Cowboys & Indians / April 2010 / Kansas City Classics

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Kansas City Classics

After all these years of eating around the Midwest, I’m still surprised how the image of Kansas City, Missouri, can rest on a reputation first signaled to the nation way back in 1974, when Calvin Trillin wrote in his book American Fried: Adventures of a Happy Eater, “The best restaurants in the world are, of course, in Kansas City. Not all of them; only the top four or five.”

In his arch way, Trillin may have been overstating the case for KC, but he did put his finger on the fact that his three favorites‚ Arthur Bryant’s Barbecue, Winstead’s, and Stroud’s‚ form a kind of prole food paradise, each unique, each very Midwestern, and each very much a part of the fabric of this sprawling, sports-mad city. And they’re all still thriving, four decades later.

Arthur Bryant’s Barbecue is as much an institution in KC as Katz’s Deli is in New York, Obrycki’s Crab House is in Baltimore, and Skyline Chili is in Cincinnati‚ places you know will deliver the same signature experience every time you go back. Here since 1930, the place changes nothing, ever, from the hickory-smoked beef brisket sliced thick and set on white bread to the fried potatoes with their skins on to the big beer mugs frosted on ice. The sauce is highly unusual: tangy, to cut through the smoky meats, and an odd rusty red color. The sandwiches overflow the bread, and the pork ribs are darn good, too.

Bryant’s fans are legion, including Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, and Wilt Chamberlain. Fame has led to expansion, and the two branches, at the Kansas Speedway and Ameristar Casino, aren’t much fancier, just newer. But when you walk into the original on Brooklyn Avenue, you can sense the spirit of the late Mr. Bryant‚ who lovingly called it “a grease house”‚ in the smiles of the counter guys and girls who cut your meat for you and wish you a good day.

A more modern-looking, fast food decor is what you get at Gates Bar-B-Q, with six restaurants in the KC area. Around since 1946, the local chain offers a lot more variety than Bryant’s‚ sausage, ham, chicken wings, chili, even turkey. The sauce on the ’cue is sweeter, but Gates offers four different flavors, from mild to red-hot. The local chain does a consistently fine job with everything it serves and never makes mistakes, and the greeting behind the counter is as warm as the Missouri sunshine in August.

Both Bryant’s and Gates sell their sauces and seasonings online and you can readily find Gates’ sauce in retail stores, but they won’t ship their meats. Thank heavens, then, that Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue does, and that means everything from its terrific brisket and ribs to “burnt ends” and lamb ribs, along with hickory pit beans, cheesy corn bake, and cheesy potato bake. Go for the family pack that feeds 10 ‚Äì 14 people and hunker down at home, or head to the original Martin City location on Holmes Road for some local atmosphere.

Stroud’s has been one of the most beloved institutions in KC since opening back in 1933. Plain and simple, a relic of a time when fried chicken places dotted the Midwest and South, Stroud’s still turns out the kind of nonpareil home cooking that keeps it an old-fashioned, drop-in-with-the-family, wait-in-line, build-an-appetite kind of spot where every piece of chicken is fried to order in a black skillet. That takes time, so be patient. The chicken is not spicy, like KFC or Popeyes, but it’s got a crunch and a steamy savor that you’ll never forget. You can also get a fine bowl of golden chicken noodle soup, a big bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy, addictive cinnamon rolls, and, for aficionados, crispy chicken gizzards that go down like popcorn. As for the staff, well, they’re good people.

They’re very nice, too, at Winstead’s, now a 10-unit chain in Kansas and Missouri. The first, and most evocative of another era, was opened in 1940 in KC’s tony Country Club Plaza. (Actually the original original was opened by Katherine Winstead in Springfield, Illinois, in 1936, before she moved to KC.) You could film any movie about American teenagers from 1940 to 1980 here‚ cruisin’ for burgers, pulling up to the takeout window, flirting with the waitresses in their Sanforized shirtwaists and aprons, necking in the parking lot, peeling off down Main Street‚ and it will always look perfect, without any digitalizing. The place is done up in pink and aqua Formica, with a beacon-like tower and green neon sign on the roof that can be seen for miles.

Swing by for breakfast and have the buttermilk pancakes for $2.95 or the biscuits and gravy for $3.45‚ less than a mocha frappuccino runs you at Starbucks‚ but you’ve got to come back for the steakburgers, which are nothing fancy, even layered with “everything” (mustard, ketchup, pickle, and onion). These are not hyper-gross gourmet burgers; they are the real American McCoy on a good bun, and you can eat one with a glass of limeade or a Special Chocolate Frosty, “The exclusive Winstead drink you eat with a spoon.” And, yes, of course, they still make that luscious brownie sundae.

FYI
• Arthur Bryant’s Barbecue‚ 1727 Brooklyn Ave., 816.231.1123; Ameristar Casino, 3200 N. Ameristar Drive, 816.414.7474, www.arthurbryants.com.
• Gates Bar-B-Q‚ 1325 E. Emanuel Cleaver Blvd., 816.531.7522; 1221 Brooklyn Ave., 816.483.3880; 3205 Main St., 816.753.0828; 1026 State Ave., 913.621.1134, www.gatesbbq.com.
• Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue‚ 13441 Holmes Road, 816.942.9141; 9520 Metcalf Ave., 913.385.7427; 101 W. 22nd St., 816.472.7427; 4747 Wyandotte St., 816.531.7427, www.jackstackbbq.com.
• Stroud’s‚ 5410 NE Oak Ridge Drive, 816.454.9600, www.stroudsrestaurant.com.
• Winstead’s‚ 101 Emanuel Cleaver II Blvd., 816.753.2244; 1200 Main St., Suite 7, 816.221.3339; 6260 NW Barry Road, 816.587.7333, www.winsteadskc.com.

