AP sports writer in KC

The schtick at Gates isn't just forced, it's that at 12:30 on a Friday, they do a $five-figure lunch and need to force people through to keep from breaaking fire code. Keeping the line moving is a good thing.

Best steak in KC is still at The Majestic at about 10th and Broadway.

BBQ -- you really have about 4 choices. Don't know the name of the grease pit close to UMKC, but it's actually better than Gates and ABs (although those two are both solid).

Ounce for ounce, Stroud's will be one of the better meals you can get in KC. Some of the best mashed potatoes I've ever had.

Can you tell I'm fat?

 

Having grown up in KC it's safe to say it's loaded with great down-home restaurants for barbecue and fried chicken. You can't go wrong with Arthur Bryant's, Gates, Haywards, Jack Stack or Oklahoma Joe's as well as Strouds. They're all nationally acclaimed with good reason but there are other excellent spots as well.

The noted writer Calvin Trillin once wrote in a New York magazine that three of the world's best restaurants were in KC (Arthur Bryant's, Gates and Jess & Jim's Steakhouse) and he just might be right.

I live several hours away and every time I got back I come back with a case of several sauces and rubs. In a world filled with barbecued pork I'm the only one making a smoked brisket and my friends all love it. An hour per pound over low indirect heat and smoke and .... heaven on a plate, even without sauce.

The Italian food is also fantastic. Anyone who has seen Casino knows KC has long been a midway point for the mob between the East Coast and Vegas and a lot of money, influence and excellent food flows through KC because of it.
Ahhh ... it takes me back to my days as an altar boy, getting out of school to serve a funeral mass for some Italian guy who had done some time for IRS crimes. More than once a big guy in a dark suit (sort of like Luka Brazzi) walk up,
stuff a $20 bill in my hand and tell me to be a good kid and stay out of trouble.

I got out of school, got $20 and then got a plate of spaghetti afterward. Nice, huh?

 

If you're speaking of Tucker, I saw him over the summer and he's lost a ton of weight.

 

On this whole BBQ thing, all I can say is this:

-- A desk guy I work with thinks Bryant's is the greatest place ever. I ate there last time I was there and enjoyed it.

-- Was at a Royals game a month or so ago and had Gates' at the ball park and it was quite good.

I'd be very content with either. It's a helluva problem to have.

 

i gotta guess gates at the ballpark isn't like gates at gates, though.

 

Not even close.

 

never had gates at kauffman ... but i do know ballpark food is ballpark food, period.

even boog's sandwiches aren't all that good at camden.

 

Any word on who got this gig? I presume it's been filled by now

 

they hired boog.

 

I wholeheartedly support the move. Boog's good people.

But seriously, anybody know?

 

That ChiTrib article cites Winslow's City Market as a good barbecue place. All I can say is that is complete horseshit and completely discredits the article in my eyes.

If you want the best barbecue in town, go to Smokin' Guns in NKC. Owned by a world championship barbecue team and open only a few hours a day. It's in an industrial park. I would fly to KC solely to eat at that restaurant.

 

many weeks later, im throwing in a vote for Bryant's. I buy minimum two bottles of sauce to take home every time i go and each time, they come home with the greasy finger prints of the guy who packaged them for me. it's fun to watch them package, er, throw together a sandwich to go for someone for similiar reasons.

i recommend the burnt ends open-faced with a lemonade. makes me want to drive to KC right now