Huntsville’s Best Sandwich

(From http://thebestofhuntsville.biz )

      Looking for Huntsville’s best sandwich? You’ll find it at a hometown restaurant called Dallas Mill Deli. I seem to find a new favorite there on every visit.       The deli’s Southern Reuben is tops this week. Order it, and the kitchen staff is quick to explain that this is not the classic pastrami-and-sauerkraut specialty. The Southern Reuben cushions a thick slice of bologna between rye toast. It is dressed with a Thousand Island dressing, kraut, and American cheese. For about $5.50, it is delicious.       Of course, not every customer can appreciate the distinctive tastes of sauerkraut and rye. Worry not. You can still find your own favorite here.         Before the Reuben, the toasted pimiento cheese sandwich was tops. Order it on white or wheat bread. If you ask for it all the way, expect lettuce and tomato. It costs just under $4.        For about the same price, you can get what might be Huntsville’s best burger. It is pretty basic, but with a delightful taste. You never know what makes a cheeseburger special. This one is reminiscent of one served in the bar of Huntsville’s long-ago Boots Restaurant.        Dallas Mill Deli has become legendary as a hometown restaurant in only a few years. It opened in 2006 near the intersection of Pratt Avenue and Washington Street, just outside of the historic Dallas Mill Village. Its walls are covered with pictures and memorabilia from Huntsville’s past.       The deli became a neighborhood hangout for downtown office workers and professionals, as well as residents of the nearby historic districts. After several years in business, it stopped serving breakfast and put a lunch truck on the streets to hit the city’s research parks and construction sites.
      Another of the best choices at Dallas Mill Deli is its strawberry pretzel salad, which is listed as a dessert. It is a refreshing combination of strawberry gelatin and sweetened cream cheese on a pretzel crust. It’s displayed in a glass cooler with other desserts and salads. If you’re on the run, stop and grab a slice of it. You’ll be back soon.
      Dallas Mill Deli is at 500 Pratt Ave. N.W.; zip code 35801. It’s open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The phone number is (256) 489-3354.
Say hello to Kaki, who works there. She’s my daughter.

--November 8, 2012


Farewell to Pauli's
      One of Huntsville’s premier restaurants, Pauli’s Bar and Grill, has closed its doors. Owner Paul Thornton this week e-mailed his loyal patrons that this was “the hardest decision I have ever had to make.”

      Pauli’s and its adjoining tapas restaurant, Vinotini, closed permanently last Friday night. Thornton had planned to turn ownership of the restaurant over to his mother, but “her financing fell apart,” he said. That led to his decision to close.
      Thornton’s message went to customers who participated in his “Birthday Program,” an electronic messaging network that he said he plans to expand city wide. He said customers with gift certificates can e-mail him, and he will find another establishment to honor the offer or make other restitution.
      Pauli’s opened at the corner of Slaughter Road and U.S. 72 West in 1998. Thornton had earned a reputation on the staff of the Green Bottle Grill on Airport Road, which was Huntsville’s top restaurant of the 1980s and ’90s. Matt Martin, also from Green Bottle, had been executive chef at Pauli’s for nearly a decade.
      Thornton’s farewell e-mail thanked his family and friends for their patronage at Pauli’s. He lauded the loyalty of his staff and encouraged other restaurants to offer them new opportunities.

--October 2, 2012

Yesterday's Review

      City Café Diner in Huntsville is much more than its name implies. Neon lights create a retro perspective. All-day breakfast and black-and-white aprons are hints of a diner. Meatloaf, liver and onions, country-fried steak or catfish filets are standards at most Southern cafes.

     But what about chicken Marsala, Greek moussaka and Cajun jambalaya pasta? Who can imagine nearly half-dozen variations on the gyro?

     City Café Diner offers all of these without sacrificing quality for quantity. And helpings are plentiful.
     This restaurant has its roots in Savannah, Ga., and branches that reach as far north as New York. With more than two dozen locations, it still seems to have no official website. Google “City Café Diner,” and you’ll find thousands of choices.
     That’s much like the official printed menu soon to roll out in Huntsville. It has page after page of selections – enough to cover 24 hours a day, which will soon be the regular schedule. City Café Diner began opening at 6 a.m. this week.
     The restaurant is next door to Cracker Barrel off South Memorial Parkway at Drake Avenue. The building was first a Mexican restaurant called Tia’s Tex-Mex before being transformed into a Chinese Royal Buffet. As City Café Diner, it has become open and spacious, with a dineresque noise level and lively atmosphere.
     Business has been brisk during its first few weeks open, and repeat customers are becoming the norm. A huge dessert case is hard to miss coming in or leaving the restaurant. Expect to pay between $8 and $10, whether you have breakfast, a mid-day sandwich, or dinner. A few entrees range up to $15.
     RaeRay tried breakfast there about 11 a.m. Tuesday. Service was very good; pancakes and eggs-and-bacon were pretty basic. Grits had the texture of oatmeal.
     We’ll go back, though, for the gyros, the patty-melt, the Reuben, the liver-and-onions and the lasagna. City Café Diner has it all.

