Road Trip 2025 - Chicago to Zion National Park

We're on another mostly camping trip (I've posted on Shopping and Cooking for what we're making ourselves), but there have been a couple restaurant meals so far.

Clocktower Cafe, Springfield IL
A rainy morning, we decided to get breakfast before our Dana-Thomas house tour. Great service, tasty food, but to much money to do this sort of thing daily.

Pere Marquette State Park Lodge, IL
Same day, raining again. Really good catfish and pork chop. Reasonable prices. Fried chicken is supposed to be very good.

IHOP, Jonesboro AR
Another rainy morning (2+ inches!), we couldn't find the cafe that was highly rated by Google, settled for what we saw next. Pretty dull food, indifferent service, awful and loud pop music, charged for milk for the coffee. Even with Senior pricing, cost as much as Clocktower with less food

Taco Mama, Hot Springs AR
Supposedly one of the best restaurants in town, was good but nothing that'd get noticed in Chicago. Service was a little spare. I liked the fish taco, and shredded beef burrito with queso and salsa roja. Sue's sope was good but tamale was dry.

Unless there's bad weather, we're likely to cook for ourselves until we hit Santa Fe.

Saw the title, thought it might be a tour of hot dog stands and pizza places from Chicago to Zion IL!

Heh - I updated the title for clarity.

Only one other data point: Braum's Ice Cream and Dairy Market. We stopped at one in Henrietta, Oklahoma but I've seen a couple more since.

On this trip up until now we've had mediocre to poor IC - what we had in Hot Springs AR was icy and bland.

Braum's has most of the usual flavors but right now they're featuring Mexican specials. SueF had Sopaipilla Cheesecake, I had Piñon. The former was too sweet for me, the latter was barely sweet, pink in color with lots of roasted pine nuts making it toasty and rich.

A single scoop in a waffle cone is $1.99. Shakes start at $2.29. generous servings and great prices. They also have burgers, and a small grocery store, including some meat and produce but mostly dairy and ice cream. If Oberweiss had their business model they'd have lines out the door, but maybe flat broke - I don't know how they're so inexpensive.

I'll stop at another if I get a chance.

At Palo Duro Canyon south of Amarillo, SueF bought tickets to a dinner theater package - schlocky Texas:The Musical following a chuck wagon dinner. I can't recommend either.
The dinner featured a big slice of brisket, sausage, beans, bread, potato salad, slaw, banana pudding, soft drinks and condiments of sauce, sliced onion, pickles and pickled jalapeno.
Overall everything was bland. No bark on the beef, no snap or spice on the sausage. I'm spoiled I guess by what's in my freezer.

A couple very good meals in Santa Fe;

The Pantry, a diner-like place with Mexican and New Mexican dishes. My burger with green chile was quite good, and their red table salsa is one of the best I've had.

The Pantry
1820 Cerrillos Rd, Santa Fe, NM 87505
www.pantrysantafe.com

Sazón (pronounced Cezanne) is high end New Mexican. The amuse is Styx miles and mini tortillas to get a guest of the menu. For starters SueF and I split an olive oil-poached octopus and pork belly (awesome and tender) and zucchini blossoms over a balsamic-dressed salad (great cheese inside but breading a little heavy), then one of their specialities, Sopa De Amor which is a poblano cream, blue crab, amaretto foam, and Mexican cocoa dust. Truly outstanding and I plan to riff on that at an upcoming party. Mains were halibut in a tomatillo mile for me, and duck breast in mole poblano for SueF, both of which were awesome.

Sazón
221 Shelby St, Santa Fe, NM 87501
www.sazonsantafe.com

For dessert, we went to Coyote Cafe, whose award-winning pastry chef is the daughter of a friend. More on this later.

Had a very nice lunch at Jean Pierre in Durango, CO: We split a French onion soup and a croque monsieur, which included a salad. Both were outstanding. We also got a baguette to go, which you may read about in my cooking on the road thread.

Jean Pierre Bakery and Wine Bar
601 Main Ave, Durango, CO 81301
https://www.jeanpierrebaker.com/

At Four Corners Monument (which is on tribal land, not a national park service site), we had a very nice Navajo Fry Bread with powdered sugar from Grandma's Fry Bread - I'd put it up against Cafe Du Monde's beignets any day.

The lodge at Grand Canyon North Rim served a fine meal with outstanding service. They advised that water, and bread service are by request, so we requested and were refilled without a charge. Wedge salad was spot on. Crystal Creek Trout was outstanding, as was SueF's flank steak, both with chimmichurri, and oddly asparagus (while out of season it was very fresh tasting). Prices were only moderately high given the premium location. Pics later.

That sounds great, Joel & Sue. Can't wait to see the pics!

A couple Moab points of interest:

Antica Forma has a Neapolitan pizzaiolo certificate and a big word burning oven, but was just ok. The pizza could have used a little more crisp and char, but was very flavorful (white pizza with truffle oil, mushrooms and prosciutto). The calamari could also have used a little more time in the fryer - a mix of skinny tentacle tables and wide slabs of body, neither was quite crisp enough. The pere e gorgonzola salad was very good - points for roasting the sliced almonds

Antica Forma
267 N Main St, Moab, UT 84532
http://www.anticaforma.com/

We'd tried to go to Milt's Stop & Eat the first evening but although Google and their signs say open daily, they were closed on Sunday. But Monday night they were rocking. Stellar smash burgers (New Mexico green chili for me, bacon and blue for her).. terrific onion rings, great chocolate shake, fries sort of halfway to chips. They offer Le Fleur Fry Sauce, which I though was better on the rings. And cheap - with tip only $36. No inside dining which is a little tough when it's 99F in the shade, but there were plenty of picnic tables in that shade.

Milt's Stop & Eat
356 S Mill Creek Dr, Moab, UT 84532
https://order.toasttab.com/online/milts ... l-creek-dr

Salida (pronounced sal-I-da) CO claims to have the country's largest historic district. It's full of outdoor outfitters, galleries for apres-ski ennui spending, and a lot of coffee and ice cream places.

One not to miss is Salida Pharmacy and Fountain. The ice cream was fine but the service is something from a bygone era: ice cream floats with syrup mixed into soda water and the scoop of ice cream hanging off the side. Waring shake blenders. Torching marshmallow fluff for another customer's sundae. Huge mirrored barback (sodaback?). And a full service pharmacy. I'll post pics when I get home.

Salida Pharmacy and Fountain
137 F St, Salida, CO 81201
https://www.salidapf.com/

A couple more data points:

Fly Boy Brewery & Eats
105 N Main St #8135, Sylvan Grove, KS 67481
https://m.facebook.com/flyboybreweryandeats/

Too hot to cook, this was one of the few restaurants near the Stone Post scenic byway. Aviation kitsch. A lot of beer varieties but neither of us care for beer. Service was outstanding, food was ok (might have been better if we didn't go for chicken fried steak and chicken fried chicken, but neither of us felt like a big steak or pasta). Salad dressings included "Dorothy Lynch" which the server seemed baffled about when we asked to describe it, "it's orange." Similar to Kraft French, apparently made with tomato soup.

The Cozy Inn
108 N 7th St, Salina, KS 67401
Https://www.cozyburger.com

Tiny shop opened in 1922 n response to a White Castle in Wichita, they're still slinging out oniony sliders, 6 for a little over $10. No cheese, just ketchup, mustard and pickle. They have packaged chips and canned soft drinks and that's it. But they're wonderful little two-to-three bite burgers.