When I recategorized the entries in this journal, there is one category that was sorely aching to be added, but I decided not add it because I was a tad bit fearful.

You? The Great Christopher D. Bennett was fearful?

I know it seems an unlikely turn of events, but it is true. The category that struck me with a small degree of trepidation was food. Go ahead, go to the website. Look at the list of categories. You won’t find food listed.

Why? Because I’m scared to know how many of my little adventures circulate around stuffing things down my pie hole.

Yet, in the next few weeks I might be launching a second blog with my eating chum Scottie D.

A couple Saturdays back we arranged a lunch trip to BK’s in Ogden to knock down what we both consider to be the state’s best tenderloin. This was going to conclude a weeklong food vacation for Scottie D. He had spent the early part of the week visiting the Twin Cities eating Jucy Lucies. Then he took the family down to Kansas City to Blanc Burgers and Bottles to have what he considers to be the greatest burger in the world.

I’m not sure if Scottie D. really wanted to go to BK’s or if he was avoiding going to a birthday party where he might run into a guy by the name “The Sleeve”. If you know the tall tale (actually sick and twisted story) of The Sleeve, you know why Scottie D. was looking to avoid the shindig.

On the day that we were going to make the pilgrimage to Ogden for tenderloin bliss Scottie D. called me and wanted to know if instead of O-Town if it would be okay if we went with his friend “House” to Stanhope to try a restaurant up there that was getting rave reviews.
I’m always on the prowl for new places to eat, so I agreed to the change of venue. On the way up there House enthralled us with tales of a pizza joint just a tad further up the road in Kamrar that was excellent.
We ate at the restaurant in Stanhope and it was decent. They had some intriguing appetizers. We tried their Reuben Bites. They were good, but the cheese was not Swiss cheese. It was some bland tasting yellow cheese. Most likely cheddar. My burger was tasty, but Scottie D. did not enjoy his burger. He cited the steak sauce on it.
After we left the restaurant Scottie D. proposed the unthinkable – The Double Lunch!
I was game. I’m not sure if Scottie D.’s motivation was unquenched appetite or he just had a burning desire to avoid the lasciviousness that surrounds The Sleeve.
Either way, we continued our journey up Highway 17 to Kamrar.

We pulled up to the pizza place and saw this awesome sign:

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Pickles Pub

The sign was attached to kind of a dump looking building and I had some concerns. It has been my experience that some of the best food is served at the biggest dives. I was hoping that this would be another one of those times.
We opened the outside door and it opened into an entry way. The entry way looked and felt like it was going to come crashing down upon us at any time.

I was definitely leery at this point, but ventured on inside to find…

Something rather shocking. The inside was roomy and beautiful. The woodwork was nice and fancy and appeared to have been recently done.

We ordered some Pickles Fries.

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Pickles Fries

They were much tastier than this horrible phone picture portrays.

We also ordered up a taco pizza.  Their pizza was thin crust and this was easily one of the best taco pizzas I’ve ever had in my life.  The only thing that was strange about it was that they didn’t cover the whole pizza with lettuce, chips and tomatoes.  They only covered the center. 

It was a great pizza and I have already decided that Pickles Pub is where I’m taking FNSC when it is time for my birthday FNSC.

On the way back to Boone I was uncomfortably full.  I was further made uncomfortable when Scottie D. finally told me the story about The Sleeve became known as The Sleeve. It is a story that I have recounted to a few other unfortunate souls because I believe that misery loves company. 

After his tale, Scott declared that we should start a blog where we tell people where the best food is in central Iowa.  I agreed to take part in this experiment even though my experience with starting group blogs (see The Sports Proletariat) has been decidedly negative.

However, if I think positively, I will be buying a new domain name and starting up a blog with Scottie D. in the near future. Hopefully it will go somewhere.

The best way for it to go somewhere is to enlist the aid of others. What we need is scouts.  If you have tried an excellent place and you think we might enjoy it, let me know and we will let you know if you are right or not. 

Scouts that show particularly good taste in picking locations might even get to move up to the level of contributors some day.