Subject: Owen Morris

• Your Starbucks is Safe

  July 2, 2008

• The Other Beer

  July 8, 2008

• Your Starbucks is Safe

  July 2, 2008

• Breakfast Buffet: Thursday, 7/10

  July 10, 2008

• KC Beer Fest 2008 rocks the parking garage

  October 21, 2008

• Where the heck we headed in 2009?

  It's December and so it's begun. Epicurious just published its list naming the top 10 food trends of 2009 and The New York Times thoroughly debunked the list as backwards and being so-2008 before adding some of its own trends. (Albeit NYT's were jokey trends.)Neither Peruvian food nor Portland, Maine, as the next big things struck me as something we can look forward to here in Kansas City in 2009. So here's a couple from me. Remember, these are my ill-informed guesses and not facts.-- Kansas Cit

  December 4, 2008

• The seediest cookbook I've come across

  First off, let me just apologize to my mother for the cookbook I'm about to write about. For her, blogging equals Internet and Internet equals porn, therefore blogging equals porn. I try to keep the adult material and blogging about food separate, but no such luck today. Not when a cookbook like Natural Harvest comes along, with its unsubtle subtitle: "A collection of semen based recipes." Just in time for Christmas shopping, it's the first (and to my knowledge only) cookbook dealing with the su

  December 11, 2008

• Don't judge a venue by its grand opening

  On the Firefly Lounge post from last week, a commenter named Tom left a lengthy reply about the grand opening party. "Went to the grand opening last week, and unfortunately they weren't ready... Cool idea, nice setup inside, and it's unique for Westport. I worry about the service issues, location (a hidden speakeasy is good if people know about it) and the rep this will get from a horrible grand opening."I received several e-mails from people like Tom, voicing frustration with Firefly's grand op

  December 15, 2008

• Drinking and smoking

  The word "taxes" makes people act irrationally. Take, for instance, this wide-ranging tax plan from New York State, which would tax everything from clothes to boats to license plates to caloric (non-diet) soft drinks. It's already got a catchy nickname -- the obesity tax -- and, not surprisingly, has already the ire of soft drink manufacturers. I received this dandy of a press release yesterday from the Center for Consumer Freedom. Titled "Taxing Soda May Shrink New York's Bloated Deficit, but I

  December 16, 2008

• A refresher on sparkling wine

  For the New Year all you need to remember is this:Elvis Belts Exciting Songs.That four-word mnemonic device I just created will help you remember the first and most important step of picking out a sparkling wine, how sweet it is. There's seven classifications on sparkling wine but the four common ones from dry to sweet are:Extra-Brut (Elvis): Very little sugar, not enough to make it taste sweet in the slightest.Brut (Belts): Technically supposed to taste sugarless but usually the sugar is slight

  December 26, 2008

• Kansas City kitchen nightmares

  I'm not naming names but I can think of more than a few local restaurants that would benefit from the kind, gentle hand of Gordon Ramsey. Ramsey is now casting for his new season of Kitchen Nightmares and is looking for potential troubled restaurants to scream like mad in turn around. In case you've been living under a cave (or don't have cable) here is a sample of the Ramsey touch: There's no diplomatic way to tell an owner his or her restaurant is crap and should be considered for a reality sh

  December 30, 2008

• 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

• It's Brandy Alexander Day!

    Yes, Owen Morris is the resident cocktail connoisseur of Fat City, but I knew he would let me pay homage to one of the most famous mixed drinks in the cocktail canon: the Brandy Alexander. Saturday is National Brandy Alexander Day and this concoction of brandy, creme de cacao, heavy cream (or sometimes ice cream) has been an inspirational beverage since it was first created in 1922. Legend has it that the cocktail was created in London, for the wedding

  January 30, 2009

• Now, back to Sweden... and meatballs

  It was Fat City blogger Owen Morris, writing today about a Swedish newspaper's article that mentioned -- among other things -- Pitch writer Alan Scherstuhl, his cat, green Jell-O salad and big fat Rush Limbaugh that jolted my memory. Last Friday, on KCUR-FM's Walt Bodine Show, when the discussion finally veered away from Valentine's Day versus Halloween (go to the link, it's just too weird to explain logically), one of the show's listeners called in with three very specific requests. First

