ulysses

"You can connect any cook, chef or dining room attendant in Washington back to Gray and his eight-year-old restaurant in less than six (usually only two) steps and regularly through multiple channels."

They forgot Jennifer Lucy. I think she was there five(maybe four)years. She pwns the dining room at Central.

Before I went back I did a google search for cocktails/mixology/cool drinks in KC and this is what I got. A bunch of drek.

You know what really ticks me off, I busted my chops comin' up in KC, my old man owned a restaurant there, I worked at Cafe Allegro and J.J.s and I can remember people acting like it was the big time. Once I moved to L.A. I started noticing that people were doing some pretty cool things, then I moved here and went to work for Frank Ruta. I remember the first Palena dish I ever laid eyes on: Caeasar with a coddled/truffled egg(you know the one where he cooks it in a film so it forms this little free-standing crown of egg white around a runny yolk) with marinated sardines that looked like edible chrome and slivers of bread with garlic rubbed on them. That dish changed my life, it put so many things in perspective about food and the way it should be served. It also made me angry at all of those assholes back home that had/have a nearly 1.2 million people fooled into thinking that they're forerunners of the food culture. Even going back the people that I know still involved with business believe that they're on par with the Laundry. Furthermore those same people like Gates, they like Bryants, they like Strouds; they don't appreciate these places though. All the KC expats I know(including a bartender at Central) love these places and miss them.

I don't know. I had been gone so long that I had forgotten about this bubble or I least I thought it had popped while I was away. Seriously, not too long before I went back I read a NYTimes article about the "blossoming KC restaurant scene". I remember telling my girlfriend that we should move there and get involved now that KC was becoming a force to be reckoned with nationally. I went home and it was nice being on the plaza, it felt good to go down to Bryants and then Bluestem went and ruined it all.

For any Kansas Citians reading this, don't get me wrong. I love home and eventually I want to raise a family there, I want to spend the rest of my life there. I just hate the fact that something I care so much about is being so improperly handled there. I love Kansas City restaurants, just as long as it cost less than twelve dollars a head.

So Blake, to answer your question go to Kellys, Gilhoullys or the Hurricane. The day after get some Go Chicken Go or LCs.

Sayeth Kliman in today's chat:

"Kansas City, believe it or not, is one of the best cities to eat out in in the country right now. It ain't just barbecue and great steaks -- not that there's anything wrong with that."

I've been meaning to write about this for awhile now. A couple of months ago I went home for a few days and tried some new and old spots. I went to the Hereford House, a KC staple: dark wood moulding, oil paintings of John Wayneesque cowboys and scattered remington stautes to go with your ribeye and twice-baked potato. Nothing more/less than what you expect, it's very consistent.

Did some pretty awesome bbq and went down to sw blvd for some really good, really cheap mexican food.

The big finale of the trip was to meet up with a friend from LA, who is veteran of restaurants like Luques and Zuni(I'm writing this to lend credibility to his opinion later on in this post) to have dinner at bluestem. We were both pretty curious about the idea of a Kansas City native leaving the city learning the trade and returning to share their knowledge with the city. Traditionally in KC what you have is one alteration of the same simple boring recipe after the other: 1995 crabcake with aioli/2000 crabcake over slow roasted garlic saucei/2004 maryland(OMG?!?!) style crabcake /2007 crabcake with savory remoulade. In fact most independent restaurants take their cues from the larger, crappy chains. For the most part it's all of the same thing over and over, crabcakes, calamari and scallops. I know Kansas Citians love their seafood and think I have a theory on this: no one is serving interesting product from the region. So I had hopes that Bluestem would be different.

It's not.