--September 11, 2012

 

Yesterday's Review
     Zoe's Kitchen adds a new niche to Huntsville's restaurant scene. Zoe's is a fast-casual, Mediterranean-influenced restaurant founded in Birmingham some 13 years ago.
      The Huntsville location is on Whitesburg Drive, in the former Tony's Little Italy space at Village on Whitesburg. It adds a new dimension to this restaurant haven at the corner of Whitesburg and Airport Road, which features no fewer than eight eateries now and another under construction.
      Hummus, orzo, Greek salads, kabobs, pita chips, and wraps give the restaurant its Mediterranean theme. Potato salad, eggs salad, and pimiento cheese add a Southern flavor. The pimiento cheese differs from Mom's with its spicy kick.
      Someone's mom must have made it this way, though. The original Zoe's Kitchen was a mom-and-pop's eatery in Birmingham's Homewood subdivision, operated by Zoe Cassimus and her husband Marcus. In 2002, their football-star son John, a former running back for the Alabama Crimson Tide, joined the operation. Since then, more than 60 more Zoe's locations have appeared across the South from Maryland to Arizona. Huntsville's is the 13th in Alabama.
      Zoe's opened on Thursday, and the restaurant was spilling over at midday when RaeRay came to visit, needing to be at work in precisely one hour. The crowd seemed overwhelming, but once through the line, our food came in a minutes.
      As mentioned before, the pimiento cheese sandwich had a spicy kick, in spite of its claim as a "Southern favorite." It's listed as a vegetarian offering.
      Topping the list of grilled sandwiches is the Gruben, which is as good as any sandwich in Huntsville. It's a variation on the Reuben only replacing the corned beef, sauerkraut and Thousand Island with grilled turkey, slaw and spicy mustard. All of this on rye creates a robust savour. Even the roasted fresh vegetables -- boring at other restaurants -- burst with flavor.
     On this day, RaeRay could have tried Yaya's hand-made chocolate cake or house-baked cookies for dessert with time to spare. But, no, let's get on to work. Forty minutes was the total time -- not bad for the second day of serving.
      What other restaurants are on this corner of Airport and Whitesburg? Well, here's a list of just the northwest quadrant:
Ding How II
Jason's Deli
Panera Bread
Nothing But Noodles
Subway
Momma Goldberg's
Bonefish Grill
Shane's Rib Shack

                                                                                       --July 6, 2012

Today’s Review

I apologize to anyone who has looked here for a new review over the last few months. I’ve lapsed, but I plan to do better. Several things I could have pointed out here if I just took the time. A project called Raeray’s Great Adventure again proved to me how much I love writing. It filled some of the space in my mind that has been empty for some time. This renewed venture with thebestofhuntsville.biz can do the same.

My eating habits have changed drastically since I began punching a time clock. Years of setting my own schedule left me eating once a day at times—often just at lunch with friends or dinner with the family. Now I have a pastry or cereal for breakfast without fail. If I have a lunch hour, I come home for two sandwiches or leftover chili or meat and vegetables. When I can eat out, I make convenient choices.

Regular habits are difficult when you may work one day at 6 a.m., the next at 1 p.m., and then at 10 a.m. Quick meals on the way to work might consist of a Schlotzsky’s sandwich, a plate full of Krystals, or the $5 special from Hardee’s, which includes a burger, hot dog, fries, dessert, and drink. If I have time, I’ll stop at Mellow Mushroom, where a slice of pizza and salad – the Caesar is very good – is a reasonable lunch, minus the exceptional tip for my daughter, Morgan, who works there. My favorite noontime meal on mornings off is the toasted Pimiento cheese sandwich at Dallas Mill Deli, where my other daughter, Kaki, works.

During free evenings, my wife, Jenny, and I hit the special deals at nearby restaurants. Ruby Tuesday’s continues to prepare us its Parmesan cream sirloin from a previous menu. We do the Chili’s two-person deal with spinach dip and burgers, or we take advantage of Logan’s Roadhouse’s special that includes the mini –desserts in a pail. And practically every Wednesday, we order dinner to go at Bonefish Grill, where the famous Bang-Bang Shrimp is on special at $5.

