Para Llevar

Or "Takeaway", in Spanish. Yes, I realize that what I am going to post about is delivery, not takeaway, but there is a bigger point I want to make here.

First of all, how is everyone doing? I hope you are all doing well! I ask because I realize that I have been neglecting this blog with the persistence that most of you neglect to floss. Perhaps I can shed some light on my recent flakiness...

I do this blog for fun, not for money. That being said, I obviously have to do something for money. Logically, the thing that I do for money has to take precedence over the blog. However, though it may not be money, I do get some pretty amazing takeaways from this blog that money cannot buy! I have made countless friendships: food truck owners, restaurateurs, chefs, celebrities, writers, bartenders, PR people, twitter followers, and even community managers for social media outlets that I have yet to contribute to (my bad Matt). I have stumbled into a good number of exposures that I am still rather unsure how I happened upon them. And I have had some pretty amazing meals (and some lousy ones too).

All of that being said, it's not fair to blame all of this on the 9-5. As with anything that you do for fun, it is easy to keep up when you are inspired. Similarly, it is a bit harder to keep up when you are uninspired. Admittedly I have a long way to go before I can say that I have even eaten at every restaurant in my own town, much less taken part in all of the foodventures that are out there to be had, but its easy to lose interest when most of the recent restaurant trends are so lazy. I get it, you spent a lot of money to make your restaurant look like a cheap barn. "Edison bulbs! High five!" - they are no longer novel when everyone has them. I get it, you are a Gringo who makes over-priced Mexican food that tastes like crap compared to authentic places on the Boulevard/KCK. I get it, you put bacon on things (like donuts) because you don't know how to make them taste good otherwise. Don't even get me started on "artisan toast" (spits on the ground). But it is not fair for the hipsters, who have now become the mainstream (yeah, choke on that irony, hipsters), to ruin everyone's fun (or my attitude).

Side note: Yes, I do realize the irony of this rant being that the word "awesome" (which I picked years ago to describe the food that I was going to write about) has become played out. Yes, I have considered changing it, but for the sake continuity I have decided to ride it out and wait for it to come back around again (if this blog is still around then).

After a lax few months of pseudo-blogging, I have a few new places for you that have renewed my energy for blogging (spoiler alert: most of them involve chicken). But first, to stick with the theme of this post, I have a few great takeaways (nee deliveries) for you.

First takeaway: You all know my love for Peanut wings! I don't know that I can really say anything more about them then what I said here. But they are now available by mail (peanutwings.com) and I can tell you that this is possibly the best thing that you could send a homesick Kansas Citian or anyone that lives out of town and does not understand your obsession with The Peanut.

The good folks at The Peanut will now ship you wings, wing sauce, and that legendary chunky bleu cheese dressing (frozen, with reheating instructions, of course) for a nominal fee. I would say that the buffalo sauce is just as good as, if not even better after concentrating in the oven. The bleu cheese is great. The oven-heated wings themselves are maybe 80% as good as straight from the fryer, but will still beat anything that you can get in your grocer's freezer section quite handedly!

Before

The reheating instructions that are provided with these guys is also good if you are a pretender and order more wings than you can eat at your local Peanut. If you have to put your tail between your legs and ask for a doggy bag to take wings home, you can reheat them using the instructions shown above.

After

Cream Cheese Brownie

Second takeaway: I have done a post before about mail order brownies, but if the Killer Brownies are a bit too rich for your blood (which there is not shame in, they are not for everyone), then I have a great alternative for you.

There is a budding start-up brownie bakery that is rising up from the concrete in Chicago. That start-up is Rhoyal Decadence. Rhoyaldecadence.com does not have the full line of brownies that are available to order, so your best bet is to contact Rhonda and ask her what she can do for you.

I have had the standard brownie (which is a moist brownie, loaded full of nuts, topped with a cream cheese frosting), the lemon brownie (I am not a huge lemon fan overall, but this one was pretty good), and the pumpkin (which is perfect for the impending fall).

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!

Chicken Wings & BLTs

Just like most of you, I have a rotation of a few restaurants that I frequent more often than others. These are the restaurants that I go to just because its Tuesday; not necessarily to try a new menu, meet a new chef, or anything like that. Every once in a while I will realize that I have not blogged about one of these places simply because its almost like second nature to go there, it is so good, yet so familiar at the same time. This post is about one of those places.

