Old Chicago coming to Cedar Falls?

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I got a tip from the woman who cuts my hair today, she heard that Old Chicago is coming to Cedar Falls. Sure enough, they list the location on their web site, but no news yet as to where it'll be located. I'm excited, for while their pizza is tasty, the best part is they serve hard cider! There's no other bar in town that does, as far as I know...

Finger Food

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More finger foods in the news:

Stowers, who did not immediately return calls Monday from The Associated Press, told the station: "I thought it was candy because they put candy in your ice cream ... to make it a treat. So I said, 'OK, well, I'll just put it in my mouth and get the ice cream off of it and see what it is.'"

Stowers said he spit the object out, but still couldn't identify it. So he went to his kitchen, rinsed it off with water -- and "just started screaming."

At least this one appears to be legitimate, since there's an employee missing the finger. Though it begs the question, what kind of idiot loses his finger in the food processor but still adds the ingredients to the mix?

Panchero's

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I ate lunch at the new Panchero’s in Cedar Falls.  It was okay food, though I’m not really sure how different their dishes are from each other.  You choose tacos, burritos, salad, etc. and then what ingredients you want.  All the various tortillas are made from the same dough, on the same grill in front of you, so it’s basically you choosing your shape of food, rather than any actual difference, as far as I can tell.  Also annoying is that the round hole in their trash receptacles is smaller in diameter than the round plastic container that held my steak salad, so I really had to cram it in there to throw it away when I was done eating.

Their tortillas were tasty, but for some reason I prefer hard tortillas to soft generally.  Not bad, all in all, but they won’t be replacing Rudy’s Tacos as my favorite in town.

Chantico

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After lunching at Panera today, my co-worker Aaron and I ducked into the new Starbucks nearby. This is the first "real" Starbucks for the Cedar Valley, so we thought we'd check it out. I saw they were advertising a drink called "Chantico" and since I don't like coffee, I opted to try it instead of the usual Vanilla Creme I get when I'm in a Starbucks. The barista told me that it was like hot chocolate, but "different", so I gave it a shot. A shot is about all I got, as the drink is only about 6 ounces, and I felt more than a little effeminate walking about with my dainty coffee cup among the talls, grandes and ventis around me. The drink tastes much like this USA Today article says, like a melted Hershey's bar in a glass. It's REALLY chocolatey, more so than you'd expect. The real shock came when I got back to work and read this article, and realized the nutritional value (or lack thereof) in the drink. Three Hundred and Ninety Calories?!? In 6 Ounces?!? 21 Grams of fat?!??!

If you're a chocolate lover, give it a try, but I think I'll stick to the Vanilla Cremes...