New Zealand this, Maine that, in fact at one point the server bragged about their milled polenta from georgia...errrrghzzzzssshhhhh(record scratch). Georgia, wait, are we not in corn country? You could almost throw baseballs to Kansas from the front door of Bluestem. It's literally 12 blocks away. Georgia corn...awesome. It's almost as awesome as Idaho beef tartare in Kansas City. Throughout the meal my friend learned to love broccolli, as it was in nearly every dish brought to the table. He also cringed at the prospect of ordering a harvey wallbanger made with tang, not because it sounds etrocious but because of its name...wait for it the "TANGBANGER". So here is a restaurant that takes itself very seriously and wants to be taken very seriously; you have to sit down in your sunday best and look a stranger straight in the eyes and say "I'd like a tangbanger please.". There was so much more: compressed watermelon with poprocks(the server actually told us to lean in to listen to them). Compressed watermelon, does anyone know how you compress watermelon? I do, because the server enlightened us. You simply take a piece of watermelon and put it in a vacuum sealed bag and suck out all of the air. El Bulli look out, here comes bluestem right behind you. Lets talk about sauce. When our entrees came, there were three of us with three different dishes, they took a little saucier pot and poured the same demi-glace on each dish. It didn't matter that I was having steak and my girlfriend was having lamb and my friend was having chicken. Sauce is awesome and it makes everything better that its on. At least thats what they want you to believe. That's enough about the food.

What I'd really like to let you all know about is the attitude. Now please don't interpret this word as snooty, in no way what so ever was it like the stereotypical maitre'd who says "yeeeeeeesssss". It was more like we're the WD-50 of Kansas City or Alinea's got nothin on us. They never exhibited exclusivity, they just came off like they felt they had reinvented the wheel. Now having said this, I want to make sure (just in case this is read by any staff members of Bluestem) that the server was really, really good. She was warm, intelligent and knew what she was talking about. My beef with the service was the technique, which I am certain was put in place by the GM. Our server had to describe each dish, which is fine; however she also had to describe the experience with each dish, which is not fine. "In this course you will have a little bounceback of texture from the beef and the demi-glace will provide a beefy-saltiness that you won't get from beef...". Jesus, just tell me what I have in front of me and let me figure out the rest on my own. I felt bad for her because she was doing her job, the GM or maybe the chef had given them these scripts. There should be nothing scripted about the dining experience, it's an art not a science.

Actually now that I think about it Bluestem is different from other KC restaurants. It's more like the original Barnum and Baileys, every course should read EGRESS. Once you try something, you realise that you've been had.

Go to the Hereford House. It's not amazing, but it wont let you down. Scratch that.

Go to the Hereford House. It's not amazing, but it wont throw you up in the air, catch you and perform a suplex on you.

Cunningham and I were discussing advocaat the other day, the article talks about using it(egg liqeur) for flips. I find it only works when mixing with a low-proof liqeur; make a rye or rum flip with this and it's over the top. I mixed it with banana nectar and powdered sugar for the Banana Flip.

BTW: The snowball cocktail is like a three day old dirty diaper filled with limes and ramen noodles.

Chef Ruta first got me on to this and his recommendation was on the rocks. To this day it's still one of my favorite drinks. Mixed with a little aperol and old raj makes a killer(but pricey)negroni.

you've got to be careful with this one. most boilers have a little suction right when you shut the valve off. I've seen a large boiler in a resturant espresso suck up a drop or two of milk and completely destroy the boiler. The milk breeds bacteria in the warm wet boiler and eventually fills with a liquid resembling cat urine infused with pepperoni pizza. I can only imagine what a microbe of egg would do to a small boiler.

Fact, Don is awesome.

Question, which bear eats beets while watching battlestar galactica?

Pretty amusing and sort of awful at the same time.

making lollipops and having a big dollop of melted hard-crack sugar get stuck to your hand. it was like that scene in fight club.

This cocktail has come up quite a bit in conversation with some of the guests at my bar, as well as this one. It might be a good sign.

I actually pay a little more than that for it. In fact with the pricing I have it at it runs at about a 30% cost. I've thought about taking it out of the bar; it just one of things that people want.

