Why Should Domestic = Cheap? A Call for Legislation

What is a "domestic" beer?

According to most restaurants and bars, a domestic beer is an American style light lager produced at a factory miles away by a foreign corporation.

On the flip side, a beer brewed within walking distance at a brewery built by people who live in our community - that's not domestic.

It's all about money, of course, with a dash of history tossed in.

First, the history. When I was a teenager and disco was alive, the beer world could be divided into two types - cheap, bland, flavor-stripped lagers brewed here in the United States, and expensive, strange beers brewed in foreign countries, ranging from Moosehead to Guinness. Back then, good beers pretty much all came from other countries, and America pretty much only produced Bud, Miller, Schlitz, Coors, Pabst and a few others of the same ilk. (It's true that there were a few good beers made in America at the time, like Anchor Steam and a few other rarities, but they were very few, and not common enough to add any exoticism to the word "domestic".)

So, if you wanted a domestic beer, you wanted something cheap and cold. If you wanted something else, you wanted an expensive import (which weren't always better, by the way, but that's another story). This is the era that gave rise to the splendor that was "Import Night" at various bars. Now, times have changed.

Let's talk about the money now. American craft brewers are making most of the best beers in the world. Because of the scale and ingredients, these beers are more expensive than the factory beers, and the prices are all over the board. A bottle of beer from the Midwest can easily cost more than a bottle of beer from Munich or Newcastle.

So, now, when a bar or restaurant wants to tell you that they'll sell you a cheap beer really, really cheap, they'll post a sign that says "Domestic draws, $1" or "$4 Pitchers, All domestics". "Domestic" is shorthand for Bud, Miller or Coors, even though they're brewed by foreign corporations. If you want to get a Boulevard Pale Ale, or a Goose Island Honker's Ale, or a Magic Hat #9, you're going to pay a lot more than the "domestic" price.

At first blush, this doesn't seem to be a big problem. I'm happy to pay the going rate for good beer, and I don't expect a bar to sell expensive beer to me at a loss. And I certainly don't begrudge anyone a plastic cup of "domestic" if that's what they want.

But I don't want it called "domestic" any more. It's inaccurate, it's insulting to real American brewers, and it siphons money to foreign corporations. SABMiller and AB-InBev are NOT domestic corporations. There are thousands of true "domestics" crafting great beer, and the American beer scene deserves to be recognized as a point of national pride. When you claim that Miller Lite and Budweiser are the "domestics", you are saying that Boulevard and Schlafly are somehow less American. It's just not right.

Here's what I suggest: Pass a state law that any retailer advertising special pricing for "domestic" beers be required to sell any and all American-produced beers that it carries at the advertised price. My intent is not to harm bars and restaurants; I only want them to start using truth in advertising. If they want to advertise "$1 Bud draws" or "$4 Miller pitchers", that's fine.

But they ought to catch up with the times. "Domestic" beers are no longer limited to corporate factory brewers. America is now a great brewing nation, and our retailers should not advertise that Budweiser is the pinnacle of American brewing.

(Hat tip to John over at the KC Beer Blog for sparking this rant with a comment to this post.)

Beer World - Good News and Bad News from Waldo Pizza

Waldo Pizza makes one of the best pies in the city, and I would go there if their best beer was Diet Coke. What makes the place incredible, though, is their beer selection. From the beginning, they have always had an intelligent and varied beer list, light-years ahead of most restaurants.

First, the good news - they are now offering beer flights. For the ridiculously low price of $5, you can get 4 pours of 5 ounces each from their taps. When you consider that their taps include treasures like the fabled Bell's Hopslam, Schlafly's Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout and Unibroue's Trois Pistoles, that amounts to a tour of some of the world's most amazing beers for $5. That's an insanely wonderful bargain. The 5 ounce pours are enough to give you a legitimate taste of the beers, and you might still have room for a pint after tasting the 4. (I opted for a bottle of Founder's Double Trouble IPA, which compares nicely with Hopslam.)

Now, the bad news.

Elliott Beier, Waldo's Cicerone (think beer sommelier), my favorite beer adviser and all-around nice guy, is leaving our town for Chicago at the end of the month. He'll be at the restaurant till the end of the month - I recommend swinging by and bidding your farewell, and if you haven't met him yet, taking the time to ask his advice about the beers on his fabulous list.

(Those who may worry about Waldo sinking into beer mediocrity after his departure may rest assured that they had a great beer list before Elliott's arrival, and I expect they will continue the tradition. But Elliott's excellent taste will be missed, I am sure.)

Around the BLOCK Puts Food Review in Context

Not long ago, I stumbled upon Around the BLOCK, a nicely done local food blog. The author presents thoughtful reviews of well-chosen restaurants, and excels at providing vivid descriptions without lapsing into strident superlatives of praise or denunciation. Intelligence and grace abound.

In the temptingly positive review she posted yesterday about 1924 Main, one paragraph stands out as a must-read for those of us who believe that a thriving restaurant culture is an important and reliable sign of a city's vibrancy:

At 2 courses for $20 or 3 for $25 (all dishes are also offered a la carte), it’s hard to beat the price for an upscale, quality experience. All restaurants are struggling to survive in the sluggish economy, and owner Rob Dalzell has responded by making dinner more affordable without taking away the glamour of dining out. And, he is one of Kansas City’s independent restaurateurs, all of whom should be supported. If we don’t patronize these local treasures, they will not survive and we will be forced to spend our money in chain operations, which typically are less creative, more cookie-cutter, and don’t utilize local farmers. And what fun would that be?

Where will you spend your restaurant dollars in 2010?

The Time When Tips Die

The time that passes from when I finish my meal to when I receive my tab is the time that good tips die. It's a time when good waiters show their attentiveness and earn rewards, and bad waiters cost themselves money I would have been happy to give.

I'm a patient diner and a generous tipper. Where else in your economic life can an adjustment of a couple dollars either way have a direct impact on the happiness level of a hard-working person? On a $15 bill, I can be an ass for $2, a decent human being for $3, a good guy for $4 and a working class hero if I don't insist on getting a measly buck back from my $20. Most days, I'll invest in some good karma.

I don't blame waiters for mediocre food, I don't blame them for long preparation times, and I'm not fussy about whether my water glass is refilled every time I take a sip. I get annoyed with them for not having a clue about their beer list, but the problem is so widespread I assume there must be some union rule forbidding them from knowing what malted beverages are available, so I grudgingly forgive even that incompetence. Unless I see them hanging around chatting with coworkers, I assume they're working hard and doing their best.

But my patience lasts only until my plate is empty, or moved to the side. At that time, I expect the waiter to notice, ask whether I want dessert or another beverage, and begin preparing the tab. That is the time period that most impacts the size of my tip.

A couple weekends ago, we had pizza for Saturday lunch at an "upscale" pizzeria in Brookside. The food was better than I had been led to expect (including some inventive salads), and their beer list included Magic Hat #9, so the stage was set for a generous tip. But we became invisible to the waitress when the pizza was shoved to the side. With laser-like focus, she swooped in to seat take orders from tables near us, without even a sideways glance at the table she had already served.

To me, that is like serving a dessert with a roach in it after a fine meal. It ruins what has come before. A pleasant 35-40 minute lunch has been capped off with a 10 minute annoyance of trying to pay for it. Her tip reflected my annoyance, and she probably figured she had gotten stuck with a lousy tipper. 10 minutes earlier, she would have been pleasantly surprised.

Has the Plaza Lost its Charm?

I remember my first visits to the Plaza, back in the early 80s. My wife and I would drive up from Columbia and stay with my brother and sister-in-law in an apartment near the Plaza, and we would walk down Main to the most glamorous shopping district I had yet visited.

It was different then.

You couldn't help but be impressed that Kansas City hosted a Saks - one of the snootiest retailers in the world - and that locally-owned Halls seemed just as elegant but twice as friendly. Saks has disappeared, with luxury-priced lawyers now serving as inventory in its former space. At the time, the retail felt like a piece of New York or London, right on the concrete shores of a trickle-sized Brush Creek.

Dining was different, too. Before Starbucks infiltrated the universe, Emile's was a German deli serving perfectly crafted sandwiches with a pickle wedge. Ubiquity overcame uniqueness.

Downstairs in Seville Square was The Longbranch Saloon. (Can you even go downstairs in Seville Square anymore, except in Urban Outfitters?) Longbranch was a classic bar partially owned by Lou Piniella that was a landmark for celebrity sighting and ice-cold American beer. They had handwritten signs all over the walls with wry humor.

Upstairs in Seville Square was a group of small shops pushing trinkets, imports and jewelry. Not very high-class, but a lot of personality.

And that's what's changed more than anything. The Plaza has lost its Kansas City personality, and become a typical suburban mall without a roof. Even the tennis courts on the East side of the Plaza have become a "tennis complex", and the Winsteads a block further East has drive-though instead of carhop service.

I miss the old Function Junction, and the chipwich cart at Seville Plaza. I miss Anne's Santa Fe. Heck, I even miss the old traffic layout, when Main Street went straight through as a street, instead of part of that monstrous parking lot with traffic lights. I miss Fred P. Ott's, even though I know it's still there, serving great burgers all by itself on the lonely south eastern corner of the Plaza. I miss the adventure of intersections without stop signs or stop lights.

There was a time when the Plaza was the crown jewel of Kansas City spending. If you wanted to buy something or eat a fancy meal, you headed to the Plaza. If you wanted to show an out-of-town visitor something wonderful about Kansas City, you would drive them down Ward Parkway and wind up on the Plaza, and they were always impressed.

