QT Kitchens

Putting the gas back in gastronomy.

It may sound blasphemous, but if we’re being honest, QuikTrip is our favorite gas station restaurant. We love the roller grill wonderland, and QT certainly gets you in and out quicker than Oklahoma Joe’s, even if they don’t have a Z-Man.

And now they’re launching QT Kitchens with a slew of new made-fresh-to-order items in a bunch of locations around town. Your Lunch Bloggers were excited to attend a tasting event where we could check some of them out.

Held at a new QT the day before it opened, we arrived and were told to step up and use the touchscreen to order whatever we wanted. This may be the closest we ever get to a Wonka’s Chocolate Factory experience.

We even got to hang out with an anthropomorphic ice cream cone who didn’t seem to mind a bit that Robert ate a tiny him. He gets it. He’s delicious. Here’s the rundown on everything we had.

Bac’n Shake ($3.49)
Despite the event being in the a.m., we started things off with a milkshake, as it is totally legal to get a milkshake for breakfast if it has breakfast food in it. Of course, we were going to get this first anyway, because bacon.

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Studio Movie Grill

Lights, camera, hot wings.

Studio Movie Grill is a new theater at Zona Rosa that opened at the beginning of April. Earlier this week, they hosted a Media Night, and your Lunch Bloggers were among those invited to come and check out the cinema-slash-restaurant.

The evening’s feature was Date Night, and both Shaw and I brought along our special ladies -- although if I’d had any foresight whatsoever, I would have declined to tell Kelly that everything was on the house. Instead, I would’ve been all like, “Baby, tonight you get whatever you want,” and cued up a Color Me Badd slow jam to seal the deal.

Shaw, Angela, Kelly and I arrived at Studio Movie Grill and were greeted by our hosts. Then we sauntered over to the bar, where I ordered a Dragonberry Mojito ($8.50). A fine balance of mint and dragonberry, it made me truly appreciative of the dangerous work performed by Dragonberry Wranglers so that we can enjoy these refreshing beverages. I’ve seen Reign of Fire. Dragons can mess you up -- as could the 20 oz. rum-fueled New Orleans Hurricane ($9.50) that Shaw got.

Shortly thereafter, we were ushered into the theater. How Studio Movie Grill works is you have a little red light at your table that you turn on when you want something, and then one of the servers stealthily comes over and takes your order.

They’re like movie theater ninjas, except instead of killing you, they want to bring you food and drink. This is much less challenging and almost as satisfying as smuggling in your own beer. (B movies plus contraband Miller High Live quarts are and always will be an unbeatable combination. Don’t judge.)

The four of us started with a round of appetizers -- spicy Tabasco wings ($8.49), cheese fries ($8.49) and burger bites ($8.49). The wings, which come in an order of five and were actually all drummettes, were nice and crispy with the Tabasco flavor really coming through in the sauce. The southwestern spices on the cheese fries gave them a good spice, too, and I was impressed at how the queso was evenly distributed throughout. It was like each fry had been individually lacquered.

As for the burger bites, I liked the sweet Hawaiian rolls they were on, but I’ve got a bone to pick that goes for Studio Movie Grill and all the places with tiny burgers on the menu -- one regular patty cut into four pieces placed on four buns does not four tiny burgers make. You need to make four tiny patties.

Right before the movie began, we ordered entrees. Kelly was in the mood for pizza, and chose the All the Way ($11.99), which is topped with mozzarella, provolone, pepperoni, sausage, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions and marinara.

The main reason she chose that one was because she wanted to make jokes about “going all the way” and movie theater making out -- although logistically speaking, the executive leather chairs here aren’t particularly conducive to getting busy, so if that’s what you’re looking for you may want to go to your standard theater. But to be honest, stadium seating became commonplace long after I finished high school, so I’m not even sure if kids make out in movie theaters anymore.

The All the Way pizza was tasty, even if it was a little heavy on the roasted peppers. The same was true of Shaw’s steak sandwich ($11.99), which in addition to the peppers had shaved beef, sautéed onions, mushrooms and mozzarella on a sourdough roll. I had a little bit of each the All the Way and the steak sandwich, and was afraid I was going to end up with some of those peppers in my lap.

Angela’s chicken quesadilla ($9.99) was solid, with four cheeses, chiles and a better ratio of peppers. Mess-wise, it might’ve been the best food for eating in the dark, too.