These are a few of my current BESTs, but I vow to keep more coming in the future. Please join me in the journey.

                                                                                --June 26, 2012

New Reviews of Huntsville Restaurants from http://thebestofhuntsville.biz

Today's Review

Sandwiches are packed with pork. Southern-style sides include black-eyed peas with okra. Sauces are tangy and slightly sweet. Huntsville has a new restaurant, and it’s called Moe’s Original Barbecue.

Moe’s has its own niche in the smokehouse tradition. Think barbecue, and the mind races to cities known for their own cooking styles: Memphis, Tenn.; Fort Worth, Texas; and Lexington, N.C. Where do you find Moe’s? It’s in Vail and Denver, Colo., Daphne and Fairhope, Ala. That gives Huntsville a special distinction, along with Birmingham and Tuscaloosa.

I had suggested Moe’s in Tuscaloosa several times over the last year, but my daughter said I could try the one in Huntsville anytime. We always ended up at more legendary Tuscaloosa restaurants, including Nick’s in the Sticks, The Waysider, and 15th Street Café. I finally discovered Moe’s in Huntsville this afternoon.

The atmosphere has the informal feel of Dreamland yet the warmth of Gibson’s. Customers order at the counter the way they would at Thomas Barbecue, then wait for the cook to call their name. Sandwiches and platters include pork, chicken, turkey, and catfish. The restaurant also has a shrimp Moe boy and a chicken wing plate. Prices are for a full meal: $9 for sandwiches, $10 for plates; both include two sides and a drink.

Sweating over the grill is a young cook that looks more like a computer whiz than a barbecue man. Yet he makes customers comfortable calling them by name to pick up their orders and again to invite them back as they leave.

The pork sandwich is stuffed with moist and tender meat and dripping with Moe’s special sauce. Special sides include an intriguing black-eyed pea dish with tomatoes and okra. Macaroni and cheese is another daily special, made with a mild white cheese. Banana pudding is a choice any day of the week.

Moe’s is in the former Chef’s Table building on Cecil Ashburn Drive just east of Carl T. Jones Drive. It is fast and informal and like nothing else in the bustling Jones Valley development. Give it a try.

--From April 25, 2011

Yesterday's Review

Chicken cordon bleu schnitzel was my favorite meal for many years in Huntsville. Only two restaurants served it. Then I discovered the gypsy schnitzel -- a pork cutlet smothered with a sauce of myriad flavors. It was another dish that drove taste buds wild. The dish put Café Berlin among my favorite local eateries. Its sister restaurant, Ol' Heidelberg, had been on the same level since 1978.

The last time I reviewed it for The Huntsville Times, Café Berlin earned the top rating of 4 forks and 4 waiters. That was probably 10 years ago. The restaurant today is better than ever.

Joining the bratwursts, schnitzels and other German delicacies of old are tenderloin, tilapia and even tapas platters. Iceberg wedges and Caesar salads are additional options to traditional red cabbage and sauerkraut. Creamed spinach, cauliflower or brie macaroni and cheese are unique side dishes. Desserts are still delightful.

The chef no longer worries about visits from a newspaper critic. He has no reason for it. The food and the service are impeccable.

--From April 16, 2011

Old Huntsville Magazine features the late Bill Easterling

The Life and Times of BILL EASTERLING
By Mike Kaylor
(As published in Old Huntsville Magazine No. 198, August 2009)

Dressed in pajamas, he sat on the edge of his bed with feet on the floor. His voice was weak, but his determination was strong. It was the last week of December, and he was flipping through the pages of a book just off the presses. It missed the bulk of the gift-giving season because of a series of printing snafus. He struggled to flash a smile.

“We’ll sell these books for many Christmases to come,” he said, emphasizing the word “we.” Bill Easterling knew he had cancer; he knew how hard it was to sit up in bed. He even labored to breathe. But the determination never faltered. That was Bill’s last night alive. Barely past his 60th birthday, a gloried and storied life came to an end on Dec. 28, 2000.

Bill Easterling was a sage to sports fans across Alabama during the 1960s and ’70s. He was the sports editor of The Huntsville Times, and his grasp of Alabama and Auburn football, Huntsville and North Alabama high schools had boosted him to legendary status. His behind-the-scenes antics and fast living made him an idol among his cohorts in the press box.

Young Bill had arrived in Huntsville in 1949 at the age of 9. His father, William Rhodes Easterling, was a government employee transferring from Texas to Redstone Arsenal. The family consisted of “Slim,” as friends called the elder Easterling, his wife Eleanor, and three boys – Edward, Bill and Charles. They lived first in the Farley community south of Huntsville before moving into an area known as the old Dallas Mill village. Bill attended Rison School, which had been built by the mill, and graduated from Huntsville High School. He was toying with college classes when he landed a job at the newspaper.

