Ralph Troll spent 40 years teaching biology at Augustana College, and he only told the story there twice.

The first time was in the late 1980s, when he was asked to speak to a German class, because he was from Germany.

"It was just kind of part of the story," he said last week.

And then in the 1990s, the college asked him to give a senior-recognition talk. "I'm a biologist," he said. "They didn't want to hear about anything like that.

"I decided: This is a good day to do this. ... That's really the first time I told the whole story."

In all, Troll - who is now 77 years old and an emeritus professor at Augustana - said that he's told about his family's experiences in Germany during World War II five times, which is five more times than his mother talked to her children about her stay in a concentration camp. He'll lecture twice next week, on Sunday at Davenport's Temple Emanuel and on Monday at Augustana College.

Restaurant

1. Faithful Pilot Café & Spirits

2. DJ's Steakhouse

3. Antonella's Pizzeria & Ristorante

3. Granite City Food & Brewery

3. Johnny's Italian Steakhouse

Best restaurant

Best fine dining

The Faithful Pilot Café & Spirits

It can seem tough in this town sometimes for us foodies. Sure, chains are ubiquitous anywhere you go in the country. But for the Quad Cities' secret little society of gastronomes, the ratio here seems tilted a bit too far in favor of the usual, the expected, the unsurprising - the previously frozen. I have nothing against the Applebee's of the world, really. They clearly have a market hungry for their product. But give me attention to detail, attention to nuance, and above all, attention to flavor. Mix that with a locavore consciousness, fresh, seasonal menus, and something really interesting to fill the stemware. According to the voters in this year's Best of the Quad Cities poll, the place to find all of these things is The Faithful Pilot Café & Spirits in LeClaire - which won the "best restaurant" and "best fine dining" categories and placed in the top three for seafood, desserts, and Sunday brunch. After a recent date-night visit with my girlfriend (not our first, by any means), I can attest that Reader voters know what they're talking about.

TV news station

1. KWQC-TV6

2. WQAD Channel 8

3. WHBF CBS 4

Local media personality

1. Paula Sands, KWQC-TV6

2. Jessica Tighe, KWQC-TV6

3. Pat Leuck and Dani Howe, WLLR 103.7 FM

Local TV news anchor

1. Gary Metivier, KWQC-TV6

2. Jessica Tighe, KWQC-TV6

3. Jim Mertens, WQAD Channel 8

Local TV reporter

1. Fran Riley, KWQC-TV6

2. Jessica Tighe, KWQC-TV6

3. Chris Minor, WQAD Channel 8

Best local TV reporter

Fran Riley

Raised in Boston, KWQC-TV6 reporter Fran Riley says he grew up "wanting to be a play-by-play guy" for Major League Baseball. "I realized if I wasn't going to be the next Mickey Mantle, the next best thing would be the next Curt Gowdy." Those interested in a reporting career, meanwhile, would do well to strive to be the next Fran Riley. Voted "best local TV reporter" in the Reader's poll, Riley - who joined Davenport's KWQC team in 1994, after 14 years with Rock Island's WHBF - graduated with honors from Boston's Emerson College in 1975, and has been a broadcasting success ever since: Among his accolades are a United Press International Award for "best feature sports story" and "best sports reporting in Illinois," an Associated Press citation for "best feature reporting," and, with KWQC, two awards for religion-themed stories, given by the prestigious Wilbur Foundation. "Faith, and my beliefs as a Christian, are very, very important to me," says Riley, "so it means everything to have been able to do some of these stories and be recognized for them." With daily shooting assignments for Channel 6's newscasts, there's "not a lot of time to fool around," but Riley finds the demanding job intensely rewarding. "You get opportunities to meet some absolutely fascinating people," he says, and in covering such news events as last summer's flooding, "you also see things that really cause a lot of heartache in people's lives. I'm always amazed by people's determination and resiliency, and their desire to bounce back. It's rather uplifting." As for advice for those considering their own reporting careers, Riley says, "The more you can do in terms of versatility, whether it be news, sports, operating a camera ... the more you can offer a business, the more valuable you are to them." Thank you, Mr. Riley, for being valuable to Quad Citians for 28 years and counting. For more on Riley, visit the reporter's biographical page on KWQC.com.

- Mike Schulz

If you ask brewmaster Paul Krutzfeldt about bottling his beer, prepare to be dismissed.

"Speak of that no more," he said in the "brewer's lounge" of the new Great River Brewery, near the foot of the Arsenal bridge at 332 East Second Street in Davenport.

It's not that Krutzfeldt doesn't want his brews available in stores or bar coolers. It's just that he's a fan of the can.

"Cans are where it's at," he explained. "You have less oxygen tolerances, so the beer won't go bad. No light gets in. And you have a lot more accessibility to take them places - boating, camping. They're more easily recyclable."

He later cites the slogan of the Minnesota-based Surly brewery: "Beer for a glass, from a can."

This is the summary of what Krutzfeldt said is a trend in the suds industry: good beer being delivered in a container that has historically been the marker of bad beer.

He said he's not concerned about the association of cans with bland, watery, mass-produced beer. "What good beer have you had the opportunity to buy in cans?" he asked.

But the can is the wave of the future because of the protection it offers and its portability, Krutzfeldt said: "Cans are becoming king."

Although he said that he expects cans to eventually represent the bulk of his business, for the time being he's filling kegs.