Kansas City Food Blog

Do the teppanyaki chefs still put on a show at GoJo?

​Larry and Barb from Lake Waukomis, Missouri, e-mailed us this week with an intriguing question.

"We've gone to GoJo's since it opened and still enjoy the food. But there's no show anymore," wrote Larry, noting that when teppanyaki steakhouses like GoJo were all the rage in Kansas City, "most of their cooks/chefs put on quite a show. They were jugglers, percussionists and all 'round showmen, but now it seems that they just do a perfunctory basic cooking routine."

Larry and Barb want to find a Japanese steakhouse where the cooks still juggle pepper mills, flip cooked shrimp into the mouths of giggling patrons, break eggs ("Bad egg!"), build volcanoes out of raw onion rings and make bad jokes. I could hardly understand why -- as most Fat City readers know, I find the "show" at Japanese steakhouses to be sort of tiresome. I mean, once you've seen one flaming onion volcano, haven't you them all?

Still, I found it difficult to imagine that the grillmasters at GoJo, one of the city's oldest and busiest teppanyaki restaurants, would resort to a "perfunctory basic cooking routine" since it's more of a tourist draw than anything else.

​Fat City's Jonathan Bender forwarded a question from reader Valerie, who is looking for a kind of restaurant that hardly exists anymore: "I'm in search of a restaurant," she wrote, "where a couple can have a romantic dinner and then dance afterwards." And not just any kind of dancing, but romantic post-dinner dancing.

So, is there such a restaurant? Well, the Raphael Restaurant in the Raphael Hotel used to have a little dance floor near the space, just off the bar, where musicians or a pianist play. But since the restaurant was renovated earlier this year and became Chaz on the Plaza, the music stayed, but the dance floor did not. "We have jazz musicians every night except Sunday and Monday," said a hotel employee, "but there's no more dancing."

So I called one of the ballroom dance clubs in town and asked one of the instructors if she knew of any restaurants where couples could dine and dance. She could think of only one: Plaza III on the Country Club Plaza. So I called there and was told that yes, on weekends there was still live music in the club downstairs, but since the entertainment varies "sometimes you can dance to it and sometimes you can't."

Just when I thought I'd never find a place for Valerie to kick up her heels, I called the Oak Bar, adjacent to the Oak Room Restaurant at the InterContinental Hotel on the Country Club Plaza. Yes, I was told: the bar features live entertainment several nights a week and yes, there's a dance floor.

(Image via Flickr: black_currant)

 

​A steak dinner means a celebration. And whether you're celebrating a birthday or just the fine piece of steak you're about to eat doesn't matter because you're about to tuck into a prime rib or filet mignon.

This morning from 10 to 11 a.m., you're invited to celebrate steak with Charles Ferruzza as he makes his regular appearance on The Walt Bodine Show on KCUR. Forget talking turkey -- the professionals talk steak. Together with a panel of experts, he'll be discussing everything from strip to skirt -- and all of the possible methods of preparation.

So get your thoughts together on who has the finest T-bones in town and where to get the right meat for grilling. You can call in at 816-235-2888 or e-mail the show.

​Is this a question to ask Dear Abby, Miss Manners, Dan Savage, or the readers of Fat City? A friend of mine called today to say he walked out of a restaurant before the food arrived because he had been waiting for over 40 minutes for a simple lunch, the service was lousy, and the music played over the sound system stunk to high hell. "Worst than Muzak, worst than the worst rehearsal of the very worst garage band," he groused. "I had to get the hell out of there."

But, he asked, did he do something morally unethical? After all, we could assume that maybe his food was almost ready to be served before he took leave of the little restaurant.

I've always said that the aural component is as important as any of the sensual qualities one experiences in a restaurant. Frankly, I don't care how fantastic the cuisine may be if the restaurant is too grimy, if the servers are too inattentive, and if the music doesn't enhance the dining experience in some way. Have I walked out of an excessively noisy dining room? Hell yes!