By all means, it's still a great place to go. Some things are better - Classic Cup is an upgrade over the coffee house that preceded it, and sitting on the roof deck at O'Dowd's is a joy unrivaled in Cupcake Land. Next week, the lights will come on and it will be a sparkly gem at night. It will be beautiful, and I look forward to going down there for at least one "Oh my gosh, Christmas is next week" visit. I still love the Plaza, but the charm has faded since it was at its peak.

Missing Meals - What Kansas City has Lost

Kansas City is a great restaurant town, and I think it's even getting better. We are blessed with more creative chefs than I can count, and they keep moving us forward. But, every now and then, my thoughts will trip back to restaurants that have disappeared, and I'd like to step back in time for a couple hours. Here are a few places I would visit, in no particular order:

1. Leonard's, for biscuits and gravy. Leonard's was a previous occupant of what is now Governor Stumpy's, and they put out the best biscuits and gravy I've ever had. The gravy was peppery, with lots of tasty sausage, and the biscuits were soft with a crisp crust.

2. La Mediterranee for lunch. On the east side of the Plaza, a quiet, elegant French restaurant used to serve top-notch fare on fine china with white tablecloths for around $5.

3. Al Roubaie's (sp?) for lobster. Up the hill on Main from the Plaza, back when Main went straight over the creek, was a spotty little restaurant with a great lobster special. If I recall correctly, you got lobster and sides for $15, and it was a feast.

4. Thirsty's Cantina for lunch. I don't know how they packed so much flavor into a simple chicken sandwich, but it was wonderful. There used to be a great bar in the space now occupied by Panerra in Westport. They also served a burrito thing I can't remember the name of (chicken cantina?), but it was filled with chicken in a creamy, cheesy sauce with just enough jalapeno to make it shine. All that, plus chips and salsa.

5. TJ Cinnamon's. I know that the name lives on as a corporate asset of the Arby's chain, but, if you weren't around to experience it, you have no idea how mouth-watering a walk through Ward Parkway mall could be back in the mid-80s. The aromas of butter and cinnamon wafted through the then-active halls of commerce. The rolls were warm and soft - the size of softballs - and they were individual treasures, not boxed products.
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This trip down memory lane has not truly been a lament. I think we have more, better restaurants today than we did 20 years ago. I wouldn't even trade the dependable neighborhood friendliness of Governor Stumpy's for the breakfast of Leonard's. Things change and they sometimes get better. But these are some fond food memories I have of Kansas City . . .

Where is the Best Mole in Kansas City?

I've never made a great, or even a very good, mole. In fact, I'm not sure I've even really tasted a great mole. I feel like a whole world of culinary awesomeness awaits.

Mole is a broad word that includes thick Mexican sauce. Guacamole is a form of mole, though that's not what I'm talking about when I express my desire to taste a great mole. I want rich, peppery, complex sauce that steals the show from the sweetest pork, the juiciest chicken, the freshest fish, or whatever is served with it.

I know that I'm still not being specific enough. There are moles that range from green to nearly black, and flavors that range from fire to peanutty. I've read Rick Bayless' cookbooks and even spent a day trying to make an ambitious green mole from one of them, but it was merely okay.

Where in Kansas City can I find good versions of this labor-intensive sauce? Are the jarred varieties any good? Any advice for an open-minded, eager-to-learn gringo?

Not A Restaurant Review - Mezzaluna on Gregory

I had lunch at the freshly opened Mezzaluna now occupying the former Papa Keno's space at Gregory and Rockhill (formerly Waldeaux Wines and Liquors, and Circle K when we moved into the neighborhood 20+ years ago). Before I get started describing the experience, I want to make a quick acknowledgment that I am not a real restaurant reviewer. I fear that sometimes we bloggers get a little full of ourselves, and think we're the equivalent of a legitimate restaurant reviewer, because we go to restaurants and write about our experiences.

That's kind of like claiming you're a football player after tossing the ball around on the lawn, or claiming you're a golfer after a round at Cool Crest. Just because you go through some of the motions doesn't mean you've played the whole game. Tiger Woods does more than putt on felt, and there are a lot of Xs and Os in a real football game.

Real reviewers know a lot more than I do, and work a lot harder. I'm about to spout off on a restaurant I have visited once, by myself, for lunch, during their "soft" opening. I have no experience in opening a restaurant, and I don't have any advanced culinary training. I haven't written a ton of reviews, and I haven't studied the work of the great restaurant reviewers.

A proper restaurant reviewer would approach his or her task with a wealth of experience in the restaurant and journalism businesses, and would visit several times with multiple friends to get a sense of the breadth of the menu and the skill of the service. It's easy to laud or lambast a restaurant for one meal, but it's not a fair assessment, nor is it particularly helpful to the reader. Your praise of a lamb chop doesn't give a vegetarian much of a guess about what to expect.

I write all this not to belittle those of us who happen to publish on a blog - there are some top-notch true restaurant reviewers on blogs who have the skills and put in the effort to do first-rate reviews. I write all this simply to pay proper homage to those who work while I play, and to heighten the readers' awareness of the rigor required of real restaurant reviewers.

Now that all that is out of the way, I'm happy to be welcoming Mezzaluna to the neighborhood. It's a small Italian restaurant with a menu full of the basics, a good wine list and a nicely-done beer list, enhanced by a few craft brews on tap. The downstairs space is nice but a little utilitarian, with floor-to-ceiling retail coolers covering one entire wall, left over from the space's days as a liquor store. The upstairs space is surprisingly elegant, though, with cloth-covered chairs, white tablecloths and a pleasant breeze when the garage-door walls are opened. The guys at the table next to me ordered a bottle of wine (well-served by the waiter who swore it was the first time he had ever, in his life, opened a bottle of wine), and I envied the prospect of staying there for the afternoon, sipping wine with friends at tree-level.

The menu included several tempting options, all within the $8-12 range, including all the classics like ravioli, chicken parmesan, caesar salads, etc. I sought and accepted the waiter's advice in choosing between the Pizza Mezzaluna (a carnivore's concoction with garlic) and the lasagna. He recommended the lasagna, and it was a generous serving of well-prepared meat, cheese and pasta. It stood out for its restraint - some lasagna beats you over the head with dark red marinara sauce and spicy sausage, but this one was more elegant. The meat featured ground veal and a delicate hand with the spices, and the sauce was tamed with cream. I'd recommend it highly.

I visited the restaurant on its third day, and there were the expected kinks in service. The credit card machine was not working, and the waiter was stretched too thin serving both upstairs and downstairs. Given his apparent lack of experience (never having opened a bottle of wine), he did a fantastic job, with a friendly, relaxed style while running up and down the stairs.

I look forward to returning sometime soon for dinner, and sharing wine with friends in the upstairs space. Mezzaluna should thrive as an elegant addition to the neighborhood.

Springfield Cashew Chicken

Batter-dipped, deep-fried chunks of chicken, topped with a sauce based on oyster sauce, served over rice with a sprinkling of crisp cashews and a garnish of green onions - that's what I'm talking about. One of Missouri's great contributions to the culinary world, Cashew Chicken is a soul-satisfying melding of Chinese tradition with the Midwestern insistence that everything is better when it's battered and fried.

Springfield residents are justifiably proud of the dish, which must be ordered as "Springfield Cashew Chicken" outside of the area, lest one be served a batter-deprived stir-fried version with vegetables serving as a major component, rather than a garnish. Some residents of the city will claim that Springfield has the most Chinese restaurants per capita of any city in the United States - an unverified, unsourced and unlikely assertion if ever there was one, but it's nice to see Southern Missourians taking pride in something that doesn't involve large tires, guns, or strange interpretations of the Bible, so let's let that one slide, okay?

The important thing is that the dish is really good. Well-prepared, the sauce is a tiny bit sweet and a little more salty, the chicken pieces are crisp and light, the green onions add just enough bite, and the cashews add elements of crispness and richness. It's not pretentious in the slightest - this is food aimed to please, not impress.

According to most histories, the dish was invented by a man named David Leong, whose first restaurant was welcomed to the neighborhood with ten sticks of dynamite. (Asian-Americans weren't appreciated in southern Missouri in 1963, even if they had stormed the beach at Omaha.) No wonder he chose to please the local palate rather than challenge it.

On my recent vacation in Colorado, Ancillary Adams and his wonderful "lady friend" prepared a home-made version of the dish, and it may have been the best meal served in Breckenridge that evening.

Are there any good versions of this regional treat served at restaurants here in Kansas City?

Free Beer Tonight! And You Can Judge Me . . .

Tonight is the first round of the 75th Street Homebrew Contest; they'll be narrowing the field to 5 choices tonight. Customers will get the opportunity to taste the submissions and cast their votes. I have 5 submissions, so get out and vote for one of them (or whichever beer you think is best, even if it's not one of mine).

Here's what I submitted:

"'Round Midnight" - a schwarzbier. It's dark but smooth and easy-drinking. Just a touch of roasted malts and german hops in a smooth German lager. It's my favorite of the beers I submitted.

"Jim's Milk Stout" - a sweet stout based on Left Hand Brewery's version. No real milk is put into the beer, but it gets a dose of lactose, the natural dairy sugar. The lactose adds body and just a touch of sweetness. This one is very easy to drink.

