Subject: Charles Ferruzza

• Tonight On 90.1 KKFI: The Best Local Showcase EVER!!!

  July 17, 2008

• Where Is It?

  September 23, 2008

• Breakfast Buffet: Tuesday, 10/21

  October 21, 2008

• Let's All Get Real, Shall We?

  October 28, 2008

• Another Halloween treat: Scary movie meals

  October 31, 2008

• Celebrate national chocolate brownie day!

  Today is National Chocolate Day! I'm a huge fan of this dessert myself, although rather than ordering them in restaurants, I prefer to bake my own (which I once did live, on-camera for KCPT-Channel 19 for some kind of cooking-segment fundraiser). I have to confess, though, that I have a secret weakness for the Brownie Fudge Sundae at Steak and Shake -- even if it does have -- gulp! -- over 43 grams of fat!I've always wondered who invented brownies. The first known reference to them is a box

  December 8, 2008

• Eggs, Bacon, Nicotine!

    I know some of you will find this difficult to believe, but three decades ago, when I first started working in restaurants, I learned how to mix up pancake batter from a grizzled old cook who smoked cigarettes while he was cooking. One time, a bit of ash from his Pall Mall fell into the batter and he shrugged, "Oh well, it adds a little kick to the flavor." I had just started smokingat the time and thought, "What the hell, maybe he's right." Flash forward to a very different place and tim

  December 10, 2008

• Fat City on the radio

  Today from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. I shall be joining Charles Ferruzza and sommelier Lisa Burgess on Charles' KKFI radio show Anything Goes.  There's a couple of things I'm planning on talking about but would love your input as well. I should be mentioning a lot of drinks, restaurants and giving shout-outs to fellow bloggers.It is a call-in show so I hope some of you call-in to save my butt join the conversation. The phone number is 816-931-KKFI (5534).-- Owen Morris

  December 26, 2008

• Letters

  September 14, 2000

• Editor's Note

  Hey, Pitch readers.We published a bunch of year-end reflections this week, with Martin's column about the Year in Stupidity, my take on the year in Funk and Gloria, Charles Ferruzza's recap of a horrible year in the local restaurant industry. In print, look for Forester Michael's cool photos of the year in music. But that copy went to bed a couple weeks ago, and mostly I've just been thinking about the year ahead. First, we had to get through an agonizing last week of 08. Here at The Pitch, we'd

  January 2, 2009

• Batter patter from the pancake guy

    I'll be honest here. Even though I've flipped more than my share of flapjacks and served many hot stacks o' pancakes over the decades (I've worked for no less than three pancake operations over the years, although one of those chains specialized exclusively in crepes, not that I want to flip out over little details), I had never heard of author Ken Albala until I read Owen Morris' delicious Fat City post about yesterday's lecture at the downtown branch of the Kansas City Public Lib

  January 8, 2009

• Letters

  October 11, 2001

• Eating at the Bar is No Gamble

  No one can ever accuse Mike & Charlie's Italian Restaurant at Harrah's Casino of being a spaghetti joint -- cheap, it ain't. But if you're willing to sit at the bar when the restaurant is offering its Sicilian Sampler Bar Menu, it's available at the shiny, granite-topped bar seven nights a week from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. and again from 9 p.m. until the place closes (10 p.m. on weeknights, 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights). I was introduced to this great meal deal by my high-rolli

  January 12, 2009

• Offensive Tackle

  November 21, 2002

• Cell Out

  November 28, 2002

• Color Blinds

  January 30, 2003

• Radio Waves

  June 5, 2003

• Drawing the Line

  October 23, 2003

• Swing Set

  May 6, 2004

• Train Wreck

  June 10, 2004

• Bar Association

  June 17, 2004

• Strip Tease

  August 12, 2004

• Pineapple cream pie and other inventions

  Charles Ferruzza Collection Well, now that February is almost over, I'm glad I remembered that this month was Great American Pies month. Pies really are one of the great American desserts and used to be a staple on most restaurant menus. Today, when most dessert lists are dominated by European confections -- tiramisu, creme brulee and flan, to name a few -- it's increasingly harder to find a slab of good ol' pie on the menu. Unless, of course, you're in a diner. The ne plus ult

  February 26, 2009

• Cook like a Native American!

