Reserve at the Ambassador Hotel

Sunny Black & Brown Bread

Farm to Market Bread is turning 20 years old (Think back 20 years ago, if you will. Think back to where the farm to table movement was, no where. Visionaries) and they are celebrating by re-releasing an old favorite, the Sunny Black & Brown Bread. The SB&B is a hearty loaf that is made with sunflower seeds, black beans, and brown rice (hence the name). Before I tried it, if you had told me that those ingredients would make such a delicious bread, I would have called you a liar (but this is FTM we are talking about here). The SB&B has not been produced in 8 years, to celebrate it's return Reserve at the Ambassador Hotel (a restaurant partner of FTM) is putting together a special menu of items featuring this limited release bread.

Ambassador Hotel
(Sprint Center in background)

The Ambassador Hotel is a locally owned hotel that is close enough to the Sprint Center that I could granny toss a basketball from one to the other. This would be a great place to stay for any suburbanite with kids that wants to leave their kids with Grandma & Grandpa, watch their favorite local college basketball team at Sprint Center, take their spouse for a nice dinner and drinks afterwards, and spend the night downtown. This is your type of place.

Reserve is a locally sourced (well, as much as reasonably possible anyways) eatery that serves upscale menu items at reasonable prices. They also find themselves trying to shake the stigma of "hotel restaurant". Although, they do have a couple other like minded hotel restuarants helping them to squash the idea that a hotel cannot have a killer restaurant: Providence New American Kitchen and The Savoy Grill (which has been touted by many, including the legendary Anthony Bourdain), this is still a tall order. That being said, the only thing that it is going to take for The Reserve to break out is putting people in the seats (once you try Chef Shaun Brady's creations, you will be a believer).

King chair
(Reserve Dining Room)

Before I get into the cuisine, I would like to say a quick word or two about Chef Shaun. He is an Irishman that comes to Kansas City by way of Chicago. Writing this blog, I have had the opportunity to meet some pretty awesome people, and Chef Shaun is right up there with Chef Aaron Sanchez and the mad scientists that are the KC food truck scene. He is a lover of authentic street food and told me an amazing story about the time that he told a Tuk-Tuk driver in Thailand that "I want to eat where you eat", the Tuk-Tuk driver then took Chef Shaun to his mother's house for a real Thai meal featuring meal worms and fried cockroaches. This even topped my Guadalajara story, that I used to think was cool, until I heard this one.

Now, for the SB&B menu (some of you shout "FINALLY!!", others got impatient and stopped reading long ago):

SB&B Crouton Salad

SB&B Crouton Salad: SB&B bread tossed in basil pesto before being baked into croutons, spinach, heirloom & cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, white truffle oil, reduced balsamic. Incredible starter.

Ultimate Grilled Cheese w/ Tomato Bisque Soup

Ultimate Grilled Cheese: Grilled SB&B bread, white cheddar, swiss, and brie inside, topped with melted yellow cheddar. When I saw this plate come out, a smile came over my face that I had no control over. I knew exactly what was forming that yellow crust on top of the bread, this sandwich is like cheese Christmas.

Smoked Salmon BLT

Smoked Salmon BLT: Open-faced BLT (on SB&B) with a sizable piece of smoked salmon and caper berries. For anyone who has never had a caper berry (like myself), you are in for a treat, they are like a traditional caper crossed with a pepper. These are a favorite of Chef Shaun and an excellent touch to an already awesome sandwich. The bacon was extra crispy, my mother would have approved. You may even notice some roasted, peeled red peppers in the salad; It's this attention to detail that you will find across the board at The Reserve.

Sunny Side Up Brunch Sandwich

Last, but certainly not least; the Sunny Side Up Brunch Sandwich: SB&B bread, bacon mayo, heirloom tomatoes, crispy pork belly, sunny side up eggs, arugula salad w/ more roasted, peeled peppers. The crispy pork belly was like a bunch of thick bacon steaks and the eggs were perfectly cooked (perfectly cooked eggs should never be overlooked). This sandwich is some kind of wonderful, I was not going to let a single morsel of this sandwich by left behind. 

Once the SB&B is out of production and these special menu items are gone, I will be back to Reserve to try other menu items made with local ingredients. One that I am particularly pumped to try: Bread Pudding made with FTM Challah bread, Roasterie Coffee, and Bailey's Irish Cream. If I weren't as stuffed as the Man v. Food guy after eating all of this food (yes, I ate every single bite on every plate, it was that good!), I would have ordered a bread pudding to-go.