"Not my Brother" - a Hefewezen. Get it? The name is a play on "he's not heavy (hefe), he's my brother"? Oh, never mind . . . This is the beer I wrote about brewing in this post, and that proved more popular than the milk stout in this post. Hefeweizens are funky beers, but people love them.

"Power Porter" - a Robust Porter. It's pretty tasty, but there's probably not enough left to make it through the contest, so don't waste a vote on it. But take a sample, anyhow, and let me know what you think.

"NOLA Voodoo" - a Dark American Lager. I brewed this beer more for the challenge than for enjoyment. It's based upon normal American mega-beer, with added darkness and just a touch of added flavor. It's the only beer I've ever brewed that included corn and rice, just like the big breweries do. The beer itself is pretty flavorless, which is a virtue for this style, and a bit of a challenge to accomplish as a brewer. Obviously, I'm not a huge fan of the beer, but it might appeal to some people, and, by submitting it to the contest, I hope I get rid of enough that I can use the keg for something I enjoy more!

I don't know what else got submitted, or how many other beers will be available for tasting. But I'm certain there will be some great beers there for the free sampling, so come out and vote for your favorites.

Hamburger Helper

I want your advice.

What kind of burger should be the special at Blanc Burgers + Bottles? In the relatively near future, I get to meet with Chef Josh Eans to design a new burger which will then be put on special for the weekend.

The pressure is on to come up with something amazing. After all, the Inside Out Burger (bleu cheese stuffed burger, applewood smoked bacon, onion ring, home-made catsup, mustard, butter lettuce on an onion brioche bun) is thought by many to be the best burger in the world. My personal favorite is the Au Poivre (pepper-crusted burger, creamy green peppercorn sauce, grilled onions, watercress, salt and pepper brioche bun).

If my name is going to be attached to something that I want people to choose over those two platters of heaven, I need to come up with something world-changing.

Right now, I'm thinking maybe a variation on the Aspen Burger, a regional favorite from upstate New York featuring sour cream and sauteed mushrooms. Perhaps if we jazzed it up a little by using creme fraiche and some gourmet mushrooms, we could bring a bit of Schenectady to Kansas City.

Or we could go to the opposite corner of the United States for some inspiration. How about a green chile and sharp cheddar burger? Maybe serve it with some sort of mole sauce?

I LOVE Blanc Burgers + Bottles. The first time I went there, I returned 5 times over the next two weeks. Their Au Poivre burger may be tied for "Best Sandwich in Kansas City" with "#1 (spicy)" ordered at the counter from Bella Napoli.

I need to bring my "A game" to this assignment. Any advice?

Hefeweizen vs. Milk Stout

Yesterday evening, I donated two 5 gallon kegs of beer to a charity event for to support ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) research. The event was spectacular, and I was honored to have my beer be served at the same event that featured Christopher Elbow chocolates and spectacular food served by Chefs Jasper Mirabile, Charles d’Ablaing, Marshall Roth, Josh Eans, Todd Walleen, Jeff Troiola and Nick Jonjevic. Those are all culinary allstars - it was kind of intimidating to be on the same menu.

The event came at a good time, because I have a great supply of beer right now. Out of a selection of Schwarzbier, Dark American Lager, Milk Stout, Hefeweizen, and Robust Porter, I chose the two freshest - Milk Stout and Hefeweizen. The weather was perfect for either - cool enough to tackle a rich stout, but after a day warm enough to crave the refreshment of a Hefeweizen.

To my surprise, the Hefeweizen won the popularity contest, hands down. I had expected the richer, sweeter, chocolaty Milk Stout to draw more drinkers, especially since it was served next to a great selection of cigars provided by Fidel's. Hefeweizens are a little funky and playful, with banana esters and cloudy yeast. But, the masses spoke, and when I went to pick up the leftovers today, the Hefeweizen was all gone, while I got to bring home a gallon or so of the Milk Stout.

As a homebrewer, you don't often get the opportunity to gauge public reaction. When you serve your beer to friends, they are obligated to say nice things. When you submit your beer to contests, you get expert opinions focused on nuances that would completely elude the average person. Honest popular opinion is scarce.

The thrill of the evening, though, was walking out and seeing Chef Josh Eans, a beer expert who has put together one of Kansas City's most intelligent beer lists (.pdf), sipping a glass of my homebrewed Milk Stout with a smile on his face.

And the fact that it all supported an effort to find a cure for a horrible disease made it even better.

Princess Garden: BEST Chinese Restaurant in Kansas City

The presumption encompassed in that title is staggering. Here I am, a middle-aged guy who's lived most of his life in Kansas City, has never set foot in Asia, much less China, and never studied Chinese cuisine.

The absurdity is heightened by the very title I want to award. Best Chinese Restaurant?? Is there a best American restaurant? Is it a cajun seafood steakhouse with Philly cheese-steaks and funnel cakes? We can't even agree on a best Kansas City-style barbecue restaurant, but I'm blithely going to choose one restaurant to represent the cuisine of a billion-plus people in 8 Great Traditions?

You betcha! The significance of a writer's proclamations lies in the eyes of the beholder. It's not whether you agree or disagree with me - it's whether you read it and give it a second thought.

All that philosophizing aside, the indisputable winner (even though I've only visited probably a dozen or so of the options here in KC) is Princess Garden on Wornall.

Princess Garden is a classic of the genre. Carved Chinese marble lions greet you from the parking lot at 8906 Wornall, and the decor of red and gold looks exactly like a typical restaurant in Beijing, Shanghai or Xi'an - at least to me it does. The carpet, the paintings, even the darkened, empty bar off to the right of the pay stand all scream real China, at least as imagined by Kansas Citians.


The drink menu is a hoot. Fresh from the early 70s, it features My Tais, Fog Cutters and a wide range of elaborate concoctions, with a page titled "Strong, for those who enjoy drinking." The alcoholic fantasyland is heightened by descriptions like "Shark's Tooth - the bite of this drink is so sharp and quick that you won't feel a thing" and "Princess Garden Express - You will feel the hit by this extraordinary drink - try it and experience yourself." Alas, I'm a beer drinker, so I haven't experienced myself yet.

But the food is the attraction, and the food is great. In our most recent trip (when the kids were in town - this is a nostalgic favorite for them, even though Sam gets to eat in NYC's Chinatown), we had the crab rangoon and the steamed dumplings. Both are exactly what you would expect from a good Chinese restaurant - nothing super fancy, nothing to elevate the genre to a whole new level with challenging and intriguing tastes and textures - simply solid, competent examples of what you would expect.

As always, we got the Crunchy Beef as an entree. I haven't seen this on other menus, but it is pieces of beef the size of shoe-string potatoes, fried to a crispy exterior and served with mu shu pancakes in a sticky sauce. Rich, decadent and wonderful.

We also had a dish with an impossibly long title, including words such as "sizzling", "yellow noodles" and "double faced" - it was spectacular. The noodles are both tender and crispy, depending on how soaked they are in the light sauce, and covered with chicken, shrimp and vegetables.

As I hope I made clear in the first paragraphs, I have no business offering superlatives about Chinese restaurants. And I can say with legitimacy and integrity is that Princess Garden is a family favorite, with food that satisfies and always meets or exceeds our midwestern expectations. The staff is friendly, and the service is good. I don't know if it is authentic or not. I just know that our family has had many, many happy meals there, and I recommend it to anyone who is wants food that is as far from chic as it is from Beijing.

Great Food Tomorrow Night! And an Opportunity to Support the ALS Foundation

How does "Smoked Porter Braised Piedmontese Short Ribs,Black Truffle Grits, Tomato Jam, and Baby Arugula" sound? How about "Tomato Water Poached Halibut, Spanish Sweet Tarragon, Watermelon and Heirloom Tomatoes with Radish accents"? Does "Lemon Grass Seared Fresh Water Prawn, Corn, Green Tomato and Turnip Fricassee, Herb Pistou" sound good?

There will be some homebrew by me on the porch, too.

Better yet, the proceeds will go to support the local ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) Foundation.

Tickets are still available here. It's going to be a fantastic evening for a great cause.

Beer, Dinner and a Documentary - Guess What the Highlight of My Evening Was . . .

Yesterday, my lovely spouse and I departed work a bit early, so as to make the 5:00 showing of "Food, Inc." at the Tivoli, and to follow it with cashing in a gift certificate dinner at McCoy's Public House.

Food, Inc. tackles the food industry, and does a pretty effective job of it. We see dead chickens and nasty beef processing facilities and even legislators making laws, in an unacknowledged nod to the age-old claim that the legislative process is akin to making sausage. The movie is just okay; close-ups of farmers talking about soybeans and pigs are not the best way to convey factual information. Further, the information conveyed was not particularly groundbreaking - corporations control agriculture for profit, meat-making is a filthy business, and veggie libel laws are unAmerican. The best part of the movie came right before the credits, when they ran suggestions of what you can do to eat healthier and more sustainably. I suppose that if you somehow walked into the movie without any understanding of agricultural issues, the movie might be eye-opening, but I don't think anyone who doesn't already care is likely to fork over money to see a documentary about food.

McCoy's was a lot more enjoyable.

Service started with the waitress seeking our drink order literally before we sat down. I don't like waiting half an hour before getting served, but her haste was a bit extreme.

