Dixon's Famous Chili

If I had a dime for every person that has told me that they have "the best" chili, or that their chili is "famous", I wouldn't have to work and I could do this whole poorly written blog thing full time. But Dixon's Famous Chili actually has famous chili! They have been in the same spot for almost 100 years and Presidents have dined there! Dixon's is not chili in the sense that we think of it today, but it is historically important and is pretty dang good too!

Dixon's chili is not the tomato/meat/optional bean based stew-like concoction that most of us think of when we hear the word "chili". Dixon's is more what you think of when you think of ground beef taco meat. In fact, that is one of many ways that Dixon's serves their chili.

You can get your chili straight up, topped with cheese and/or onions, covered in ketchup (which is actually a lot tastier than it sounds), soupy (covered in the soup that the beans are cooked in), or juicy (covered in the ground beef juices, not the Notorious B.I.G. song). As I mentioned, you can also get the chili on hard shelled tacos, sloppy Joe, spaghetti, or smothering a pair of Jim's Famous Hot Tamales (which is my preferred way of eating it).

For those unfamiliar with Jim's Famous Hot Tamales: These are not Mexican style tamales, but rather New Orleans style tamales. They are still made with corn masa, but rather than stuffed with meat and wrapped in corn husks they are flavoured with broth and cylindrical in shape. The story goes that a man named Jim moved to Kansas City, from New Orleans, and started slanging his creole favorite from a cart. The tamales caught on, and now you can find them at most every Shell station in Independence and KCMO (and Dixon's).

The inside of Dixon's looks like a classic diner. Checkered table cloths. Banquet style tables. The type of place where you don't have to feel shy about sharing a table with a couple complete strangers.

Dixon's very much reminded me of the chili joint that Bourdain featured on No Reservations (Fred and Red's), during his trip to Joplin. Save, of course, the gastro-intestinal side effects that they talk about at Fred and Red's. There were no side effects to speak of, except awesomeness!

7one5 in the 7eight5

We all know how much I love Lawrence, KS. The last time I had the pleasure of staying the night in town, the night before my last triathlon of the season, I had to check out 715. The place has been open a little over a year and has been receiving all kinds of praise, and as I found out, it is for good reason.

Since we didn't have reservations, we had the option of waiting or sitting in the kitchen window. Kitchen window? Yes, please! Whenever you have the option to sit in the kitchen window, or the chef's table, at a restaurant, you take it (unless I am on my way, then you save it for me)! After putting in our drink orders (for one house red wine & one house white wine) a Rosemary Flatbread came over the counter at us, compliments of the chef (BTW, they have no idea who I am. This was not because I was a blogger, just because they are nice people.). The buttered flatbread was delicious and the fresh rosemary was joyfully fragrant. Since I am a strong believer in taking care of those that take care of me, I bought the kitchen a 6-pack. Buying the kitchen a 6-pack is a $12 menu item (it is $12 because you are not buying them Bud Light, since they did not buy you a Pizza Hut personal pan pizza), this ensures that this tip amount goes to the hard workers in the kitchen.

The house wines are served in tumbler style glasses, which I loved the un-pretentiousness of this, and the house varieties are very good. However, if you are a big wine snob (you know who you are), and want a wine glass that allows you to swirl and sniff your wine, they non-house varieties come in stemmed wine glasses.

After we polished off the rosemary flatbreat, we had to try the smoked trout crustini because of the combination of smoked trout and arugula & lemon caper aioli. They did not disappoint! One thing about the smoked trout that did catch us a bit off guard, was that it was cold, I guess I had expected it to be freshly smoked and still warm. Nonetheless, the flavour was amazing and it actually reminded me of the smoked fish and crackers that I had while ocean kayaking off of the Prince William Sound in Alaska.

I badly wanted to try one of the nightly specials that all looked so good, but since I was in town for a triathlon, I decided to be safe and stick with a pasta dish. My smoking hot date concurred. We got the spaghetti with lamb meat balls and tuna spaghetti, respectively (and switched half way, as usual). The house-made fresh spaghetti was out of this world! The lamb meat balls were tender, juicy, and everything that I had hoped that they would be. Top that off with a very nice marinara sauce and you have a recipe for a good night!

The tuna spaghetti was just as good, if not even better! The absence of the marinara in the picture shows just how hearty those house-made spaghetti noodles are. The oil (presumably of the olive variety) is the perfect lubricant for the noodles, while the saltiness of the capers and creaminess of the fresh mozzarella chunks are the perfect compliments to the flaky Italian Tuna in the pasta. Also worth noting is that we both got the "half" size of pasta and we both had some left over for a midnight snack. Granted, we had a couple appetizers and split the dessert that you are about to see, but these were still very generous portions.

715 has daily, nightly, and seasonal specials. When we were in, one of the seasonal desserts was something that I believe they called a Peach Pie(or a Fried Peach Pie, or something to that effect), what it was was essentially a peach empanada that had been covered in blend of cinnamon, sugar, and other spices. It came with two delicious scoops of what was either house-made ice cream or ice cream that was made somewhere close. The peaches were fresh local peaches (as we visited right at the end of peach season), and they were caramelized and glazed then stuffed in that empanada dough and deep fried.

The motto at 715 is "Local Handmade Food, Reasonable Wine" and they delivered on that, hard! We sat around for a while after our meal, talking, sipping our wine out of tumbler glasses, and watching the kitchen work as if they were our own personal live version of a Food Network show. This place is very impressive, the kitchen runs like a well oiled machine, and I saw some of the most gigantic cuts off meat that I have ever seen (in my life) come across that counter. They have a 2+lb rib-eye and what looked to be the worlds largest lamb chop, these both match the super-sized swine that is pictured on the folded receipt discretion deal (for lack of a better term, someone please comment below if you know what this is called). The kitchen staff are also very friendly and happy to answer any questions that you have (provided that they are not in the heat of battle at the particular moment you decide to be inquisitive).

You have not seen the last of me 715! Cheers!