KC Visitor Q&A

Now that I'm living abroad, I get an occasional PM asking for some specific KC advice. I like being able to provide what info I can, though some are admittedly beyond my range of experience yet. In any case, I figured I may as well start a thread so that whatever info I've got is preserved for posterity, rather than hidden away in PM land. Plus if anyone with better info happens to be paying attention, there are more chances to find a winner.

Q: I've got a last minute trip to KC tomorrow, and will be staying at the Hyatt regency Crown Center. I'll be on foot, but like walking longish distances. Any eating suggestions for someone who likes to dine while sitting at the bar?

A:I really don't notice so much which places have bar dining, but there's a casual upscale-comfortable wine bar called The Drop that's not at all a bad walk from where you are staying.

http://thedropbar.com/

I'm nearly sure there's a bar you can sit at. The food is good.

The American is in Crown Center, and reputed to be the toniest joint in town (just won a Beard award for best chef Midwest, if you're into that sort of thing). Honestly, my expectations aren't that high, and I don't know if they have a bar, but it's certainly the kind of experience some folks are looking for and convenient for sure.

There's a Gates BBQ pretty close on 31st and Linwood, an iconic KC joint of the signature food here, but not one I generally hear of in the top tier these days, so much so that I haven't been. I should though. Don't know the bar situation.

A considerably longer but probably pleasant walk by daylight would be along the north side of Penn Valley Park and through Union Station where you'd find Lidia's (Bastianich...KC's lone Food Network-type place) very cool interior and people here seem to really like it. I'm not crazy about the food, but JiminLoganSquare ate at the bar at Lidia's, and rather enjoyed it.

And Fiorella's Jack Stack BBQ, a very popular place, is right next door, but a real sit-down restaurant with tablecloths and such, unlike most BBQ joints in town.

Sorry I don't have anything more definitive. One other thing, while public transportation is generally quite poor here, you also have the fortunate option of the Max bus which is great, and runs up and down Main, giving you access to River Market to the north (which is probably kind of dead on a Tuesday night, Le Fou Frog might be an option) or the famed Plaza to the south.

One final option, sorry to overwhelm, is to walk to Grinder's, probably the best beer bar in town that also serves my so-far favorite pizza, and a pretty mean version of a Philly cheesesteak sandwich. Eclectic and interesting, this may be my favorite place in KC. Some might say this walk is a little shady. I'm kind of dumb about stuff like that and haven't been around here long enough to know better.

http://myspace.com/grinderskc

Q: I have a 7:00 PM flight home from MCI to ATL this evening, and am hoping for something edible in the way of takeout nigh to MCI. I'll be leaving Omaha around 2:00 PM, estimated ETA MCI car rental counter 4:45. So I have say a 45 min to one hour grab a takeout window in the vicinity of MCI. Too short to run downtown, or even to Strouds. Sigh

A: I have two suggestions that might work, neither of which I've actually been to.

One is Bo Ling's a rather popular and actually respected local chain of 4-5 Chinese restaurants. I know they have a menu of more "authentic" specialties, but I don't see it online. It would be a gamble to see what you could talk them into preparing for takeout over the phone. It's in the Zona Rosa shopping center about 5-10 minutes south of the airport.

Bo Ling's (North, other locations)
8670 NW Prairie View Rd. | 816.587.7880

Across the street from Zona Rosa is a Mexican place called Ixtapa. The local alternaweekly reviewed it as serving challenging gringo food, and items ordered included some huitlacoche. Again, don't have a full menu handy, so you'd have to probe and arrange takeout over the phone.

Ixtapa
7130 N.W. Barry Rd.
Kansas City MO 64152
816-746-4848

There's also an Indian restaurant in Zona Rosa, which is decent but unexceptional.

Swagat

Finally there's a Thai place (called Thai Place) with pretty good food (a fave of stevez) that just opened a branch maybe 10-15 minutes south of the airport.

Thai Place

(Follow-up...he had time to get to Arthur Bryant's, which he did.)

Aaron:

Best food at the Royals game??

