Coming for the Throne

When you listen to as much rap music as I do (or even if you don't), you undoubtedly know about the massively overrated Jay-Z and Kanye West album entitled "Watch the Throne". It has since become a bit of a punchline with some even saying things like "While you are busy watching the throne, I'm sabotaging it" in response to the album. By no means am I saying that the Kansas City BBQ scene is as colossally over-hyped as that album, because it is not, it is the best in the world. However, I am saying that there is someone coming for that throne.

The challenger is Q39 who some people will give about as much of a chance as people gave that skinny, pink haired kid that knocked out Kimbo Slice to accomplish the feat that he accomplished. I myself, after reading what my peers were saying about it, had almost decided that I was going to hate this place (which does not help my denial of hipsterdom in any way, but if I can't be honest here, where can I be honest?). I am a huge KC BBQ homer! I even refused to eat at Dickey's during Tour de BBQ on principle alone. I knew that this new kid on the block was being over-promoted and could not possibly live up to the hype. I was about as wrong about that as I have been about anything!

The crowd inside is very diverse, as with most restaurants on 39th street. You have the shirt and tie business folks taking a client out to dinner. You have the jeans and suspenders crowd that you would expect to see at Arthur Bryant's, sitting with family. The prices are not that much more than you would pay for a comparable meal at a BBQ joint. And I will not bore you with the credentials of the Grand Champion Pitmaster that owns the joint or any of the other factoids that you have probably read elsewhere, I will get straight into what I had and I why you should give them a shot.

For starters: We had the Tall Grass Cheese Fondue and the Best Wings On The Planet. The Tall Grass Cheese Fondue is called "Tall Grass" because they use Tallgrass beer to make this 5 cheese fondue instead of the standard white wine. Accompany that with soft pretzels and a Granny Smith apple to dip in it and you have out of this world good! Melting Pot eat your heart out! The wings are made similarly to Peanut wings (brined-fried-sauced-fried-sauced-fried-sauced), but do not go into this thinking Peanut wings. They are very good, but I will not quite put them up on that high of a pedestal. To start with, these are BBQ wings opposed to the Peanut's Buffalo style, these are also a lot more like what you expect as far as the size goes (not the whole pterodactyl wing like The Peanut's).

Bebidas: To stick with the Tallgrass theme, I decided to go with a beer cocktail to accompany my BBQ. I did not quite feel like a beer, but didn't want something as strong as a cocktail either, so this seemed like the perfect spring compromise to me. My BC of choice was the Q Shandy. Although a prefer the name Radler to Shandy, I perceive it as a more active and manly name for a beer but there is no true difference besides whether you just got off of a bicycle or not, I went with it anyways... The Q Shandy is a deliciously citrusy concoction that is made with creme yvette and Tallgrass Velvet Rooster beer (a Belgian-style Tripel, one of my favorite styles of beer).

From the Smoker: I wanted to try just about every meat that I could, to get a true feeling of what Q39 really stood for, so I ordered the Judge's Plate (but keep in mind you can still get very affordable BBQ sandwiches here too, if that is your thing). The pulled pork is very good, the brisket is tender and juicy, and the sausage is very flavorful as well. Any of these three meats are reason enough for you to come try Q39 and to this point I was thinking that Q39 was the BBQ joint anomaly that does everything so solid that you could not identify the student at the top of their class. That is when I bit into the ribs. Those ribs are so fantastic! They are right up there with McGonigle's ribs, to me. They do not have a shallow pink ring around the outside, no, they are pink throughout! They are fall off the bone tender! I thought I was imagining things for a moment, so I had to go eat the ribs that I am about to compare them to the next day just to make sure, but they are even better than OK Joe's ribs! Aaaaaaaand..... half of my readership just threw their computer across the room because they are so mad at me (in other words: 1 person has to buy a new laptop tomorrow).

The sides are pretty dang good too. The beans are no Jack Stack beans, but then again none are. They are still probably top 5 in my book and are very unique, they have a flavour about them that you might expect from a chili (not so much spicy, but more peppery). The apple slaw however WAS better than Jack Stack slaw, it is probably better than any slaw around! The tart and tangy flavours mixed with the creaminess of the slaw was a match made on eharmony.com. The slaw almost tasted as if you mixed a little bit of vinegar-based Carolina style slaw, some creamy KC slaw, cut up an apple and stirred it all together.

From the wood fired grill: Although most of what you will hear about Q39 initially will be about the BBQ and rightfully so, that is a pretty good litmus test, they also have a pretty stellar wood fired grill menu. Wifey had herself piece of salmon, cooked on the wood fired grill, that was as good of a piece of salmon as you can get in the middle of the map. Cooked perfectly, seasoned well, great tasting piece of fish! 

The co-star of this movie was most definately the broccoli. Steamed and seasoned with fresh herb butter, this stuff was so good that I would even consider ordering it to go with my BBQ plate if I had to do it all over again, that is how good this broccoli was.

Dessert: To spoil the healthy dinner that my wife had just enjoyed I decided that we needed some of the made-to-order donut holes. Donuts are very in right now and I am very into them. I am like Homer Simpson when a donut is around. How much better can it get than a half dozen donut holes, fresh from the fryer, covered in cinnamon sugar and escorted by a chocolate dipping sauce and a fresh raspberry puree dipping sauce? Answer: not very. I am usually partial to chocolate, but I almost preferred the raspberry to the chocolate (probably because it is fresh raspberry puree). I found myself eating the majority of mine plain though, they are that good on their own.