(Image via Flickr:dimitridickinson)

 

I received an e-mail from C.B., a Fat City reader, today with an unusual request. He wants a bialy, the chewy yeast roll that was once a staple of Jewish-American delicatessens. The Food Lover's Companion describes the roll as "round and flat with a depression in the center...sprinkled with sauteed onion before baking. The name comes from the Polish city of Bialystok." Not to be confused with Max Bialystock -- the role played by Zero Mostel and Nathan Lane in the movie versions of Mel Brooks' The Producers.

The reader wrote: "Any idea where to get good bialys in Kansas City? The New York Bakery & Delicatessen had excellent bialys when it was still under the original ownership, but the last time I bought them there (probably over 25 years ago), they were quite mediocre. Is there another bakery that makes them?"

Any answers for C.B.?

 

(Image via Flickr: ang_williams)

 

 

 

 

Flicker: Una Bella Mondo

I received an e-mail from Linda, a reader in Dallas, Texas, who wrote: "I was trying to find something...about Stephenson's Old Apple Farm. I've been going there all my life and we used to go there on our travels at least two or more times a year. Oh, how we miss it. I wondered if they are selling their products anywhere? I want the apple pie spice, the green rice spice..."

Ah yes, the gone, but hard-to-forget Stephenson's Old Apple Farm Restaurant. Two years ago, I wrote about having a nostalgic yearning for Stephenson's Restaurant too and that I had looked in my neighborhood supermarket for Stephenson's brisket seasonings and the store manager telling me that the family was no longer manufacturing its seasoning line.

I did track down a phone number for the old Stephenson's Orchard in Independence -- 816-373-4990 -- which has an answering machine announcing it as "Stephenson's Fruit Market." But even though I called during the business hours mentioned in the recording, I could never get an actual human to answer the phone.

So the question is this: Where can Linda from Dallas find those Stephenson's seasonings? Or can she? 

 

 

 

 

 

It was Fat City blogger Owen Morris, writing today about a Swedish newspaper's article that mentioned -- among other things -- Pitch writer Alan Scherstuhl, his cat, green Jell-O salad and big fat Rush Limbaugh that jolted my memory.

Last Friday, on KCUR-FM's Walt Bodine Show, when the discussion finally veered away from Valentine's Day versus Halloween (go to the link, it's just too weird to explain logically), one of the show's listeners called in with three very specific requests. First, he wanted to know the name of a restaurant in the Kansac City area that served Swedish meatballs. I wanted to tell the guy to crash practically any wedding reception -- they're almost a fixture on a first-class buffet table! But I held my tongue. Any answers for this question, Fat City readers?

The same caller wanted to know if there was a local restaurant that served good Hungarian goulash. The rest of the panel looked blank, but I remembered that bubbly Hungarian meatball George Detsios, former owner of George's Cheese & Sausage Shop on the Country Club Plaza -- we're talking a long time ago, now -- serves his signature Hungarian dishes at Grinders (417 E. 18th Street). But only on Monday nights.

I called Grinders to find out what George was preparing tonight and the harried young lady who answered the phone said, "I don't know. It's either goulash or Chicken Paprika."

Anyone else know of other possible goulash joints in town?

The last question -- same caller -- was where to find beef stroganoff. I suggested any decent cafeteria or buffet in town. I can't think of any other venue that sells this dish (which is so easy and cheap to make at home in that neglected Crock Pot). Can you?

My friend Lorraine isn't just any fussy restaurant customer. Because she worked in the hospitality business for so many years, she's willing to forgive many little (and not-so-little) eccentricities and goofs in the culinary world. But even the laid-back Miss L. can lose her cool at the latest insult to common sense: designer plates. She detests the new trend for rectangular plates.

I prefer rectangles to the triangle-shaped plates I've been seeing lately. But most people know my theory about plates: as long as they're not paper, styrofoam or ridiculously chipped, I'll eat off of just about anything. And have!

I received an e-mail today from a reader named Miles who has a very good memory about Kansas City restaurant history -- I mean, he remembered that I was a waiter at a restaurant called Mama Stuffeati's more than 20 years ago -- but has a mental block at recalling specific details.