Fortunately, the beers were better than the service. I tried the milk stout, which was full-bodied and approachable, the way a milk stout ought to be, and a kolsch. I was particularly impressed with the kolsch, which is kind of like Germany's version of cream ale. The beer should be a light, dry, somewhat hoppy ale that leans toward a lager style. I thought the McCoy's version was one of the best I've ever tasted. While the beer was perfectly balanced, I fell in love with the hops. They were floral, almost perfumy, but had a bit of peppery spice to them as well. It packed a lot of subtle flavors into a beer that would be easy to overlook, because it doesn't have huge flavor components screaming for attention.

As for the food at McCoy's, we ignored the movie we had just seen and ordered lobster spring rolls. The chef must have taken the movie more seriously, though, because we found no evidence that any lobster had died to make our spring rolls. Instead, the filling presented a mushy, bland paste of cabbage, with same taste intensity as the bed of styrofoam noodles they were served on.

My wife's mac cheese looked great, and my bite was enjoyable, though she maintained that Cafe Trio's version is far better, and I defer to her expertise. It was a fine entree, if not superlative. Because we had to reach a spending minimum for the gift certificate to apply, I went ahead and ordered a rib-eye steak, which came in the thin-cut style favored by chain steakhouses, and dominated by a dollop of assertive cilantro butter that had not been mentioned on the menu.

Of the three elements of the evening, the beer stood out as the best. In keeping with the "think local" theme of the movie, it was also the element that originated where we drank it.

Local Brew Contests in August

Two local homebrew contests brighten up the Kansas City calendar in August, and one of them offers you the final voice in the judging process.

75th Street

The first one will be the 2nd Annual 75th Street Homebrew Master's Contest. It features a rare, free-form approach to judging. Rather than rigidly measuring how closely a beer matches up to the style guidelines of the Beer Judge Certification Program, this one tosses the style guidelines out the window in favor of which beer tastes best. From all of the submissions, an expert panel will narrow the field to 5, and then those 5 will be served to and judged by the public on Saturday, August 29.

Homebrewing, like many endeavors, balances science and creativity. The vast majority of homebrew contests favor the scientific side. Beers are submitted under specific subcategories, and they are judged by how closely they fit into the written descriptions of those styles. That causes competition-minded brewers to adhere to traditional recipes instead of creativity. Experimentation, like trying English hops in a German style, is discouraged, not because it would taste bad, but because it is not what the style guidelines call for. I use a computer program in designing my recipes to make certain that the color, bitterness, strength and other measurables fit within the guidelines.

The 75th Street Contest is a radical departure. If you want to try tossing oatmeal into a pilsner, and it comes out tasting great, then you might win. Last year, I won the contest with a beer based loosely on the Belgian tripel style, but bolstered with honey and Mexican sugar to create a beer that serious judges would criticize, but pleased anyone looking for something sweet and strong.

If you want to taste a few interesting, well-crafted homebrews, show up at 75th Street on Saturday, August 29 and help choose from among the finalists. I'll probably be submitting a Dark American Lager, a Hefeweizen, a Robust Porter, a Schwarzbier and a Milk Stout. If I'm one of the finalists, I'll let you know!

KC Irish Fest Stout Brewing Contest

If the 75th Street contest represents freedom, the KC Irish Fest Stout Brewing Contest represents focus. Only stouts need apply.

That said, stouts are a fairly broad group of beers, with 6 recognized subcategories. Dry Stout is probably what you think of when you think of stout - Guinness Draft, Murphy's and Beamish fall within this category. Sweet Stout is often brewed with lactose to give it a more full body and a sweeter taste - try Left Hand Brewery's Milk Stout for a great example of this enjoyable beer. Oatmeal Stout is similar to sweet stout, but it uses oatmeal to increase the body of the beer instead of lactose. Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout is a good example of this one, as is Goose Island's Oatmeal Stout. Foreign Extra Stout is actually two varieties - a thick, sweeter Tropical version, or a strong, bitter Export version. Essentially, these are sweet stout or dry stout on steroids. If you've had a Dragon Stout from Jamaica, you've had a great example of the tropical version, and if you've had Coopers Best Extra Stout from Australia, you know what a great dry version tastes like. American Stout is similar to the export version of the foreign extra stout, but typically uses American hops (which often have a citrus flavor) and tend to be more bitter. Rogue's Shakespeare Stout is one of my favorites. Finally, Russian Imperial Stout is a monster of flavor, with 8% alcohol or higher, and deep, rich, complex flavor. Go grab a bottle of Bell’s Expedition Stout or North Coast Old Rasputin Imperial Stout for a visit to stout heaven.

Out of all those subcategories, the KC Irish Fest will identify one as the best homebrewed stout in Kansas City. I'm going to be submitting a Milk Stout that is still fermenting, partially because it is a little bit unusual, and might stand out for the judges (who will be tasting stout after stout), and because I wanted to brew a batch for my buddy Ancillary Adams to enjoy. Because, ultimately, while it's nice to win contests and I eventually want to have a wall full of blue ribbons, my favorite prize in homebrewing is when somebody takes a sip, gets a bit of a surprised look on his or her face, and says, "Hey, this is really great! You brewed this?".

Best Meal I've Ever Had in Kansas City

Yesterday evening, to celebrate our 27th Anniversary, we went out to Bluestem. I had only been there for drinks before, so I knew that it was an upscale foodie spot, but I had no other expectations. I came prepared for a generic gourmet meal - probably a few new ingredients, and fancified favorites.

Bluestem blew me away. The service was gracious and prompt, the food was creative and amazing, and they even had an intelligent beer list. The whole experience was 3 hours of decadent pleasure.

Bluestem offers diners a selection of course - you can order 3, 5 or 7 courses, or even a chef's tasting menu of 12 courses. After the waitress assured us that the courses would not present an overwhelming amount of food, we each chose 5 items - two "appetizer" type dishes, two proteins, and one dessert pick.

The highlight of my appetizers was troffie pasta with crab, garlic, chili and prosciutto. Big chunks of sweet crab meat played well with the heat of the chili.

My bride's favorite appetizer was a gorgeous bowl of spring pea soup, with preserved lemon, creme fraiche and orange tuile. It tasted like the first warm day of spring distilled into a creamy soup.

From the protein side, my favorite was a few slices of piedmontese strip, served with light whipped potatoes lit up with horseradish. I hesitate to order steak in a restaurant, because I can usually grill up a better example at home. My faith in the Bluestem kitchen was rewarded with a perfectly textured, wonderfully presented sample of richly flavored beef.

The woman who met me at an altar 3-cubed years ago wrought her revenge on the creatures who have destroyed her hostas by ordering rabbit. It was the best item to show up on either plate - tender like pounded chicken, sweet like pork, and complex like duck. It was served atop a bed of sweet pea spaetzle, which were a wonder in their own right.

I ended my meal with a great selection of cheese and crostini, while she ended hers with bright cherries and milk chocolate cream puffs.

Bluestem delivered the best meal I've ever had in a Kansas City restaurant - even better than the memorable and impressive Justus Drug Store. Speaking of which, I appreciated the waitress' vocal admiration of other great local restaurants - she gushed about Room 39 and said that she can't wait for her first trip to Justus Drug Store. It was a touch of class in an evening that was suffused with class.

What is With You Kids?

Why do people pay money to get into a bar that is featuring entertainment and then stand around and talk loudly so they can be heard over the music? I went to the "Found Magazine" performance last night at Crosstown Station, and the singer had to beg unsuccessfully for quiet during one emotional song.

What the heck? There are plenty of good bars in the area - if you want to catch up on the gossip of what Justin said to Cara or why Tiffany can't live at home anymore, take it to the Czar Bar around the corner, or the Cigar Box, or Willie's. (By the way, the fish tacos at the Czar Bar are great.)

I know, I know, this post officially labels me as a grumpy old man, but I didn't pay a cover charge to hear you talk about your new clothes.

Pork Tenderloins, Ross' Grill, and Kitty's Cafe

My introduction to pork tenderloin sandwiches came at the long-gone Ross' Grill - a crowded little restaurant on the Baltimore side of the Muehlebach Hotel. They served platter-sized pork tenderloins there fried golden with a crisp grainy breading. The fried meat would overhang the sides of a typical hamburger bun by 2 or 3 inches on all sides, and was served with a paper cup of mayo flavored with a touch of horseradish.

I have no idea if Ross's served any sides; the sandwich itself was more than any reasonable person should have eaten. Anything more might have killed me. I don't know whether they had any other sandwiches on the menu, either; that would be like ordering something other than fried chicken at Stroud's, or not having chili at Dixon's. People probably did it, but I didn't.

The Ross' tenderloin has served as the Platonic form for tenderloins in my life. Greasy, huge, thick with breading, and not particularly spicy - a fried tenderloin in the Ross' tradition is an occasional craving, a masochistic challenge, or a masculine assertion that doctors aren't the boss of me. You can find similar (though inferior) versions in truck stops and greasy spoons throughout the Midwest.

But Kitty's Cafe, on East 31st Street, offers something different.


Rather than one massive tenderloin, Kitty's serves three smaller pieces, stacked on a bun. Rather than thick breading, Kitty's tenderloins are covered with a light batter reminiscent of tempura, and crispy as a potato chip. Rather than bland, Kitty's tenderloin sandwiches are bursting with chili sauce and raw onion (and we're not talking Vidalias here - Kitty's serves strong white onions in a coarse chop that make you and your office mates remember what onions were before they went acoustic).

While I didn't indulge yesterday, this is a sandwich with proportions that allow you to look at the side dishes. At Kitty's you have your choice of very good french fries or classical fried tater tots. Both come in generous portions, so splitting an order is the way to go. And, speaking of "to go", you should plan on eating your food elsewhere - a few stools offer waiting space for customers, not space for eating.