  Charles Ferruzza Collection I have this friend -- no, it's not Pitch theater reviewer and inveterate collector-of-weirdness Alan Scherstuhl -- who is constantly bringing me cookbooks that she finds at junk stores, flea markets, estate sales. Her theory is this: Charles likes to cook and read books, thus Charles must love cookbooks. I do like cookbooks, but I've got plenty. That hasn't stopped my friend from loading me down with all manner of eccentric culinary ephemera. "You never know wh

  March 2, 2009

• Radio Daze

  June 30, 2005

• Show and Tell

  September 1, 2005

• Pot Roast

  June 15, 2006

• More Bests

  November 2, 2006

• Ferruzza À La Carte

  November 13, 2008

• Andre's Confiserie Suisse

  September 18, 2008

• Letters From the Week of September 4

  September 4, 2008

• Do the Hustle

  KC hip-hoppers give us a shout-out.

  December 27, 2007

• Letters from the week of August 23

  August 23, 2007

• Kit and Caboodle

  Letters from the week of

  January 5, 2006

• Texas Ranger

  Letters from the week of November 18, 2005

  November 17, 2005

• Twisted Sister

  Letters from the week of April 8, 2004

  April 8, 2004

• Queen of All Media conquers your gold, extends reign

  It'd be forgivable if you rushed to change the channel the next time the latest WeNeedGold.com television spot came on. It is a souless thing, even more offensive for containing a catchy jingle you won't be able to force out of your mind despite its awfulness. But don't change it! Look past that pro-tooled white businessman rapper to the old lady spinning at the turntables. She warms your heart doesn't she? Take in what's only the latest awesome exhibition in a heady car

  April 17, 2009

• This week's 'Best of Fat City'

  Flicker: RoboppyCharles Ferruzza and Owen Morris do an excellent job with The Pitch's food blog, Fat City. It's a great read. Every week, Ferruzza recaps the week's best posts -- and we're going to start posting them on the Plog, starting this week. So here's this week's "Best of Fat City." Charging for bread and butterGuilty Pleasures: The Burger Joint Cool Hand Luke can eat six saltines in a minuteWeekend vegetarian? Weekend hippie? Tasting wine the Riedel way

  May 3, 2009

• The Golden Ox is OK

  The Golden Ox got a little smoky yesterday, but the 60-year-old steakhouse didn't burn down. Pitch food critic Charles Ferruzza reports over on Fat City that firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze and the Golden Ox suffered little damage and could be open as soon as Wednesday. Here's a clip:A fire in the grill tonight wafted up through the restaurant's ventilation system (a somewhat similar incident took place last February at the original Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue in Martin City).Oh,

  May 5, 2009

• Hot Dawg! Charles on Walt Bodine Show this morning

  Tune in at 10 a.m. to the Walt Bodine show on KCUR 89.3 to catch the food critics, including Fat City's Charles Ferruzza, who will be holding court with Walt and answering your questions.The topic of today's show is hot dogs and sausages, so be preparing your questions. Make sure they're good -- I've heard some hot dog questions that are the wurst! Sorry, couldn't resist. I just relish puns.(Image via Flickr: Chad Davis)

  May 15, 2009

• Recession Relief: Em Chamas Grill

  I like Brazilian steakhouses but as a skinny medium-sized male I just don't have the stomach capacity to justify paying $50 or more for an ordinary weekday meal nor do many other people. But with Em Chamas' "Blown Away in May" special you don't have to pay nearly that amount.All this month, the Northland steakhouse features its rodizio -- that's more than 10 types of beef, lamb and pork plus full gourmet bar -- for the seriously discounted price of $24.99. That's $12 off its regular price and ne

  May 22, 2009

• Restaurants we missed, but wish were still here

  Charles Ferruzza Collection Fat City's Owen Morris -- who is probably tired of me talking about the Kansas City restaurants I wanted to experience, but waited too long and they closed (like the legendary Gold Buffet) or places that were already long closed by the time I moved to town in 1984 -- turned me on to the new book by former New York Times restaurant critic William Grimes. The new Grimes book, Appetite City: 25 Restaurants We Wish Still Existed focuses on New York restaurants, of c

