. As far east as Virginia they have breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches. In Nokesville, VA near Manassas. I had this one at the Chuckwagon Restaurant...


The Chuckwagon tenderloin was every bit as good as the Midwest variety. Sometimes the farther you get from the Midwest the more the difference in interpretation of the sandwich.

I wasn't done in the Washington DC area. My last tenderloin was interestingly right on historic King Street in Alexandria Old Town, Virginia. The place was Murphy's, a Grand Irish Pub. They only serve a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich on the dinner menu starting at 3 PM. So on a casual daytime visit you could miss out. Naturally I delayed lunch until then. It was a fortuitous find I wasn't expecting. I knew ahead of time about the previous place in Nokesville and just happened to decide to check out Murphy's because I had stopped there over 20 years ago. The tenderloin was OK but as you can see it was in the fryer a little too long.


After Virginia it was on to West Virginia and then Kentucky. No finds there but I wasn't looking. The serious pursuit started again in Indianapolis. The Stacked Pickle tenderloin in Carmel, IN on Old Meridian Street was our first destination. What you see on top is their special sauce they put on the sandwich during preparation. You can order it without. They also have a with cheese option and a grilled option. 


This was one of the thicker tenderloin cuts so the sandwich did not exceed the large bun much. Despite the thickness they managed to fry it perfectly. 


I was in Indianapolis for my annual Indy 500 and high school class reunion. Friday's Carb Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was exciting. I think the new cars looked great. That Indy Lites 100 race was exciting with cars going two abreast through the turns faster than parading NASCAR Sprint cars do on that track. We skipped out after the race and went down to the Workingman's Friend, a local dive bar on Belmont Avenue just north of Washington Street. I hadn't been there for some 50 years back in my underage years buying 6 packs out the back door. It hadn't changed. The coal yard down the street is gone. I think I should have gotten the burger. The advertised giant tenderloin was nothing but a fritter just like the Mug 'n Bun in Speedway.


Friday night I attended our Speedway HS annual mini class reunion at Grindstone Charley's in Speedway. We have a standing reservation for the back room the Friday night before the race and I believe this might be the 17th consecutive year. This BTW was our 50th year. They always have a tenderloin as a menu choice named after me but this time my other half decided I had exceeded my quota for the day, actually the week for sneaking out to the Workingman's Friend. So I snapped this photo of a classmate's tenderloin. Over the years I've had a lot of tenderloins there so really did not need to sample it. It looked as good as before.


The last tenderloin in our Indy stay was at Squealer's Barbeque Restaurant on West 86th Street in Indianapolis Saturday night before the race. My wife, Nurse Cratchet, as one of my classmate friends called her at the reunion was still on a kick monitoring my healthy eating habits. I suggested someone had to order a tenderloin. So, my wife gave up her normal Cobb salad and ordered this one. It was so good she wouldn't share it with me other than an obligatory sample bite.


After our stay in Indianapolis we headed north to Michigan's Upper Peninsula in pursuit of the pastie.

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Davydd
www.porktenderloinsandwich.com

Great stuff, Davydd! I especially love the Nick's Kitchen part of the story.

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-Mary

Here, while it lasts, is a slideshow link from the Indianapolis Star featuring some choice Indiana tenderloins (mostly breaded and sandwiched). Many - but perhaps not all - have been covered here before. I do like how it shows the ubiquity of the tenderloin in the Hoosier State.

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JiLS

I finally got the chance to stop in at the oldest restaurant along Route 66 on Sunday as we were driving back from St. Louis. The Ariston Cafe located in Litchfield, Illinois has been up and running since 1924 when it was founded by a Greek immigrant in Carlinville. It gets a few mentions here and there and I was tempted to give them their own thread but read on and you'll see why I'll do that next time around. The Cafe moved to Litchfield in 1929 then into its present location along old Route 66 in 1935. It's been all in the family since day one which means it still is today.


