JWest

Anyone see ramps, green garlic, and morels (or any other special spring ingredients) around the kc area yet? I've been cooking some seasonal spring dinners for myself lately, a few pics on the food blog if anyone cares to see...

I may be in Denver but Im still Kansas City at Heart... My apartment complex prohibits the use of charcoal grills... but It's not going stop this KansasCitian! All I need is my sun tea and grill with that humid KC summer air... its bone dry out here! Can't wait to be back in KC and looking forward to the markets!

Im just wondering what everyone thinks about these questions... What if someone did this 30 years (maybe much longer than that) from now.... would it generally then be considered "Classical Achatz"? like "Classical Escoffier" with Chicken French? I've seen a restaurant place items on menus such as "T.K.'s Lobster Mac N Cheese".. and it became a popular dish on the menu. So, how different would it have been if he had something like that, crediting the Chefs? Personally I would think that would be rather strange having 14 items on your menu saying that that dish was from a different chef. Although, I would feel it to be more accepting to the public if it was done that way. Im not really sure where I'm going with this but I just wanted to throw out some thoughts and see what everyone else felt about them.

Very happy to see Chef Lachlan of Frasca up for one! incredible food...

Just realized that they updated their website. It looks much better and has more information on Chef Rob Dalzell.... www.1924main.com I can't wait to go there again and most likely quite often when I get back in KC.

I felt the same way moosnsqrl.. hopefully next year!

I might be moving to San Francisco and I was wondering what everyone's "Top 5" restaurants or Dining establishments were?

Kansas City should run a "Restaurant Week" ...They do this in Denver, they have city wide restaurants run a special for $52.80 per couple (26.40 for one) and you recieve a 3 or 4 course meal... some of the places that sell cheaper food usually run up to 5 courses like Rock Bottom Brewery gives a free 12 oz glass of a different type of beer on tap per course. Maybe The Kansas City Originals and even just all of the restaurants in Kansas City should run something similar, it's very nice because they take what would be the weakest week in restaurant sales into one of the bussiest weeks of the year, in fact some say it's the bussiest week in the restuarant business. Every restaurant is just packed with reservations and walk ins. It's an amazing thing. $26 can buy you one of the cheaper entrees at 40 Sardines... think about getting 3 courses with that price! It's also a great way to get those people who wouldn't normally go out and possibly get them hooked in with quality food.

I hope one of the meals didnt include The Broadmoor Hotel?

Interesting to see how much the Kansas City area has changed/expanded since 13 years ago. It'll be exciting to see what people will write on egullet for "the best of kansas city" 10 years from now. BTW, I think Foo's is still going, A friend brought some ice cream over about 2 1/2 years ago and it was good, she made me make bananas foster... I refused to but that ice cream was calling my name! When i came into kc for 2 nights, that morning before I went back to denver, I had a steak n' egg sandwich with a side of hashbrowns, and a Cherry Limeade... how can you pass up the limeade with the scoop of lime sherbet on top? Hashbrowns were nice and soft and all broken apart with just a small amount of shredded potato crisped up... it probably sounds strange but I love it when its like that! On another note, has anyone been to Jun's Japanese Restaurant lately? Durring his retirement, Jun appeared on busy nights behind the sushi bar but now he lives in Japan. One of the nicest guys I ever met.

"them," meaning sushi house? you can't find adzuki bean ice cream anywhere else in k.c.? hmmm.. let me think on this one... u.e. ← A few places served it but it seems like they all stopped and stuck with just green tea ice cream.

Anyone been to Thai Place? I hear its really good.

Maybe I'll make my own instead even though I can never find any of the sushi places that offer the adzuki ice cream besides them

Anyone have a favorite frozen custard place? Ive had Foo's, Culver's, and of course Sheridans. I confess to being a huge fan of the Turtle Sundae at any frozen custard place and the Razzle Dazzle (Raspberries with the juice and hot fudge) at Sheridans.

um, YUM!! where's murray's and why did he stop serving that divine-sounding treat? shameful!! details please? not familiar. cheers. u.e. ← Super crispy greesy and thin patties, you gotta get the double or triple atleast! My favorite is griddled onions and cheese only. Then I dip it in Ketchup for every bite. Oh and there breakfast food always hits the spot. I think their main busy hours are like after midnight but usually open throughout the day. Town Topic is near by Elbow's Chocolates and 1924. I want to say its a block up from Southwest Blvd on Broadway... Here's the address: 2021 Broadway St Kansas City, MO 64108 A little Review Guide for you too: http://cityguide.aol.com/kansascity/entert...?sbid=111822051 There another one on the kansas side I think , I forgot where though.