(Note/Confession: The photo is brazenly stolen from "The Making of a Foodie", who mentioned Kitty's in a nice write-up on “Sandwiches you need to get your hands on!” for Tastebud Magazine.)

I'm a Part of American Craft Brew Week

I won't be able to make it to 75th Street on Wednesday night, but they're going to be serving the beer we co-brewed back more than half a year ago. It's now been almost 6 months since we first tapped the beer - and they've kept a little on reserve. I hope some adventurous beer taster will venture by and give us a report on how it's aging!

Not As Interesting as it Sounds -

Yesterday morning, I met a friend for breakfast at the ungodly hour of 6:30 at Cascone's by the River Market. Examining the menu, I couldn't help but ask about what form of crazed fry-madness could produce a "double fried egg sandwich". The waitress looked at me like I was "special", and explained that a "double fried egg sandwich" is a sandwich with two fried eggs.

The food at Cascone's may not be breaking new culinary grounds, but a plate of ham, eggs and hash browns after 4 hours of sleep makes the day seem possible.

Best Tamales in Kansas City?

If you google - best tamales kansas city - this site shows up at the top of the page. Last week, 34 people conducted that search, and wound up visiting Gone Mild to research that vital topic. Unfortunately, I'm letting my visitors down, so I seek your help in updating my opinion. Where can you buy the best tamales in Kansas City?

The source of my traffic dates back a little more than two and a half years ago, when I brashly opined that the best tamales in the universe, not just Kansas City, were sold at Habanero's on Troost. Sadly, Habanero's on Troost is now long-closed, and my advice is no longer helpful.

Readers and gourmands, I seek your help. Where can one purchase the best tamales in Kansas City? (I realize that the BEST tamales are probably made by somebody's mother or aunt, but please don't frustrate me with tales of unattainable tamales . . .)

April 16th - Beer Wars

This movie looks like a must-see for those of us who care about the beer world. I hope it goes beyond simple bashing of the mega-breweries and gets to the heart and soul of what makes beer such a fascinating beverage.

There will be live screenings all around the city and nation at 7:00 PM Central time. I'm thinking the Cinemark on the Plaza will be the best place to catch the show, maybe followed by beer and discussion at the Waldo Pizzeria's Tap Room. Who's in?

Beer in the Bottoms? Let's Bulldoze the Power & Light District!

Last night, while researching my next homebrew recipe, I came upon a spot of amazingly cool news. In 2009, Kansas City will have another brewery opening up, this time in the West Bottoms. Dead Canary Brewing is a woman-owned and run new brewery, setting up in the West Bottoms down off 12th Street, among the haunted houses and great old brick buildings.

Folks, this could be amazing.

They are setting up Beer Pong and Dodgeball Leagues. They are creating a taproom. They are committed to brewing practices that are green and sustainable. They got started on this journey by brewing naked.

Most importantly, they are creating "high content, high flavor, knock you on yo ass beers." Beers like Cat House Stout - (Dry hopped mint chocolate imperial stout), Local No. 12 - (lemongrass maple strong ale), Speakeasy IPA - (honeysuckle grapefruit IPA), Bathtub Barleywine - (copiously hopped barleywine), and Chickory Rhubarb Imperial Porter.

This could do more for the West Bottoms than any TIF Project ever brewed up in a closed-door meeting between Kay Barnes and Mephistopheles. Really - the West Bottoms could become the new Crossroads X 20, with lots of inexpensive great old buildings around, acres of parking, and reasonable access to the highways.

But, since Wayne Cauthen and the prior City Council have gambled our city's future on the Power & Light District, which is already turning out to be a bit of a flop, I have a radical idea. Let's bulldoze the Power & Light District, and refuse to give any more of our tax dollars to Cordish and their cronies. (Yes, of course they will sue, but it will take years for them to recover anything, and a sensible jury might just rule in our favor if we can introduce evidence of all their broken promises and their racist dress codes.)

Now that we have freed ourselves of the millions upon millions of obligations to out-of-state developers, we can bring in some topsoil and put in the world's most awesome beer garden in all the paved expanse that currently exists down there. Let's be ambitious - let's create something that will make Munich's Oktoberfest seem like an unpopular fraternity's weekend kegger. (We can even, as a nod to our prior mayor, put in a rain garden, just to show we're not angry anymore.)

Then, we take a few million dollars and give them to our local brewers to create the micro-breweries of their dreams on the periphery of our new beer garden. Relocate Boulevard's and its emblematic smokestack downtown. Get 75th Street Brewery to open up a 12th Street Brewery. In a cross-state gesture of goodwill to make up for our outright theft of the 1985 World Series, offer Schlafly a space.

But don't forget the beginners, either! The Kauffman Foundation wants to support entrepreneurship - let them funnel a few million dollars to help ambitious homebrewers make the leap into micro-brewing. And, because cans are so much more recyclable and cheaper to ship than bottles, let the city open up a municipal cannery, offering access to its canning lines for each of the breweries on a cooperative basis - a green infrastructure project that ought to attract funding from every level of government.

As I think we demonstrated at 75th Street Brewery on Monday night, real beer is a big draw. People will come out for something unusual, and they appreciate a good party. Imagine if Kansas City was the undisputed Home of Great Beer. We would have to hire thugs to control the hoards of convention planners! Vacationers would come in year round, just to try the seasonal brews! Hotels chains would pony up their own money to get access to the crowds of tipsy beer-lovers walking around downtown.

Most importantly, it would be awesome.

My point in this flight of fancy is that for the millions of dollars we have blown on a cookie-cutter assemblage of national chain restaurants, we could have had something unique and truly attractive to Kansas Citians and conventions if only we had focused on local businesses and local flavor. This is the sort of impulse that Mayor Funkhouser has pushed with his New Tools initiative. Economic Development does not have to mean sending massive amounts of money to out-of-state developers for massive projects. Let's hope that the Council gets behind the concept and that we see some real Kansas City economic development.

In the meantime, let's raise a toast to Dead Canary Brewing. They might accomplish with beer what politicians have failed to accomplish with hot air and taxpayer dollars.

Thanks for Coming Out

This is one of those times I don't dare mention names, because I can't list them all and I wouldn't want anyone to be overlooked, but thanks to all who came out and tasted the Triple Sugar Tripel last night. That was a heck of a party!

The beer, for those who weren't there, was a lot sweeter than I expected, but it was a warming sipping beer for the winter. When cold, it had a pretty good balance between bitter and sweet, that slipped toward the sweet side as it warmed. I'm pleased with how it came out, though my homemade version was less sweet and full-bodied - the 75th Street version is a rich sipping after-dinner beer. The beer snobs at the party seemed to enjoy it as a complex, style-stretching Belgian Tripel, and people who don't typically drink beer enjoyed a sweet drink. One of my Bud Light-favoring friends summed up her reaction as "if you closed your eyes and didn't know it was beer, you would think you were drinking wine." I think there's some truth to that statement, and it hints at the complexity of the beer.

We raised somewhere over a thousand dollars for the Central City School Fund, enough for a scholarship enabling a child to attend an excellent Catholic school in the old Northeast or the West Side. That's a tremendous accomplishment. Thank you to all who came out and enjoyed the beer, and a special thanks for those who tossed something into the pot.

Don't Forget - Drink MY Beer Tonight!!

The long-awaited tapping of Triple Sugar Tripel will be taking place tonight. Come on by - there'll be a party in the back room! 75th Street Brewery, 5-8 tonight.

(Read about the beer here.)

Tapping the Keg!

Regular readers will recall that I won the opportunity to have a full batch of my beer brewed at 75th Street Brewery. It now appears to be ready for prime time - they'll be serving "Triple Sugar Tripel" beginning on Monday, December 29th. Yes, I'm working on putting together some kind of party for that evening, and I'll post details here when I work them out.

I haven't sampled the beer, and we made a few significant changes to my 10 gallon recipe in the process of scaling it up to 200+ gallons, so I'm relying a bit on guesswork to predict how it will taste. The last time I saw this beer it was nothing more than sweet, tea colored water being pumped from the boiling kettle through the chiller and into a fermentation vessel where it would meet up with the special Belgian yeast that does all the work.

I expect that this beer will be the color of medium-strong tea, with a subdued but long-lasting head. The aroma will probably be honey mixed with just a suggestion of hops. The flavor will be sweet, with a strong note of honey flavor, followed by all the esters thrown off by the 75th Street Brewery's Belgian strain of yeast. Those esters will add a fruity, spicy taste to the beer, which I hope will combine with the honey to create a sweet, warming beer that will stand up to rich holiday meals and accompany traditional holiday desserts. At 9% alcohol, it will be a strong sipping beer. My hope is that the sweetness will make it appealing to those who think all craft beer is dark, hoppy and bitter, while the Belgian complexity of the beer will appeal to the beer snobs. It's not really a Belgian Tripel, because those ales focus more on the yeast characteristics than on the sugar, and it's a little dark for the style. Go here for a good article on the tripel style.

In light of the monkish lineage of this beer, it seems appropriate to use the occasion of its tapping to support a good religious cause here in Kansas City. While I'm still working out exactly how it's going to work, I'll make certain that samplers of the beer will have some opportunity to voluntarily support the Central City School Fund, which helps four wonderful Catholic elementary schools in the Old Northeast and the Westside give kids a great education.

Stay posted for more info on the party and the beer.