Litchfield, Illinois along Old Route 66

My buddy who I was with has been pretty much everywhere down there since he's been making the rounds around the state for years now but he'd never been here so we were both first timers. Along with us there was an eclectic mix of local families there for some after church eating and bikers riding the old road. It seemed to me as if most everyone in there had been at least once. They were doing good business and most people there seemed to be enjoying their weekend brunch buffet which I guess is really popular with the people of Montgomery County. Add that to the fact it is said to be the oldest running restaurant and it's in the Route 66 Hall of Fame and you can see why while lots of other places are long gone Ariston Cafe remains.


A view of the main dining room from a booth

Ariston doesn't open until 11a so they don't have a breakfast menu. Except for when they do their buffet which was an option and looked/smelled very tempting but I had just spent a couple days pigging out and didnt want a coma inducing breakfast along with AYCE fried chicken and dessert. My buddy said he was going to go with the breaded tenderloin and how thats pretty much what he always goes with when he's down in Central Illinois and is eating at a bar or regular old restaurant. He told me it's not just corn dogs, horseshoes and chili that they love down there but tenderloins too are very popular and usually very good. Our waitress confirmed his thought when she rec'd that as her favorite thing there. I went with an old diner classic, open faced roast beef sandwich served with real mashed potatoes and real gravy. We split the two in half to share.


Open Faced Roast Beef Sandwich

The roast beef was very good and downright comforting. About everything you could expect. But I left wishing I had just got a breaded tenderloin of my own instead. They had a really nice example. It was definitely hand battered while being perfectly fried and a pleasure to eat the half I was allowed. It was big enough to still go outside the bun but not to the point where you couldn't eat it as a sandwich because of it. The people working this place were all very nice and welcoming and the tenderloin is terrific. I would recommend a stop to anyone passing thru hungry for some non chain food. I look forward to finding out where the other great places with top notch breaded tenderloins are at down in Central Illinois. Happy Cruising.


Breaded Pork Tenderloin Sandwich

Ariston Cafe
413 N Old Route 66 (at Route 16)
Litchfield, IL 62056
(217) 324-2023

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Smokin' Chokin' and Chowing

Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern was in Des Moines last week filming for an episode to be aired before the end of the year. The local place he visited called a couple TV stations who rushed down to cover the news of his arrival and sandwich eating. He described the BPT as "porky" but not "swiney", and that makes sense somehow for a guy who has eaten every part of the pig and feels right at home in the butcher shop:



According to Zimmern and the shows producers, BPTs are "bizarre". The show is on cable in 70 countries, some of which may not have BPTs.

The Chicago Tribune had an article this weekend with quotes from the owners of Augusta in Oxford, Breitbachs in Balltown, and Goldies in Prairie City. Their picture on the website is Goldies:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012 ... que-county

Man, talk about your HUGE pork tender (or pork schnitzel in this case)!! A buddy sent me the reference to Waldgeist, a bar-resto outside Frankfort Germany, where their schnitzel is "XXL". Altho' the video is in German, you'll be able to see the size of the 'breaded pork tender' for yourself.

Ouf!

Geo

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Sooo, you like wine and are looking for something good to read? Maybe *this* will do the trick!

Yeah, there's also a whole chain of restaurants in Hungary called Bécsiszelet (literally, "Wiener Schnitzel"/"Vienna Cut"), which sell breaded meat cutlets flattened to the size of dinner plates, too. Here's a commercial for the visual. I enjoyed many a schnitzel there. The one you linked to seems like it's a bit thicker, though.

I think Cooking TV show Roadtrip with G. Garvin recently visited Tenderland in Austin TX:

They share their recipe here:
http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes ... index.html

Last Sunday, I enjoyed a solid presentation of the breaded pork tenderloin at the Whistle Stop Restaurant outside Monon, Indiana, a place I'd never heard of and, located as it is on a remote stretch of 421 north of Lafayette, I can see why. The tenderloin was prepared fresh, relatively thick and not pounded out too thin, so very moist and toothsome. The bun was also above average, a potato roll in kaiser roll form that stood up to the heavy load of breaded pork.

