Upland Brewing Company is based in Bloomington, Indiana but they have expanded with 4 restaurants in the Indianapolis area and 1 in Columbus, IN. My family and I had stopped at the 82nd Street location in Indianapolis for dinner. They have more than a dozen of their beers on tap, including the year-round Dragonfly IPA and Wheat Ale, but they also have seasonal selections and a handful of sours.

Nashville Hot Chicken

For dinner, I enjoyed the Nashville hot chicken sandwich with Broad Ripple chips ($15). The giant piece of fried chicken was topped with blue cheese slaw and horseradish pickles on a toasted brioche bun. This was a really good sandwich, not overly spicy, but with a subtle heat that I enjoyed thoroughly.

Bad Elmer’s Fav

My wife noticed that any of their burgers can be subbed for grilled or fried chicken, black-bean patty, local bison, or impossible meat. She had the Bad Elmer’s Fav with fried chicken, sharp cheddar, applewood bacon, Bad Elmer’s Porter BBQ, lettuce, tomato, and onion along with a side of brewery fries ($16.50). This was an enormous plate of food! I think the Nashville hot was the better choice, but still, this was really tasty.

Our kids enjoyed their selections from the kids menu. Our service was wonderful and the meal was pretty quick for a Friday evening. We would definitely return when back in Indianapolis.

A great place for a meal in historic Park City is The Eating Establishment. I made a reservation for my family for a Sunday evening dinner. Having the reservation was great as it allowed us to travel into the heart of the historic city with no worries about finding a table at any of the restaurants.

Manhattan

They have a stellar drink menu, including a very good Manhattan. There is also a great beer list, though only a few choices on draft. If the Red Rock Elephino is available, give it a try if you are into IPAs.

BLTA

For dinner, I went with the BLTA with heirloom tomato, green leaf lettuce, bacon, avocado, and roasted garlic aioli ($20). I had this with a really good side salad and you must try Grandma Mary’s vinaigrette with any of the salads. Delicious!

Fish Tacos

My wife had the fish tacos, the most popular item on the menu, which combines grilled halibut with a creamy cilantro dressing on flour tortillas with black beans, chips, and salsa ($23). She really enjoyed the fish and the salsa was surprisingly good for it not appearing anywhere else on the menu.

Red Rock Elephino

One of our kids enjoyed the buttery noodles from the kids’ menu ($12) while the other loved that they had breakfast all day and went with a tall stack of pancakes ($15), which was indeed a stack of 3 very large pancakes.

Another awesome breakfast during our trip to Denver was at HashTAG. The menu was large and had something for every member of our family. I thoroughly enjoyed the French ‘wich with bacon,  ham, and jack cheddar cheese between French toast served topped with powdered sugar with bacon syrup and hashbrowns on the side ($15). Pretty much a Monte Cristo but the bread they used for the French toast is very good, thick and chewy.

French ‘wich

My wife loves green chili so it was obvious that she would order the pork green chili omelet with adobo pork shoulder, Anaheim green chilis, mushrooms, caramelized onions, green chili, and jack cheddar cheese served with hashbrowns ($16.50). Wow, what a plate of food she had and I’m told it was all very good.

Pork Green Chili Omelet

Our son went big with his large hot cake topped with powdered sugar, butter, and chocolate chips ($8.75). I mean just look at the size of that thing! Maybe next time a small might be in order.

Hot Cake

We had a great breakfast as HashTAG and would definitely stop by again on future trips.

We had a couple of great breakfasts while out in Colorado. The first was at Four Friends Kitchen in the Central Park neighborhood. This family friendly spot serves up a wide variety of breakfast and lunch offerings including benedicts, omelets, and overnight grits.

Southern Fried Chicken & Waffle

The southern fried chicken and waffle with apple coleslaw and smoked chili caramel syrup was served as a sandwich and came with a side of fruit ($13.50). This was a very filling and the flavor combinations were amazing, a bit on the spicy side but the caramel flavor really helped keep it balanced. Also loved having pickles on the side, even if not a traditional breakfast item. I would absolutely order this again.

After many trips to Copper Mountain, we finally made it to JJ’s Rocky Mountain Tavern, and I’m sad it took so long. We have always stayed in the west village and the fact that JJ’s is in the east village always made it sound like too much effort to get to. But we finally took a ride on the Copper shuttle system and found it to be easy to use and dropped us right at the back door to JJ’s. We made a reservation for our group of eight and arrived to find our table waiting.

Standard Chicken Sandwich

I had the standard chicken sandwich ($16.95) topped with your choice of cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle on a baked roll. This typically comes with seasoned waffle fries, but I opted to substitute for the onion rings, which were a great choice, though the waffle fries are also good. The chicken sandwich was good, nothing too crazy. Next time I would probably try one of their other options like the New Mexican version with cheddar, cotija, green chiles, and ancho chipotle sauce. Also worth ordering are JJ’s Drumsticks which are huge! The draft beer list is solid and has something for everyone. We will definitely be back to JJ’s in the future.

Forage & Feast is a new full-service on-mountain restaurant at Copper Mountain. The dining room is the nicest thing I have ever seen on-mountain. But it’s not too fancy, there are people with ski gear on after all. However, I did see people dining there in regular clothes, using the gondola to get to the top of the mountain. The view is very nice and there is an entire wall of windows to see it all.

View

For lunch, I ordered the pork carnitas tacos, 3 corn tortillas filled with plenty of pork, topped with cilantro, onion, and some tasty salsas ($19). These were very good tacos and filling as well.