Copy carriers were the so-called “gophers” of the press. They raced from department to department with scraps of paper that would eventually land on readers’ doorsteps as news. The copyboy might run to the nearest sandwich shop when editors were hungry or fill up bosses’ cars when they were too busy. Most of them knew their places in the organization. Not little Bill.
A new editor named Leroy Simms had arrived from Birmingham in 1961, and he had summoned all personnel of The Huntsville Times to meet him. As they gathered, he asked each to give their name and position. This bubbly teenager listened intently, and finally his time came to speak. “I’m Bill Easterling, and I run this damned place,” he said. Instantly, the publisher took a liking to him, and Bill’s career at The Times began a meteoric rise.

Bill’s insights in large part made The Huntsville Times one of the foremost newspapers in Alabama. He shifted to the news desk in the mid-1970s and became state and then city editor. He was climbing a ladder that began at the lowest rung.

His rise continued despite a few small bumps along the way. Not long after New Jersey newspaper magnate S.I. Newhouse bought The Times, the new owner was in town checking on his investment. He made a necessary stop in the men’s room one morning, and young Bill just happened to be there too. Bill saw a pair of shoes in the next stall that he thought belonged to a co-worker. He stomped the toes. The response was silence. Bill later learned those were not his friend’s feet.

Bill had already enjoyed a successful career of nearly 25 years at The Times when he became the newspaper’s daily columnist. It was a coveted job for any writer, yet a constant chore to crank out a new tale five days a week. The words that began to flow bared the writer’s soul – his empathy, his mood swings and his unfaltering opinions. His became a household name.
A preacher’s wife who lived on Huntsville’s Country Club Circle stopped in at a neighbor’s house one day to collect for the Heart Fund. When she heard that Bill Easterling was on his way over, she seemed in no hurry to leave. She had read his columns regularly in The Times, and she was anxious to meet him.

Suddenly, the front door flew open and a man with wispy grey hair, squinting eyes and a prominent nose burst into the room. “Those damned drivers on the Parkway scare the hell out of me,” he roared. Then he looked at the elderly stranger. “Isn’t that the truth?”

The woman’s eyes were wide with dismay, but her look slowly changed to admiration as Bill’s grin spread from ear to ear. His warm expression could melt away any sort of tension. The woman babbled about how many people she knew who had been featured in his columns. She told him she hoped he would write a book. She beamed as she headed out the door and back down the lane.

No one could predict what words might explode from the mouth of Bill Easterling; however, they would likely be profound. In the same way, his columns were equally honest. That’s why so many people turned to the second page of the newspaper first.

His readers knew Bill’s likes and dislikes. When he was struggling for a topic for the next day’s column, he might begin with the words: “These are the things I love….” On another day it might begin “If I could be in charge of 1992:” or “Some Wisdom in the Still of the Night.” He was always chiding himself in print about his smoking or other habits. He wrote on April 4, 1993, about the second anniversary of his conquest of smoking. He mused that “So many people have turned against smokers, I’m almost sorry I deserted.” Bill wrote a similar column in October 1994, a year after he had quit drinking. He vowed at the end of the article to never mention it again, and he probably never did in print. He did point out his lifestyle change, though, to friends who kept living life on the edge.

Concerning alcohol, Bill said he kept drinking for years because he “didn’t want to surrender my image as a fast-playing, hard-drinking newsroom legend.” His image had found him married just out of high school, missing many of his two children’s firsts as he buried himself in Alabama’s sports rivalries and the festivities that surrounded them. By the time he had begun writing human-interest columns at The Times, he had ended one marriage, started a new one and made amends with his almost-grown children.

He had a love-hate relationship with golf, and the game fueled a fiery temper. He could throw a golf club about as far as he could hit the ball. He talked of Alabama’s legends, such as Paul “Bear” Bryant and Ralph “Shug” Jordan, as if they were ordinary people. He shared many hours solving the world’s problems with his one-time brother-in-law Floyd Hardin on a porch swing at Jackson Way Barber Shop.

Bill said time and again that he couldn’t believe someone would pay him to do what he did. After leaving sportswriting, he loved the human-interest columns about people he found on backroads and dusty country lanes. He had corralled all of his addictions except his zeal for the written word. Then his whole world changed. Medical exams and blood tests were showing something awry in his body. His energy level was faltering.