Since the Megaplex Burger ($11.99) was the most movie-themed item I could find on the menu -- barring popcorn, of course -- that’s what I got. Alas, despite having peppered bacon, sautéed mushrooms, onions, cheddar and pepper jack cheese, the burger wasn’t quite a blockbuster.

Near the end of the movie, Kelly’s pregnancy sweet tooth kicked in, so we ordered the brownie sundae ($5.99), which has one scoop each of vanilla and chocolate ice cream along with cinnamon chips and both chocolate and caramel sauces. Fully intending to share with Shaw and Angela, we had our server bring us four spoons -- but after a couple of bites, I whispered to Kelly, “You know, if they really wanted a sundae, they could just order their own.”

I think drinks, appetizers and dessert are where it’s at here. Date Night was pretty funny -- it’s Adventures in Babysitting with a married couple, and probably an ideal flick for the Studio Movie Grill set-up. For example, I’m not sure I’d want the distraction of a plate of cheese fries being delivered to me while watching The Godfather. Well, actually, I’m always open to a cheese fries delivery, but I think some films might not benefit from the experience.

Scary movies totally would, though, and this is way boss -- every Wednesday and Thursday in April at 10 p.m., Studio Movie Grill is screening Horror Remix, where all the boring parts are cut out of a horror movie to leave you with just the good stuff. While sneaking in your own giant beers and grindhousing it up will be nigh-impossible what with the ninja servers, admission is free and it’s not like they don’t have beers there anyway.

Be careful, though! If you’re taking a bite and something spooky happens, you could end up with ranch dressing all over the place.

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7420 NW 87th Street | Kansas City, MO 64153

Full disclosure, in case we didn’t spell it out enough: We didn’t pay for any of this stuff. Thanks again to Studio Movie Grill for inviting us.

Robert & Kelly Go to St. Louis (Part 1)

A city blessed so abundantly with White Castles. Can't they spare us just one?

Kelly and I had been feeling the need to get out of town for awhile, so when we had our first open weekend in forever, we decided to take a road trip to St. Louis. I figured we could stop at White Castle, tour a brewery, stop at White Castle, check out the Gateway Arch, stop at White Castle and so forth.

After careful negotiation it was decided that we would stop at White Castle exactly once. Rather, among other things, we'd get some crepes downtown and visit The Hill for Italian food. So we dropped off the kiddo, gassed up the car, grabbed a couple of QuikTrip taquitos -- and we were off.

Pi Pizzeria

Kelly found this place while doing some online recon before we left KC, and noting that it's a favorite of the Obamas, we made Pi Pizzeria our Friday night destination.

The hostess told us it would be an hour before we were seated, so we stepped up to the bar to get beers. Seeing as how we were in St. Louis, we each chose a selection from Schlafly -- Kelly got the Pale Ale, and I opted for the Saison. While I was standing at the bar, I heard Schlafly pronounced three distinctly different ways: Shay-flee, Shaf-lee, and Shuh-laugh-lee.

Since it was a nice night, we sat down at one of the tables outside on the sidewalk. There we started to notice that everybody in St. Louis looks vaguely familiar. Not like people we used to know or anything -- just people we'd seen around in various locales. Like those random people you've got a few of the same classes with in college but never talk to, or are always at the same shows you're at.

The pizza was totally worth the wait. We ordered the Chicago-style deep-dish South Side Classico pie, subbing in green olives and black olives for green pepper and onions. Made with cornmeal, the crust was super-chewy on the bottom, but had a nice crunch at the top of the edges.

You can't tell how delicious it was from this picture. We were at a table near the back of the restaurant, so in deference to our fellow diners I turned my camera's flash off, and the resulting photo came out so bad you can barely even tell it's pizza. People try to pass off pictures of Bigfoot that are clearer than this.

There's a sign at Pi that says Provel and has a circle and a slash drawn through it. I know I'm in the minority of people that like St. Louis-style pizza, but I was surprised to find out that apparently even the people in St. Louis don't seem to care for it all that much.

Benton Park Cafe

Saturday morning, I checked out Urbanspoon to find someplace to go for breakfast, and was immediately intrigued by Benton Park Cafe for two reasons. First, beer biscuits. Second, breakfast pizza. Plus, it's totally within walking distance of the Anheuser-Busch brewery, which we were planning to tour that afternoon.