The Peanut is one of those places that seems like almost everyone knows about it (which probably subliminally contributes to the fact I have not blogged about it until now). Radio show hosts, KC Star columnists, and even ESPN beat reporters talk about The Peanut's wings. This post is not for the 90% of you that regularly read my blog, you are the type of people that have already been to The Peanut (probably more times than you can count). This post is for the 10% that have not partaken in the gloriously unsophisticated, yet culinarily accomplished, dive bar that is The Peanut. 

One of these 10 percenters (as we will call them today) was my mother, who just so happens to LOVE bacon. She loves hard, crispy, crunchy bacon. If it is a limp soggy piece of bacon, don't even bother, she is not having any of that. 

My mother travels all the time, and is often subject to hotel breakfasts, so she stays at Embassy Suites as often as possible (because they always have crispy bacon). So this is where we stayed on the night before catching our flight back from our recent trip to Puerto Rico (as it was right by the airport). Don't get me wrong, I love Embassy Suites just as much as the next guy (I stay at Hilton brand hotels whenever I can), but this bacon was beyond crispy. This bacon was so over-done, it was like it had just come out of the crematory. I was ready to hold a remembrance service for this bacon right there at the breakfast table.

When we got back, I knew I had to take her somewhere and get her some good, crispy, not burnt bacon. So for her birthday, I took her to The Peanut. This is a far cry from the party we threw her last year at Tasso's (that you can go back and read about, if you have not), but she said that she could only handle a party like that "once every 60 years", so we obliged and kept this one low key.

We ordered her the best BLT in KC, the double version. The crispy, peppery, Kansas raised bacon on perfectly toasted whole wheat bread. Top that off with fresh lettuce, tomato, and mayo does indeed yield the best BLT in KC.

Not only does The Peanut have the best BLT in KC, but they also have the best wings in KC. However, all good things take time, The Peanut's wings are no exception. The menu warns of the minimum wait that accompanies the wings, but don't let that scare you off (the wait is well worth it). The tenderness of the wings leads me to believe that the time that it takes to get the wings is used by the cook to slaughter the gigantic pterodactyl-sized chickens, soak the wings in buttermilk, then flash fry them to get the outside crispy but not dry out the inside. Cover them in spicy buffalo sauce and dip them  in bleu cheese and you have an addiction that is rivaled only by hardcore street drugs.

My wife and I usually split a dozen wings, which would be enough food to stuff a normal human stomach. However, once I have eaten about 6 or 7 of those bad boys, that is when the addiction sets in. I cannot ever stop there, I usually order another half dozen for myself.

If you need something to wash down those wings (or that BLT), The Peanut has plenty of beers on tap, or in the bottle. They have all of your standard domestics, year-round & seasonal Boulevard beers, and year-round & seasonal New Belgium beers, just to name a few. Sam Mellinger will tell you how well Tank 7 goes with the wings. My wings pairing recommendation varies by the season, but its hard to beat a New Belgium Dig in the spring.

If you were wondering how my mom liked her BLT; she finished it and even had room for half of a wing.

And if you are one of the 10 percenters that have yet to try The Peanut, there is one in almost every area of town: Downtown, Main Street (South of the Plaza), Lee's Summit, and JoCo. My personal Peanut is the Downtown version, but Main Street is the original.

Hickok's

Hickok's Bar & Grill is one of my favorite spots downtown, period! It's an awesome Southwest grill in the River Market area; it took over the old Dos Hombres building a little over a year ago. We go to there for any reason, but we are particularly fond of going there after Royals games. Hickok's is not just a great lunch spot, not just a great dinner place, not just a great happy hour place, but completely awesome in every way!

To start out with, "The best chips and salsa on the planet", as the menu states. Hickok's is one of the few places that charges for its chips and salsa, but it is WAY worth it! Its $2 for a bottomless order of "The best chips and salsa on the planet" for the table, they named them that, but I wholeheartedly cosign the name. There is some sort of smokiness to the salsa that I can neither figure out the source of nor stop eating. I probably eat my weight in chips and salsa when I am at Hickok's and I am not a huge chips and salsa guy by any means.

Every single entree that I have tried at Hickok's has been incredible! Whether it be the Boulevard Beer battered chicken fingers, that despite their small size (showing you why they are called "fingers"), are huge on flavour! The garlic-agave dipping sauce for the fingers is incredible too. The hot wings, which are done Peanut style, are huge, but not quite the pterodactyl size (like The Peanut). The Hickok's classic burger is indeed that, classic. The most recent item that I have had at Hickok's was the burrito bowl. Imagine a Pepperjax burrito bowl with more flavour. The chicken is better than Pepperjax, and I believe that it is the jalapeno ranch dressing on top that sets it off!