On July 18, 1999, he told his readers the whole story. It began with the words: “I woke up one morning and something didn’t seem right.” Later in the column he proclaimed that he had “written about people who just simply refused to let life’s slings and arrows destroy their faith,” and he said their stories were an inspiration to him. “Now I get a chance to see if I can handle what’s ahead of me with the same kind of dignity and class and bravery those people displayed.”

That he did for the next 17 months and 10 days. He kept his followers apprised of his condition from month to month. His column might disappear for a few weeks during surgery and recovery, but it always returned. While going through the stress and pain, he collected many of his favorite columns from the 1990s for a book to be published in time for the Christmas shoppers. It was called “A Locust Leaves Its Shell.”

Scheduling at the printing company carried the production into November. A truck driver quit his job and left a trailer filled with Bill’s books on the side of the road between the printer and binder. Soft cover copies arrived around Thanksgiving, and Bill was treated with a handful of autograph parties. But his health was getting worse. He struggled to sign copies of the hard cover books when they arrived only days before Christmas.

His last column in The Huntsville Times was published on Nov. 28, 2000. It was a light-hearted tale about losing his hair and how it was growing back black and curly instead of thin and grey. His beard also had a distinct five o’clock shadow look. A summary of his cancer columns published in mid-December included a letter to Santa Claus. “I’m not afraid of facing what every man with a potential life-threatening disease faces: I’m not afraid to die. I was before I got ill, and stayed that way for an awfully long time. Then it went away, that feeling of apprehension, that dreading of what was in front of me. I just quit worrying and let THE expert take over.” He said he was thankful for the arrival of a granddaughter several weeks earlier, for his wife Pat and his children Leigh Ann and Mike.

From his bed, Bill saw no reason for fuss. He had told Santa in his letter that no one needed good health to celebrate the true reason for Christmas. “So, Santa Claus, I believe that’s about all I have to say about the subject as this Christmas season quickly approaches. But I naturally feel sure you and I will be talking about it some more in 2001. Thanking you kindly, Billy.”


If you would like a copy of Bill’s book, “A Locust Leaves Its Shell,” send $5 (includes shipping and handling) to Mike Kaylor, P.O. Box 737, Huntsville, AL 35804. Books will be mailed U.S. Postal Service book rate or hand-delivered to the address included. For multiple copies, contact Mike at the e-mail address: mike@thebestofhuntsville.biz.

Huntsville dines, shops in Mike Kaylor's thebestofhuntsville.biz

Huntsville shoppers can find their favorite stores, and diners can find the best and most enduring restaurants at http://thebestofhuntsville.biz. This is the site that is growing into a new print edition of THE BEST OF HUNTSVILLE by Mike Kaylor. At the present time, it features the restaurants, nightclubs and stores that have survived the quarter century since the first edition of THE BEST OF HUNTSVILLE was published. Mike was restaurant critic for The Huntsville Times for more than two decades before leaving the newspaper at the end of June. The book also features tourist attractions from around the area, arts and entertainment groups, annual events and other Huntsville peculiarities.

Two editions of THE BEST OF HUNTSVILLE appeared in 1984 and 1985. Now, 25 years later, a new edition is in the works. Kaylor is soliciting input from long-time readers, friends and family for restaurants, clubs, sights, stores, arts groups and other entertainment spots around the Tennessee Valley. The original book was nearly 150 pages and included an index to make it easy to find items for addresses and phone numbers. It was handy as a reference book in the home or car for looking up favorite spots.

Mike Kaylor arrived in Huntsville in 1977 as assistant state editor of The Huntsville Times. He served through the next three decades as assistant city editor, business editor, entertainment editor, ShowTimes editor, Leisure editor, assistant systems editor, nightlife columnist, restaurant critic and page designer. He wrote about clubs and restaurants weekly for 31 years, while handling other responsibilities at The Times. He left newspaper during a voluntary reduction in force/buyout to pursue other ventures.

Check out what's new in http://thebestofhuntsville.biz

Mike Kaylor's new edition of THE BEST OF HUNTSVILLE book is beginning to take shape. Since Mike Kaylor left The Huntsville Times, he has time for transcribing the 1985 edition on this web site and at http://thebestofhuntsville.biz to get it in order for printing. It may take another month or two, but it's going to come together.

Check out the site and offer comments.

Thanks and bon appetit!!!!

Mike

New restaurants at http://thebestofhuntsville.biz

Check out the new entries in http://thebestofhuntsville.biz/. Find more upscale restaurants listed, both local creations and regional chains. Also, check out some of the BEST meat-and-four diners in town. Click the DINING page on the right side of the HOME PAGE.

Thanks for joining us. I look for your comments as the new book develops.

Bon appetit!!!!


Mike
cazit@knology.net