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.

Drop it like it's hot!

Last Sunday  morning, after church but before the food truck rally (yeah, we had an epic eating day on Sunday), my wife and I decided to stop into The Drop to have one of these gigantic cinnamon rolls that we have been hearing about (since everyone and their brother has bought their brunch Groupon). You may know The Drop as the martini bar, that was co-founded by Ernesto from Blanc (which he has long since divested), that serves the edible cocktails. You may have even had their bruschettas during a happy hour, but you have probably not had their brunch (unless you bought, and used, the aforementioned Groupon), at least I hadn't.

A few area bars have what they call a "Hangover Brunch". Very few of them are well done, some push a bunch of stuff out on a buffet and go with quantity over quality *cough, Tomfooleries, cough*. With that being said, along with the fact that multiple Groupons had run for this place, I was not expecting too much from The Drop. I don't know if the fact that I was not expecting much led to this conclusion, but I was quite surprised with the brunch that we got. 

We walked in and ordered two mimosas. They were brought to us in stemless flutes, that we wouldn't mind having at home, but luckily for The Drop: this was not New Year's Eve 2009 (funny story that involves me getting busted trying to lift our midnight toasting flutes from a bar). The mimosas were legit (no Andre in these mimosas), not too sweet, not too strong. We sipped them and talked while listening to what was probably the best brunch mix ever! I don't know if it was Pandora or someone's mix, but it was perfect for brunch (mix of Jack Johnson, Colbie Caillat, and other young easy listening music).

Then came the giant cinnamon roll; it was huge. I estimate it to be the size of a large human face. As you can imagine, with a cinnamon roll that size, the outsides will get a bit crispy while waiting for the middle to get done. Myself, I am a ooey-gooey cinnamon roll guy, so I do not particularly care for the crispy outer layer. Despite the crispy outer layer, the roll was good. Not the best roll of all time, but good. What was great, however, was the frosting. The frosting was laced with cinnamon and pieces of pecan. While this may not have been the best cinnamon roll that I have ever had, it probably was the best cinnamon roll icing that I have ever had. The icing is so thick that it almost looks like gravy in the photo.

For entrees: I had the Croque Madame, my wife had the Crabcake Benedict, then we switched half way (as always). The crabcakes are topped with: prosciutto, poached egg, and white truffle honey hollandaise sauce. The crab cakes had way too much garlic for my taste, I don't know if this was a bad batch or if that is just the recipe. The rest of the dish was good, but with the crab cakes being the center of the dish, the rest of it is just auxiliary. The Croque Madame, on the other hand, was excellent! The Croque Madame was a capicola & gruyere sandwich in cheesy bechamel sauce, topped with a fried egg. I love anything with capicola on it and they were not stingy at all with the capicola (for those that don't know: Capicola is a spicy, salty, cured ham. It is basically what you would get if ham and pepperoni had a lovechild)! Add that to the nicely toasted bread, the melted gruyere cheese, what was essentially a cheesy gravy (bechamel sauce), and top that with a fried egg = brunch perfection. The yolks of the eggs on both dishes were perfectly runny. You also get your choice of sides, we got fried polenta bites and fruit salad. The polenta bites were like fried chunks of cheese grits (which is nice if you love grits like I love grits) and the fruit salad, well it's fresh fruit (pretty hard to that screw up, just don't let your fruit go bad), both very nice brunch selections.

My recommendation: Give The Drop and shot for brunch, while you are there, listen and see what I mean about the awesome "brunch" music. It's worth the price of admission and it's a really nice brunch spot.

P.S. Writing this made me realize how much the trolley going out of business has reduced my Martini Corner time, we will have to remedy that. We always used to run into Tech N9ne on that thing as well. R.I.P. Trolley!

New York Street Food and HIMYM

Awesome food, epic trip, truly the most magnificent city in the world!

An aerial view of Time's Square on New Year's Eve is that iconic image that everyone thinks of when someone mentions New Year's Eve. Most people sit at home and watch the ant-like dots huddle together from the comfort of their own living rooms. Being the adventurers that we are (and having met on New Year's Eve), my wife an I decided that going to Time's Square, braving the cold, and standing in what is essentially cattle fencing just to be part of the loudest countdown since right before God said "let there be light" was appealing to us. This is a story of our long NYE weekend.

Truth being told, we got really lucky and it was not really all that cold (for the actual ball drop). The part that no one tells you (you have to read it on the Internet) is that to get up close to the stage (or within ear shot of the stage) you have to have tickets. Everyone else gets herded into cattle fencing about 8-9 hours before midnight. Luckily our hotel was just around the corner from the square or else we would have been back at 57th Street (which means nothing to you if you have not been to NYC, but you get it if you have). If you leave your area before midnight, you may not get back in, so I rationed my wife's water consumption that day. We were also lucky enough to get in the Southwest corner of our quarantined area, in which we were able to obtain an unobstructed view of a sliver of the ball. This also meant that we were the lucky recipients of 8 hours of pushing and shoving from everyone else trying to work their way to our corner of the fenced in area where everyone was already standing shoulder to shoulder. We passed time by making friends and talking about how slow time was going. No one we talked to said that they had been there before, and everyone agreed it was one of those once in a lifetime deals. The countdown came, as did midnight and the confetti drop, and it was all over. It was an amazing experience, one that can only really be truly understood by others that have experienced the same thing. We were part of a record setting crowd of over 2M people! But after the new year hit, it was time for the real fun to begin.