  February 9, 2009

• A slushie and an oil change

  Fat City blogger Owen Morris posted a story this morning about the difficulty in finding a free cup of coffee that was really, you know, free. One place where I can always count on a free cup of java -- it's not always good, but it is free -- is at one of those oil change operations, like Jiffy Lube, Speedy Lube, Valvoline and so on. There's usually a small lobby with a coffee machine, a daily paper and a few magazines. And coffee is very important if you've arrived shortly after dawn

  February 19, 2009

• Kiddie menus: past, present and future

  Union Station Kansas City Collection Celebrity chef and real-life lifesaver Tom Colicchio made Diet Coke seem downright sophisticated in the much-repeated TV commercial seen at last night's Academy Award telecast (you can read Fat City blogger Owen Morris' thoughts on the chef and the commercial here), but it's another Colicchio story that interests me. The Top Chef judge was interviewed by the New York Times last week about feeding picky kids. The story proved that even a celebrity chef c

  February 23, 2009

• The former altar boy's guide to Lent

  Flickr: Mario_Groleau I've got a confession to make: I was still just an adorable little tot in the early 1960s, but, yes, I was around before the dramatic changes from the Vatican II Council made it possible for observant Catholic families, like mine, to eat meat on Fridays. Not just Fridays during Lent, of course, but all those other Fridays. Since my mother was neither a Catholic nor an especially good cook, the restrictions of meatless Fridays meant culinary chaos in her kitchen.

  February 27, 2009

• Dairy Queen: Blizzards and blogs!

  This has been a DQ week here in the Fat City. First we paid homage to the oldest Dairy Queen location in Kansas City, then Owen Morris wrote about bllionaire Warren Buffett insisting on being interviewed in a Dairy Queen.  Now we've learned that the soft-serve giant has started a blog! Non-company bloggers will be rewarded with DQ gift cards for their posts!  

  February 27, 2009

• The Tin Drub

  December 11, 2008

• This week's "Best of Fat City"

  We're thinking these were the top stories posted on Fat City this week. The Comings and Goings at The Legends Rainy days, Mondays and Sorbet Owen Morris has a Schlitz moment Burgers and stuff at Phil's Coffee Shoppe & Grill Beer Wars: The Movie    

  April 17, 2009

• British brews...without booze

  Kim NobleYesterday, I was in the merry old town of Lawrence and stopped in to see what English delicacies I could find at Brits, the purveyor of British goods at 929 Massachusetts Street. I was looking primarily for Cadbury chocolates (I have a weakness for Cadbury's Coffee Crisp bars) for myself, and since I was scheduled to appear on The Walt Bodine Show the following morning, a delicious chocolate Yorkie Bar as a present for British-born Kim Noble, the midday host on KCUR 89.3. I

  May 1, 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

• This week's "Best of Fat City"

  We're thinking these were the top stories posted on Fat City this week: Some Kansas City folks get their feathers ruffled over urban chickens Chef Linda Duerr finds a new job Owen Morris gets fired up about sriracha sauce We go down to the river's edge to bite into a hot dog Modern Marijuana: Not your Pop's Pot!  

  May 22, 2009

• Dawg Town: Down by the River

  As Owen Morris reported last week, the subject of last Friday's edition of the "Food Critics Show" of KCUR-FM's Walt Bodine Show was all about hot dogs and other sausages. Mostly it was about the all-American weiner, one of the classic foods of summer and as a dog-in-a-bun -- depending on which source you believe -- was reportedly first served in the state of Missouri. The show generated a ton of phone calls, including at least one rave for a place that I never even dreamed existe

  May 21, 2009

• This week's "Best of Fat City"

  We're thinking these were the Top Stories on Fat City this week: Owen Morris has grainy thoughts about Grape Nuts cereal Miss Cinerama of 1957 is ready for her close-up, 52 years later  Love 'em or hate 'em: Domino's Bread Bowls Farmers Market and Dunkin' Donuts in St. Joseph Was Coors ever really good?

  June 5, 2009

• They love us! They really love us!