We looked over the menu in greater detail once we got there, and despite some good looking omelettes, we stuck with ordering the Classic Pizza and beer biscuits and gravy. I will mention that Benton Park Cafe also offers a knife and fork pancake sandwich called McGrittl This, and I'm fairly certain that name isn't legally sound.

I'm glad to confirm that both our breakfast choices were winners. The beer bread flavor of the biscuits was excellent, and the gravy was unexpectedly spicy. The Classic Pizza comes topped with egg, mushroom, onion, tomato, bacon and cheese -- and it marked the second killer crust we got in St. Louis.

Kelly was such a fan of the crust that she started trying to figure out the recipe. She asked what was in it, and while all our server could tell us was that garlic salt somehow factored in and the crust is stuffed with cheese, Kelly did some online sleuthing and found this once we got back to KC.

Didn't even occur to us that the pizza would be a full-size pie, thus easily serving two, but it was and along with the biscuits and gravy we had way too much food. That said, no edges of the pizza's crust were left behind.

When our server dropped off our bill, she also asked me if I wanted a to-go cup for my coffee. Attention all breakfast places: This practice is now mandatory, and your compliance is appreciated.

Next Time on Lunch Blog: On to the Anheuser-Busch brewery. There were college kids there, so it must be educational.

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Pi Pizzeria: 6144 Delmar Boulevard | St. Louis MO 63112

Benton Park Cafe: 1900 Arsenal Street | St. Louis MO 63118

30 Rock's Cheesy Blasters

Don't leave us hanging, Meatcat!

What is a Cheesy Blaster, you ask? Watch this and find out.

They sound awesome, right? And while we've waited and waited and waited so patiently for Meatcat to arrive on his magic skateboard and bring us Cheesy Blasters, he's totally giving us the cold shoulder. Not cool, Meatcat. Not cool.

Clearly, we had no choice but to take matters into our own hands and make a batch of Cheesy Blasters ourselves. Here's how we did it.

Ingredients

• Hot dogs
• 8 oz bag shredded jack cheese (NOT pepper jack, just plain jack)
• 8 oz bag shredded mozzarella cheese
• Can of pizza sauce
• Pepperoni
• Tube of thin crust pizza dough

A note on the hot dogs: We used Johnsonville Stadium Style Beef Franks since they were the biggest I could find, hence more room for jack cheese. Once the Cheesy Blasters were assembled, though, we had a leftover pizza lump, so I think this recipe could easily accommodate any standard 8-to-a-pack hot dogs. Unless they're turkey dogs, the inclusion of which in Cheesy Blasters would be nothing less than morally wrong. Same goes for turkey pepperoni. I wish we'd gotten a picture of the leftover pizza lump -- there was something truly disturbing about it. It looked like it might start to scoot away of its own accord, like the raisin concoction John Cusack's mom made in Better Off Dead.

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to temperature stated on the pizza crust directions.
2. Assemble pizza. We went in the order of pizza crust, pizza sauce, cheese and then a protective barrier of pepperoni in hopes of minimizing mozzarella/jack co-mingling.
3. Cook hot dogs on stovetop according to package directions.
4. Cut a slit lengthwise in the hot dogs, and stuff with jack cheese.
5. Cut pizza into strips, not quite as wide as the length of the hot dog. You want some hot dog overhang coming out of each end.
6. Roll a hot dog in each pizza strip. If at all possible, try to roll it so that the seam of the pizza ends up on the bottom but the jack cheese in the hot dog faces upward, thus preventing too much cheese from oozing out as it melts.
7. Bake according to pizza crust directions, until golden brown. Don't forget to spray your baking sheet with Pam.

Boom! You got Cheesy Blasters!

No shocker, they turned out pretty delicious -- at least the sum of their parts. It probably helped that by the time our Cheesy Blasters came out of the oven, we were a couple of Old Styles into the evening. If there's anything bad to say about the Cheesy Blasters at all, it's that I envisioned them looking somewhat more cylindrical, and not so much like Hot Pockets.

Actually, here's the worst thing about Cheesy Blasters: It's nigh-impossible to get the jingle out of your head. Seriously, it's starting to drive me batty.