The new issue of Gourmet (October 2007) offers its annual theme on restaurants.

I glanced at it only briefly last night, but it looks as if the old tradition of chosing the best restaurants in the U.S. has ended; the lists tended to defer to readers throughout the country with geographic distribution that wasn't all concentrated around New York and Los Angeles.

This time, the locavore trend get a nod, instead, so that regionalism and geographic distribution are tied to the restaurant's relationship to local farms and foods.

Moderators: Feel free to move this, tag it onto something established....Just notify me so I revise the last two sentences above this one.

I'm a little upset that they didn't mention Chefs Ruta or Trautmann. Both of these guys have great relationships with local growers/mycologists/farmers; not that Ziebold and Armstrong don't. I know for a fact that Palena and Sonoma/Mendocino have whole lambs/pigs/ducks, dayboat cod and foraged mushrooms delivered to their restaurants.

In my last three visits to other major metropolitan cities I've always dined at a "flagship" restaurant and I feel that those meals were on par with some mediocre meals I've had here. Now thats not to say that they are not as good as DC on the whole, it's just that we might have a little more awesomeness than the national food media lets on. So to answer your question...no, I don't think D.C. is getting its props.

I just picked up lunch there. The place was busy but very short line. Confusing counter service. I waited 10 minutes before I was handed the wrong order, which was a turkey tartine. I took it because it would have taken too much time to complain and wait for the correct sandwich. This $8 "sandwich" consisted of two slices of wheat bread, one slice of turkey and some mayonnaise type dressing, on the side:a pinch of salad, one cube of melon and 3 cornichons. Also, when I asked for the sandwich on a croissant, I was told that was not possible. $13 for bland soup and a stingy sandwich.

I don't generally post negative things about restaurants; since this is a fairly large corporation I don't mind so much. I went in last Saturday for lunch and got the Parisian tartine. Nine dollars for one piece of cold bread and one piece of colder ham with a couple of cornichons and some greens scattered around the plate seemed a little extreme. $3.95 for 8-10oz. of green iced tea that was kinda bland. The apple/pear turnover thing was okay. I actually really got into the space and the communal table. I wished it was a Rays the Steaks or Sonoma in that space, it does a good job of not feeling like a chain. I didn't hate it and I'm not really angry, I just don't really feel like going back.

neutrality is great, but creativity and expertice shall lead the pack. perhaps someday...

Seriously?

expertice

No wait...I get it. It's a pun. It's punny. Whoo, I was worried for a second. Hold on, I just gotta say I haven't seen comedic writing of this caliber since the second season of Frasier.

GOOGLE.

Went to the pre opening tonite. The place rocks - intimate, comfortable, well designed, hip - just a great feel. And I think they have done an admirable job on their opening wine list - glass and bottle.

concur

Wooooooooohoooooooooooooo!

They certainly know how to recognize the talent...

And the hits keep on comin'. This months Wine & Spirits magazine named Derek as one of Americas best new sommeliers. He's ranked up there with the heavy hitters from Jean Georges and Per Se(previously). Congratulations Derek.

Jeez people enough with the conspiracy theories. First amendment ring a bell? If the guy wants to post, let him post - this is a message board about FOOD, not nuclear proliferation, religion or similar weighty issues. No one's playing God.

You're absolutely right; however, when posting one has to realize that this board can take on the role of a 24-7 mini food critic. Owners, operators and everyone right down to servers and runners reads this board and furthermore we all know that everyone is reading it. In fact in the past I've seen DR.com & Eg.com used as feedback for staff during pre-service meetings.

I've argued this before, this board shouldn't be used for malicious purposesses. If this poster has any affiliation with the former chef(which I'm not alone in my opinion of this), well then were getting into shaky territory. What would happen if this user or any user for that matter created more than one identity and started trashing restaurants/chefs/managers/servers as a group? It would then appear to the owner/manager that something was wrong with their restaurant. Heads might roll and quite frankly the board isn't about FOOD anymore it's about how some poor employee is hittin' the bricks trying to make rent. To be honest with you paying my bills ranks a little higher than nuclear proliferation.