Disclaimer: I have had the crunchy tacos at Hickok's, and they (as everything else is) are quite good. I always harp on "Mexican" restaurants that have crunchy tacos, but this is not a Mexican restaurant, it is a Southwest grill, and Southwest grills have the Eating Awesomeness seal of approval to serve crunchy tacos (as long as you do not label them as "Mexican"). Its really just the principle or it more than anything.

Almost everything that I listed above can be had at a discounted rate during happy hour. The most wonderful thing about Hickok's happy hour is that it includes food and drink, and it is even in effect on Saturdays. Their happy hour menu is (and entire menu for that matter) ever-changing, so make sure to check their website (or with your wait-person) for the latest specials. Whether you want a Boulevard/Shlafly/Bud Light/Stella/Dos XX draw, a tall boy of PBR, a house margarita on the rocks, a frozen strawberry margarita, or food, you can probably find it on special at some time of the day/week at Hickok's.

Hickok's is incredible, and I have no shame saying it! I love nearly everything about this place, and in sticking with the theme of the Dos XX Man: "I don't always eat at Hickok's, but when I do, I eat a lot. Stay hungry my friends".

Bar Louie

Let it be known, before I go any further: Bar Louie is a chain and I do indeed feel a little bit dirty writing about a chain bar, but Bar Louie is awesome and here is why.

I first heard about Bar Louie when I was on a job site in Ohio (Bar Louie is based in Cleveland). Everyone always talked about going and getting a hotel in Perrysburg (closest Bar Louie to where I was) just to go to Bar Louie for a night. I thought that either these people were crazy or this is one awesome bar.

Fast forward two years later, a Bar Louie opens in KC. I knew I had to go try it, even though it was an evil corporate restaurant chain. I checked out their twitter account (that since the grand opening has been essentially abandoned) and they said that they had dollar apps and dollar martinis during opening weekend. We went with a group of about 8 people, late at night, and each got our first app and first martini for $1 each. We had nearly half of the apps on the menu: traditional and boneless wings, spinach and artichoke dip, pot-stickers, and chicken nachos. Each and every one of the apps we had were delicious. As for the martinis, my wife got the cosmo, which was great and very strong. My inner ghetto child came out when I saw a martini called the "hypotizer", which was a martini made with hypnotic, also dangerous. We had a great night and after the waitress let us know about $1 burger night every Tuesday, we knew we would be back!

When we did get the opportunity to go back on $1 burger night, we hit the tail end of happy hour, so we were able to get 1/2 price draws to wash down the burgers we were about to indulge in. The rolling overhead doors were up and it was super nice outside. When you go for dollar burger night, you get the burger itself for a dollar, then you pick and choose your different add-ons and toppings for a small up-charge each. I personally got 2 burgers each with lettuce and guacamole, for $1.50 each. The bun was good, not a wonder bread bun, but more of a roll. The burger beat the crap out of a McDonald's dollar menu burger, not what you would expect from a $1 burger. The burger was a fat burger, grilled on the flat top, had the slight amount of crisp on the outside (from the flat top) but still juicy on the inside. The guacamole was fresh, not like the wholly guacamole crap that you get from the supermarket, they make it fresh in house daily. Great $1 burgers. The fries were irresistible too.

Bar Louie is a chain, but still has multiple local micro brew draws on its impressive wall of taps (which does earn them some street cred). They have my favorite beer (Boulevard Tank 7) and Boulevard's Boss Tom's Bock (just to name a couple), to go along with other great beers like Stella, Landshark and Dos XX.

Third Bar Louie experience: Rock the Tot. A tater tot eating contest. I have only competed in a couple eating contests in my day, but it had been many years since I had won the pizza eating contest at Lazer 105.9 on the Merrill in the Morning show #humblebrag. I ate a lot of tater tots in 6 minutes (1lb 12oz), I was edged out by the guy who got second (1lb 14oz), but we were both hustled by the ringer Randy Santel (4lb 6oz). Randy not only won a giant trophy, the cash prize, and a year's worth of free loaded tots (although, in all fairness, 4lb 6oz is probably already a years worth of tots), but he also placed in the top 5 nationally. For placing in the top 5 nationally, he won a trip to Cleveland to compete in the nationals. Pretty sweet for an eating contest with no entry fee.

All in all, Bar Louie has such a good atmosphere, good food, and smoking deals, that I am able to excuse the fact that it is a chain.