Chiefs Trail Bourbon Barrel Quad

This would have been unthinkable a few years ago, but yesterday I completely forgot about the Chiefs game. Owen from the Pitch invited a few people to his family's restaurant (Adrian's Cafe, near Corporate Woods) to taste the latest release from Boulevard, and nobody even mentioned the game. Nobody had a radio on, and nobody asked if a TV was available. The Chiefs have achieved complete irrelevance in a town that once bled Chiefs red.

The good news is Boulevard Brewery is giving Kansas Citians something to bolster civic pride. Bourbon Barrel Quad is the latest in the Smokestack series, and it was worth the wait. Rich, chewy, raisiny, bourbon-noted, cherry, complex and overwhelming are the adjectives that came to this writer's mind, but I'd recommend checking out the write-ups by Owen Morris (I assume he'll post something today at Fat City), Wes Port of KC Beer Blog, and Chimpotle (nothing posted yet).

Beer Update - Mid-December at 75th Street

I dropped by the 75th Street Brewery this weekend to check on the progress of the beer I brewed back in October, and they had just transferred it to the conditioning tanks. It's clocking in at around 9% ABV, with a finishing gravity of around 1.020, which means it will be on the sweet side, but plenty warming.

The conditioning tanks are cooled, so the yeast go dormant. That means the fermentation is over, and conditioning will allow the flavors of the beer to mellow and deepen. It's kind of like how stew or chili tastes better the second day - beer needs a little time to mature before it's at its best. Indeed, the term "lager" is rooted in the German for "lay down" because they would store their beers in icy caves for summer drinking. While my beer is an ale, the principle is the same.

I will post here when the release date is imminent.

In the meantime, go try 75th Street's Nitro Porter. Brewed with a hefty dose of espresso beans, the Porter is dark, rich and awesome.

I Want Better Beer and Better Beer Service in Restaurants

It happens all the time. You go into a "foodie" type restaurant, wanting a great meal, and, as the waitress greets you, she hands you a wine list with dozens of choices. If you ask for a beer list, they don't have one. If you ask what beers they have, they struggle after rambling through Bud, Miller, Coors and their light variations, occasionally tossing in Heineken for a laughable attempt at serving a "premium" product.

The other night at the Delaware Cafe, when I asked about beers, my otherwise competent and savvy waitress told me they had the Boulevard products (but no Nutcracker) and pointed to a row of backlit beer bottles at the top of the bar shelves - undecipherable green and brown glass profiles. I didn't complain about the lapse in my review of the restaurant, because it would be unfair to knock one restaurant for an oversight that is near-universal.

It's time, though, that beer and beer drinkers get some respect. I want to see better beer in restaurants, and I expect professional waiters and waitresses to be able to present the options competently. I want to see beer lists offered like wine lists, ideally with descriptions of the beers so that diners can expand their beer horizons when out dining.

And no frosted mugs. Just don't.

If you are a restaurant owner and care about your beer-drinking customers, you owe it to step up your game. While I realize that the economics favor serving a $45 bottle of wine instead of an $8 bottle of beer, rising beer prices and ease of service can make great beer a more attractive economic proposition. If you're running a high-end restaurant, you can offer expensive bottles of beer with decent mark-ups, and grateful malt-lovers will appreciate the opportunity to pay the price. Boulevard's Saison Brett is flying off store shelves at $12 or more a bottle, and I would have been happy to spend $18 - $19 to enhance my meal with a bottle of that wonderful stuff.

I'm not asking every restaurant to become a tap house. Even those with small space can offer a popular and intriguing selections of beers to enhance the food. Here are five choices that I think ought to be offered in every fine restaurant - readers are welcomed to add their recommendations.

Fullers London Porter: A classic dark, rich sipping beer, this traditional english ale will enhance rich meals and red meats.

Anchor Steam Beer: Assertively hopped, with a relatively light body, Anchor Steam will stand up to spicy foods and cool the tongues of diners who appreciate hop bitterness and flavor.

Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier: An explosion of yeasty, clovey, banana flavors, hefeweizens are spritely and engaging. A perfect pre-dinner beer to wake up the taste buds, or a fine complement to the fresh and pure flavors of creative cuisine.

Odell's 90 Shilling Scottish Ale: Odell's beers are justly famous, and 90 Shilling does for malt what Anchor Steam does for hops. Rich with a rounded malty sweetness balanced by just enough hops. This is a lighter version of Scottish Ale, perfect for matching up to roasted poultry and or balancing spicy food.

Ommegang Abbey Ale: Seductively rich and warming, this belgian style ale from Cooperstown, NY, is burgundian in its complexity. Perfect for dessert, especially with anything chocolate.

Of course, you may want to offer a typical American light beer, for the beer drinking equivalent of someone ordering White Zin at a wine bar, but the above 5 beers ought to help restaurants dignify their barley selections. Just as they wouldn't serve their finest meals on paper plates, it's time for them to show more class and respect for beer drinkers.

Beer lovers - what 5 beers would you recommend to a restaurateur trying to upgrade the suds in a nice restaurant?

Delaware Cafe - Extra Touches

Last night, my wife and I trekked through a downtown crowded with Coldplay enthusiasts and went to the Delaware Cafe, a little west of River Market on a cozy one-way street. I didn't know what to expect - several foodies had told me the place is good, but that was about it. Owen Morris of Fat City had complimented the place, and Owen knows food, so I was enthusiastic but uninformed. Kind of typical for me.

When we arrived, we parked right out front - the best parking a non-disabled person could ask for. So much for downtown parking concerns on an event night - downtown is big enough that a crowd at the Sprint Center doesn't mean that you should avoid restaurants on the other side of downtown.

A sparse crowd clustered around the bar, and we took a place at a table near the bar. It's a pretty space - artwork by local artists on the wall (including our waitress' work), black tables and a good-sized bar. We didn't make it into the larger dining room. The large colorful paintings were a great extra touch - local but sophisticated.

From the Bar Snacks menu, I ordered a serving of the crispy-fired shatto cheese curds with maple, apple butter and chili flakes. I know that's not healthy eating, but when you see something like that on the menu, you have to give it a shot, and they were absolutely worth it. Lightly breaded oozy cheese curds were just as awesome as you might expect, and the sauce on the plate added another dimension to the pleasure.

For my entree, I chose the Red Eye Prime Ribeye. It's a bit unusual for me to order a steak in a good restaurant, because I make damned good steaks at home. This one was unusual enough on the menu, though, promising smoked pepper hash, and over-easy farm egg and a coffee jus, that I had to give it a try. It came out as large, thick slices (chunks) of tasty beef covered with the egg on top of the hash. I was expecting a ribeye steak, or a thick slab of prime rib, and the perfectly prepared medium-rare pieces of beef came as enough of a surprise that I asked if I had really gotten rib-eye - though making certain that she understood it was not a complaint, just a question. Our charming artist/waitress went back and asked, and returned to say that yes, indeed, it was ribeye, but trimmed into thick slices. I still have my doubts, in that the meat, while tender, had a "tighter" texture than I associate with any part of the ribeye, but the food was great, and the tradition of tossing a fried egg on top of things is one that ought to be spread more widely. Yum. The coffee jus was a tiny pitcher of strong coffee with perhaps some balsamic vinegar added. Excellent, and interesting!

My wife got the tawny port braised short ribs, with mac & cheese, rapini, brioche bread crumbs, and natural jus. Damn. Braised short ribs may be the best food ever invented - with just enough structural integrity to hold together until they melt under fork pressure into a web of beef string. These were superb examples, served atop a bed of fusilli mac cheese. The richness of the beef with the gourmeted (new word alert) comfort food of the mac cheese was just perfect.

The only mediocre note of the evening was dessert. We split a graham cracker crusted gooey chocolate cake, with Vietnamese cinnamon marshmallows, smoked vanilla ice cream, and chocolate nibs. The cake itself was a good but not great chocolate cake, the marshmallows were more rubbery than springy, and the ice cream tasted like homemade vanilla ice cream with a few drops of liquid smoke added. It was not bad, but it was a big let-down after a fantastic meal.

The bill, with drinks, came to $100, so this is a special occasion meal. We could have gotten off a lot lighter if we were scrimping, by sticking to the impressive bar food menu and appetizers. I got to taste the chicken wings, which were charred and sticky with a sweet/hot Asian-influenced sauce - tasty and fun. A server gave me the wing after bringing out an extra order for another table - yet another extra touch in a restaurant that makes its customers feel special.

With its cozy and friendly atmosphere, Delaware Cafe deserves to be ranked in the highest echelon of Kansas City restaurants.

Brewing at 75th Street!

Friday was my opportunity to show up at 75th Street and recreate my little homebrew recipe on a grand scale - 200+ gallons of a strong Belgian specialty ale. It should be ready in approximately a month - I will certainly notify readers of this blog when it is available.

The recipe that won the 75th Street Homebrew contest was my attempt at playing with some of the Belgian guidelines. Belgians make the best beer in the world, and they are ceaselessly creative. Inspired by a book I read on Belgian brewing (Brew Like a Monk), I had set out to create a beer that resembled a Belgian Tripel in terms of color and strength, but which retained a flavor of honey. Belgians often use sugars in their stronger beers, to avoid the thick mouthfeel of an all-malt beer of similar strength. While a great doppelbock will feel thick and viscous in your mouth (like drinking a loaf of bread), a great tripel will be more drinkable - the Belgians use a term translating to "digestibility". When i brewed it, it came out a little darker than intended, but it was an easy-to-drink strong ale with a honey aftertaste).