  Plog's two sisters took the home the Gold and Silver awards in the Blog category at the Kansas City Press Club's Heart of America Awards banquet on Saturday night. Journalists in the Los Angeles Press Club, who judged our local contest, deemed Jason Harper's Wayward Blog the best in Kansas City, followed by Charles Ferruzza and Owen Morris' Fat City.Judges called Harper's blog "a funny, profane chronicle of the local music scene with an engaged and opinionated audience." They said Fat City was "

  June 15, 2009

• Aw, Shucks: Wayward Blog wins KC Press Club Gold Award

  Plog's two sisters took the home the Gold and Silver awards in the Blog category at the Kansas City Press Club's Heart of America Awards banquet on Saturday night. Journalists in the Los Angeles Press Club, who judged our local contest, deemed Jason Harper's Wayward Blog the best in Kansas City, followed by Charles Ferruzza and Owen Morris' Fat City.Judges called Harper's blog "a funny, profane chronicle of the local music scene with an engaged and opinionated audience." They said Fat City was "

  June 15, 2009

• Saturday: Owen Morris on 'Live from Jasper's Kitchen'

  If you're out driving around town tomorrow at, say, 11 a.m. or so, be sure to tune your car radio to 710 AM-KCMO to hear Fat City's own Owen Morris, who will be the featured guest on the weekly "Live from Jasper's Kitchen" program aired every Saturday from 11 a.m. to noon with noted chef and restaurateur Jasper Mirabile, Junior -- of Jasper's Restaurant -- as the convivial host. Owen and Jasper will be discussing a variety of sweet topics, including chocolate and milkshakes (have you read o

  June 19, 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

• Jacko Links: Remembering MJ in the music world

  If you're still parsing your feelings about the death of Michael Jackson, these readings may help. At the RFT, Annie Zaleski remembers how when she was a kid, Michael just was.Annie Zaleski As a child growing up in the '80s, there was no question that you liked Michael Jackson. It was just a given, a constant, something that was assumed. His hits - and that included nearly everything on Thriller, his duets with Paul McCartney and a slew of songs from Bad - were a part of your world. Jackson hi

  June 26, 2009

• This week's "Best of Fat City"

  Jaime Warren We're thinking these were the Top Stories this week in Fat City: The fast food industry girds itself for next month's minimum wage hike. We look for the Top Ten cinnamon rolls in Kansas City and learn from Fat City visitors that there are more than ten... Owen Morris sips the new Boulevard Pilsner and wonders if it's a lawn beer. Thursday was National Catfish Day and serious fried catfish lovers weighed in. The secret of a perfect Margarita           &

  June 26, 2009

• Letters from the week
  of June 18

  June 18, 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

• Coming to Westport this fall ... festival drinking!

  Scott SpychalskiThe P&L won't be the only place to drink outdoors this fall.The Power & Light District won't be the only place to drink outdoors this fall. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed a bill last week to allow festival drinking permits in entertainment districts such as Westport, whose business leaders had been fighting for the permit for a long, long time. Fat City's Owen Morris has more details, but here's a primer:The permits only last for 48 hours, they're limited to two per month

  July 6, 2009

• For those who comment, we salute you ...

  Thanks for hanging out with us this week at the Plog cantina. As always, we like having you around for the love, hate, whatever. Enough of the Whitlockian cries for attention. We're giving this week's Comment of the Week to Capt. Obvious for a couple of great greeting card ideas given Marvel Comics new alliance with Hallmark ("Iron Man is sorry to hear about your heart surgery ..."). I want to buy the "Welcome Back From the Dead for the ______th Time" cards. And also the "Mom, I'm a Mutant." Con

  July 17, 2009

• Cakes you can wear or shirts you can eat

  Betty Crocker is about to get served. The next generation of cake competitions has arrived with the Threadcakes online cake competition. The second iteration of the competition asks bakers to transform T-shirt graphics into eye-opening cakes.   The contest is sponsored by Threadless -- a T-shirt company that lets consumers vote on which graphics entered (via an open submission process) should be printed on shirts. It's the T-shirt designer equivalent of getting a slot on open mic night, if

  July 21, 2009