This here is what the Internet calls an open thread — you're free to weigh in on our selections and share your thoughts about the best dining and drinking in KC. As always, keep it civil (personal attacks will be deleted) and try to keep it on target. Otherwise, let's see what you think of this year's winners.
Time is running out to vote in this year's readers' poll for the Best of Kansas City. If you haven't voted, here's the link to the ballot. Make sure you hit each subsection — Arts and Entertainment, Food and Drink, Sports and Rec, People and Places, and Goods and Services. The deadline is today.
On the eve of The Pitch's 2010 "Best of Kansas City" issue, we thought it would be entertaining and revealing to take a backward glance at some of our past winners. Even the winners that ultimately became, well, losers.
For the past decade, The Pitch has singled out one venue each year as Best New Restaurant. Last year's winner in this category, Extra-Virgin -- the creation of chef Michael Smith and his wife, Nancy -- was a slam-dunk. It's still one of the most popular dining venues in the Crossroads.
Not all of our selections since 2000 have been so successful, alas.
On the eve of The Pitch's 2010 "Best of Kansas City" issue next week, we thought it would be entertaining and revealing to take a backward glance at some of our past winners. Who's still on top? Which restaurants and bakeries had their 15 minutes of fame and are barely remembered today?
As Kansas City's signature dish, barbecue has been, of course, a popular feature of our yearly "Best of Kansas City" issue. And while we've frequently honored the iconic smoke shacks -- Arthur Bryant's, Gates Barbecue, Rosedale Barbecue and others -- the celebratory issue is also a good place to give kudos to newer contenders.
On the eve of The Pitch's 2010 "Best of Kansas City" issue next
week, we thought it would be entertaining and revealing to take a
backward glance at some of our past winners. Who's still on top? Which
restaurants and bakeries had their 15 minutes of fame and are barely
remembered today?
Sweets -- fancy desserts, breakfast pastries, humble pies -- have always been a tradition in our "Best of Kansas City" issues. Looking back at past award winners, though, it's sad to see that at least a couple of bakeries didn't make it through the last decade.
On the eve of The Pitch's 2010 "Best of Kansas City" issue next week, we thought it would be entertaining and revealing to take a backward glance at some of our past winners. Who's still on top? Which restaurants had their 15 minutes of fame and are barely remembered today?
For over a decade we've honored, in the pages of the "Best of Kansas City" issue, the men and women who really make a restaurant work: the chefs, bartenders, waiters and waitresses. Last year's nod for "Chef of the Year" went to Celina Tio, who had just opened her Brookside bistro, Julian.
Blanc Burgers served the premier patty of 2008 -- and are still rolling along
On the eve of The Pitch's 2010 "Best of Kansas City" issue next week, we thought it would be entertaining -- and revealing -- to take a backward glance at some of our past winners. Who's still on top? Which restaurants had their 15 minutes of fame and are barely remembered today?
Ten years ago -- long before burgers came into froufrou vogue -- we chose an iconic local snack shack as the winner in the "Best Burger" category. Today the place still serves winning burgers: Fritz's Railroad Restaurant.
Joel O'Laughlin is waiting for his big break while waiting tables
Joel O'Laughlin is a writer. He's a waiter. He's a writer and a waiter and the Reader's Choice for "Best Waiter/Waitress" in this year's Best of Kansas Cityissue. Since O'Laughlin -- who has also dabbled in stand-up comedy -- may have the perfect credentials for professional restaurant work, it's no surprise that his friends and fans sent in lots of ballots for the Kansas City native who has worked at Waldo Pizza for nearly a decade.
It's not news, by this point, that restaurateur Hope Loehr's barbecue joint Adam's Rib closed last week -- six months and two days after it opened -- just as we named her Best Barbecue: South in The Pitch's annual Best of Kansas City issue. It was a bittersweet moment for Loehr to read the tribute to her Overland Park restaurant after she decided to shut the doors for good.
"It was heartbreaking," Loehr tells me. "But we just couldn't hang on any longer. We had a possible investor, but we couldn't negotiate quickly enough to keep the business open."
She's not sure what her next step will be. "I need to find a new job in the restaurant business," says Loehr, who previously worked as a manager for the New Theatre Restaurant and Ameristar Casino. "If you hear of anything, call me."
Which out-of-town restaurant would you lobby to bring to KC?
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