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!

#Roadron Dallas

For those of you that follow me on Twitter (@EatingAwesome), you are probably used to seeing me posting pictures of myself at Sporting Kansas City games wearing either my luchador mask or my Kiltman Kilt. This is a post about us following the Cauldron (Sporting supporters group) to Dallas to watch Sporting take on FC Dallas (hence the #Roadron). Although the match ended in a disappointing draw, in stoppage time none the less, we still had a blast with a few old friends that we hadn't seen in a long time.

Upon landing in Love Field, we made the obligatory stop at Fuel Town for the best tacos ever. Surprisingly, the quality of the tacos had slipped a bit since the last time I had been there, but there were still pretty damn good, hopefully this was just a temporary lapse in what is has always been an amazing taqueria. 

Side note: I did also notice that a food truck lot had been established just outside of the Love Field Airport that I would have stopped at had the Fuel Town tacos not been calling my name. Next time, you are mine, Food Truck Lot!

Mucky Duck Brisket Sliders

After our quick dinner, we headed up the Tollway to Addison (where our friends live). They had all taken off of work that day, so we had a full day of drinking to catch up with. We met them at The Mucky Duck, the local watering hole. The beer list was not going to overwhelm anyone, but we did not have a bad beer while we were there. There was live music. It was a good time. That good time segued into more hunger (imagine that). A friend of mine told me, that in Texas, you can get brisket on anything at any time of the day, so we gave the Brisket Sliders (that came highly recommended) a shot. They lived up to the billing; the brisket was tender, topped with a tangy pickle and sweet sauce, all on a pretzel bun (which, everyone in their right mind knows, makes any sandwich better). I say this as a self-respecting Kansas Citian that goes out of his way to give no credit to Texas BBQ, ever, so you know that it has to be good. 

Saturday, before the match, we decided that we needed to observe some of the local beer culture. This quest led us to the beer garden at Deep Ellum Brewery. *It was initially explained to me that the Deep Ellum neighborhood in Dallas is equivalent to Westport in Kansas City. Although I can see the parallels, I do not wholeheartedly agree, but it's close enough for government work.* 

Deep Ellum Brewery Beer Garden

How the beer garden at Deep Ellum works is you pay $10 for a sweet pint glass (that you get to keep) and 3 drink tickets. You can choose from any of the beers that Deep Ellum has on tap at that time, we even got to choose from two Armadillo Ale Works (another beer company that co-brews at the Deep Ellum Brewery) beers as well. There is an outdoor space where there are tables with umbrellas and live music. There is also an inside area, where the taps are, that you can learn about the brewing process (during the occasional informational tours). We spent most of our time inside, because (as you all know) Texas is quite hot. The outside area was pretty awesome, the girl in cowboy boots and a skirt (another Texas thing) was killing her acoustic set, but it was just too hot. The beers at Deep Ellum were quite good: the IPAs, the Dallas Blonde, (my favorite beer) the Farmhouse Wit, and even the Rye Pils.

Easy Slider: The Roadside (left)
and The Sweet & Lowdown (right)

Luckily for me, Deep Ellum has local food trucks come sit adjacent to the brewery. On the day that we visited, it was the Easy Slider Truck. Initially, I was thinking "okay, sliders could be okay". The sliders were bleeping incredible! These were the most innovative sliders that I have ever had the pleasure of putting my mouth around! Just check out the list of sliders that we tried and know that as weird as some of them may sound, they were all executed perfectly and were simply amazing! The Roadside: Angus Beef, Cheddar, Bacon, Truck-made BBQ sauce, grilled jalapenos, crispy fried onions. That one sounds normal enough (but still delicious), right? Wait for it. The Black and Blue: Angus Beef, Bacon, Truck-made bleu cheese slaw. Still not too crazy, right? Keep waiting for it. The Sweet and Lowdown: Angus Beef, Goat cheese, Bacon, Strawberry Jam. Now we are pulling into crazy town. The Nutty Pig: Angus Beef, Creamy Peanut Butter, Bacon, Lettuce, Onion, Tomato. Peanut butter on a slider? Full on nuts! Full on amazing! If you ever find yourself in Dallas, please do yourself a favour and stop by the Easy Slider truck! 

