His and Hers Burger Night

I really love date night. When you share life with a chef you don't usually get weekends to go out and enjoy a nice dinner like everyone else. Instead he is cooking their dinner and I'm on my own. Date night for us happens on a Tuesday or a Wednesday and rarely includes things like prime rib and crab stuffed shrimp specials. It usually means a big juicy burger, and honestly, that's what we really like.

On a recent Tuesday night after my work hours we ran his and hers errands, and met up after for dinner, our version of date night. I keep a running list on my laptop of places in the area where I want to eat and check out the menu. Tonight's dinner spot isn't on that list. Shame. I might have explored it sooner!

Tucked away on a busy intersection in Clive, Iowa, sits a sports themed restaurant. Now usually I am not too impressed by places like this- hordes of loud and obnoxious sports fans swilling brews and chomping on wings and generally annoying me. Rookies Sports Bar and Grill is nothing like that. Sure televisions line the room- and I mean line the room completely, and a couple different baseball games were playing, with the volume on, but it was just the perfect volume- loud enough to hear the play by play and not having to yell at my date. I totally enjoyed that, and it's LOCAL. Locally owned, not a big nationwide chain with flashy commercials and cheesy gimmicks. I much prefer supporting a local business over throwing my money at a bazillionaire chain.

Rookies has two large dining rooms and a great selection
of brews and cocktails

The menu was classic American grill- a large selection of appetizers, many fried, but hand breaded and homemade, a great selection of sandwiches, just enough entrees to suit most peoples' taste, and a lineup of really really good burgers. Chatting with the owner was great- he was very friendly and knew the menu- obviously not a guy who sits at a desk somewhere and run the business from afar. 

Of course, we chose burgers. The Chef chose The Wisconsin Burger, a half pound of hand pattied beef topped with Swiss, American and Mozzarella cheeses and served on grilled garlic Parmesan bread. 

The Wisconsin Burger- I had to take a pic on the fly as The
Chef wasn't wasting any time digging in.

I chose The Steakhouse Burger- the same giant half pound of beef with American cheese, bacon, onion straws, lettuce, mayo and steak sauce on a great big toasted bun. Brew pub fries came with the burgers- nice steak fries tossed with seasoning. 

The Steakhouse Burger comes gored with a steak knife.
It was massive!!

Now you guys know how picky I am about salad dressing. It's always got to be homemade vinaigrette for me, period, and I am not a ranch dressing person at all- unless I'm eating fries. Then I must have ranch, and their ranch was really good- if it wasn't homemade it was a good mix!!

Needless to say........ I ate too much. We really needed to have Double Date Night with another couple so we could sample more foods, but I'm quite sure we will be back many times. Rookies has a pretty nice drinks menu and beer selection, with cocktail specials but they really focus on the food. Definitely more restaurant than bar, and that's the kind of place I like to hang out.

Rookies is located at the corner of Hickman Road and NW 156th Street in Clive, It's tucked behind a convenience store but not really hidden. They also have a website with their full menu and a Facebook page.