Zaxx Blog

Review: Prime Burgerhouse @ Grand Victoria Casino

by admin on Jan.18, 2010, under Culinary Reviews

On Sat. Jan 16th we visited the newest restaurant in Elgin, Prime Burgerhouse at the Grand Victoria Casino. First impressions are everything and overall it was an average experience. We arrived at 8:02PM and were told by the hostess that it would be about a 15 min wait. While we were waiting, I took a peek in the restaurant and there were at least 5 open tables of various sizes. The waitstaff was very friendly but inexperienced. I requested a lemon in my drink, it never made it. I ordered a beer and it sat on the bar for 10 min. before the bartender brought it over. Our waitress said “Oh, it must have been put up there when I was taking another order.” (I heard her tell this to the table next to us when they asked about a milkshake they ordered.) I ordered a side of ranch with my meal and it never arrived, I had to remind the waitress that I never received it. To top it all off, they use wood skewers in their burgers and a chunk of wood was lodged in my burger and I ended up chompin’ on it.

I waved down the manager on staff to whom I introduced myself and told him about my comments and concerns with the above. (Being that this is a new restaurant I made it clear that I understood there were kinks that needed to be worked out with the service but the wood skewer wasn’t acceptable under any circumstance.) The manager apologized for the mishaps and promptly offered us desserts on the house.

On to the good things! The restaurant was clean and roomy. I ordered the Drunken Bull Burger and Becky ordered the Box Burger. We both agreed that the burgers were cooked properly and were tasty! I had the truffle fries with my burger and they were very good!

Pricing wasn’t as bad as you’d expect from a gourmet ‘burgerhouse’. Our bill was $30.00 with tip and that included both burgers with fries, two sodas and 1 large tap beer.

Would I go back? Sure! The service issues will eventually get straightened out. There are plenty of various burgers on the menu to try so a return visit should be a new culinary experience.

-Z

Leave a Comment :Box Burger, Burgerhouse, Drunken Bull Burger, Elgin, Gourmet, Gourmet Hamburgers, Grand Victoria Casino, GVC, Hamburger, Prime, Prime Burgerhouse more...

Park Avenue Weddings – Our Wedding Photographer Nightmare

by admin on Nov.06, 2009, under Chicago Wedding Photography

If you’re thinking about using Park Avenue Weddings (Plainfield, IL) save yourself a hassle and move on. Our experience with Roger (the owner) and his business has been far from stellar and we are so disappointed in how things have turned out. It’s been over 1 year since our wedding was photographed and we have yet to receive the proofs / DVD and album of our photos. We have been told many times that the proofs would be sent and yet we still haven’t seen them. We have been told that there were delays in our order as well as many other orders in his ‘lab’. We were advised that we would hear more after he followed up with the lab and that never happened. Calls left on both of his phone numbers are rarely returned – the same goes with e-mails. In some cases it was over a month before a reply was heard.

Your experience with this company may vary and may turn out great – ours was and still *is* not a happy experience. If you have a story about this company to share, please share it – good or bad!

-Zac Anderson

5 Comments :(630) 201-0981, (630) 861-8212‎, Chicago, Chicago Suburbs Wedding Photos, Chicago Wedding Photographer, Chicago Wedding Photography, Chicago Wedding Review, http://www.parkavenueweddings.com/, IL, Northwest Suburbs, Park Avenue Weddings, Plainfield, Roger, sales@parkavenueweddings.com, Wedding photographer, Wedding Photos, Western Suburbs, www.parkavenueweddings.com more...

The CORPTAX Song

by admin on Aug.20, 2009, under CORPTAX, Uncategorized

Back around 1999/2000 CORPTAX was Deloitte & Touche Tax Technologies LLC – times were a changin’ and Steve Pliskin was our new “CTO”. This is a spinoff of a song that someone in development made at that hard time at DTTT (DT3). It was recently rewritten for the “CORPTAX” atmosphere and the current regime. As soon as I can get a copy of the ‘old’ Deloitte version, I’ll post that as well.