All Im' saying is you can piss on my foot but don't try to tell me it's raining.

I went back to kC for a few days and BINGO! I also scored a few valomilks.

Woooooo! I am hot right now. I need to vent and I think this might the cure for what ales me.

I am a long time WF shopper(LA '01,KC '02, DC '03-present) and at least 2 out 3 times I shop there I get burnt somehow. I come home and all of my oysters are open, I unwrap my halibut and try to fight the heaves caused by the rancid smell, my 22.99 bottle of Mollydooker rang up as 28.99, my mixed greens wilted and shrivled the day I purchased them. I never once returned to the store and asked for an exchange or my money back. I generally purchase what I need for a meal then I cook, once I'm home, I'm home. And I've always chalked it up to the fact that they do alot of business and I just slipped through the cracks this time. In addition I can sympathize with a poor WF manager who has a crazed customer walk up to them with lobster in tow and scream about how they cant believe they payed $28 dollars for this wimpy little piece of seafood. So I've always just eaten it(so to speak).

This time I cannot or will not let this go. I am angry. I did my Sunday night shopping at 5pm and at 9pm it was time to eat. Got everything ready for a big night of Nachos, Michelob and the Godfather.(orginally tacos, however WF was wiped out of tortillas) Then I opened my SourCream to find this BLEARGHHHH!

It's not so much that is was open or even used, what really got me was the mucussy(sp?) pieces of whatever that were left in there. Now I pose the question(mostly to keep the reader from posing it) How is this WF fault? How on earth did someone, employee or not manage to walk around with a sour cream container and eat from it in the store? Secondly how the hell did it get back on the shelf? Where is the quality control? I pay extra money at this store so I don't have to worry about bad oysters or mismarked wine and especially half eaten food.

Disclaimer: When I lived in old town, I was only a few blocks from the relatively new Duke st. location, so it was never a matter of transportation when I moved the oysters or halibut. I taken more than one food safety class and I'm fairly sure an eight minute walk with oysters packed on ice in 70 degree weather shouldn't kill them. I also always check my eggs and potato chips for cracks.

Pheewww. I feel a little better now. Tommorow I will march in a plead my case to that poor WF manager and see what happens.

Let's all give zeros to Citronelle, and start a write-in campaign for Chef Geoff's.

hmmm....fightin' words.

Look all I'm saying is that it seems a little over the top in its presentation:references to $50 sushi pieces, 10lb turbot cooked to perfection, renting a helicopter to return for another dinner, beluga caviar with gold flakes. What about the progressives?: The Hebberoys in Portland, Anice Stellato in Venice, and Komi here in DC. I know that Anice may not be "fine dining" but it's a tremendous restaurant that reflects not only the local cuisine but also foward thinking in food.

I just got my top 50 email and it seems to me that this list is based on how much money you have. When I read it I just see wealthy foodies blubbermouthing about their cellar and "the last meal I had at Per Se....wawawa.". It doesn't have a whole lot of soul to it. I think I'll wait four more years for Reichl's american list.

When we opened I tried getting it as our house vermouth and our rep told us that it was out of production. On a similar note: it looks as if the producers of 209 have shut down their operation as well.(this might be on a previous thread)

. . . so he put those pears in the one place he knew he could hide something: the chicken's ass. Sixty long minutes he cooked that chicken with those pears up its ass. Then he died of salmonella, he gave me the pears. I hid those uncomfortable hunks of fruit up my ass another ten minutes, just to carmelize them. And now, little man, I give the pears to you. via mefi

I'm pretty sure the Virginia ABC next to Rays the Steaks has minis of Midori. I know for a fact they have minis of baileys and GrandMa.

What can I say? You can take the boy out of the country....