Meatcat, please come hang out with us. We'll even sweeten the deal with all the Old Style you can drink. How can you turn that down?

Fuel Pizza & Price’s Chicken Coop (Shaw Goes to Charlotte, Part 2)

Concluding the culinary recap of my trip to see Chris, Michelle, Nora and Hank.


Fuel Pizza
We stopped by Fuel Pizza for some late night eats after hitting downtown Charlotte on Friday night. There are actually a number of these around town, all decorated with scavenged old gas station signs and related paraphernalia.

Fuel Pizza serves it up New York style, and does a solid job. I picked out a slice of pepperoni from the case, and it had just the right amount of double-crisp once it was heated up in the oven. I do love a slice with a good double-crisp.



Price’s Chicken Coop
As mentioned in the first part of this entry, according to Urbanspoon the #1 restaurant in Charlotte is The Penguin. Mac’s Speed Shop BBQ is #2, and although we didn’t have a chance to go, Chris assured me of its quality (he swears by the brisket). But he’d never even heard of #3, Price’s Chicken Coop,* so we headed that way to pick up lunch on Saturday.

Despite warnings of lines stretching around the block, we hit a sweet spot in the traffic and were able to order within minutes. Good thing, too -- the aroma of delicious fried chicken would’ve made the wait unbearable.

Price's Chicken Coop is no nonsense and all business, from the location to the decor to the employees. One of the guys working there even bore a striking resemblance to Colonel Sanders. I like to think it actually was The Colonel, having defected to The Coop to lead a revolt against the blasphemy of Kentucky Grilled Chicken.

Suspecting, and correctly I might add, the cashiers to be the type that expect customers to be ready to order, we made a point to look at a menu ahead of time. We went with a whole mixed chicken (8 pieces, $9.65), an order of hushpuppies ($1.30), a pint of potato salad ($2.25), and tater rounds ($1.20). Then we hustled to a nearby park to enjoy the goods before they got cold.



The chicken itself is incredible, moist without being greasy. Whatever the secret is to perfecting fried chicken, The Coop clearly must’ve discovered it a long time ago. Sides-wise, the hushpuppies and potato rounds were both good -- but the potato salad was the real standout. Mustard-based with a tangy kick.


Reluctantly, I had to leave before I got to try more of the local fare. Special thanks to Chris and Michelle for being great hosts, Mel for hanging out on Saturday, and Andrea for babysitting on Friday so we could hit the town. But the biggest thanks goes to Nora and Hank for being cool-ass kids. Looking forward to seeing you guys again, so hurry up and come see us in KC.

Don't make me publicly shame you guys into visiting -- Lunch Blog has literally tens of readers.

*As of the time of this visit, Price's was in third place but has apparently since been overtaken by Big Daddy's Burger Bar on the Charlotte leaderboard.
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Fuel Pizza:

214 North Tryon Street | Charlotte, NC 28202

Price’s Chicken Coop:

1614 Camden Road | Charlotte, NC 28203

The Foundry

Retrolicious.

I’ll say it right now, I love a lot of crappy food. That’s not to say “food that is terrible” -- more like “food that is terrible for you.” That also seems to be the central philosophy of The Foundry, the new bar and restaurant from the McCoy’s crew. The Foundry totally embraces the feel good times of the ‘70s turning into the ‘80s through its décor, design and utter disregard for what you’re putting in your body. And I couldn’t be happier.

The first time I went to The Foundry was for some Friday lunchtime culinary Armageddon with Zach, Scott and Wells. I almost ordered the gorgonzola-stuffed Bleu Moon Burger, before choosing a different burger, the Velveeta-stuffed Juicy Lucy with a side of onion rings. Scott got the Juicy Lucy, too, while Zach liked the sound of the buffalo chicken Kid Dyn-O-Mite sandwich and fries. Wells got the Bubba Melt, a half-pound burger topped with onion rings, American cheese, Dr Pepper barbecue sauce and mayo. But then he really made the rest of us look like amateurs by adding on the Loaded Tots. Piled with chili, cheese and sour cream, these tots handily trumped all our other sides.

When our burgers arrived, those of us preparing to experience a Juicy Lucy were issued a warning to let it sit for five minutes or risk a hot cheese explosion. The Juicy Lucy comes wrapped in paper like you’re at an old school burger joint, probably to help contain the molten cheese core until it cools to a less face-melting temperature. The wait was worth it -- the Juicy Lucy is a delicious monstrosity that any cigarette-smoking black-and-white television doctor would be falling over himself to recommend.

