Grampa’s Pizzeria, Madison, WI

Despite the somewhat confounding spelling of the word I would presume to be “grandpa”, the pizzas this place is pulling out of their oven are not confusing at all, in fact, it’s crystal clear they’re delicious. On a recent Saturday evening, I spent a lovely couple of hours on their patio enjoying not one, but four of their popular Neapolitan-style preset pizza options. 

We chose to get two pizzas and 1/2 a preset on each  so, 4 x 0.5 = 2. Get it? You may not, but my stomach did. We went with these four - Brassacre (cute name), Carbeniri, Peperoni and classic Cheese. 

Cracker like and slightly charred crust, excellent toppings with some kick (where appropriate), and great cheese - I mean, I'm in Wisconsin after all. I do like a box-cut (yes, that's what that's called) on a thin crust pizza, which makes it easier to fold pieces over on each other and make a little sandwich.

Fair to say, I thought the pizzas were really good, and we even saved a little room for dessert. Hard to pass up Chocolate Mousse…  

It looked really thick, heavy, and rich, but it was light, almost fluffy, chilled and perfect after the pizza.

Service, which is always a bit of a pain in a college town, was excellent. Our waitress, Amy, helped us the whole night, even when I pestered her about free sugar cookies I spied on the kitchen pass through when I put in my name. They came with the check (and I took that and the leftovers home - bam!).

I would like to go back almost as soon as I can. Don’t miss it if you find yourself in the neighborhood. 

The Garage Food Hall, Indianapolis, IN

It seems like many cities have virtually always had these markets or food halls, with the latter option now becoming more popular. I recall grabbing a cheese steak in Philly's marketplace decades ago. Many large cities in other countries have something like this as well. Well, now Indy has stepped-up to the plate and created their own.

To be clear, I don't think you should be visiting Indy without a stop to this new, refurbished former production space. The food hall is in the former "garage" for a historic Coca-Cola bottling plant. From what I gathered being there, this was the spot in Indy where Coke was bottled and delivered by trucks to the entire metro area for a long, long time. I can imagine back in the day that this was a very busy, bustling plant and area. It's now been renovated inside and out as a mixed-use development. In a ~2-3 block area, it already contains this food hall, a hotel, a day spa, retail shops, a really cool duckpin bowling alley/bar, a very nice new movie theater and more. It also has a second phase for residential development in the works. This is going to be one hip, happening spot in no time (if not already).

Since it has this Coke history behind it, that's what I focused on for this post. In reality, there are so many food options that I wouldn't have been able to to them all justice with only my single stomach to partake. Know that it seemed like anyone in your clan would be covered for food options at this place, including: raw oyster bar, Indian, lobster/seafood, tacos, arepas, fish & chips, pizza/Italian, burgers, plenty of beer/alcohol options, and many more food types and spots I'm sure I'm forgetting. It also seems like more are opening everyday.

Many of the art deco buildings are faced with a wonderfully rich, glazed-white terra cotta tiling, with gilded lettering that makes it almost feel like you're stepping back in time. That's a nice way to invite people in and welcome them to a new space. You can read more about it HERE.

Inside the Food Hall, you find relics of the bottling history of the buildings. You can see pumps, historic workwear, Coca-Cola memorabilia, and more. It was all very fun to run into these things as I wandered around trying to pick my perfect food spot for the day. You certainly get the feel for the history that this area and these buildings contain. Many of us know think of soda/pop as a bad thing, but back then, this was a highly in-demand product and many workers would have been very proud to work there and represent this brand in the community. For me, I can feel that as I walked through the spaces.

This is one quote that stuck with me from my short research - "Over the years, the Massachusetts Avenue plant grew into the world's largest bottling plant, with 260 workers who produced 2.25 million bottles of Coca-Cola a week, he said. It thrived until cans took over the market in the 1960s."

I wonder if these was breathable on a hot day, {gulp}... just grab a cold Coke!

This is their first automated bottle "capper". A person would use this machine to cap the bottles.

See the little red Coke bottlecaps?

I already know that I need to go back - for more history lessons and more food options. Again, I don't think this place should be missed if you're in Indy.

Union Pizzeria, Evanston, IL

As any good girl or boy should, I love pizza. Any style, almost any day. Luckily for me, there's a 5-star rated joint across the street from me. It's pretty fancy, upscale pizza, made right in the wood oven on-site, but dang is it good. It costs as much as you'd expect it to, maybe more, but that still won't stop me from enjoying it at a reasonable frequency (daily?).

Great one-pager for the menu... I loose concentration easily in pizza places.

Check out the tasty-making embers!!!

Count the lights while you wait...

And then it starts to arrive... Mangia!!!

This was their Pizza of the Week selection...

Great people-watching, great service, nice folks all around. The food speaks for itself and I can totally taste why they have a 5-star rating on Google/Yelp. The really swell part is I had enough to take home for another meal the next night. Gotta love leftovers. Union, I will be back!!!

Stubby's Bowling Alley, Waterloo, WI

Thanks to a work event, I got to see firsthand that cool little bowling alleys still exist in America. I fondly recall memories from childhood of walking into a bar (and pretty quickly) into the back of the establishment, which had 8 beautiful bowling lanes snuck inside.

Stubby's is a lot like that place. Just 6 lanes inside, with a bar on the left. Balls seemed to have become fancier (finger-tip type abound) and the shoes were fine if you got a new pair... so-so if you got an old pair (like me). They were all dolled-up for Halloween and you couldn't miss it. Otherwise, I'd say this is a pretty no-frills kind of place, where people definitely go for the bowling.

Finally, the beers & pizzas came fast & furious, just like I like 'em. I'm pretty sure we tried all the pizza options - "Deluxe" was good, but the clear winner was "The Porker". Just give me all the meats, with bacon, please (last pic).