Chicken and Waffles

I have been a chicken and waffles fiend recently. Any place that I could find chicken and waffles, I have made sure to go there. Anywhere that I have been eating and just happened to see C&W on the menu, I obviously order them. And through all of this, the infatuation is not weakening at all, it is only getting stronger.

To explain the genesis of this obsession, I will have to take you back a couple months. I have been traveling a bit more recently, for my day job (this is the reason that I have regrettably left my 2 readers feeling neglected). I was sitting in a meeting, on site with a client, and they catered in fried chicken. I had not had fried chicken in some time and in a fried chicken coma I mentioned that the only thing that could have made it any better was if it had come with waffles. To my surprise, about half of the people in the room looked at me with a blank stare and had never heard of C&W. I was befuddled. We all then had a good long conversation about the best C&W place that everyone, that had previously had C&W, had been.

My favorite, of course, was the C&W that I had tried from Gram & Dun at Jazzoo a couple of years ago. The symbiotic relationship of maple syrup and hot sauce together was nearly transcendent.

Another person mentioned Lo-Lo's in Phoenix, which has now been added to my bucket list.

A third person brought up the secret menu at McDonald's and that allegedly you can get a chicken patty between two McGriddle patties  when you order "chicken and waffles". Although a quick Google search corroborates this story, I went to an embarrassing number of McDonald's trying to order this (for scientific purposes) and came up empty handed at all of them. I did get one "I need to come eat with you" though, so there was that.

I knew that when I got back to KC, I had to start hunting down C&W like a vigilante to write this post.

My first stop: Niecie's . Their online menu showed the C&W under the breakfast menu, the online menu also stated that breakfast was only served during breakfast, so I thought that it was probably a good idea to call and make sure that I could get C&W when I showed up for lunch. I knew that I was going to love this place from the moment that I called to ask the above question and received the answer "No, we all day Babay. Mmmmmmhmmmmm.". When I pulled up, what looked to be a re-purposed Pizza Hut looked exactly as I had hoped. This place was simply fantastic!

The C&W at Niecie's comes with one gigantic waffle and 3 fried chicken wings. The waffle is not your average Waffle House waffle (although I do really like Waffle House, not as much as Bubba Watson, but that is another story for another day). The waffle is topped with dollop of butter the size of a scoop of ice cream, then sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar. There is syrup to be added at your own discretion. The fried chicken wings are served on the bone, for your own deconstruction. The chicken was juicy, the waffle had a perfectly firm outer crust yet fluffy inside. And of course, the only drink that could possibly accompany a meal like this was a sweet tea (made the correct Southern way).

The next stop: Beer Kitchen  was much more of a happy accident. Mrs. Eating Awesome and I went to Beer Kitchen for brunch and I saw it on the menu. I had to have it.

It was very different C&W experience than Niecie's, both holding their own merits. The chicken at Beer Kitchen was a chicken breast (with a small bone, so watch out if you are not expecting it) crusted with cornflakes and a maple-mustard marinade. The BK waffle was a cheddar, bacon, and chive waffle. Much more of a psuedo-hipster style of C&W, but still extraordinary. The BK C&W also comes with maple syrup and chicken gravy. I am not a huge gravy guy, so I stuck with the syrup (although I did give the gravy a small dip, because I believe that you should try everything).

We all knew that BK had amazing burgers, fries, salads, and beer list, but now we know that they also have amazing C&W.

I do know that McCoy's, BK's sister (or perhaps cousin) restaurant, also has a C&W dish that is of similar style to the BK C&W, but a bit different. This is on the list to try, for sure!

On a chicken related note: The new Stroud's, in OP, opens next week (7/2). That really makes me wish that they served waffles to go with their chicken! Can you imagine how absurdly decadent that would be?

Let me know if you have been to any outstanding chicken and waffles places that I need to check out.

The Flea

After hearing how great Westport Flea Market is, from so many people, I had to stop driving by it and stop in to see for myself. I have been driving by this place for years, every time I go to the Westport Sunfresh for groceries. The concept was lost on me; I could not figure out why a restaurant was named "flea market" and every time I looked at their delivery vehicle it reminded me of the Mutt Cutts van from Dumb and Dumber. This place seemed to straddle the line between quirky and kooky. But they could not be all that lost, they do use McGonigle's ground chuck for their burgers, after all.

The burger itself was very good! Not the best I have ever had, but a very good chuckin' burger. I would give it honorable mention. This is in no way an indictment on the Flea Market, but more-so a statement of where the KC burger community is at the moment. This is not a fancy pants burger like you will get at BRGR, Blanc, Red Door Grill, or Providence NAK (and no burger can compete with my muse, the Indios Burger). But this is more of a straight up, blue collar burger: 10oz hamburger (with cheese and onions optional). The burger lets the chuck speak for itself.

The beer list was large, not the largest by any means, but at the same time tap contests between restaurants have gotten a bit out of hand. So I don't really mind a restaurant not having more than 44 taps. They still had all of the seasonal boulevards, and a few more obscure beers. I was able to get a Vanilla Bean Buffalo Sweat, for those of you who know what that is. They even have domestic light lagers (AB and MillerCoors products) for the lames. This large beer list does lend itself to a pretty insane (albeit early, 2-5pm) happy hour special: Any of the 44 tap beers for $0.99.

I liked the quirkiness of it, but it all kind of caught me a bit off guard as well. It is cash only (word to the wise), but that is fine. You do have to do food and drink orders separately, which is a bit odd. But everyone there was very helpful and friendly throughout the process. I also found out why they call it the Flea Market; there is a legitimate flea market inside (for those that are looking for a vintage Stretch Armstrong while you wait for your burger to come up).

There are some other pretty awesome things about WFM too: Karaoke night (for those that want to hear me belt out some O-Town or Simple Plan) and The Super Flea (which I may actually have to try my next trip). The Super Flea is a Man vs Food-esque challenge that involves: five 10oz burger patties, somewhere in the neighborhood or a half pound of cheese, 6 pieces of bread, and 3lbs of fries. So whether you are feeling like Pacquiao or Kobayashi, and are craving a nice ground beef patty, WFM has something for you.