We have some picky eaters in our house, so visiting a restaurant as a family is not something we do often. Usually only one or two of our children tag along with us to a place that is carefully selected for its ability to provide a dish that has a better-than-50-percent chance of being consumed. With this criterion in mind, I took my 12-year-old son with me on a mid-June Friday night to Au Jus in Milan. Formerly called Hodge Podge, the new restaurant opened in August. Turns out I picked the right kid, anyway.

Sloppy Joes, Reubens, meatball subs, and the Big Mac all have one essential ingredient that makes the sandwich: a special sauce. But at Maid-Rite, you can't say the secret's in the sauce, because there isn't any. The absence of sauce is what sets this loose-meat sandwich apart from the crowd.

Steve and Nancy Rosetti opened The Faithful Pilot Café & Spirits, located at 117 North Cody Road in LeClaire, in 1991. Voted on several occasions as one of the area's most romantic restaurants in the River Cities' Reader's "Best of the Quad Cities" poll, the Faithful Pilot remains a favorite local destination.