Despite encountering obstacle after obstacle in the week prior, our first road trip of 2022 is in the books! 🚗 We drove to Lincoln, Nebraska the first week of February to see Ghost play at the Pinnacle Bank Areana. Ghost is one of Wes's favorite bands and the last on his list to see play live. We'll talk about the concert later, but first we must chat about food. 🍔🍗🍝🍨🍳 Trying new restaurants is one of my favorite parts about going on vacation. Sadly, I was sick with a stomach virus during this trip, so I barely ate anything, and we had to skip three of the restaurants I had picked out for us to try. I did not enjoy Nebraska and do not think we'll be returning so let's just hope The Parthenon, Tini Café and Auntie Rita's Jamaican Cuisine weren't as good as the internet boasted. Now onto restaurants that we did try...
The half-way point between Oklahoma City and Lincoln is Salina, KS. We stopped in Bravo Sliders-n-Bites for lunch. The building is small and unmarked (only one tiny sign--it looks big in the picture, but I was standing pretty close to it). I guess the polite way to describe this place is "no-frills" ... and no heating. The dining room was freezing! 🥶 But the food was good, and I suppose that's what matters most. I got a slider with beet slices -- something I've never tried before. Their fries are called Frips, a portmanteau of fry and chip. I got mine dusted with dill pickle seasoning, which was really good. Wes got a cheesesteak slider, a breakfast slider and regular Frips.
We ate at Villa Amore for dinner our first night in Lincoln. It is a nice Italian restaurant attached to the Country Inn & Suites hotel. We were both pretty confused when our maps navigation took us to the hotel parking lot. LOL The food was amazing! I ignored my stomach troubles and ate so much (probably too much because I was super sick again the next day). I don't think I've drank an authentic peach Bellini until that night. I was shocked and amazed that it had actual peach puree in it (and not just peach flavoring); like the entire peach was blended and juiced into my drink! [Side note -- I am an extremely simply person and easily amazed.] We started with salad, bread (Wes said it was really good) and soup. The soup was a creamy potato bisque. For dinner, Wes had the shrimp and scallop pesto alfredo and I had one of their nightly specials: roasted eggplant with pasta and vegetables in a spicy marinara sauce. The pasta also had chunks of eggplant so double eggplant!! I was just telling Wes earlier that day that it's about time that beets & eggplant burst onto the food scene and this did not disappoint.
For breakfast the next morning, we went to the Engine House Café. This was the first warm place I've been in since leaving our home two days prior. The restaurant is an old firehouse with exposed brick and high ceilings. Very small and cozy. Their coffee was so good (probably my favorite part of breakfast). ☕ It was a light roast but still full of flavor. I wished they had beans or K-cups for us to buy for home. I got the cinnamon roll, which I thought was way too buttery, and Wes got the standard two egg breakfast. He said the sausage patty was a little thin but he did like that it was crispy.
We skipped lunch (stomach virus, yay 😑). It was probably 20℉ (or less) but I wanted ice cream. (402) Creamery was only a block or so away from the hotel, so we took a brisk walk for a snack that afternoon. I chose that place for its vegan/dairy-free options (for Wes) but he ended up getting real ice cream and I got one of the vegan offerings. LOL I got one of their Valentine's flavors -- the Breakup Blues, a blueberry and pomegranate sorbet with dark chocolate chunks. Yum! Wes got the snickerdoodle ice cream and he said there were too many cookie chunks in it and not enough ice cream. The spiced waffle cone piece on top was really good, too.