"I've been wracking my name trying to remember the name of a restaurant that was at 38th and Main Street," he wrote. "Sanderson's moved there in the late 1970s or early '80s."

That little diner was razed in 2001. It was the second location for the legendary Sanderson's Lunch, which was a fixture in downtown Kansas City, at 104 E. 8th St., for more than half a century. Sandersons' original location may have been the last restaurant in Kansas City to have operated without a working bathroom.

But the glass-and-metal diner that Miles remembers was another diner, one from before owner Art Lamb moved Sanderson's to 38th and Main in the mid-1980s. Does anyone remember the name of that restaurant?

Miles would also like to know the name of the restaurant -- it was actually a cocktail lounge -- located in an actual airplane, that stood near 43rd and Main for much of the 1960s. I'm sorry I missed that place and I'd like to know the name of it too. I do know it wasn't the Jet Lounge: that was the name of the bar in the long-razed State Hotel at 10th and Baltimore.

Any readers out there with answers for Miles?  -- Charles Ferruzza

By CHARLES FERRUZZA

Die-hard fans of Joe Accurso's cozy Italian joint at 50th and Main keep asking me about the place. They know it's moving, but the idea sends some of them into a panic. John in Prairie Village writes: "Is it still open? When is it moving to the new location?"

Don't worry, John. Accurso's is still open. It won't move -- to that new building still under construction a block north -- until after the holidays. Accurso plans a soft opening in January.

I've always loved the old brick building that's been Accurso's home for 24 years. I've also heard the story that there's been a restaurant on that spotat 5044 Main Street since 1905. Curious about that fact (after all, the nearby Country Club Plaza only dates back to 1922), I once pored through several City Directories dating back to the early 1900s and couldn't find a reference to a restaurant on this site.

Joe has done a little research of his own and knows the building was around as far back as the 1930s, because there was an honest-to-goodness Jewish delicatessen in the space (back when there were dozens of places like the century-old New York Bakery and Delicatessen, the last of its kind in Kansas City now).

But back to the new space...

By CHARLES FERRUZZA

I love any e-mail that starts with "First of all, I would like to say how wonderful you are ..."! Especially after my so-called breakfast of black coffee and Nicorette gum. If I can't have a big fat doughnut, damn it, I'll take a compliment. But I'd really prefer a doughnut. Or a bagel slathered with cream cheese.

On that note -- the generous donor of the "wonderful" compliment, Daniel from Kansas City, Kansas, followed it up with a question:

"Where in Kansas City can I find good quality cream cheese? Yes, I do not really care that much for store-bought cream cheese, and in my opinion, ever since Bagel and Bagel turned into 'Einstein Brothers,' I personally think their cream cheese is atrocious. Any suggestions would be great! And if you know of a place to obtain great bagels also, that would be appreciated, too!"

Funny, I've never put that much thought into cream cheese -- it's so boring unless it's baked into a gorgeously fattening cheesecake. But Daniel's question did inspire me to call Kelly Gibbens at The Better Cheddar, which has two locations that sell a pretty dazzling selection of cheese.

By CHARLES FERRUZZA

I get so many questions about food and eating out here in the Fat City that we've added a new category: Ask Charles Ferruzza. Ask me a question and I'll do my best to answer it or, if I'm stumped, throw it out to you, our loyal readers. After all, you not only have excellent taste and firm opinions, but you're scattered all over the place.

Pitch reader Rich wrote us to say that he had recently moved to Olathe from the East Coast and likes the Kansas City metropolitan area -- who wouldn't? -- but has not been happy with the pizza, chicken wings and hot dogs he's finding here. "Where," he writes, "in this Midwestern city can I find REAL pizza, REAL wings and REAL hot dogs?"

I'm assuming that real, in this particular case, means the thin-crust pizza one can buy and eat on the streets of New York, the spicy chicken wings like those invented by the legendary Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York and those fabulous Sabrett hot dogs.