(Insert a detailed description about how Sporting should have won the game and how my boy C.J. Sapong should not have been red carded for an F.C. Dallas player's face getting in the way of a ball that he kicked.)

Torchy's: Brisket Taco (left) & Mr. Orange (right)

Before getting out of town on Sunday, we stopped at a local chain that the locals eat up (bad pun intended): Torchy's Tacos. Torchy's has a good mix of traditional Mexican tacos and fusion tacos. They had a shrimp taco that tasted just like Puerto Vallarta and some brisket tacos (because everything in Texas comes with brisket) that were overstuffed with smokey brisket & cheese. We tried a few other tacos too, which were good, but the two listed above were by far our favorites. One thing that surprised me at Torchy's: they had fountain soft drinks made with real sugar (no high fructose corn syrup here). The chips and guac were also pretty stellar! 

After a LONG LONG flight delay, we finally arrived back in KC (the promised land). Until next time Dallas, until next time.

McGonigle's Meat Market

In this cow town that we call Kansas City, McGonigle's Market is revered for the high quality meat cuts that they sell. You will find meat that passes through McGonigle's on the menu at nearly all of the hottest eateries around town (Westport Flea Market, Beer Kitchen, even James Beard award winning Debbie Gold serves it at her Red Door Grill, and that is just the tip of the iceberg). However, in this same cow town (the land of Arthur Bryant's, Jack Stack, Gate's, and Oklahoma Joe's), McGonigle's is probably the most slept on established BBQ place around.

Sure, they are at a bit of a disadvantage because they don't have a typical dining room. They served their smoked meats out of a trailer, that sits in front of their store, before it was fashionable. And if that wasn't enough, there are really only enough parking spaces for about a dozen cars, before you have to get creative. Yet still, it baffles my mind that you do not hear the name McGonigle's on the Travel Channel or even in the heated arguments between friends about where to get the best burnt ends in KC.

As I recently stated in INK Magazine's Summer Dining Guide, McGonigle's is a must eat, especially when you have great weather outside! You walk inside the market, pay for your meal (I suggest to go with whatever the special of the day is). Then you walk outside to the trailer, hand them your receipt, and then they hand you a box/sack of  smoked awesomeness. There are tables set up in the adjacent strip of grass where you can eat beneath the shadows of umbrellas and shade trees. Admittedly, this system may seem a little convoluted to a first timer, but trust me, it's well worth the wait!

You can get anything from ribs to half chickens, and everything in between: brisket sandwiches, burnt end sandwiches, burgers, and of course the best smoked sausage in KC. Despite what the above linked INK dining guide may tell you, I was misquoted in saying that they have the best Italian sausage, the best sausage in town is a casing-less smoked sausage (think long skinny meatloaf) that comes in many different varieties and levels of heat. The sandwiches are piled so high with meat that, no matter how skilled of a sandwich eater you are, you will be unable to fight off the forces of gravity that pry the meat from right between the two buns (so make sure you grab a fork when they hand you your food).

The meats have a great rub caked on them. A rub in which you can taste slight hints of each of the components that you find in a good rub: salty, peppery, garlicy, and a little bit of sweetness, but no one of them overpowers the others. They are served dry but I love to put a couple spoons of the Blues Hog BBQ sauce (that is essentially spiced molasses) on my sandwich, despite the fact that Blues Hog is made in Memphis, and top it off with a couple house made pickle slices. That is a sandwich my friends!

So swing by and enjoy the weather, or grab and go, but no matter what you do: You have to stop sleeping on McGonigle's!

"That sounds great, but where do I get my McGonigle's fix in the winter time?" you ask. Go inside and get it from the deli counter, of course.