Monday, July 30, 2012

Magnolia's Contemporary Southern Bistro

Magnolia's Contemporary Southern Bistro on Urbanspoon

I really enjoy going out for breakfast.  Magnolia’s had 3 items on the menu that I wanted to try, so I made it a mission to get there to try them.  From the outside, it doesn’t exactly have a lot of street appeal, which made the inside a nice surprise, I was expecting a dive, what I found was a cheery space painted a soft yellow.  

 



Magnolia’s is made up of two small dining rooms, you walk into the first which contains six tables that seat four and one that seats two.  The second dining room is smaller.  It has a very long table in the window that seats 8, a four top and a 2 top, so it’s a pretty intimate space.  The tables are covered in white table cloths with a long piece of white paper on top.  Each table also had 3 freshly cut purple carnations.  Nice.  Around the tables are black metal and plastic chairs, the kind that you can rent for weddings.  These worry me; I’ve seen many a disaster involving these types of chairs and let’s say… Kansas City’s hefty set… whereby someone sits down only to have the chair collapse under their weight.  The music stops, everyone is quiet.  People try to help the person up as murmuring ensues.  Once the person is back up, the music starts again and everyone politely pretends like nothing ever happened.  Ok, right now, some of you are angry at me, but a few of you are smiling, why, because you’ve been at those same weddings, graduations, birthdays, etc., and you know exactly what I’m talking about.  Oh well, I’m sure those chairs will be switched out over time.
 
We were greeted and seated right away and our server brought a carafe of water to leave on the table as we browsed the menu.  There are only 4 options under the “Breakfast Plate” section of the menu:  “Biscuits and Gravy”, “Nutter Butter French Toast”, “Sweet Potato Pancakes”,” Bacon and Eggs”.  These items are served on Saturdays and Sundays only.  We ordered the Nutter Butter French Toast with cracked pepper bacon and Sweet Potato Pancakes with turkey sausage links.  The French Toast sounded very intriguing to me, it is made with “Farm to Market Bread Company’s” Challah Bread, (at least according to a tweet I read).  I know firsthand that Magnolia’s does use Farm to Market Bread Company’s bread because they received a shipment through the front door while we were there.  The biscuits however were being carried in by a woman from a house across the street, still on the baking sheet.  They truly were homemade!  They looked great; I’ll have to try those the next time.   
                                           

Nutter Butter French Toast

Anyway, back to the French Toast, you receive two pieces of bread, cut in half, and completely covered in finely crushed Nutter Butter Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies.  On top of that was a generous helping of house made 
Cap'n Crunch French Toast;
image by Amber Thomas

whipped cream with a little bit of coffee in it.  Wow, very rich.  This is the most innovative French Toast creation that I have seen since trying “The Blue Moon CafĂ©’s” Cap’n Crunch French Toast in Baltimore.  The cracked pepper bacon was a good complement to the toast, it added a little heat to all of that sweet.   


Sweet Potato Pancakes

The Sweet Potato Pancakes were really very good.  These tasted almost like eating pumpkin pie because of the spices used, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.  I could eat these for dessert.  They looked burned, but weren’t.  They were also very small, but after I started eating them, I was glad.  They were so rich I couldn’t possibly have eaten much more.   

I’m not fond of the coffee here.  I’m pretty sure that it is brewed in one of those machines that you put the little plastic container in that gives you one cup at a time.  Neither of us liked the coffee, but luckily our favorite coffee house, The "Filling Station” is just across the way and we could always go there afterward. 

 
Magnolia’s is not really a breakfast spot.  They don’t open until 10 am.  Too late for breakfast, too early for lunch and their breakfast plates are only served on weekends.  So, I don’t think that it will be a regular on my breakfast rotation.  However, I am coming back to try dinner some evening.  They don’t have a liquor license, but you can bring your own wine or beer.  There is a $10 corkage fee per bottle of wine and a $1 fee per two bottles of beer.   There is a patio behind the building with a small stage; the waiter told us that they hoped to begin having live music on weekends.  It might be fun to hang out here some evening.
I have just a couple of complaints.  One, It was hot inside; it would have been more comfortable if it had been cooler.  Maybe the air conditioner was acting up because there was a floor fan blowing air around.  Two, I don’t think the ventilation system is working well because when we left, we smelled like we had been cooking over hot grease all day.  Really.  Both of these issues are easily remedied and definitely not a reason to not try this place.  All-in-all, we had fun, just like we always do.  I wish that you could have been there with us.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

My Favorite KC Barbeque Joint

Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue on Urbanspoon

This is my favorite Barbeque joint in the Kansas City metro area, even though it is in a gas station that is rather out of the way on Mission Road at 47th Avenue in KCK. This is where people who love good barbeque go to eat good barbeque. If you are one of those who want to be seen eating barbeque, you won't go here, you'll go to Jack Stack in the Freight House District (I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that!) Or, you'll go to Arthur Bryant's because Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. did. Hhhh. Go ahead and try those, but be sure and give Oklahoma Joe's a try as well. Seriously, if you are from out-of-town, find this place. If you are in a hurry, call and order take-out. When you get there, don't wait in line, walk right up to the counter and tell them your name. I have taken all of my friends and family members from out of town here, including a large group from Seattle and they all loved it and request it when they return.
This place is almost always busy, and for good reason. The flavor of the food is great. I always get a beef on bun; the beef is very tender and doesn't even need the sauce to make it great. However, their barbeque sauce is one of my favorites in Kansas City. The fries are seasoned and served in waxed paper bags… love them. I also order a side of barbeque beans. Theirs has a mixture of beans, including black, with chunks of various types of meat. These are not my favorite beans, but they're unique and have a good flavor.
I love to eat here. You will see a wide variety of people. At peak times it can be difficult to find a parking spot and the line can be discouraging but don't give up. All of these people are standing, waiting in line for a reason.


