US - Midwest Iowa

Going from Chicago to Lake of the Ozarks this weekend via a route through southeast Iowa. Anyone know anything about Parkside in Burlington? Is Bent River worth a lunch stop? Is Hy Vee really the best place to buy beer in this state? If we go out of our way a bit through the Quad Cities, is there something better, beer-food-wise?
 
Depending on when you go through Burlington is key. RAGBRAI stops in Burlington on Friday night then ends in Keokuk Saturday. There will be a ton of cyclists. Everywhere.

I haven't been to Parkside but I've heard it's good to average. Bent River has two locations in the Quad Cities where I live but I haven't been to the Burlington location.

Hy Vee is pretty much the only place we have in the far eastern part of Iowa for alcohol sales. Sucks sometimes.

As far as the Quad Cities we have something like 12-13 breweries now? I tend to stay on the Iowa side but Illinois side for beer and food I'd say Bent River. Iowa side the breweries I go to the most are Crawford and Five Cities both in Bettendorf and somewhat close to Interstate 74 and 80. Crawford usually has a food truck and Five Cities has a restaurant next door called Central Standard that's owned by the same guy so you can order food to go. Green Tree in LeClaire is good and I think you can order food from other places and eat it there.

Hope that helps. Any other questions hit me up. Safe travels!
 
Thanks! We'll be going through on Saturday around noon, so hopefully the cyclists are gone by then. We'll have a toddler and infant with us so I was hoping to have a decent lunch-and-a-beer spot and that sounds like Bent River, assuming the Burlington location isn't a hard drop off in quality. Their untappd seems to show a few guest beers from places I haven't heard of so... that's probably our destination.

Thanks again!
 
We hit Bent River in Burlington yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised. Food was above average bar fare. I had their IPA, which would have fit right in in 2004- in a good way. Initial bitterness fades to a balanced malt sweetness. Nothing lingering. I'm thinking there was a combination of old C and modern (Citra?) hops. It's good that people still brew this stuff well. The coffee stout was fine.

Hit the local HyVees and was nicely surprised by the selection. Grabbed some Iowa stuff and got extremely excited to see 4-5 year old Schells Noble Star bottles in the discount bin and those beers are good as hell.

So far I really like Single Speed's Victory Dance. The random Iowa beer is much better than the random Missouri beer...
 
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