The restaurant is noteworthy for the plethora of really high-quality railroad memorabilia (e.g., the ceiling lights are salvage from a now-defunct train station in Chicago, while a veritable rail yard of cabooses, tenders, and signage are arrayed outside), but most notably, they have a model railroad hanging from the ceiling that will blow your mind; two tracks, totaling a (claimed/alleged) quarter mile of steel snaking through the place. For a separate charge, one can tour their railroad museum; we were not in the market, but maybe next time.

Better, by the way, than the decent pork tenderloin was the ham steak sandwich ordered by Mrs. JiLS, slathered with swiss cheese, onion, and mayonnaise, this was one of the most surprisingly delicious things I've eaten in some time. A charming, unexpected, and well-run little restaurant with a theme they take very seriously.

Here are some links for anyone seeking more info on "the Whistle Stop in Monon, Indiana"

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JiLS

The Ale Emporium in NE Indianapolis offers up an excellent specimen. Always fresh, not overly breaded, you can distinctly taste the good quality pork. As you might guess from the name, great beer selection. I'd suggest pairing the sandwich with a draft Sun King Osiris, brewed downtown. Very well made beer and served from respectfully clean tap lines. If you're blowing through town on the way to somewhere else the location is convenient. less then 5 minutes from I 465 and I 69.

Looking for breaded pork tenderloin locations along I-55 between Chicago and Springfield (other than Culver's). Family day trip in two weeks.

Set your GPS for Lincoln, Illinois for Hallie's for their schnitzel sandwiches aka breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. Their chicken salad sandwich is pretty good, too. The last time we were there, it was BYOB.

Hallie's
111 S Kickapoo St
Lincoln IL
217-732-6923

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Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
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My wife who, having grown up with them, is a bit of a tenderloin fiend, has been raving about this incarnation from Tillie's Icon in Alexandria, IN, ever since she returned from a visit home a couple of weeks ago . . .


Breaded Pork Tenderloin from Tillie's

=R=

Tillie's Icon
724 W Washington St
Alexandria, IN 46001
(765) 724-7000

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Twitter: ronniesuburban

We headed south in our RV March 1st and now in hindsight we were fortunate to miss most of the Midwest nasty winter. On our way south we did stop at Nick's in Des Moines, Iowa for a luncheon tenderloin. I liked this one much better than the nearby Smitty's in South Des Moines that Iowans seem to like so much.


We drove on to Kansas City and for dinner we went to the High Noon Saloon & Brewery in Leavenworth, Kansas. You don't have to get too far out of the Midwest area of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri before they start calling the sandwich differently. Despite the western themed restaurant, they called this a Schnitzel Sandwich.


We made it to South Padre Island for a few days and then followed the Rio Grande River toward Big Bend National Park with a stop in Mission, Texas on the way at the Riverside Club right on the edge of the Rio Grande. There outdoor deck is right on the water and they serve a traditional Midwest tenderloin that was outstanding. We were so close to Mexico I probably could have frisbee tossed this one across the river. I have now had maybe the southernmost tenderloin and the northernmost tenderloin (Rusty's in Palmer, Alaska) and the northernmost lower 48 tenderloin at Trail Center on the Gunflint Trail in Minnesota (10 miles from Canada border).


My next tenderloin was at Prejean's in Lafayette (Carencro), Louisiana. Prejean's is a Cajun/Creole restaurant so this breaded pork tenderloin was Cajun seasoned and served on a Po'boy bun. The tenderloin fits the bun, not a Midwestern hangover kind. Also, this one was not on the menu as served. I asked for the addition of fried oysters and fried crawfish tails. There's nothing quite like this anywhere else. Loved it.


We went back to South Padre Island and then home to Minnesota but no tenderloin opportunities opened up again on our way, or I should say we were fatigued out on fried food. But then in May it is on to Indiana and the Indy 500 for more opportunities.

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Davydd
www.porktenderloinsandwich.com