Aaron Deacon

What is "sharp American cheese" and, if it's at all what it sounds like, how do you shred it?

You're right, the corn fritters have a pretty short shelf life. You'll be hard-pressed to spend a generous sum in one sitting...I hope they'll take it in parts. But they do a pretty decent catering business. They also have live music, at least weekly, I think. Can't comment on that yet.

Yes, three times in the couple months since we've been in town, most recently yesterday morning. This is one of a couple posts to compose, so more detail anon, but suffice to say, the Sat and Sun morning country breakfast (two of the three visits) is terrific. BBQ was quite good, not quite great, though more about my context for that judgment in another post. If it takes me longer to get around to posting, and you happen to go for dinner in the meantime, I'll leave you with this advice: Get the corn fritters. An aside, since I'm previewing future posts, Pangea is well worth a visit as well. Cheers, Aaron

This is a good tip...what other flavors do you enjoy? I tried this when we were down at the Plaza Art Fair...agree with your comments above. It would be nice to sample some of their strengths next time in.

What is KC Mag's rating icon...is Cafe Sebastienne a 1 wheelchair restaurant?

This may be a little off-topic, and I'm not quite sure how sensitive this forum is about linking to others, but this chocolate-tasting thread on LTHForum seemed appropriate to link here: http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=10426

Yeah, I don't have the kind of collection to bring a bottle to places with their own list. I'd say in Chicago, at least half my restaurant meals were at BYO, no liquor license places. Almost all the Thai places, non-Muslim middle Eastern, some really nice places like Schwa, and some good mid-range spots like Glenn's Diner or Dorado. There's just sort of a culture of BYO that I haven't noticed in the KC area.

Yeah, I guess I had it backwards, no BYO on Missouri side, no take-home bags on the KS side...is that right? So are there good BYOs on the KS side, or is it common for mom-and-pop ethnic joints to be BYO?

Great question. I think it's by municipality rather than state. In Chicago, you can BYO just about anywhere if you're willing to pay. And there are tons of good and great restaurants where you can do so for free. In KC, I was recently told that BYO is not allowed on the Kansas side, and someone over on Chowhound just mentioned that you need to have a license of some sort on the Missouri side. It doesn't seem, from a first impression, that BYO has a lot of traction in this area, much to my dismay.

Interesting topic. I've only been in town a short while, so can't really offer any new places. I was favorably impressed with the chocolate bars available at The Better Cheddar, at least the Prairie Village location. I was unimpressed by Annedore's when trying it a few years back. I tried Christopher Elbow during the first Friday arts walk last weekend, and I thought they were quite good. I was especially impressed with the $1/piece price (during the arts walk only) and the freebies for my two kids (2 and 4)...the woman stopped me from purhcasing and said they save their seconds for children. 8 little jewels for $4 made me quite happy. As for Andre's...made the trek down south a couple weeks ago on another errand, hoping to fit in a visit to the new French bakery. Couldn't remember where it was, and so stopped at Andres instead. I was quite unimpressed on a number of levels. I just wanted a few pastries, savory preferably. The display case was so full of such a wide variety of goods as to cast aspersions on their quality. I asked a woman behind the counter if they had an savory pastries, croissants, what have you. She gave me a blank stare..."Uh, I...I'm sorry...some what?" Not off to a good start. After explaining what I was looking for, I learned that no, something like a ham and cheese croissant isn't part of Andres repertoire. So I settled for a few sweet ones, and the quality was wanting. Not bad exactly, but not the ethereal fresh-baked pillow or tender flakiness of very good pastry. Certainly not enough to justify the calories or the drive. I preferred the stuff at Napoleon's in Westport, for example. Another phenomenon that bugged me at Andres, and I've noticed this at few other places around town, was a prominent television playing the Food Network or food production videos. It's like a sports bar for foodies. Ugh. Is this becoming more common? Even worse, I asked the counter lady if it bugged many people, and she confided that, well, she was trying to get them to show NCAA tournament basketball. Now, I love the NCAA tournament, but, man, this isn't what I expected from what I thought was a local, boutique-y Euro-style bakery and lunch spot. Anyway, sorry for the interruption...I'd like to know, u.e., what kind of offbeat chocolate bars you've liked elsewhere, unable to find here, and what you found inferior of the less mainstream brands at The Better Cheddar. Cheers, Aaron

I agree that, for the food, Mr. C's is nothing to get excited about. Interesting place, to be sure, but no place I'd return to by choice.

Thanks, that was what I thought, until I saw that the SORedux chef had posted a "question" on Chapin's Q&A. I like the idea Freedom Gras, though.

Gosh, I can't believe my first KC post on this board is to this thread, but I have to express my shock that in Chapin's review today of Shields Manor Bistro, she ordered the same entree (steak au poivre) on both visits. What? It's not like she said the first one was so bad she wanted to offer a chance at redemption. Sure, she says there are only 4 or 5 menu entrees. But the same entree on each visit!? Anyway, a little quick background, I moved from Chicago to Mission last month. Over the past several years I've posted intermittently on eGullet, was pretty active on Chowhound for a time, and then moved over to LTHForum, my online base of operations, when it started up. I still hang out there quite often, but I'm casting about now for some good KC-area food discussion. Cheers, Aaron P.S. What is monkfish's restaurant?

For Chicago grocery options you might check out, A Cook's Guide to Chicago, available on Amazon.com, but also at lots of food and bookstores locally. Moderator Note: Edited link to make it eGullet-friendly...

Yeah, one of my traveling companions made the same point about the dubious nature of various Bonnaroo prohibitions and we were well-stocked with bottles of Beck's and Red Seal, as well as complementary cans of Bud. And some plastic bottles of Evan Williams just in case. A hell of a trip. Oh, and my understanding, on very good authority, is that "dank nuggets" are an herbal rather than mycological delicacy. I wrote a little more about my trip here. Cheers, Aaron

As another Bonnaroo attendee, I too was dismayed by the no bottle decree. Another beer option is mini-kegs--plenty of reputable brews can be had thus. Also, has anyone tried Delicato's new boxed wine? It's only available in a handful of markets, it's probably terrible, but they seem to be aiming higher than Franzia. And then there's that Black Box Chardonnay that was very well-received in California a year or two ago, but I don't know if it's still available or available in other states.