The Foundry also boasts a wide array of beers and unique mixed drinks, the Buzz Aldrin Tangtini being the only instance I’ve ever seen of using Pop Rocks to lace the rim of a glass. In the course of waiting for our food, we discovered that the red, blush and white house wines translated respectively to Mad Dog, Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill and Riunite. Spotting our co-worker Schlosser eating at another table with his wife, we sent over a glass of the house blush with our compliments -- a gesture they later returned. Classy ‘til the end, those two.

I liked The Foundry so much I insisted we do the next Guys’ Night there so Robert could check it out. Getting the Juicy Lucy was no question, but with too many contenders for a second entrée, we took that as an opportunity to order the Loaded Tots for an appetizer to help get the wheels turning while we contemplated our order over a couple of the McCoy's beers that were on special. Although a number of the sandwiches sounded tasty, we ended up going with the El Diablo, a pizza with chorizo sausage, barbecue chicken, red onion, pepper jack cheese, smoked gouda, mozzarella, provolone, fire-roasted salsa, jalapenos and siriracha hot sauce. Truly we cannot resist the prospect of spicy food.

A bit disappointing that somehow El Diablo turned out to be way milder than anticipated. I think maybe it was trying to do so much that the end result turned into kind of a jumbled mess. However, its excellent pale ale crust would probably go well with any of the more traditional pies.

El Diablo notwithstanding, I’ll be heading back to The Foundry for more soon. This is the kind of place where you can’t go wrong with a majority of the menu, so fear not about trying something new. Here’s a simple rule to follow: If it sounds like it’ll be good, it probably will be. If it sounds suspect, like in the case of the Kissinger -- salmon on a pizza? -- just say no. Nancy Reagan has your back.
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424 Westport Road | Kansas City, MO 64111

The Art Of Pizza

How I got my lunch picking privileges revoked.

I think I owe an apology to everyone that went to lunch with me at the Art of Pizza today.

Seemed like a good idea at the time. It’s a nice day out so we could walk over, have a slice or whatever, and get back to the office no problem. It’s not like the Art of Pizza is ever busy.

We sat down and ordered. I got a slice of pepperoni and a Pane Stuffata -- an Italian bread with baked-in herbs, and stuffed with salami, pepperoni, ham, fresh mozzarella and tomato. The menu advised that the Pane Stuffata takes about 15 minutes to make, but that didn’t strike me as a big deal since getting a couple of slices would probably take five to ten minutes anyway.

Moments after the waitress took my order, I heard “Heart of the Sunrise” by Yes come on. I was all, “Sweet!” Seeing as how that prog-rock epic clocks in at about 11 minutes, I figured it was a safe assumption that my lunch would arrive shortly thereafter.

So 40 minutes later, we got our food. Need I mention that the only people eating in consisted of our party of six? During that time, a few people stopped by to get slices to go, but it didn’t seem like they were getting their food particularly quick, either. Yes, more than one Pane Stuffata was ordered at our table -- if the 15 minute cooking time is cumulative, I would have appreciated a heads up.

Meanwhile, across the street Pizza Bella is doing gangbusters. Always packed. I do have some sympathy for the Art of Pizza -- it’s got to be a bummer to have Pizza Bella with it’s gourmet wood-fired pies and fancy decor open up about the same time you do. Having Pizza Bella right there probably even makes the Art of Pizza look more utilitarian than it truly is. That said, the Art of Pizza is still kind of dark and sketchy, and unfortunately not in that charming dive kind of way. For a restaurant that’s empty at lunch on a Friday, they sure didn’t seem all that excited to see six hungry guys walk through their door.

Bottom line, I think the food at the Art of Pizza is alright. It’s not a destination spot, but if you’re in the mood for a New York-style slice of pizza, taste-wise you could do worse. Was the Art of Pizza fast like an actual New York pizza joint, I’d probably add it to the list of Lunchtime Clutchtime options. It’s just not “Wait 40 Minutes” good.

While we were there, some lady came in and asked where Pizza Bella was. I bet they get that a lot.
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1801 Baltimore Avenue | Kansas City, MO 64108

Gumby's Pizza + Louise's Downtown

“Uh, hey -- do you guys deliver to KC?”