In scaling up the brew to the larger equipment at 75th Street, I worked with Nick and Chris (their two brewers) to come up with a recipe including a quarter ton of malted barley, 25 pounds of honey, and 50 pounds of dark brown sugar. We used their normal hops (hop flavor and aroma are not a big feature of this beer). Here is a picture of the crushed malt and water being added to the mash tun, where the starches in the malt convert into sugar.

After the sugar conversion was complete, we recirculated the resulting liquid (wort) until it ran clear, using a pump to draw it from the bottom of the tank and putting it into the top of the tank. The malt husks act as a natural filter, to eliminate stuff that would cloud the beer. After it ran clear, we pumped it over to the brew kettle, and added water which had rinsed through the grain, absorbing all that malty sugar.

The brew kettle is steam heated, and brought the wort up to a good boil. We added pelletized hops to bring an appropriate level of bitterness to keep the beer from being too sweet. Balance is the goal.

Not long before the boil was finished, we added the honey and the brown sugar to the kettle. The late addition was an improvement on my recipe by the brewers at 75th Street - I had added my sugars at the beginning of the boil, but they wisely pointed out that the earlier addition would allow the flavor compounds in the sugars to be boiled away, and that the increased sugar in the boiling kettle throughout the 90 minute boil would increase the darkening of the wort through caramelization.

After the boil was done, we ran the beer through a heat exchanger to cool it, and pumped it into a waiting tank that already had the 75th Street house strain of Belgian yeast waiting for it. I dropped by the brewery on Saturday, and it was fermenting away, as it will for a couple weeks, after which it will condition (mellow) for a couple weeks before being served.

After the brew kettle had finished its work, the brewers outfitted me with a pair of rubber gloves, a pail of cleaning solution and a green scrubbing pad, and directed me on how to climb in through the hatch of the brew kettle to scrub it out. I truly thought they were joking, as the hatch did not look particularly big, and some of the other vessels are cleaned through chemicals and soaking rather than elbow grease. So, I kind of laughed it off, until I realized that they weren't just hazing the homebrewer. The next time you go into 75th Street, check out the hatch and you'll understand what a feat of gymnastics and force it was to jam myself into the kettle.

It was a great day - commercial brewing is similar in most ways to homebrewing in terms of process, but the quantities and techniques are more sophisticated. My trusty tin pan won't get the job done in transferring water to soak through the grain - pumps are used for everything.

But, as always, the real work of brewing is not done by machines or humans. As I write this, tiny yeast cells are chomping away at the sugars in the wort we created, creating alcohol and CO2. In a few weeks, we'll put it on tap and serve it up. I hope and believe it will be a great beer, but we won't really know until it's ready to drink.

Brew Day!

Regular readers will recall that I won the 75th Street Homebrew Contest back in August. The victory brought with it the opportunity to participate in scaling up my 10 gallon recipe to their 200+ gallon equipment, and spending the day working in a professional brewhouse. Well, today's the day, and I'm looking forward to playing in the big leagues.

For those of you eager to try my recipe, you'll have to wait about a month. It should be ready in mid-November. If the recipe comes out as tasty and complex as we hope, the brewers dangled the possibility of aging some of it in their oak whiskey barrels, so it would have a second release in December. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but that would be the coolest thing ever.

So, while you are grinding away today at your work stations, I will be immersed in the world of hops and barley . . .

A Great Kansas City Weekend

Saturday morning golf at Blue River's sweet par 3 course.

Breakfast at Winstead's.

A noon tour of the Boulevard Brewery (including tasting a dry-hopped saison and their pilsner).

Lunch after the tour at La Fonda El Taquito.

Mizzou trouncing Nebraska in the evening.

Sunday morning flyfishing at James A. Reed, where I had Bodarc Lake entirely to myself.

I love this city.

Beating Owen Morris to the Punch - Top 10 Kansas City Foods to Eat Before You Die

Over at Fat City, Owen Morris is offering his take on the "Foods you must east before you die" meme, and he starts if off with a panegyric to the old-school Lamar's twist. I'm not ashamed of stealing a good idea and improving on it, so here's my top 10 list, all in one post, and all available today, not solely in the mists of memory. Mind you, this is my take on 10 foods that exemplify Kansas City's food culture - not necessarily my favorite foods in Kansas City, but foods that somehow have a Kansas City flair.

10. Povitica. You don't find this other places - yummy polish bread swirled with sweet fillings. Beautiful to look at, teeth-achingly sweet to sample, this is a treat from Kansas City's immigrant community. Back when immigrants were European, nobody complained when they kept their traditions and even published newspapers in their own language. Thank goodness that back when the Polish were coming to America, Bryan Pratt was not around to pass laws attacking them.

9. Winstead's Burger. Winstead's burgers are simply the Kansas City classic. Everything else there lives up to the classic diner standard - fries, onion rings, even malts. I've found better burgers, but this is the one that really screams Kansas City.

8. Chicken Spiedini. Sure, Mike Garozzo came to Kansas City from the Hill in St. Louis, but his signature dish, chicken spiedini, has earned a place in Kansas City's heart. Laden with garlic and toasted bread crumbs, nothing says old school Italian like chicken spiedini at the original location at 526 Harrison in the old Northeast.

7. Jess & Jim's Playboy Strip. Miles from the stockyard but on the railroad tracks, Jess and Jim's is an old-fashioned steak joint. Decades ago, they were written up in Playboy Magazine, and that faintly scandalous fame carries them to this day. It's really not the best steak in town, and the decor is anything but regal, but Jess & Jim's is the solid favorite in Kansas City's cholesterol-choked heart. You don't need to wear a tie or put up with waitstaff attitude to enjoy a great steak at Jess & Jim's.

6. Dog Day at Hooper's. For a buck and a quarter, you get a great hot dog covered with toppings. It's a Saturday classic, and even the irritable people who don't like kids in bars have to smile at the neighborhood atmosphere and kids in shin-guards fresh from a Brookside Soccer League game enjoying cokes with cherries and shuffleboard. The hot dogs are great - plump, juicy and just salty enough, but the feel of the place is what makes it a part of Kansas City.

5. Murray's Ice Cream. I know, all cities have great ice cream these days, but Murray's is something special. Maybe it's the quirky hours, maybe it's the location off the beaten path of Westport, or maybe it's some sort of drug they mix into their home-made ice cream, but Murray's Ice Cream is more "Kansas City" than any other ice cream place could ever hope to be. Go there for the ice cream, sit outside in the sun and eat it - wow, I can close my eyes and imagine a whole day spent wandering around Westport.

4. Manny's Chips and Salsa. Kansas City is blessed with a strong Mexican-American community, and, as a result, we have a fantastic assortment of great Mexican restaurants. Manny's is, in my opinion, emblematic of the group, though I agree that there are others that put out better, more authentic food. Manny's, though, serves all of Kansas City, with melted cheese and zesty but not spicy salsa. It's not real Mexican - it's Kansas City Mexican. Sitting there, chowing on the second basket of chips and dripping salsa onto your shirt - that's a piece of Kansas City.

3. Bread Pudding for Breakfast at the Classic Cup. Simple decadence. Breakfast at the Classic Cup is a place to see the powerful grabbing a bite before work, and sitting on the patio is both relaxing and exciting. Doing it with bread pudding with pecans and caramel sauce is beyond wonderful. Cares melt away.

2. Beef Sandwich at Bryant's. Don't even start with the arguments about Oklahoma Joe's or LC's or Gates or whatever. Say all you want about great barbecue places in Kansas City, Bryant's is the home of Kansas City barbecue. It simply is. There's really nothing left to say.

1. McDonald's Happy Meal. It hurts me to do this, but many argue that Bob Bernstein, a local ad guy, came up with the Happy Meal. The claim is disputed, but Kansas City's love of corporate, mass-produced crap food is beyond any dispute. I can insist on local restaurants all I like, but the truth is that the drive-throughs of Our Town are clogged with Kansas Citians looking to buy a meal they saw on TV. If you want to have Kansas City's top ten foods to eat before you die, you really ought to eat the one that we have brought to the world.

"Taste of Olathe"?

It's unfair how much I enjoy making fun of JoCo. And I can't begin to list the wise-ass comments that came to mind when I saw a fundraiser entitled "Taste of Olathe" scheduled for next weekend. White bread and white zin, anyone?

But my sarcasm doesn't help out deaf children, and the Taste of Olathe does. So, if you're out in JoCo next weekend, you really ought to take advantage of an opportunity to try food from 20+ Olathe restaurants.

Another Serving of Humble Pie

Yesterday morning, I admitted I was wrong in failing to recognize Margaret Donnelly's strength as a candidate for Attorney General. I'm almost never mistaken on political matters, so it represented a kick to the self-esteem. The kick turned into a full-fledged stomping, though, at the Record Bar's weekly trivia contest last night.

I had no idea who the back-up quarterback for Tampa Bay is.

I forgot that Rosalind Shays fell to her death down an elevator shaft.

I was completely worthless in the "Director Cameos" category.

And, sadly, my team wasn't much better than I was. By midway through the first round, the other teams realized it was sound strategy to shift any reasonably challenging question to us, and garner the points when we failed to answer.

Despite the humiliating exposure of gaping holes in my intellectual data bank, I got to sit around with friends, drinking good beer (it was my first sighting of Bob's 47 this year!), and laughing a lot.