 

HIGH ON THE HOG

To the long-standing restaurants KC native Calvin Trillin called the best in the world, I’d add the historic Savoy Grill, here since 1903, with its museum-quality Western artwork and old-fashioned menu of steak and lobster, Shrimp de Jonghe, soft-shell crabs, navy bean soup, crisp iceberg lettuce wedge with sliced tomato, and broiled seafood casserole. You can even finish it all off with a cr√®me de menthe parfait. Women don’t wear white gloves or men tie pins here anymore, but you’ll kind of wish they did.

Also on my list is the Prime Rib Grill by Hereford House, which recently opened a block away from where the original Hereford House once stood next to the long-gone stockyards. A fire forced the move in 2009, but more than 50 years after its founding, the restaurant still serves cowboy steaks and cowboy beans in a masculine Midwestern, yet gentlemanly, atmosphere. The steaks are better, though, at the swankier and newer Plaza III‚ The Steakhouse, here a mere 47 years. Try the prime Kansas City strip with a Grand Marnier souffl√© for dessert, or order the restaurant’s award-winning aged corn-fed beef online.

But in case you’re wondering if that’s as high on the hog as KC restaurants get, consider its most spectacular dining room‚ The American Restaurant‚ set overlooking the city from the Crown Center. Opened in 1974 and designed by the architecture firm Warren Platner Associates, which also did New York’s Windows on the World, it has the grandeur of 1970s restaurants, back when American cooking was emerging as a true national cuisine. It was an attempt by Hallmark Cards’ founder J.C. Hall to revitalize the downtown area with a building and restaurant as fine as any in America. Its high, sculptured, fan-like ceilings, vast expanse of windows, and three-tiered dining room have a genteel Missouri magnanimity about them.

The restaurant has produced a daunting number of chefs who distinguished themselves here first, from Bradley Ogden to Celine Tia. The kitchen is currently the domain of a former chef now returned, Debbie Gold, who is as familiar with luxury ingredients as honest goodness in her cooking, from olive oil-poached Walu with a kabocha squash, Granny Smith apple, and pepita succotash to coriander-rubbed Axis venison with bourbon-laced sweet potatoes, herbed spaetzle, and huckleberry gastrique. Choose a vintage from one of the finest wine caches in the country, and top off the decadence with a bittersweet Peppermint Patty made with chocolate ganache, a hot chocolate beignet, and peppermint sorbet.

 

• The American Restaurant‚ 200 E. 25th St., Suite 400, 816.545.8001, www.theamericanrestaurantkc.com.
• Plaza III‚ The Steakhouse‚ 4749 Pennsylvania Ave., 816.753.0000, www.plazaiiisteakhouse.com.
• Prime Rib Grill by Hereford House‚ 100 E. 20th St., 816.842.1080, www.herefordhouse.com.
• Savoy Grill‚ 219 W. Ninth, 816.842.3890, www.savoygrill.net.

 

DOWN-HOME DIVERSITY

These days you can find pretty much any kind of cuisine you seek in KC, from Thai to sushi, from upscale to down-home. But if you’re jonesing for some classic Italian, try the very fine Lidia’s. The Lidia in question is Lidia Bastianich, the award-winning TV chef, cookbook author, and owner of Felidia Ristorante in New York. With her son Joseph, she runs the KC restaurant, located in the majestic and historic Union Station.

Offering much the same food as she cooks on her show Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen, the restaurant serves three daily pastas on one plate; roasted veal shank with fresh orange and carrot juices; grilled octopus with warm potatoes, red onion, Gaeta olives, and capers in a red wine vinaigrette; and a “Bistecca alla Kansas City” served with roasted tomatoes and twice-fried potatoes. The user-friendly wine list offers a selection of wines all priced at $28 and another list with premium bottlings.

For modern American cuisine in Midtown, there’s Bluestem, now six years old. The warmhearted mom and pop restaurant owned by Colby and Megan Garrelts, who met while working at Chicago’s renowned Tru, expanded several years ago to include a popular wine lounge. But it is in the cozy dining room that you’ll find dishes focused on simple goodness, like scallops with braised bacon, cabbage, brown butter, and whipped fumet; and confit of duck cassoulet with root vegetables and garlic crumb. The wine list continues to grow every year, always reflective of the Garrelts’ cuisine.

1924 Main, set in a charmingly renovated 1915 landmark brick and terra cotta building and run by Rob and Margarita Dalzell, offers some of the best upscale food in town at remarkably downscale prices, including a three-course lunch for $15 (with  5 ounce wine pairings extra). At dinner the tab goes way up to $25 for three courses, including lamb meatballs with lentils; pork shank with grits, red-eye gravy, and pickled cabbage; and butterscotch pudding with sea salt shortbread.

In addition to Bluestem’s living-room-style wine lounge, the city’s got a growing number of wine bars. The best is the first: JP Wine Bar is located in a rehabbed 100-year-old landmark building and serves a wide array of wines, including many available in 2-ounce flights. They also offer a selection of cheeses, antipasto, and small plates to nosh on, as well as a full dinner menu.

To say you get what you pay for in KC is high praise, because the restaurants there are straightforward, generous, and savvy about their customers’ wishes. Best restaurants in the world? Nah, just a few of them.

• 1924 Main‚ 1924 Main St., 816.472.1924, www.1924main.com.
• Bluestem‚ 900 Westport Road, 816.561.1101, www.bluestemkc.com.
• JP Wine Bar‚ 1526 Walnut, 816.842.2660, www.jpwinebar.com.
• Lidia’s‚ 101 W. 22nd St., 816.221.3722, www.lidias-kc.com.

 

 

Issue: April 2010

Filed under: Food-Wine, Restaurants, Chefs