Ten years after graduating from college I can’t remember a thing from either semester I took of Astronomy, but I do still know the phone number for Gumby’s Pizza. So at the halfway point on the drive down K-10 with Shaw en route to see Wilco in Lawrence, I dialed 785-841-5000 to place an order for a pepperoni pizza and Pokey Stix. Since we had plans to rendezvous with Jeff, Jeremy and Ryan on Mass Street before the show, we picked up our food and took it with us to Louise’s Downtown.

We ordered schooners as soon as we walked through the door of the bar. Few things in life are as awesome as a schooner at Louise’s -- 32 oz. of ice cold domestic bliss served up in a glass goblet befitting of back alley royalty. They’re even better when daylight is coming through the front windows while you’re in one of the roomy wraparound booths where it’s kind of dark, the contrast making everything look all fuzzy as if you’re holding court with your friends at Cloud City's only dive bar. I'd halfway expect Lando Calrissian to walk in, only dressed more like Billy Dee Williams than Lando.

After Shaw and I said our hellos, we opened the Gumby’s box and discovered that they had neglected to actually cut our pepperoni pizza into slices, leaving us no choice but to literally tear into it. The pizza hit the spot, yet I couldn’t help feeling like there was something missing -- that delicious cheapness I loved was M.I.A. This was just...well...for better or worse, this was just pizza. Yeah, I know. I’m complaining about the pizza being higher quality than I remember.

Pokey Stix still rule. For the unfamiliar, think of a pizza cut vertically into thirds, and then cut across at about ¾” widths into tiny breadsticks. So garlicky. So buttery. And all that mozzarella-ella-ella-ella.

Couldn’t help but notice that the Gumby’s menu has gotten really complicated since we were in school. I’m fairly certain they only had pizzas and Pokey Stix back in the day -- now they’ve got salads, quesadillas, wings and like 25 or so different kinds each of subs, pasta, and rice bowls.

Let’s be honest. If you’re calling up Gumby’s, nine times out of ten you’ve already had a beer or eight. The last thing you want to do is to have to make a lot of decisions. And you’re certainly not thinking, “Rice bowl. I’d kill for a rice bowl.”

No, you need simple options. Gumby’s shouldn’t even give you a choice after 10 p.m. How it should work is you call them, tell them where you are, they bring you a pepperoni pizza and Pokey Stix, and you shut up and be happy about it. Might as well look on the bright side -- especially seeing as how there’s no more beer left in Lawrence because you just drank it all. At least you’re getting a late night snack.

As always, Wilco was pretty fantastic, and having the show outside in downtown Lawrence was way cool.

Before we drove back, we had a beer at the Replay Lounge and I totally dominated Shaw at Spider Man pinball. A band called Prizzy Prizzy Please from Bloomington, Ind., was playing. Not bad.

For the record, I still remember Pizza Shuttle’s number, too -- 842-1212. But me and my crowd, we were strictly Gumby’s people.
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Gumby's: 1445 West 23rd Street | Lawrence, KS 66046
Louise's Downtown: 1009 Massachusetts Street | Lawrence, KS 66044

Archer Farms Frozen Pizzas

They’re pretty frakkin’ good.

Galacticathon 2008 was ambitious. All twenty episodes of Battlestar Galactica’s third season. One break for KU basketball. Two days. Six geeky, geeky people.

Key to making it happen was planning for maximum efficiency -- down time was not a luxury we could afford. Clearly, this was the perfect excuse to heat up a slew of the fancy frozen pizzas I’d been wanting to try from Archer Farms, Target’s upscale house brand. Keeping in mind that, a) Target brand products always seem to be better than their grocery counterparts; and b) frozen pizza is already delicious, I couldn’t wait to see how these were. Here’s what we had.

• Apple & Gorgonzola: What with my mean gorgonzola jones, this was the variety that initially captured my attention, even if Kelly thought I was getting a little too excited about frozen food. I’m glad to say the flavor had a nice bite and didn’t disappoint. Might’ve been even better without the apples.

• Three Meat with Self-Rising Crust: The crust tasted like a soft pretzel, and since it was layered with sausage, pepperoni and ground beef, this pizza was extremely right on.