First Time for Everything

As it is said, there is a first time for everything. My first of the week: my first live TV appearance. 

I was asked to go on Fox 4 to talk about some of my favorite local brands and restaurants for St. Patrick's Day. I was given three and a half minutes to talk about as many different products/places as I could. I do want to apologize to any great KC brands/restaurants that had St. Patrick's Day items that I did not have a chance to discuss.

Admittedly, live TV can be a bit intimidating. There are [who knows how many people] watching and if you screw up, they all see it and are going to discount everything that you say. I tried to give good information, not be too corny, and still keep it all under three and a half minutes. I did feel a bit like Ricky Bobby in his first interview though, I did not know what to do with my hands.

I am no Anthony Bourdain, but you can judge for yourself how you think I did (link pasted below). Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Lets get my views up so that maybe they will have me back on again. Perhaps for Cinco de Mayo?

http://fox4kc.com/2013/03/09/irish-coffee/

Getting Baked!

This past weekend I was blessed with the opportunity to take a tour of Farm to Market Bread's new downtown bakery. This is exciting to me, firstly because my wife and I love the product and love downtown businesses. Secondly because, being an engineer and having worked in/on a few food plants in my day, I am known to nerd out when it comes to processes and industrial machinery.

Farm to Market Bread has taken over the old Hereford House event space in The Crossroads district. Not the original restaurant (that the owner was just convicted of burning down), but the second one (that also used to be a Paddy O' Quigley's, across from The Cashew). My wife and I smell the delicious bread baking every time we are jogging down Main Street. We had always wondered if they had a shop inside the bakery that sells the bread, and they sadly do not... yet, but it is in the works. They hope to have a bread shop and event space open in front of the bakery soon.

Buns in the oven.
(for Blanc Burgers)

Now to the bakery: It is exactly that, a bakery. Going into the tour, I had expected something much more mechanical, much more automated, much more of a factory setting. But I was wrong, it is very much a bakery, where the bread is made by people that know about the science of making bread and love making it. This is not a Wonder Bread bakery (too soon?).

The bread making process at FTM is almost a 24/7 operation. FTM bakes and delivers fresh bread to local grocery stores and restaurants 7 days a week. That means you have people coming in at 3 AM to start mixing dough, then you have activities going on throughout the day (shaping, proofing, baking, packaging, etc). Then to make sure that grocery stores and restaurants get the freshest bread, drivers show up at about 2 AM the next day to take the bread to it's final destination.

Dough in the new proofer.

Don't get me wrong, there are some awesome advancements in the new bakery that any bakery would love to have. For example: They have a huge new dough proofer (warm humidity) and dough retarder (cool humidity) that are both twice as large as those in the previous bakery. Proofing is a very important part of the bread making process. Not enough time in the proofer, the bread will not rise to the desired height. Too much time in the proofer, and your bread will go flat.

The bakery's HVAC system is made up of a canvas-like ductwork that blows cooling air upward, instead of downward (which would dry out the dough). <-- I told you that I was about to nerd out!

The breads: FTM bakery has the most amazing breads! As I told you, my wife and I love their breads, even before being invited in for a tour. They have both oven baked breads and hearth baked breads. We love the Wheat bread and Grains Galore for sandwiches. The hearth baked Sourdough is incredible! <--Try it with the Rachael Ray tuna melt that I posted about a few months ago.

These are a few of
my favorite things

We were given an awesome tip during our tour. If you have a problem eating a whole loaf of FTM before it goes bad (as it is made with no preservatives - it will not last forever - unlike Twinkies, too soon again?) then put it in an air tight ziplock and stick it in the freezer. This will keep your FTM bread fresh until you are ready to enjoy it.

They even have a couple holiday offerings - that if you have yet to pick up something to take to that Christmas potluck, I have the perfect offering for you - Stollen and Panettone. Stollen and Panettone are both traditional Christmas breads, from Germany and Italy, respectively. Both are a sort of fruit cake-breads, made with sweet candied fruits, and are just fantastic (just like every other bread from FTM).

If you have not yet enjoyed a loaf of FTM bread, do yourself a favour and go pick one up. If you already love FTM, I hope you enjoyed the pics!