The deviled eggs have left the building. After dishing up tacos, Philly cheesesteaks and deviled eggs as the food options at Czar over the past year, the Good You, a food truck run by chef Kelli Daniels, has wheeled its starters and entrees down to the Green Lady Lounge. (The Pitch's David Hudnall visited the new jazz club this week for his Streetside column.)
While Kansas City's Best Burger and a solid BLT are still on the menu (a full look is available here), Daniels has a few new twists at 1809 Grand. A day after what would have been Elvis Presley's 78th birthday, it seems appropriate to mention the Elvis Aaron - a peanut butter, bacon and banana sandwich on griddled toast served with a side of black pepper honey. The Good You food truck is closed for the winter, but the plates menu is available at the Green Lady Lounge from 4 to 10 p.m.
Today Fat City brings you a great moment in sandwich innovation. This one is directed toward the hero purveyors, sub sellers and the sandwich shops across the metro. Mario's in Westport (204 Westport Road) has created the ultimate sandwich to-go, thanks to a cleverly placed bread cap that covers the opening of its classic meatball grinders. It's a carbohydrate trick that we hope catches on.
Ugly Christmas sweaters should never be used for evil; instead, you should wear them for good.
Case in point: Tasso's (8411 Wornall) annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party on Thursday, December 13, at 7 p.m. There will be plenty of Greek cuisine and prizes for the most heinous Christmas sweater. And don't worry, they'll still be breaking plates and featuring a belly dancer. Beer bottles are $3 and well drinks are $4.
Whether or not you still believe in Santa, Annedore's Fine Chocolates (5006 State Line) is ready to renew your faith in Kris Kringle.
The Westwood Hills chocolate shop is giving away a 3-foot tall milk chocolate Santa. If you stop in the shop before Thursday, December 20, you can fill out a raffle ticket. On December 20, a winner will be chosen at random. Annedore's is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Work is piling up, and noon has long come and gone, and you know that lunch will be something scavenged from a vending machine or a drive-through window. Little Freshie (811 W. 17th St.) wants to rid the world of those moments. The soda, coffee and snow-cone shop on the West Side recently started serving to-go sandwiches ($6).
"We know a lot of people eat lunch at their desks. They don't want to do that; they just do," the barista explained to me yesterday. "This way, they can have something they can just grab and enjoy."
California rolls are staying at Crown Center. The Kansas City Business Journalreports that Kabuki Japanese Restaurant has resolved its suit with Crown Center Redevelopment Corp. over back rent and will remain in its space at 2450 Grand.
Kabuki is one of the city's oldest sushi joints, having opened in 1985. Back in 2002, Charles Ferruzza reviewed Kabuki (it has since been renovated) and had high praise for the Spiderman roll:
"Kabuki's Spiderman roll (which had its name long before the current hit movie) was a delectable combination of avocado, cucumber, radish sprouts and crispy-fried soft-shell crab wrapped in seaweed and sprinkled with garnet-red tobiko caviar," Ferruzza wrote. "The crunch of the crab, the silky softness of the avocado and the salty burst from the caviar made for a few lush and sensual bites."
So just like Hollywood, Kabuki will keep making a new Spiderman.
I don’t get people’s ravenous appetite for all things bacon. Was it the advent of the Atkins Nutritional Approach that started the bacon bliss? Did y’all just say, “Fuck it” and board the bacon bus with a shout of “peace out!” to your HDL cholesterol? The smell? I don’t get it but I don’t have to, because the people at the Rehabilitation Institute of Kansas City do get it.
The Rehabilitation Institute threw Bacon-Fest last Saturday, with proceeds from ticket sales going to the “nonprofit medical rehabilitation employment placement provider for children and adults with disabilities.” Tickets went from $20 (thanks, Groupon!) to $100 (VIP style — early admission, private beer stands, bathrooms, and access to an air-conditioned indoor area).
Bob Kiefer was just another smoke jockey 14 years ago, slowly applying heat to a pork butt and beer to himself in varying intervals, when his then-girlfriend asked if he could smoke cheese.
“I just started experimenting on a standard upright smoker,” Kiefer says, “and that worked — incredibly poorly.”
The staples of cattle cookery — hickory and oak chips — overpowered the mild flavor of most cheeses. Only sharp cheddar stood up to the smoke, and even then the resulting substance was smoky first and cheddary second. He tried resting the cheese on pans of ice in the smoker, but the heat still robbed it of its creaminess.
“You usually cook meat at 225 degrees for so many hours,” he says. “If you cook cheese at 225 degrees, you’ll just have a runny mess in the bottom of your smoker. Thankfully, I never did that.” Still, he says, “I ruined a lot of cheese for seven years. But I stuck with it.”
The Dolce Baking Co. is closed Mondays, which was good news for employees of the Prairie Village bakery yesterday. As KCTV5 reported, a driver lost control of a truck and crashed into the bakery early Monday morning.
"My team would have been clocking in, getting ready to start baking right at 5 a.m., and they probably would have been just witness to all of the chaos," owner Erin Brown told KCTV.
The bakery's front room was damaged, but nobody was hurt in the crash. With plywood covering the smashed front window, the bakery is open today.
It's not just the tacos that are bringing folks to Fric & Frac.
Need a bit more fiber in your diet? Apologies for the pun, but four Kansas City eateries have Google Fiber up and running. Fric & Frac (co-owner Max Ross did a Q&A about the service over on Gizmodo last week), Mud Pie Vegan Bakery & Coffeehouse, Cupini's and Room 39 have been connected to Google's 1-gig network. It pays to be neighbors with the Google Fiber Space at 1814 Westport Road — an event and demo space where the service's announcement was held. Whether or not you're sold on Google Fiber, stop by Mud Pie for a spicy crumb coffeecake, it will rapidly increase your happiness.
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