After being on our feat for over 8 hours, we were quite hungry. Since it was our first time in New York and neither of us had ever had falafel before, we made a falafel cart our first stop. We waited in a line that was probably 15 minutes long, full of other crazies that had waited in Time's Square just to shout "Happy New Year!". We get to the front, grab two drinks out of the cooler, and order two falafel sandwiches (served on pita). They plop a few pre-cooked falafel balls on the griddle and start smashing them as they reheat them. When it is all on the sandwich, the man asked if we wanted "sauce", to which I thought "sure, why not?". As he drizzled the awesomeness of what I would later find out was a spicy tahini sauce over the falafel, I knew I was in for a treat. I have had many falafel since this one, and none will measure up, this had not been frozen and thawed and frozen and thawed. The tahini sauce was amazing, it was the perfect mix of creamy and spicy and added just the kick that the falafel and pita needed.

Upon returning to our hotel room, being the food truck junkie that I am, I got on twitter (@eatingawesome) to search out food trucks for the week. On New Year's Day, we had a mundane brunch at Sarabeth's in Tribeca, saw the World Trade Center memorial, had some more falafel, pizza, and cheesecake from a deli, saw M&M world, and got some subway riding in. The next freezing cold day (yes, it had gotten cold by now), we walked to get some H&H bagels (that were money by the way), followed by an epic food truck tour.

Coolhaus NY food truck, yes I know, we had ice cream (gelato) on a freezing cold day. Food truck junkies will do anything for their fix. There was a scoop sale going on, you got a free scoop of gelato with the purchase of a hot chocolate. Man are we glad that this special was going on! Here we were, about to just eat gelato in the freezing cold and then we are met by quite possibly the most timely hot chocolate either of us had ever encountered. It was the best hot chocolate that either of us had ever had, there was caramel drizzle and shaved pieces of chocolate on top of the already delightfully rich hot chocolate. At this point, any added deliciousness of the gelato was just a bonus. I got a scoop of the gingerbread gelato to feed my Christmas hangover, and because I love all things holiday flavored, it was just as delicious as I had hoped. Mallory got a scoop of the Nutella Almond gelato, because she is a Nutella fiend, the gelato did not disappoint. It vanished in a New York minute (pun obviously intended), even in the bone chilling cold. Upon finishing our gelato we ran toward the subway, as the wind was unbearable (even though we were just going a few streets up), with our hot chocolates.

 

Next stop was the Red Hook Lobster food truck where I was able to warm up with a delicious Connecticut style lobster roll. I am usually not a huge fan of lobster, as it is very easy to overcook, but this lobster off of a food truck was full of buttery goodness. The Connecticut style is warm lobster meat, dipped in butter sauce, on a buttered and grilled grocery store hot dog bun. This was honestly the second best lobster I had ever had in my life, second only to the green lobster in the seafood paella in Mexico, it was incredible! Mallory was scared of eating lobster off of a truck, so she got the shrimp roll. The shrimp roll was equally awesome, but was served cold, she was not rewarded with warmth for her fear, haha. The lobster roll meal came with thick kettle style chips and a bottled orange soda from Maine.

Since we doubled up on food trucks for lunch, we decided that we would hit up McGee's Pub for dinner. I had read on the Internet that this was the bar that MacLaren's Pub from How I Met Your Mother was based on. I know that this is a giant tourist trap, but as big of fans of HIMYM as we are, and being in NY for NYE (the "ammiversary" of when I met my future children's mother), we had to go see what it was about. To our pleasant surprise, we saw that Monday evenings at 8pm, they show HIMYM. By a complete and total happy accident, we arrived on Monday at 8pm. Unlike most sports bars that show games with no sound, McGees cranks up the volume and everyone quiets down during the weekly HIMYM viewings. They even have their own HIMYM menu (see picture). I had the Best Burger in New York, named after the classic HIMYM episode, which was not the best burger in New York, but was most definitely the best burger experience in New York. The burger was good (not great), but eating off of a HIMYM menu, while watching HIMYM, in the bar that MacLaren's was based on. Mallory had the Ted Mosby is a Jerk Sandwich, which is named after another classic episode, and was actually much better than the burger. If I were to go back and make this a twice in a lifetime experience, I would definitely get the Ted Mosby is a Jerk Sandwich. We would also get to McGee's much earlier, as they pack them in there for this weekly HIMYM pilgrimage, that I am sure is filled with mostly out-of-towners. Do beware that McGees does not look like MacLaren's, but has the same feel, at least when everyone is gathered around the TVs watching HIMYM.

Before leaving New York: we grabbed a couple slices of pizza at the Original Ray's on Broadway (which is not the best slice in New York, but sure beats the crap out of a Sbarro's), had some more falafel sandwiches, and stopped in to see Rupert at the Hello Deli. We had to go get our pictures taken with Rupert before sitting front row at the Letterman show (no joke). Rupert was one of the most friendly individuals you will ever meet (although his face may not show it), he just loves being a celebrity!