(Arriving 4:45pm at the airport with coworkers, checking into the Embassy Suites Country Club Plaza, going to the game with them, meeting the next AM, immediately flying home, so doubtful that we're going to have time on this trip for any restaurants )

Thanks,
Nick

threadkiller wrote:Aaron:

Best food at the Royals game??

(Arriving 4:45pm at the airport with coworkers, checking into the Embassy Suites Country Club Plaza, going to the game with them, meeting the next AM, immediately flying home, so doubtful that we're going to have time on this trip for any restaurants )

Thanks,
Nick

Wow, that was quick.

I've only had hot dogs at a Royals game, and they're nothing to get too excited about. I've also only sat in the upper decks, which makes it hard to get non-Bud beer. I'm pretty sure you can get Boulevard (the local micro) on the first level. I think that Gates BBQ also serves food there, but not everywhere...maybe lower level also. And I think it's out of a food cart somewhere rather than at the normal concession stand.

Aaron Deacon wrote:Wow, that was quick.

Thanks, I will look for the Gates set-up. It is trendy for ballparks to have "BBQ" these days, usually named for a former ballplayer with minimal association to BBQ. I was in Pittsburgh this past weekend and the "proprietor" of the BBQ stand was Manny Sanguillen. Needless to say, I passed.

Consensus best BBQ places in KC at this very milli-second?

I'm going to try to take a weekend road trip down to KC sometime in October...I'll probably get three or four meals there, and with Stroud's being one of them, that likely leaves two stops for barbecue. What's your call? I've passed through KC twice in my life and have eaten at Bryant's and Gate's--though having a sandwich is hardly a full evaluation. But I'd like to try LC's, assuming it's still well-reputed.

Thanks.

chezbrad wrote:Consensus best BBQ places in KC at this very milli-second?

I'm going to try to take a weekend road trip down to KC sometime in October...I'll probably get three or four meals there, and with Stroud's being one of them, that likely leaves two stops for barbecue. What's your call? I've passed through KC twice in my life and have eaten at Bryant's and Gate's--though having a sandwich is hardly a full evaluation. But I'd like to try LC's, assuming it's still well-reputed.

Thanks.

Consensus!?

I'll do my best. LC's is best in my experience, still at the top of its game. Best ribs I've ever had, and best burnt ends too. I also still love Bryant's and not just because it's iconic. The food still stacks up though like all barbecue, it can be a little inconsistent.

Other places frequently recommended are Jack Stack and Oklahoma Joe's, neither of which do much for me.

You'll see high praise on LTH elsewhere for Danny Edward's BBQ (formerly Lil Jakes Eat It and Beat It). I'm not such a fan, but its closed shop, greatly expanded, and moved to a new location in the past month, and I haven't been since then. May be better or worse.

Cheers,

Aaron

I'm the Q poser from the original post in this thread. Thank you to Aaron for the helpful suggestions and links - I continue to be amazed by the generosity so many LTHers have in sharing there wisdom and time.

I had 2 solo meals in KC, near Crown Center - one highly enjoyable and one not so much. The highlight was dining at the bar at Lidia's, where the bartender was the right level of chatty, and the food was excellent. I had a pan roasted salmon cooked perfectly to medium-rare, served atop a delicious combination of sweet corn and roasted figs, all drizzled with a little balsamic reduction. This dish was simple, and highlighted the excellent quality of the ingredients (especially the corn, which was the best I've had this season). On the whole, this was one of the best dishes of the summer for me. Dessert utlized that excellent seasonal corn too: a corn cake loaded and topped with blackberries and accompanied by a sweet corn ice cream which was topped with candied corn kernals. It was delicious.

The just so-so experience came during lunch at the acclaimed "American" restaurant. I found the virtually-empty place pretentious and stuffy, and didn't think the food matched the hype. I had roasted halibut served over a corn chowder, and while everything on the plate was fine, nothing "sang" in the way the food did at Lidia's.

Kansas City has some really cool architecture, a whole lot of very friendly people, and a downtown that seems to be revitalizing in the same very positive way Indianapolis did while I lived there. I look forward to more business trips to a city I'm growing to like more and more.