Kansas City Food Blog

May there be a full pitcher on every table this weekend.

​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of listings. In this post, all our problems are solved.

There is no work, there is no outdoors -- there are only NCAA basketball games this weekend. As such, you need to find a hi-def television and a bucket of beers to enjoy watching your chances of winning the office pool get slimmer and slimmer.

Charlie Hooper's in Brookside is a good bet with 20 beers under $3.50 (outside happy hour and other specials). Its Web site has a pretty sweet beer menu search engine.

The Granfalloon on the Plaza has $1.75 domestic drafts and well drinks for $2.25 during happy hour from 4 to 7 p.m. Sliders, steak bites and other appetizers are $4.95.

Challengers Sports Bar and Grill in Overland Park has $3 Bacardi drinks on Friday and $2 cheladas, $4.50 Natty Light pitchers and $3.99 chili dogs on Saturday and Sunday. 

Jaywalkers Sports Bar and Grill has 25 cent hot wings on Saturdays, $2.50 well drinks and $3.25 bottled beers.

For those who aren't concerned with basketball, Em Chamas' Third Fridays is a celebration of cocktails and capoeira. Brazilian dance-fighting exhibitions accompany meats from the Brazilian grill and caipirinhas (cachaca and lime) on Friday, March 19. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. on the outdoor patio, weather permitting. Call 816-505-7100 for reservations.

Fred Harvey changed America's restaurant culture

​Because Kansas City plays a prominent role in the new book Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West (Bantam, $27), it makes sense that author-journalist Stephen Fried would make one of his first book tour appearances here.

Although now nearly forgotten, Fred Harvey (1835-1901) was the man whose vision led to the practices that restaurant chains use today. The qualities most of us take for granted in modern restaurants were actually implemented by the English-born Harvey, who believed that Americans wanted clean dining rooms, well-trained servers and meals that were as consistently good in one Harvey restaurant as in another.

Fried's contention is that Harvey literally changed the way Americans ate outside their own homes. Harvey also believed in generous portions: His last words to his son were reportedly, "Don't cut the ham too thin, boys."

The Fred Harvey Company was headquartered in Kansas City during much of its glory years. Fried notes that Harvey's son Ford was one of this city's major movers-and-shakers, and only after his death did the fortunes of the company drastically change. Ford's son Freddy, a playboy pilot, was killed in an airplane crash in April 1936 and control of the company passed to Freddy's sister Kitty, who had, says Fried, the unfortunate luck to be a woman during a time when it was inconceivable for a female to run a major corporation; she was also a lesbian. Although Kitty was interested operating the Fred Harvey Company, her uncle Byron in Chicago forced her to sell her shares to him; the company was later moved to Chicago.

I haven't set foot inside the golden arches since 2004.

​Super Size Me came out in 2004. Since then, with the exception of Cokes and iced coffees, I've eaten exactly one half of a hash brown from McDonald's. 

The dealbreaker for me was a scene wherein french fries from McDonald's apparently failed to age or break down in any fashion while being stored under a glass jar.

And yet, even with the idea that the fries are potentially closer to plastic than food, I still miss them. I'm tempted by the smell wafting from an airport kiosk or lingering on the paper cup that my Coke comes in at the drive-thru.

​Easter Sunday falls on April 4, and because it's a traditionally busy day for dining, now's the time to start thinking about brunch. Here are just a few suggestions.

Chef Jason Bowers at 12 Baltimore Cafe in the Hotel Phillips will oversee an Easter brunch at the historic downtown hotel from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Priced at $34 for adults and $16 for children ages 5-12 years old, it will feature an artisanal cheese and antipasto display, beef tenderloin sliders with onion marmalade, seafood ceviche with tomato-jalapeno chutney, smoked sturgeon with leek-apple compote, black pepper seared tuna on rye crostini with pickled ginger, lump crab with chipotle cream and spring vegetables, butternut squash soup with fennel and candied walnuts, assorted breakfast breads, a carving station with Berkshire pit ham, Dijon roasted Kansas City strip loin and a selection of desserts. For reservations, call Brenda Bubb at 816-346-4425.

​Get ready for smashed patties Overland Park -- Smashburger opens at 6551 West 119th Street on April 1. The fast casual burger chain out of Denver is aggressively expanding into the Kansas City area. As in other markets, the newest location will feature several signature menu items exclusive to the restaurant.

The Kansas City version of the Smashburger, for example, has grilled onions, garlic sauteed mushrooms, Swiss cheese and haystack onions with A.1. steak sauce on an egg bun. The KC Hot Link is topped with cheddar cheese, haystack onions and Gates Bar-B-Q sauce. Gates sauce also shows up on its chicken sandwiches and salads, and Boulevard will be among the craft brews available.

The Mission Twitical pub crawl aims for 10 beers between  Lucky's Brewgrille and the Clarette Club. [KC Beer Blog]

Cooking with coconut oil inspires a a comparison to Ghee, the Indian clarified butter. [Blog Well Done]

Bikinis Sports Bar and Grill aims to be the next Hooters -- way to aim high, guys. [Slashfood]

Here are Lady Gaga's outlandish costumes reimagined as Gingerbread characters. We live in a strange world. [Yes But No Yes]

​It's great when someone else cooks. It's even nicer when you don't have to clean.

Today, you can discover the finest takeout options in Kansas City when Fat City's Charles Ferruzza and the food critics explore that topic on The Walt Bodine Show (KCUR, 89.3 FM) from 10 to 11 a.m.

They'll also take your questions at 816-235-2888 -- whether it's in relation to the grease stain from a pizza box or whether you should tip on takeout. 

[Image via Flickr: dsirninja]

We no longer have nuggets, now we have boneless filets.

​With March Madness starting right now, I intend to be knee deep in buffalo sauce and nacho cheese before the weekend hits. And if KFC is right about mankind, we don't want to deal with any impediment to overeating, such as bones in our chicken.

Because I refuse to eat the "meaty" KFC boneless filet -- which the Impulsive Buy compares to "four McDonald's chicken nuggets fused together" -- I opted for a slightly safer option: the buffalo chicken sandwich. The two contestants in today's battle are a sub shop and a wing joint -- each represents one of the two places you're most likely to find an acceptable boneless chicken option.

Mackey's struck oil in Overland Park

​Santa Fe Drive, the main drag of downtown Overland Park, now has two businesses with the word olive in their names: the Olive Branch Art Gallery & Studios at 7915 Santa Fe Drive, which does not sell olive oil, and the two-week-old The Tasteful Olive, which does.

It's a sunny storefront at 7945 Santa Fe, owned by Jeanne Mackey. She says her mother never cooked with olive oil, but did use the historic liquid -- Homer called it "liquid gold" -- for curing earaches when Jeanne was a little girl.

Mackey's business focuses more on the culinary uses of extra-virgin olive oil, although her store does sell olive oil-based shampoos and conditioners, books with olive oil themes (The Healing Powers of Olive Oil is one of the featured paperbacks) and mixes, pan sauces, glazes and crackers. But the real reason to wander through the shop is to learn about and taste her array of oils and balsamic vinegars, including some startlingly fabulous flavors.

Sun Chips in new compostable bags are on the shelves at Target.

​Chips are bad for you -- but Sun Chips, well they're just made of good stuff. The snack-food industry's rebranding continues with Frito Lays' introduction of a chip bag made from compostable material.

Also: Frito Lay is using solar energy at one of its plants. However, it's only being used for the 10 1/2 ounce size of Sun Chips, and that still leaves seven plants that are likely powered by fossil fuels. 

But back to the compostable bag. It's admirable, even if the Sun Chips Web site warns that the new bag is spooooky: .