Which does bring one last point to mind that I forgot to mention until this juncture. Q39 is a scratch kitchen. Everything is made fresh daily. The meat that is on your plate came fresh out of the smoker, it had not been sitting under a warming light. The ingredients are ordered in the smallest quantities possible to ensure that you are getting the freshest product every time. They may not have a line out the door at dinner time yet, but I would go ahead an try them out before they do because it is just a matter of time!

Beignet & Coffee

I recently had the pleasure of dining at Beignet, the brain-child of the good people that brought you Nica's 320 (now Nica's Lagniappe). Beignet takes its namesake (the beloved dessert from Nica's) and makes it the main dish!

These stuffed, powder covered, doughnut-like fritters are the perfect morning-time (or any other time of the day, for that matter) treat! My wife and I split the Pumpkin Pie and Bananas Foster Beignets.

The Pumpkin Pie, because it is fall, and well, since when is Pumpkin Pie not delicious? Never! Stuffing a Pumpkin Pie into a fritter doesn't make it any worse either. This beignet literally tasted like a slice of homemade pumpkin pie had been stuffed inside a beignet.

The Bananas Foster was an obvious second choice, being the chosen flavour of New Orleans (the American headquarters of Cajun food). It was everything that you would hope for from a banana foster dessert: not overwhelmingly banana flavoured, sweet (but not too rich), and creamy.

I could honestly deal with about half as much stuffing in each beignet, but that is because I appreciate the the base pastry quite a bit.

These stuffed treats, being as delicious as they may be, are still based on the ever delicious (and ever simple) plain beignet. At risk of over simplifying the beignet, for someone whom has never experienced one (because it is an experience), it is a rich man's version of the powdered donut (not so much in price, but in quality).

Having two locations (one in the River Market, one on 39th Street) makes a beignet that much more accessible. My preferred location is the one in the River Market. You can enjoy a Beignet break while shopping for produce & local honey (if you aren't against bee enslavement, which is what vegans actually believe). The interior is as eclectic as that of Nica's on the Boulevard. New Orleans inspired paintings, finger painted tables, and a doll head sighting round out the usual suspects.

Beignet can also offer you some pretty spectacular drip coffee to enjoy with your beignet.

Just mentioning the word "coffee" beings to mind a situation that I read about in the news about the "quaint" Prairie Village Starbucks moving across the street to expand and add a drive though window. I could not believe this! 1) This is the epitome of what we call a Jo-Co problem. There are kids dying of cancer and this is what people are getting upset about. 2) This is the coffee bully Starbucks that we are talking about here, not some "Ma & Pop shop", the words "quaint" and "Starbucks" should NEVER be used in the same sentance! This being said, I write this hoping to help this gentleman (and others like him) realize that Starbucks is in fact the Walmart of coffee shops and in no way "quaint". This is like being mad at McDonald's for not using organic beef.

This city has plenty of great local coffee shops! I cannot even pretend to have been to half of them! On top of The Roasterie and Crossroads Coffee, that I have already written about, there are The Filling Station, City Market Coffee House, and Mildred's Coffeehosue (plus numerous others that I have yet to enjoy coffee in) that I also love. 

The Filling Station is a must-stop for any lover of good coffee or pastries. The Filling Station, like Beignet, also has 2 locations: one in Westport & one on Union Hill. The "Garage" location, on Union Hill, has a slightly larger menu that includes lunch items. This location is also done up with gears and license plates to resemble a garage (or a "Filling Station", if you will). The Westport location is in an old 1-hr Photo (or similar) hut and is decorated with nostalgic cameras and paraphernalia. Cameras that actually took pictures that looked like the filters that you use on Instagram today. The Westport location does have a drive-thru window, which despite what the a-hat Mr. Dehney (see above article link if you are skimming) would lead you to believe, does not ruin the quaintness of it at all!

The pastries are baked locally at SoHo Bakery and the beans are roasted by Broadway Roasting Company (who is said to have one of the best espressos around). This isn't pre-packaged stuff that is sent in from some factory in Seattle. Give Filling Station a try if you are looking for an awesome local coffee shop with uber talented baristas (every time you order a latte, it comes with a different design).

City Market Coffee House, located just steps from Beignet, in the River Market, is another great place to grab a cup of locally roasted coffee. The walls and customer side of the coffee bar are adorned with the burlap sacks that their coffee beans are shipped to them in. You will see bags from all four corners of the globe. I like to look around and see if I can find one from Puerto Rico.

They beans are roasted in house. If you are lucky, you might even walk in while the antique roaster is churning away in the corner, just to add to the appeal of the place. Every cup of single source or blended coffee that I have had in this place has been amazing!

Grab a cup, take a load off, and enjoy the atmosphere. Or grab a cup to-go, put some pep in your step, go pick out the freshest produce back beyond the doors to the Farmer's Market. You can even buy a bag of the artisan coffee beans  to take home with you. 

Finally, Mildred's Coffee House, which admittedly I have been to far fewer times (and know much less about) than the previous two coffee houses. However, that does not make it any less of a kickass place to get your caffeine fix before a night of art exhibits on First Fridays. Mildred's Crossroads location has the perfect location for First Fridays! The place always smells amazing and, although I have never been for anything other than a coffee, everyone always talks about how great the food is (especially for a coffee house). Needless to say, Mildred's too is a much better place to walk to get coffee than is a Starbucks, Chuck Dehner (again, see above).

My opinion on this whole Starbuck's "dilemma": get a local coffee shop to take the lease of the old Starbuck's location, or God forbid open one yourself, instead of using your energy to cry on the 6 o'clock news. Take all of Starbuck's clients and put them out of business. Then you will have something really quaint, instead of just the illusion of it. 

Be blessed, and until next time... Eat local!