Best Everyday Restaurant (i.e. cheap and easy): Room 39 Best All-around Restaurant (cost doesn't matter): Bluestem Best Italian: Lidia's Best Barbeque: Arthur Bryants (Down Town) Best Chinese: New Peking maybe? Best Ice Cream: Murray's (Bring back the carrot cake ice cream!) Best Cheeseburger: Town Topic Most Want To Vist: Starker's Reserve, Re:verse (New Chef, New Menu), Tonic (now that its officially open) Best restaurant on the Kansas side: 40 Sardines, Pachamamas Best Steak: Bluestem's Waggyu

Aaron Whitcomb of Table 6 was a guest chef of Kansas City's The American Restaurant for the 11th Annual Friends of James Beard Benefits Dinner... http://www.jamesbeard.org/events/out_of_ho...06/01/001.shtml

Just thought it would be nice to let everyone know that Room 39 provided lunch at the American Restaurant for all the workers of the James Beard 06' Dinner. The Lasagna hit the spot!

Just saw the new lounge which hasnt quite been finished but looks great and Im very excited about it opening in the future for Blue Stem. Kansas City is going to be lucky to have a concept like this to be apart of the city's already best restaurant.

Denver has one every year. It's $52.80 for two people for a multiple course meal. Most restaurants will also have it for $26.40 for single diners. Restaurants, city-wide were packed full of reservations for that week, great way of getting some business during the slowest business times of the year.

ChefG, If a cook wants to learn in depth of different aspects of dining and decides to step out of a kitchen to work in other areas such as wine, coffees, farming...etc. How much does it affect a cook's ability when returning to a kitchen and continuing their career? Would it just be overall better to do those things durring free time while maintaining a kitchen job or fully get into whatever they want to learn? Thank You

I tried going to City Tavern just now... They refused to serve me lunch because they stop lunch service at 2:00PM. The time was 1:45 and I looked in the dining room where I could see people with opened up menus, ordering food. Not a very good first impression on my part and it sounds like people are being lazy. Man, you have been busy! Must of been a nice paycheck! How was 1924 Main? I'm dying to try the lobster pot pie on the menu this week! Edited to add: Sorry, just saw your post further on down! I'll go read that now! ← Sometimes I wish it was as nice as you may think but the paycheck is just an added bonus to what really matters and that's doing something you love to do. As far as where I work, the place is called "Restaurant Kevin Taylor's" in Denver, I most recently worked at Adega(Denver) and Frasca(Boulder), both of which I would be more prouder to speak about.

I agree 100%

I finally made my way to Tonic today... this is kind of exciting because as a young person, you don't really have very many friends opening restaurants or at Chef status. I've known Jon Dallen for about 4 years now and there's no doubt that he loves food, I thought I ate a lot until I met this guy. So here goes my photo essay... (as you can tell from my recent posts.. I got a christmas present! I've just gotta figure out how to make better pictures) So I do apologize for the qaulity of the pictures, its kind of dark inside. The Chicken Satay with the peanut sauce was over cooked but the sauce was good. The Coriander Crusted Tuna with the Seaweed Salad was amazing, I loved every bite. The Miniature Spring Rolls were awesome, The Tomato Mozzerella Salad was great but I felt it was kind of out of season although the roma tomatoes were pretty nice especially for this time of the year. The Sweet Potato Fritter was tasty, tasted just like a tempura fried sweet potato at a Japanese Restaurant. The Portabello Tempura was great. The Crab Cakes look large in this picture but were at a perfect size for tapas. They were spicy and were accompanied with a Napa Cabbage Slaw. The flavors went well from spicy to a "cooling" flavor of the slaw. I had to get it... I mean come on it says Chocolate Tasting... So this dish was something where Jon got an idea from a Tapas Bar in Atlanta called TWIST. It has Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate Ice Cream, a Chocolate Pudding conconction, Godiva Chocolate Shooter, and a Chocolate Ganache Tart type thing. I really thought the Mousse was well executed, the pudding is delicious, the shooter was a little warm and the chocolate straw thing doesnt really work although it probably isnt suppose to but wouldn't be cool if it did? After a while I got really full on chocolate, its probably better for two than just one person. Overall the food is good, theres some spots to improve on but hey, what do you expect when the restaurant hasnt even had it's Grand Opening yet. The waitstaff seems inexperienced and lack of any real knowledge about food and hospitality. The bar tenders and managers seem to lack of focus on detail. I wasnt offered a beverage of any kind once while sitting at the bar. My friend who is the hostess actually talked with me a few times asked if I wanted to have a soda or something and then she had to refill it twice. I had to wait a long time for my check and the only reason I got my check was because Jon, asked the manager to go get mine. I was never asked how my food was or asked if I wanted to order anything. The only reason I had service was because Jon knows who I am. Since when I first got back in town I've had a great time enjoying things I can only have in KC (Since I currently live in Denver)... Ive had Arthur Bryants Burnt Ends open faced sandwich, Town Topic Breakfast, Toasted Subs at KC Toaster, Lunch at 1924Main, Lunch at The American, Dinner at Tonic, Chocolates at Elbows, and now Ive gotta choose a a couple of meals out of City Tavern, Zin, 40 Sardines, and BlueStem ..... oh boy Im so glad my chef sent my check to me in KC!

I just had the Rosemary Caramel! I loved it.. and the Passion fruit! After my mom, sister, and I had lunch at Main 1924. We drove around looking for it and as we just gave up on looking , I saw it on the corner of my eye and we finally got to go see where Elbow's was located... I do have to say that the poster advertisements of the chocholates are great just like the chocolates...