Buca Di Beppo | Wayfarer

To the uninitiated, business travel may seem kinda cool and glamorous. Perhaps for some professions it is, but the reality is that I rarely see more than the inside of my client’s office and the inside of my hotel room. I’m usually tired by evening and just want to go somewhere reliable for a decent meal.

Here are the Top Five restaurants I like to frequent as a frequent traveler:

Despite my less than stellar experience in Texas last week, my favorite the past few years has been Buffalo Wild Wings. The naked tenders are reasonably healthy and I can usually watch the Cubs on one of the 3,293,492 televisions at every location.
Another favorite is Chili’s. Chips and Queso are always a winner, and if I have the will power to resist that, the guiltless grill options are pretty good too.
If it’s lunch time, I’ve recently been looking for an Applebee’s. They have a great tortilla soup which they serve in combo with half a turkey sandwich. Usually quick and not too filling before a long afternoon of meetings.
If I’m really feeling tempted to ignore my diet by eating a great burger that’s really bad for me, I’ll head to Famous Dave’s and have a Devil’s Spit burger.
If Wendy is with me on the road, and I’m blessed that she gets to join me at least a few times each year, we always look for Buca di Beppo. It’s too much for one, but the Italian food served family style in a fun and festive atmosphere has become one of our favorites as a couple. Ever since they inexplicably closed their West Des Moines location, we look forward to any opportunity to diner there.

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Wendy and I had a fun weekend in the Twin Cities as we made our annual pilgrimage to a Minnesota Vikings game. It was a perfect fall weekend with lots of warm sunshine during the day while the evenings and mornings were crisp with cool fall air. The drive up on Saturday afforded us time to catch up on some much needed conversation. Road construction in Minnesota was awful and gave us more time in the car together than we really wanted, but what do you expect from Minnesota (nine months of winter – three months of road construction)?

We arrived at our hotel which was just blocks from Mall of America field. We checked in and freshened up before heading to our favorite Twin Cities’ haunt, the original Buca Di Beppo’s (literally translated from Italian thats “Joe’s Basement”). Wonderful meal. We headed back to the hotel to watch Zero Dark Thirty which we’ve had from Netflix and have been trying to watch forever. We cuddled into bed and pulled it up on the ol’ laptop. Fascinating movie. Definitely kept us awake.

Sunday morning dawned and we walked the mile or so from our hotel to Al’s Breakfast in Dinkytown by the University of Minnesota. Al’s is a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon that has been in operation since the area populated with rail workers back in the old days. Al’s has thirteen bar stools. That’s it. People line up behind the bar stools, out the door, and down the sidewalk to wait for a chance at breakfast made on the grill right behind the bar. It’s a unique experience for sure. We enjoyed a big breakfast and then walked back to the hotel to get ready for the game.

It was another mile or so walk to the stadium, but with all of the feasting we were happy for the exercise and the weather was so beautiful we didn’t care. The Vikings are building a new stadium next year so this is likely our last visit to the old Metrodome. We had great seats in the seventh row on one of the end zones. I got a chance to catch some great shots with my camera. Being the home opener, it was packed with fans expecting the Vikes to take it to the hapless Cleveland Browns. On the way to the game Wendy said, “I hope it’s not a blowout. I hope it’s a close game and the crowd is into it the whole time.” She got her wish as the lead went back and forth. Unfortunately, the Vikes gave up a winning touchdown with 51 seconds left in the fourth quarter and it happened right in front of us. Bummer. As one fellow fan put it, when you lose to the worst team in the NFL, that pretty much makes your team the worst team in the NFL. It’s going to be a long season.

We walked back to the hotel and enjoyed a drink on the patio of the neighboring micro-brew while we waited for traffic to thin out. We then headed to the suburbs where I had client meetings scheduled on Monday and Tuesday. Sunday evening was spent enjoying pizza on the bed while we watched Sunday night football.

Monday evening we went to Mall of America and did a little shopping. Wendy found some great stuff and we both bought hats at a cool little hat shop I don’t ever remember seeing there before. We grabbed a bite at Buffalo Wild Wings before heading back to the hotel. After client meetings on Tuesday we headed home.

On the way home Wendy mentioned how refreshed she felt by our weekend getaway. I was grateful for that. We got home at 6:40 and had just enough time to change our clothes ant be at the community center for a 7:00 rehearsal. Talk about an abrupt re-entry. Nevertheless, it was a great weekend together.