After the concert, we picked up dinner from Boss's Pizza & Chicken. It was the only place open past midnight that wasn't a bar. Its website boasted, "Famous late night eats!", but when we got there, it was a sketchy, old, run-down building with zero customers. There was a sign on the door instructing patrons to enter via the back door (by the dumpster and railroad tracks) when it was past 11pm ... super sketchy. I wasn't expecting much but the food was actually really good. Or I was just really hungry (my stomach started feeling better in the middle of the concert and I actually felt like eating again! Only there was no food at the venue so 😣😞😠) We got the chicken meal from Boss's. I was cracking up at the packaging because the franchisee didn't even bother to use Boss's logo/brand box. I guess Gold'n Plump had some extra boxes he didn't want to throw away. I liked the chicken because it was thoroughly spiced and flavored. Wes said it was waaaay too salty. LOL
We got back to the hotel a little past midnight and our parking card didn't work. We paid to be able to park at the garage across the street from the hotel during our stay. Wes called the hotel and the night employee told us to (not even exaggerating) park at the meters because its free until 7am. 😶 Instead of offering to give us a new parking card or research the issue, this woman expected us to park my car on the street even though we paid for garage parking and not only that, she also expected us to get up before 7am to either move my car or pay the meter. 😡 Instead, I took a self-serve ticket at the garage and pulled in. We thought we would just clear this up with her in person when we got in. Some things are hard to explain over the phone... surely, she would be more accommodating in person. Nope. She was adamant that we did not pay for a parking card (even though Wes showed her the physical card we were issued) and since I took a self-serve ticket, I now owed an additional $11 to park my car and there was ABSOLUTELTY nothing she could do to help us. Ugh. Luckily, the manager in the morning was a million times more helpful and reactivated our parking card with no problem.
The next morning, we had breakfast at The Hub Café. My stomach was cured and I was going to eat again!!! 😁 The Hub is a restaurant located on a really nice park/walking trail. Since it was the middle of winter, the park was sort of dead & ugly, but I bet this is a beautiful place to dine in the springtime. The farm-to-table restaurant only uses local ingredients from Nebraskan farms. Everything did taste extremely fresh. Wes said the bacon tasted like the same bacon his great-grandpa used to make when they slaughtered their own pigs. The best bacon he's had in a long time, he said. I noticed the goat cheese tasted different (aka no preservatives) than the stuff we get from the store. I got the roasted beet sandwich and it was ginormous. 🥪 Probably the size of two sandwiches. I thought it was a little bland, but I know they wanted to showcase the natural flavor of the fresh ingredients instead of hiding behind a bunch of seasonings. Wes got a cold brew coffee that he wasn't a fan of but I loved my chai latte.
Just as my stomach virus was wanning, I started having painful menstruation cramps. (Oh the joys of endometriosis.) So needless to say, I was back to not eating. We skipped lunch and just powered on home. As I was driving through Kansas, I kept seeing signs for Lindsborg, KS aka Little Sweden, USA. I love making random stops on road trips to explore but we haven't been able to do that much due to tight schedules on our last few trips. Making unplanned stops is one of Wes's least favorite things but I really wanted to visit so he obliged. It would be nice to take a potty break not at a gas station and maybe we could get a snack. The town is tiny and we almost drove through without seeing the touristy part. There were small signs pointing toward downtown but I didn't see them; luckily Wes caught them and we turned toward Little Sweden. It took us less than an hour to walk around downtown and visit their famous Hemslojd giftshop.
Dala horses are the town's mascot and there were replicas outside of each establishment painted to match the business. It was late Saturday afternoon when we stopped into town so most of the places were already closed. There was supposedly a Swedish cultural museum somewhere, but we couldn't find it. It was still nice to get to stretch our legs and get some fresh air, plus, I enjoyed the giftshop. I wanted to stop in the bakery but it was already closed for the day. So, we got our potty break but no snack. Back into the car we went. We hadn't eaten since breakfast and although I wasn't feeling well enough for a meal, I knew we couldn't also skip dinner. I saw Taco John's when we were driving though either Wisconsin or Missouri last year and laughed at myself. What a silly name; I bet the food is horrible. I saw Taco John's again when we drove through Salina a few days ago but this time, I was curious to try it. We needed to get gas so Wes found us a gas station/Taco John's combo in Wichita, KS.
Taco John's is not good but I wouldn't say it was bad. I rank it alongside Del Taco. The meat in the crispy tacos was mixed with refried bean paste. Good thing Wes got the soft tacos. He said they came pre-dressed with chunky "salsa". It was a little sad to end our trip with subpar food. But, everything else we ate was good so one bad meal didn't ruin it. Aside from eating, we visited two museums and, the highlight of our trip, the concert. More on those to come!!
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