Andria's Steak House

Andria's Steak House.  Home of my favorite steak sauce.  You've undoubtedly read my comments about it.  When the grocery store that carried Andria's was gobbled up by a bigger competitor, my access to this liquid gold was gone.  Connie got busy on the internet and found that we could order it online.  And, he found that Andria's is actually a restaurant in Collinsville, IL. 

Several years ago I started collaborating with a colleague in Kansas City. That meant an annual drive from Indy to KC.  Collinsville is a short drive south of I-70.  I now had the perfect way to stop for dinner.  The biggest problem was that that would add a couple of hours to an eight hour drive and just called out for an overnight visit.  Being a frugal gal, I couldn't justify paying for a hotel room just to be able to eat dinner at Andria's.  Then, Connie was doing a bit of reading about World Heritage sites.  He found that the largest city north of Mexico in 1250 AD was situated right there in Collinsville, IL.  It's real name is lost to posterity.  Now, it's known as Cahokia Mounds.  We now had our plan.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed to Collinsville.  Connie had a surprise in store for me.  The world's largest ketchup bottle.  I know, I laughed too.  It used to be a water tower.  Now, we've seen the largest egg AND the largest ketchup bottle.  Am I living right or what? 

Once we'd seen the ketchup bottle, we were off to the interpretive center at Cahokia Mounds.  It was incredibly well done.  We learned about the various types of mounds and how the people lived. Then, we spent a bit of time exploring the mounds.  10,000 to 20,000 people lived there at one time.  The largest mound is called Monk's Mound.  It covers 14 acres and took 300 years to build.  About 15,000,000 buckets of dirt.  I climbed to the top.  About the height of a ten story building.  Do you think I was a bit excited about having successfully climbed?

From CAhokia Mounds we went straight to Andria's.  What a charming restaurant!!!  Max, grandson of the developer of the fabulous Andria's Steak Sauce and son of the current owners was our fabulous waiter.  The wine list was reasonably priced and offered us so many wonderful options.  We selected a Duckhorn Decoy Cabernet Sauvignon. 

Salads were great.  We both loved the gorgonzola dressing. 

Then it was time for our entrees.  Perfection on a plate.  Usually I have to order rare to get medium rare.  At Andria's medium rare is true medium rare. 

Service was perfect.  We absolutely loved our visit and will figure out how to get back to Andria's.  In the interim, I've got a case of the sauce to keep me happy.  It not only is perfect on steaks, but in burgers and on about any other protein you can think of.