  June 19, 2009

• Kansas City's Top Ten baked beans

  Until today, we just assumed that everyone loved baked beans. But as Charles Ferruzza, Owen Morris and new Fat City blogger Jonathan Bender discovered -- thanks to erudite Pitch music editor Jason Harper -- that no less an authority as Pythagorus opposed the consumption of beans (he wouldn't touch meat either, based on the principles of reincarnation). The poet Callimachus wrote: "Keep your hands from beans, a painful food: As Pythagorus enjoined, I too urge." Callimachus, however, di

  July 3, 2009

• Today is National Fried Chicken Day!

  Charles Ferruzza Collection Well, you can't get a fried chicken dinner at the long-razed Green Parrot restaurant (right) which once stood at Highway 50 and State Line and didn't serve liquor and catered "only to connoisseurs of selected foods, well-prepared." But if you're in a chicken-eating mood tonight, there's alway's Stroud's, one of the Peachtree restaurants, Lew's Soul Delicious Buffet and dozens of other -- to borrow a formerly famous commercial jingle -- finger-lickin' g

  July 6, 2009

• Your Free (Discussion of) Lunch

  You'll find countless deals around town as people clamor for cheap eats in today's economy, but where's the nourishment for your soul? Get some free food for thought this Sunday, July 19, at the Central branch of the Kansas City Public Library (14 W. 10th Street) when Pitch restaurant critic Charles Ferruzza leads a discussion on "Dining in Kansas City: From the Depression to the Recession." His talk covers the development of Kansas City's restaurant scene during the Great Depression in the 193

  July 17, 2009

• Top 10 Pancakes

  Why order a short stack when you can have the whole stack?​Pancakes are good for the soul. It's why everybody loves them. And so Fat City set out to discover the Top 10 pancakes in the Kansas City area. What follows is the result of a carb-laden conversation between Jonathan Bender and Charles Ferruzza. The secret to a perfect pancake, told to Charles Ferruzza decades ago by a short-tempered short order cook, is the temperature of the griddle (not too hot or the surface will brown too

  October 23, 2009

• Get your candy fix on the radio with Charles

  ​Charles Ferruzza will once again be answering questions and stirring up conversation on The Walt Bodine Show at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Friday's topic? Candy -- so bring your sweet memories, candy gripes, and arguments for the best chocolate on the shelf. The discussion can be found on your airwaves at KCUR, 89.3. Charles will be fielding your calls about gummy, taffy, and the works alongside Walt and a panel of food writers and critics.The show is streamed live and you can call-in at (816)-235-288

  October 29, 2009

• Top 10 soups in Kansas City

  ​Soup is the ultimate comfort food in winter. There's something about a warm bowl and cold weather that just feels right. Perhaps it stretches back to the days when Julia Child used to make primordial soup. So, Jonathan Bender and Charles Ferruzza set out with their soup spoons in hand in an effort to find out bowls were worthy of a place at a table. The list that follows is the Top 10 Soup options in Kansas City.  10) Roxanne's Cafe -- This family-owned Parkville diner offers two ho

  November 5, 2009

• Talk soup with Charles on the radio

  ​It's soup season -- so bring your choices for best bowl in the city as Charles Ferruzza answers questions and takes stock of the situation on The Walt Bodine Show at 10 a.m. today. If you need some inspiration or are looking to stir the pot, Fat City listed the Top 10 soups in Kansas City earlier this month.  The discussion can be found on your airwaves at KCUR, 89.3. Charles will be fielding your calls about soups and chili alongside Walt and a panel of food writers and critics.The show

  November 13, 2009

• This week's "Best of Fat City"

  ​We've decided here in Fat City that eggnog season starts a few weeks after Walgreen's and CVS pharmacies put out their Christmas merchandise -- you know, mid-October -- and that no one needs to make the concoction at home anymore (using those cute punch sets that you can find at flea markets and estate sales) since it's easier to have someone make it for you. Jonathan Bender discovered the Top Five Eggnog Options in Kansas City (stay away from the Silk Nog, he warns) and Charles Ferruzza

  November 20, 2009