Albano's Pizzeria, Lyons, Ill.

As my college friends can attest to, I'm a pretty frugal guy. While they were buying drinks and going to bars, my wallet was known as the place dollars go to never be seen again because of how rarely they saw me buy anything. 

I've gotten a little better at that since then, but with that reputation, it follows that I love a good deal, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a better one than at Albano's, known for what it labels as the nation's largest pizza puff. I don't know if that's actually true or not, but what I do know is that it's located in the Chicago suburbs, it checked in at No. 8 on the Chowdown Countdown and it's totally worth a visit.


For those who don't know, a pizza puff is a Chicago version of the calzone, piled with toppings, cheese and sauce and cooked inside the dough. However, the difference between your standard calzone and a pizza puff is that the pizza puff is fried rather than baked, which is almost certainly less healthy but certainly not less tasty. In fact, as usually happens when you fry something, this is really excellent.


Besides being really excellent, it's really huge. As I said, I have no idea whether or not these are actually the largest pizza puffs in the country, but if they aren't, they're darn close. Albano's pizza puffs are the size of a football, as they really load on whatever toppings you ask for. On my visit with my wonderful lady Amy McFann, we went with chicken, mushrooms, olives, spinach and ricotta to pair with the sauce and mozzarella that come standard. Each bite was filled with a great mix of all of those toppings.


Notice I said we there, as in we split one. This is the way you're supposed to have the pizza puff. They are so large that the picture at the top of this blog is half of a pizza puff. Yes, half of this takes up a full dinner plate. These are not made for one person to eat. We actually had some left over after splitting it.


Surprisingly, though, while it isn't made for one person, it's priced for one person, which is the great deal I referenced at the start of the blog and why I brought up my legendary cheapskate ways. The standard pizza puff is seven dollars, with each topping costing you 75 cents. With beverages, dinner for two or more people costs less than $15. If you can get multiple people to agree on the toppings, this might very well be the best deal in Chicagoland.


Beyond the pizza puff, Albano's serves everything you'd expect at an Italian restaurant, with pasta, pizza, soups, salads and sandwiches dotting its menu. I can definitely recommend the pizzas whether you get standard or deep-dish, having tasted the quality of the ingredients in the pizza puff.


That said, unless you just don't like calzones (since you can order baked as a regular calzone), I can recommend the pizza, but I won't because of the greatness that is the pizza puff. That's the reason you come to Albano's: a unique, high-quality meal at a very low price. When you have that, that's really all you need.


Recap
Time to go: Lunch/dinner. The pizza puff is great eating for either meal, and Albano's is open seven days a week.


Wait during my visit: None. Even though it's Chicagoland, it's the land part of Chicagoland, which means the restaurant traffic isn't usually bad. Things could be a bit worse at the Cicero location, which is a little closer to Chicago proper than Lyons.


Location: Albano's offers two locations, one at 8699 W. Ogden Avenue in Lyons, Ill., and the other at 5913 W. Roosevelt Road in Cicero, Ill.


Parking: It's available right in front of the restaurant.

Cost: Very wallet-friendly. Most entrees are under $15, with the pizza puff at $7 and yielding at least two meals.


Website: Albano's Pizzeria


Signature items: Pizza puff

Pickerman's, Rock Island, Ill.

Although the title of this blog might say Dan vs. Food, this is hardly limited to just Man vs. Food restaurants. Occasionally, I'll branch out to good local places that don't get the worldwide attention that the Travel Channel if I choose to do so, as I did today for lunch here in the Quad-Cities.

My only rule on this is that I'm not going to be reviewing chains, unless there's something incredibly iconic about them. For example, should I make a return to California, I might review In-and-Out Burger. I'm not going to be reviewing Jerry's Subs and Pizza, even though I think Jerry's is awesome and it's almost a required stop when I visit Virginia. It's just not iconic enough to warrant it, although the cheesesteaks there are wonderful.

Anyway, Pickerman's is a soup and sandwich shop in Rock Island that specializes in toasted subs and high-quality soups. Their slogan is that it's the bread, and the bread is excellent. They offer white and wheat bread, freshly baked to perfection and serve every sub toasted.

Sub-wise, they serve 12 sandwiches that look like a pretty solid lineup. I went with an old favorite, roast beef with lettuce, tomato, onion, Provolone cheese and bistro sauce. Excellent combination of flavors and heat made it work well. Some of their other sandwiches include chicken and Swiss, ham and capicola, smoked turkey and their Numero Uno, which includes ham, prosciutto, salami and Provolone. Even their vegetarian appears to be money, served with cucumbers and dill cream cheese.

But it's the soups that really make this place worth a visit. Pickerman's rotates a list of 36 soups in and out of their menu, selling four a day. It says on one menu that they sell six a day, but I only saw four in the restaurant. Some of the soups in the rotation include the five-star mushroom, Wisconsin cheese, lobster bisque, roasted garlic tomato and what became my choice, the Asiago cheese bisque.

Two things need to be true about a quality bisque. It needs to be flavorful, and it needs to be creamy. The Asiago cheese hit on both qualities, delivering a nice mix of flavors with bacon and vegetables mixed in while providing a velvety texture that was perfect for its temperature. Throw in a soda and you've got yourself an excellent meal.

It's about as far south as you can get and still be in Rock Island, but it's worth the drive. I'll definitely be heading back.

Recap

Time to go: It's a soup and sandwich place. You're going for lunch. Pickerman's is closed on Sundays.

Wait during my visit: None. That's the nice thing about being a good distance away.