The CORPTAX Song
(sung to the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies)

Come and listen to my story ’bout a man named Jed, an immigrant that barely kept his family fed,
Then one day he talked to a recruiter, “Ya’ll get big bucks if ya work with computers!”
Microsoft, that is … .NET … Visual Studio;

Well the first thing ya know, ol’Jed’s a Software Engineer, The kinfolk said “Jed move away from here,”
They said “The Windy City is the place ya oughta be,” So he packed up his SUV and moved to Cook Countee,
CORPTAX, That is … rain and heat … traffic jams;

On his first day at work they stuck him in a nook, Fed him lotsa coffee and gave him a tax book,
They said “Your project’s late but we know just what to do, Instead of 40 hours, we’ll work you fifty-two!
OT, that is … unpaid … Mandatory;

The days rolled by and things were looking bad, Some schedules slipped and Uncle Buck was mad,
They called another meeting and decided on a fix, The answer was simple, “We’ll work him sixty-six,”
Tired, that is … stressed out … no social life;

Now weeks turned into Months and his hair was turning gray, Jed worked hard while his summer slipped away,
Waiting to escape when the products out the door, Instead he got a call and they walked him off the floor,
Laid off, that is … project cancelled … unemployed ….

Leave a Comment :CORPTAX, Deloitte & Touche, Deloitte & Touche Tax Technologies LLC, DT3, DTTT, Mason Slaine, Steve Buck more...

My Political View (Survey…)

by admin on Aug.05, 2009, under Uncategorized

My Political Views
I am a centrist social libertarian
Right: 0.66, Libertarian: 3.96

Political Spectrum Quiz

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Later CORPTAX, Hello MOTO!

by admin on Jun.23, 2008, under Motorola

It’s been about a month and a 1/2 since I left CORPTAX and joined the Motorola team. I’ve headed into a new direction with my technology career. At Motorola I’ll be learning their Astro 25 public radio communication systems and supporting implementations around the nation both at a local, state and government level. I’m looking forward to the challenges ahead and I wish all my former co-workers at CORPTAX best of luck.

Leave a Comment :Astro 25, CORPTAX, Employment, Government, Jobs, Motorola, Public Safety, Radio Communication, Schaumburg, SSC, System Support more...

New Microsoft Live Workspace For ECC Culinary Arts Students

by admin on Feb.07, 2008, under ECC Culinary Arts

I’m in the process of creating a new Microsoft Live Workspace for each of the CUL classes at Elgin Community College. This will be a palce where we can collaborate on the Culinary Arts program and share files and comments about the classes in the Culinary Arts track. Please e-mail me directly (zanderson@gmail.com) with your information (Name, E-mail Address, Classes you are taking.) and I will add you as a member to the class sites!

Leave a Comment :chef, Chef Jill Russell, Chef Mark P. Bosanac, Chef Mike Zema, Chef Robert Macey, College, CUL, Culinary, Elgin Community College, Food more...

The “On Cooking” Online Reference & Notes

by admin on Feb.04, 2008, under ECC Culinary Arts

Hi there… As I was looking around the internet tonight for the instructor’s guide for the On Cooking book, I ran into the following website that has all the powerpoints, review questions and sample questions for each chapter.

All you need to do is click on the link above and then select the chapter you want to review from the menu bar on the page and then navigate to the area you want to review / read from the left hand menu pane. If you open up one of the powerpoint files, you can then save that to your local drive for future reference.

I’m sure that some of the questions from these pages were on the quizzes after looking at them. Another feature of the sample questions is that you can fill them out and then do “Submit Answers For Grading” at the bottom of the page to get the proper answers for each of the questions. (Nevermind filling out the fields and submitting them to someone…)

I have also placed all the audio clips for each chapter on my website. Please save the files locally and play them when you want. They are in .MP3 format. Links for each chapter below.