Oklahoma Joe's Barbeque on Urbanspoon


Oklahoma Joe’s third restaurant opened on July 5th in the multi-strip-mall madness that is Leawood Town Center. Very conveniently located just south of 117th on Roe, this former TGI Friday’s has never seen this much business! The building’s make-over is very nice. Now those people I know who are too persnickety to eat at the original location at 47th and Mission Road, (Yeah, you know who you are, and yes, I’m calling you out!) will have a place they can go without driving to Olathe. 

Order Queue

Dining Room
There is plenty of parking here; there is also quite a bit more seating. The interior design is industrial chic, with corrugated metal, rot iron and wood. It feels cozy. The order queue snakes along behind a corrugated metal wall to the right of the entrance. The rot iron toppers help shield diners from those waiting to order. This is all very much like the original space. They have a couple of guys stationed at the front door to explain how it all works. I was actually surprised by how many people had never been to an Oklahoma Joe’s before (everyone around us but us). Because there were so many new people experiencing Okie Joe’s for the first time, this is going to be a wonderful spot for them.



Beef on Bun
 Now on to the important stuff, the food, we each had beef on bun with fries and beans. The beef was the same great quality, moist and tender with a great smoky flavor. The fries are the same seasoned fries served in a white paper sack, however, we each complained about the beans. These were runny, sweet and had a dominant green bell pepper flavor; they were also missing their smokiness. It must have been an off night.
Overall, this place is great. I think they have a franchise ready establishment now. As long as they could keep the same quality and flavor, I could definitely see these places popping up all over the country.



Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue (Olathe) on Urbanspoon

Monday, July 23, 2012

The cure for what "ales" Waldo?

Remedy Food and Drink on Urbanspoon
  
Remedy Food and Drink is the newest edition to the Waldo Bar and Grill / Tavern / Pub set.  Remedy, a Gastro Pub, sits on the corner of Washington and 75th Street in Waldo, just 2 doors up from the 75th Street Brewery.   I went there with a buddy on Friday, July 13th.  The atmosphere is a cross between a regular bar and a coffee house.  An actual bar takes up most of the North wall of the main room.  There are several high-top tables with bar chairs surrounding them.  There are a few regular tables that have chairs on one side and grey, high-backed, two person sofas on the other, not really love seats; they’re more like oversized wing backs.  The entire South wall is floor to ceiling glass.  The place is kind of a cross between hip and homey. 


Eggplant Fries

"Pig Tails"

We ordered Eggplant Fries and “Pig Tails” for starters.  The eggplant fries are breaded, almost like a tempura, and fried.  They are drizzled with honey and sprinkled with sea salt.  They have a slightly sweet flavor when you first began to chew them, then leave you with a slightly salty taste.  Nice.  This is the first place that I have encountered them in Kansas City.  They are good while hot, but become rather mushy as they cool down.  I cannot remember what the pig tails were.  I know the center contains carrots, surrounded by some form of meat (I think), which is then breaded and fried.  These are served with pureed celery with some hot sauce in it.  It looked like apple sauce, but just tasted hot.  (I think I would have liked these dipped in apple sauce).  They were okay.


After the fried starters we sampled the Melon Salad that was advertized as a special on the big chalk board on the side wall and the Pork Shoulder which our waitress said tasted like pork candy.  She also informed us that they cure their own meat right on site.  After she walked away we both wrinkled up our noses and I said, “Gross! Can you image what that must smell like?  Where do you think they do that?  Do you think they have some rotting pigs hanging from a ceiling in a closet?”   I’d still like to know.  Oh well, the pork was extremely tender and had a nice flavor, it wasn’t very juicy though.  The melon salad was beautiful.  It was just cubed pieces of melon, layered on a plate.  No fancy seasonings or sauces, just fruit.  It was very refreshing. 

For dessert we went back to the fried side.  I wanted the chocolate brownie waffle, but, we shared the fried pies instead.  You get three fried fruit pies, apple, pear and berry, served hot.  They were okay, but not great.  What was great was the small scoop of Mascarpone Ice Cream.  Wow.  I would go back and order just that.  It was very rich, the small scoop was just enough to leave me wanting more, without leaving me filled with regret for having eaten too much of it. 





Being a gastro pub they don’t have bartenders, they have “mixologists”.  I thought I’d try the mixologist on duty out.  I said I wanted something with lemon that wasn’t sweet, he could pick the poison.  What I got was… something with lemon that wasn’t sweet, the poison was vodka.  Not really very inspired.  Oh well, all of that food and two drinks came to only $50.50 before tax and tip.  It turned out to be a fun time; I wish you could have been there with us.