Pork Carnitas Tacos

My wife enjoyed the soup du jour ($14), served in a very large bowl. It is always a veggie-based puree and I think this day it was butternut squash, topped with pepitas and fresh herbs. It was also very tasty and quite filling as well.

Soup du Jour

For those with even bigger appetites, there are a variety of large plates from a burger to venison and trout. There is also a kids’ menu including some fun mocktails. Plus a full bar for the adults. It was a pretty unique dining experience while out on the slopes.

We recently spent a long weekend in Park City, Utah. One of my favorite meals of the trip was at Drafts Burger Bar. This gastropub is in the Canyons Village at Park City. They feature 20 draft beers, burgers, and gigantic shakes.

Bread Bowl Soup

There is a kid’s menu, but my daughter ordered off the main menu once she was the broccoli cheddar soup served in a sourdough bread bowl ($15). She seemed really happy with this choice and the bread bowl itself was solid.

Boujie Hippie

My wife ordered the “boujie hippie” burger with house-made quinoa, sunflower seed, and black bean patty topped with hummus, tomato jam, Boursin cheese, and crispy kale chips ($18) with sweet potato fries ($8). This was right in her wheelhouse and did not seem to disappoint. The sweet potato fries were especially sweet, just the way she likes them.

Kids Grilled Cheese

My son had a kid’s grilled cheese with fries ($9). Again no complaints here.

Vote for Pedro

Finally, I had the “vote for pedro” and swapped the burger for a fried chicken breast at no extra charge. This monstrous sandwich came topped with a chile relleno, pepper jack cheese, pico de gallo, avocado, smoked queso, fried jalapeno, and lettuce ($23). Wow was this good! It was pretty messy but worth it. I also enjoyed a side of fries $6).

Shakes

And for my kids’ favorite part of the meal, they have gigantic milkshakes ($13 each). My son enjoyed the “need a moment” with vanilla ice cream, caramel, and a Twix candy bar. And my daughter enjoyed a “taste of the season” which in March was some kind of mint cookies and cream combination. Both were excellent!

The new kitchen inside MadTree opened last weekend after Catch-a-Fire moved out at the start of this year. My family and I are big fans of Catch-a-Fire, so we were sad when this all went down, but the food coming out of the MadTree kitchen is a solid replacement.

Cheesy Bread

We started with an order of cheesy bread, topped with garlic butter, mozzarella, and parmesan served with red sauce and ranch ($9). There are four slices in the serving, enough for each of our family members to try a slice. Nothing crazy here, but solid bread and good sauce to go with it.

Fries

We also tried the fries with Happy Amber BBQ and ranch ($10). This was a massive serving of fries and their BBQ sauce is great.

Tasty Taco Pizza

My favorite of the day was definitely the tasty taco pizza topped with taco sauce, cheddar, chipotle chicken, pico de Gallo, Doritos, guacamole, and crema ($17.25 for the 12-inch). The flavor combination on this was superb and I was happy that this was served with chicken rather than the more common ground beef for a taco pizza. I will absolutely order this again as it is unique and tastes great!

Cheesy Cheese Pizza

Our kids enjoyed the cheesy cheese pizza ($11.50 for 12-inch). My son said it’s not as good as Catch-a-Fire, but I stole a slice and found it to be a pretty good slice of plain pie. Overall the serving sizes are large, with the 12-inch pizza being more than enough for 2 to split. There are six pretty big slices, so it could be possible to share with 3 people and a snack on the side, depending on the hunger of the group.

There aren’t a lot of great places to stop, sit down, and have a nice meal between Cincinnati and Columbus. My family and I recently discovered Ralph’s American Grill, about halfway along the 100-mile drive between the two cities. They are a self-proclaimed tribute to the trucking industry and feature decor reflecting the area’s rich history in transportation, including the nearby R+L Carriers.

The Nashville Sandwich

For my meal, I opted for the Nashville sandwich, with a spicy fried chicken breast, coleslaw, pickle, and mayo on a toasted bun ($13.95 with choice of side). The coleslaw was particularly good I thought, and the chicken was well seasoned and not overly spicy.

Paramount Pulled Pork Sandwich

My wife had the paramount pulled pork sandwich topped with BBQ sauce, coleslaw, cheddar cheese, and fried onions on Texas toast ($13.95 with choice of side). This was also a pretty good sandwich, though quite messy.

Mack (Truck) & Cheese

My kids sampled the Mack (truck) & cheese ($4.99) and the Bavarian-style pretzels with beer cheese, honey mustard, and everything cream cheese dip ($9.95).

They also have a nice beer list featuring beers from Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus.

Element Eatery has quickly become our go-to food hall destination in Cincinnati. I’ve tried many of the stalls already and it’s hard to pick a favorite. I enjoy having so many options to choose from and usually go with whatever I’m in the mood for.

Counter

Little Easy brands itself as a Po’Boy Shop and it features a variety of po’boys along with other creole options. The half po’boy is still a massive sandwich! I enjoyed the buttermilk brined and fried chicken topped with sriracha aioli, pickled ginger, and cilantro on New Orleans Leidenheimer po’boy bread with lettuce, tomatoes, and pickle ($9.95). Also, do not skip out on the chicken and sausage gumbo served over rice ($6 for a cup). This is an authentic dish that will bring your taste buds straight to Louisiana.

Po’boy & Gumbo