Location: Pickerman's is at 4659 44th Street in Rock Island, Ill.

Parking: There's a good amount.

Website: None

Specialty items: Toasted sandwiches, soups.

Edwards' Drive-In, Indianapolis

Pork tenderloin, onion rings, root beer

To kick things off, I'll start with the most recent restaurant I've experienced, that being Edwards' Drive-In in the state capital of Indiana. Edwards is your classic 1950's diner, known for serving huge portions of Indiana's beloved pork tenderloin sandwich with a frosted glass of homemade root beer.

For those who have never heard of it, the pork tenderloin sandwich is about as Indiana (and Iowa) as it gets. It's basically a pork loin pounded thin, breaded and fried, then topped with your standard hamburger toppings. What sets Edwards apart, aside from the 1950's atmosphere, is the sheer size of the tenderloin. The meat hangs a long, long way off the bun, which makes for more pork for your money. The pork is very good without the bread, cheese and condiments, but it really works well when you hit the inside of the sandwich and all the other stuff combines with the crisp breading and the flavor of the pork.

For your side, having spent 19 months in Idaho, I tend to prefer the potatoes, but you've got to go with the onion rings here. They are big and the onions stay crisp, flavorful and delicious throughout the meal. The onions are so good that they really don't even need the breading, and that's always a good thing when that's the case. Don't get me wrong, the breading is great, but when you've got a product inside that's so good that it tastes wonderful without it, you've got an awesome food item there.

That brings me to the root beer. Little-known fact about me, I'm not a root beer guy. I'm a sweet tea, grape soda and diet Mountain Dew/Coke/Pepsi guy. When I bought my home soda maker, I tossed away the root beer packets in the sample pack, because I just wasn't going to use them.


But this root beer is wonderful. First, they serve it in a frosted glass, just the way a good root beer should be served. It's ice-cold from your first sip to the last drop. Second, this root beer is homemade, and it's something special. The taste is wonderful and the cold temperature keeps it that way throughout your meal. It's good enough to make me like the taste of root beer.


As far as the atmosphere, it's a 50's diner and the jukebox does actually work without you paying for it. I found this out when I punched a few buttons and accidentally played "The Name Game". The other customers probably didn't appreciate that, but oh well.

Recap
Time to go: Lunch


Wait during my visit: Very short, served nearly immediately


Location: 2126 South Sherman Drive, Indianapolis, IN, inside of Interstate 465 but outside of downtown. It's in the southeastern part of metro Indianapolis, and it's not really close to a lot.


Parking: Plentiful


Website: Edwards Drive-In


Signature items: Pork tenderloin sandwich, onion rings, root beer

The exterior of the building

How it all began

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dan Angell, and I'm a sportswriter in Davenport, Iowa. Ever since graduating college and taking my first job in Idaho, I've discovered that in addition to sports, I love both travel and food. When they're together, there's almost no better experience, especially because I can usually involve a sporting event, fulfilling all of my passions.


When I first discovered Man vs. Food, I was intrigued to learn about the specialty foods of each city that appeared on an episode. I had always loved finding specialty foods in each location, but in most places, it was simply a generic food, with no idea what was the best that served it or what the signature dish even was in some cities. For instance, I'd never heard of a Juicy Lucy, a Minneapolis staple, or coffee milk, served in Rhode Island. Thanks to MvF and some of my own research, I had a guide to what I wanted and where to get it, and that led to me deciding to try visiting some of these iconic restaurants whenever I could.


As that continued, naturally, some friends started to get envious of the places I was able to see (thank you, Idaho State basketball beat) and the foods I was able to try. After hearing about several of them, one asked me to start taking pictures of the places I was visiting and post them online. Step two had been taken, and I began taking pictures in Tucson, Arizona, one year after getting the job in Idaho.


That was when I realized that trying these places had developed into more than just pictures for my friends. It had become a real hobby, and as the show kept visiting new places, I saw more and more things I wanted to try. Travel Channel followed Man vs. Food with their 101 Best Places to Chow Down, giving me even more restaurants that I wanted to experience for myself. Step three was the formation of my map, keeping track of every place I'd visited.


Now that I'm approaching having reached 70 of the show's restaurants, it's time to describe my experiences and share them with the public. That's what this blog will be.


Each post will be about a restaurant I've had the pleasure to visit, some on MvF, some from the Chowdown Countdown and some from neither show but worthy of inclusion because it was a great experience not to be missed. Many will have pictures. Some will not. Some of the places I've visited were so long ago that I will not review them, as it's been too long for me to give a good review. Sure, I've been to Chunky's Burgers in San Antonio and Arthur Bryant's in Kansas City, but that was almost four years ago. I'd need another visit to properly review it.


Three more things before we get going. First, I'm always open to suggestions. If you know of a place that I need to visit, please leave a comment or e-mail me at nighthawk892005@yahoo.com to let me know. I can't promise I'll get there immediately, but I'll put it on my list and I will try to get there when the opportunity arises.


Second, as I make each post, I'm going to tag them with the type of cuisine and the geographic location, including city, state and region. For example, a place with standard American food in Missouri will get a Midwest label. The geographic groups will be as follows: New England, Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, Rocky Mountains and Pacific.


Third, since I've been to 66 MvF places, I've got a lot of posts that will be coming. As I add more and more restaurants, if there's a certain one I've been to that you want to see reviewed sooner rather than later, let me know. 


How do you know which places I've visited? Here's my map, with all the information you need:  

Dan's food map


Welcome to my ultimate hunger quest. This is Dan vs. Food.