• Sicilian Thin Crust with Genoa Salami, Capicola Ham & Italian Sausage: As do all the Archer Farms frozen pizza boxes, it says this was imported from Italy, so it’s likely earned the right to be authentically designated Sicilian. However, I can’t help but wonder if it might be smarter to just offer to move the Italians over here.

• We had two others -- Mushroom, Tomato & Red Onion, and Roasted Garlic Chicken. They were still pretty good, although I liked the rest much more.

Mission accomplished. Galacticathon’s final episode ended about 9:30 p.m. on Sunday night. If you’ve watched Battlestar Galactica, you know that characters on the show frequently unwind with a glass of Ambrosia, which is this iridescent emerald green drink. I made a homemade batch of that involving melon schnapps, vodka and rum for us to enjoy during the weekend, too.

I think we can all agree that the pizzas were better.

Road Trip: 237 Miles to Tulsa

And nary a Krystal the entire way.

See Wilco. Take down beers. Those were our chief priorities when Jeff, Ryan, Jeremy and I road-tripped to Tulsa last weekend. And with four guys in a car together, you know the snack action isn’t going to be pretty. It can’t be a good idea to recap what all we dominated on the trip, but nevertheless, here goes.

• Smokey Ben’s Barbecue: The house specialty is Hot Mommas -- short, fat, spicy sausages that are ridiculously delicious. Seriously, if you ever get to go to Smokey Ben’s and try them, let me know what you think. You can also tell me how to get there, since the only reason we found this joint in the first place is that Jeff and Ryan historically refuse to print out directions, meaning we inevitably get lost.

• Road Snacks: I thought this would be a good excuse to try some new varieties of Archer Farms potato chips I saw at Target -- schezwan barbecue and cheddar bacon. Couldn't actually tell if either flavor tasted like what it was supposed to taste like, but it's certainly within the realm of possibility that they did. Jeremy wouldn't let us eat them in the car.
  

• The Soundpony: Right next door to Cain’s, the place where Wilco was playing, was this bicycle enthusiast bar that had for sale beers, hot dogs being cooked on one of those carousel grillers -- and bikes themselves. I think Ryan pointed out that if you’re buying a bike at the same place where you drink, you probably aren’t all that serious about cycling to begin with.

• Random Street Vendor Outside Cain’s: Making a bold move and choosing to have my dog Chicago style, the guy fixing it might’ve set a world record for speed when he was throwing on all the toppings. A solid Chicago dog to be sure, especially considering it was from a cart in downtown Tulsa.

• Cain’s: Didn’t eat there, but it would be remiss not to mention that you can buy beer here a sixer at a time, still in the rings. And that is the coolest.

• Whataburger: After checking out a few other downtown dives after the show, I passed on a Whataburger run with Jeff and Ryan. Nice guy that he is, though, Jeff thought I might like a burger so he got an extra triple. Then upon getting back to the hotel and discovering I'd crashed out while he was gone, Jeff threw the wrapped-up burger at my head like 90 miles an hour loudly demanding, “You eat that! You eat that burger!” Terrified, I made it maybe three bites in. Ultimately it was a lost cause.

• Mary Jane’s Pizza: At some point, Jeremy ordered a pepperoni and sausage pizza. How the pizza was when it was hot, I cannot say. I can tell you it was pretty good about seven or eight hours later when I woke up. Is there a breakfast better than cold pizza? Apparently Mary Jane’s is open until -- wait for it -- 4:20 in the morning. Not really my thing, but I can appreciate their commitment to the joke.

• Arby’s: My fellow road-trippers are all wrong -- potato cakes are a world of awesome beyond curly fries. My Jamocha shake ruled me the rest of the day, familiar comfort for the ride home.

Also worth noting is that there is either a Subway or a Sonic and usually both about every fifteen miles or so on whatever backwoods route Jeff and Ryan had us taking to Tulsa. While the Subway storefronts tend to blend in by holding shop in what looks like temporary tract housing, Sonic is always the newest, shiniest, gaudiest thing in town -- standing out even more since without exception they're built by property that is fairly dilapidated if not abandoned altogether. Okay, it may not seem all that interesting to you, but it starts to take on an increasing air of strange fascination the more Subways and Sonics you pass.

And yeah, Wilco was good, too. But that goes without saying.