I never realized that the trivia world has its own circuit, but I ran into a friend there who says he plays several times a week at different bars.

Yet another thing I didn't know . . .

Despite the blows to my self-esteem, though, at least I get to feel a lot smarter than a dozen other Kansas Citians who voted yesterday for an unconstitutional ban on regularly giving advice to elected officials. That was really dumb.

The Winner of the First Annual 75th Street Brewery Homebrewing Contest is . . .

Me.

There were 17 beers in the competition - most of them were really, really good. I particularly enjoyed an Orange Honey Wheat, which I think the Brewery ought to consider adding to its summer line-up, a Scottish Wee Heavy, a wonderful Schwarzbier, a great Saison and a pretty darned good Weissbier.

Everyone in the bar got to judge all the beers, and vote for only one favorite. The samples were served in 3 flights, apparently divided by strength. The first flight was lighter bodied, but it was probably the best flight in terms of serving up a bunch of very good, drinkable beers. As the intensity of the flights increased, so did the margin between the great beers and the ones that, in the words of one of the volunteer judges, tasted "more like an attempt on my life".

All but a couple of the beers, though, were excellent. Judges got to taste a whole lot of styles of beer, which is unusual for a homebrew contest, where you normally taste flights composed entirely of one type of beer. Some of the judges seemed to really take the process seriously, carefully sniffing and swirling and holding samples up to the light, while others knocked back the beers and chose the one they enjoyed the most.

I talked to the staff during the contest, and it sounds like, next year, they may change the way they do things. They talked about having the 75th Street brewers and staff taste all the submissions, and decide on a panel of 5 or so finalists for everyone to taste and vote on. That sounds like a good idea to me - they would get more submissions if every brewer did not need to submit a half case of beer just to get into the game. That way, we could just submit a couple or three bottles to start, and then submit the rest if we made it into the finals. Also, a group of 5 or so brewers would get the honor of being named finalists, instead of just one brewer getting all the honors. Finally, perhaps those of us who keg could simply bring up a keg of the finalist beer, rather than hassling with bottles and bottling equipment.

I'm not sure when, but sometime in the relatively near future, you'll be able to buy a pint of my beer at my favorite brewery in Kansas City. Cheers!

Free Beer Tomorrow!!

I talked to the people at 75th Street Brewery a little while ago, and they say the homebrew contest will run from 12:00 until 4:00 tomorrow, and they'll announce the winner at 6. Better yet, they say they won't be charging people to "judge", so that means free beer.

Come on out and taste the beers brewed by local amateurs - I'm sure there'll be some tasty, creative, and impressive beers. If you happen to like the German Wheat or the Honey Beer, so much the better, but even if you don't - come out and see what the homebrewers have come up with.

The winner wins the honor of having the 75th Street Brewery brew up an entire batch of his or her recipe, and then having it sold on tap. In other words, 75th Street gets a new recipe of a beer that it already knows its customers like, without having to pay for Research and Development. Sounds like a win/win to me.

Homebrew Contest on Saturday - Make me a Winner!

On Saturday afternoon, from 3 until 5, the 75th Street Brewery is conducting a homebrew contest. I've submitted a German Wheat beer and a Belgian Honey Tripel. For the beer geeks out there, yes, you're absolutely right that there is no such style as "Honey Tripel", but the key to Belgian ales is creativity, not slavish dedication to BJCP Style Guidelines. Besides, this one is going to be decided by popularity, not by certified beer judges, so maybe a very strong ale with the taste of honey will win some fans. Who knows?

I'm not sure how the contest is going to work, but it appears that somehow, if you're at 75th Street Brewery late on Saturday afternoon (3-5 p.m.), you'll have the opportunity to judge a homebrew contest! I doubt they're charging for the privilege (I don't claim to be an expert in beverage law, but I somehow doubt they can get away with selling beer produced by unlicensed brewers). If you're interested in learning more, check back here later today, or call the brewery. I'll call the brewery and see if I can post more details later today.

Local Options - Down South Grill on Main

I forgot to bring a lunch to work yesterday, and so I headed out at noon to find some carry-out to bring back to the office. Since I work nearby the best dine in/carry out cheap lunch spot in the city (possibly the universe), my car automatically headed toward Pancho's.

On the way there, though, I chided myself for predictability and decided to try something new. A few blocks south of Pancho's, near the intersection of 39th and Main, are two places that begged to be tried. Island Spice Caribbean promises something out of the ordinary, and I had recently noticed the Down South Grill in the space that used to be Antonio's next door to the space that used to be the Grand Emporium. (Yes, I just double-dated myself . . .)

I wound up choosing the Down South Grill for the simple reason that a Johnson County Beemer was tailgaiting me in the right lane of southbound Main, and there was a sweet, legal, unmetered parking spot right out front. Few responses to a tailgaiter are as satisfying as parking in front of him.

So, Down South Grill it was. Like its pizza place predecessor, it consists of a counter and a small bench for waiting. Nothing fancy here at all. The menu is posted on the wall, and consists of a few sandwiches (including a pork chop sandwich), a few "Cajun Po-Boys", wings, a chili dog, and a few basic sides. The combos include fries and a drink, so why not?

I chose the Cajun Chicken Po-Boy combo. For $6.49, I walked out with a styrofoam container jam packed with food, with a little hot sauce and catchup for the fries.

Normally, I tend to gush when I write about food found at a dive location. I would like to do so here, because the people working there were friendly, and only one other person visited during the time I was there. Every dollar that gets spent at a chain restaurant instead of a local operation is a slap in the face for diversity of choice and local flavor.

While I can't honestly gush about my Cajun Chicken Po-Boy sandwich, it was a huge portion of moderately-spicy chicken. The chicken wasn't breaded, which was a nice touch, and the roll was jammed with fresh lettuce, good tomatoes (the likes of which you will never find at a shareholder-owned food outlet), and a tasty mayo-based sauce. The fries were good, not great, and there were plenty of them. For $6.49, I got a reasonably good meal that I could not even finish - and I supported a restaurant owned by local people.

Next time you're thinking of driving through Wendy's, or stopping by Subway, think for a second about whether there isn't a local option. Kitty's burgers are better than Wendy's, and a "Number 1, Spicy" at Bella Napoli may be the best sandwich in Kansas City.

Anybody want to meet me at Island Spice Caribbean Restaurant next Tuesday? Here's the menu - it isn't cheap, but, come on, they have curried goat, and who wants cheap goat?! They might have cow's feet, if we're lucky. They even have a side dish they call "festival" - can you get a side of "festival" at Burger King? Or calaloo?

If we want interesting local options on Kansas City's food scene, we need to vote with our dollars.

Restaurant Critic Getting Schooled

Last night, at the Blogger Gathering, I met Owen Morris, who writes for the Pitch's Fat City food blog.

Naturally enough, the topic focused on food for a while before veering off into the legitimacy of being apolitical, and Owen impressed me with his knowledge and passion for food. When I checked out Fat City last night, I saw that he is actually taking advanced culinary classes at Johnson County Community College, and he's going to do a weekly diary about his experiences.

I'm looking forward to going through culinary classes vicariously.

Noodle Shop Closes

Sad news for local foodies - the Noodle Shop at 59th and Holmes has closed its doors. It was a small shop, with great service, and kind of a blogger favorite. The food was both comforting, as only noodles in broth can be, and also exotic, with strange pickles and even vegetal hedgehogs.

The only way to prevent even more losses is to remember that you cast your votes with every dollar you spend. Are you voting for chain food, or are you voting for local flavor? Good intentions and rare visits don't cut it.

Awesome Beer and Food, and Blogging Awkwardness

Last night, to console ourselves for the end of our daughter's spring break trip home, we attended a Brewmaster's Dinner at 75th Street Brewery. Here's what was on the menu:

Pre-App
Smoked Trout in Phyllo Cups

Appetizer
Savory Chevre Crostinis
Roasted mushrooms and shallots atop griddled boxty, finished with melted goat cheese

Paired w/75th Street Brewery's Fountain City Irish Red

Soup
Scotch Broth
Traditional Irish lamb soup served with rye bread bowl

Paired w/75th Street Brewery's Belgian Double

Salad
Roasted Roots and Greens
Glazed baby carrots, parsnips, onions, sweet potatoes and leeks tossed with Mustard Greens and a Rosemary-Honey Vinaigrette

Paired w/75th Street Brewery's Saxy Golden Ale

Entrée
Braised Oxtail
Slow-roasted, red-wine-braised oxtail served with rutabaga-tripe oatcakes and apple mash

Paired w/75th Street Brewery's Muddy Mo Dry Irish Stout

Dessert
Lemon Posset
A chilled creamy lemon parfait

Paired w/Boulevard Brewing Company's Smokestack Series Saison

If you're thinking "Hey, that doesn't look like a proper meal for someone trying to do Weightwatchers . . .", yeah, you have a good point there, but it was worth the exercise and canned soup I'll be facing for the rest of the weak. The meal was fantastic, and featured brief explanations about the food and the beer. At $40/person, including tax and tip ($35 for Mug Club members), it was a bargain for that many courses paired with that many drinks. 75th Street will be doing these monthly, so get on their mailing list and check out the future menus.

As for the awkwardness, I happened to be seated next to an elected Johnson County Republican. When I introduced myself, he replied "I've heard of you somewhere . . .", and I could see him running through his mental rolodex. Fortunately, he didn't connect the dots, and we had a fine time enjoying food, beer, and apolitical discussion . . .