Cynthia Wenslow wrote:Don't know how long you'll be there, but I asked a food friend in KC for recs. Here's the reply:
"My very favorite Kansas City restaurant is Extra Virgin, in the Crossroads district. Small plates and a great bar. Steven is my favorite waiter, and Alberto and Patrick for bartenders. It's the bar attached to the upscale restaurant Michael Smith, also very good. Other places include Le Fou Frog downtown, a good french restaurant. Cafe Trio isn't bad. There are a lot of new restaurants on Westport Road that even I haven't tried. Also on the Plaza. Two good ones are Gram and Dunn, and Seasons 52."
Thanks for your help, Cynthia. Here's how our Friday night went down: liked your friend's reccos. Seasons 52 and Extra Virgin/Michael Smith were names that had come up when I researched restaurants from home, but thru some clerical error I didn't write Extra Virgin down (Michael Smith seemed more formal than I was interested in.) I was glad to have her remind me of that and what I remembered about it sounded perfect. We actually had a reservation already at a place your friend would likely be thinking of in Westport, Bluestem. We got that res with the help of our Thursday night chef, Howard Hanna of The Rieger, at 8:45 when the next soonest table was otherwise 9:30. And the meals there are long meals--fixed price for three, five or ten courses, period. By 7 that night, however, we were so tired we were just dying, and where we weren't interesting in passing up a great dining experience, we just couldn't figure out how to stay awak until 9:00 to get started, so we noted the name (the Garmin recognized it) but decided to go cruise near The Rieger and check out the cool looking/absolutely packed restaurant that was just around the corner from The Rieger, the one with the great outside patio. Eating dinner outside on our last warm night out in KC sounded like heaven knowing it would be months before we could do that here. It could have just been a bar, or a sandwich joint (which we'd have passed on), but guess what? THAT was Extra Virgin!
The meal was great. Loved the menu (about 60 items divided between Hot, Cold, For the Adventurous, From the Wood Fired Oven, From the Italian Meat Slicer, Bites, and Dolce. All small plates, and you can sit there and order two at a time if you're loafers like us, and just stop ordering when you get full. (We managed five, the standout being the Morroccan carrot salad.) FANTASTIC WINE LIST. Any wino going to KC should put this (or Michael Smith next door) on their agenda for Wednesday nights when the entire wine list is half off. The list is as impressive as it is extensive, and includes many, many of the world's great wines. The Bordeaux list had me drooling over such things as 88, 89 and 90 Lynch Bages. On a Wednesday, those would only set you back $125ish. A lot more than I usually spend, but incredibly reasonable for treasures. Bob and I settled for a Muga Reserva.
So on Saturday we looked at Seasons 52 for lunch, our last meal. But somehow I got locked into this idea that I had to have pasta so we went to Lidia Bastianich's first resto to open outside of NYC. It wasn't bad, but it was a limited 'brunch' menu and not as inspired as I'd expected it to be. I ordered a three pasta plate wherein one was too greasy and the ravioli was overcooked. Neither tasted of the principal ingredients they were described as having. Also, the whole vibe of the place skews toward the AARP set. Crooner music like Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme are a cool vibe for the hipsters in an art deco martini bar, but in a rustic, slate-tiled Italian restaurant it just says 'Senior Center'. Pass that back to your friend. And tell her she needs to try The Rieger. It was our best meal in KC, and flawless.
