b:2 a burger boutique Summit Fair 860 w. nw. Blue Parkway Lee’s Summit, MO 64085 816.246.9696 This is Cow Town right?  We ought to have the best burgers of anywhere in the country.  Stock yards graced this land for decades.  Cowboys landed here after long rides.  All that bovine history must have had some lasting effect on the city’s hamburgers.  This is the corn feed Midwest ladies and gents.  The burgers should be remarkable.   It’s our birthright. And you know what, they are remarkable.  We may, as always,...

I have a new favorite place in Kansas City (readers beware, this may happen every week). Here is the deal.  When I was 17, I spent 3 weeks in Europe with $300. $300 for meals, museums, sleeping accommodations etc.  It was not exactly high rolling through European cafes.  However, I love food.  One of my great life truths is that limited financial status ought not equal poor dining experience.  Therefore, we ate a lot of crepes those three weeks.  At about $2 each, and unlimited options, they were an incredible value and...

What happens when men open a restaurant alone?  Evidently, they “decorate” it only in primary colors and sports memorabilia, forgo such womanly accompaniments as serving dishes not made out of paper and make such masculine delicacies as hot dogs, pizza and hoagies. They make only hot dogs, pizza and hoagies.  No need for such things as dishes, color schemes, napkins, ‘extras’ on the menu or coordinating furniture.  Nope, let’s just make some guy food. Such is the scene at The Pizza Man.   A no-frills attitude is...

Who would have guessed that my favorite memory from our trip to California would not have been the beach?  Who could have possibly guessed that the beach would have come in second to a restaurant serving chicken and waffles?  Not me, that’s for sure.  Now that I’ve been to Roscoe’s House of Chicken’n Waffles, I can’t help but pray that we get something like this out here in KC! OK, I know what you’re thinking.  Fried chicken…syrupy waffles….sounds gross, right?  Let me...

Once again KC has been a little slow on the uptake for the designer cupcake trend (SPRINKLES!).  LA and New York have had these for nearly a decade and suddenly there seems to be an up-shoot of numerous cupcake places here.  That’s just fine with me.  Cupcake A La Mode was my first and will always have the distinct advantage of being very close to my house, just west of the Plaza and in Park Place at 117th and Nall. With hot pink walls, lots of lace aprons, and gourmet cupcakes (and their boxes), Cupcake A La Mode gives...

For a beef city, Kansas City has tragically few decent Philadelphia steak sandwich places.  Thankfully, I really only need one. I have been eating at this restaurant for nearly 20 years and it is an important part of my family life.  Four sets of my cousins make a yearly pilgrimage to Kansas City to eat at the Caboose (and to draft for fantasy football).  My father considered giving up his medical practice to buy this restaurant.  With what we know now about ‘cholesterol’, it may have been good to have an M.D. operating...

Down on Broadway tucked in to a tiny room, a wonderful man makes wonderful food he simply loves to cook.  C. Withers is his name, outrageously good smoked food is his game.   The man has no trepidation about putting something in his smoker: prime rib, steaks, cabbage, green beans, strawberry cake, cornbread, baked beans. All of these are regulars for his guests.  It is really most appropriate to consider yourself a guest in his world rather than his customer.  The whole experience is more down home than any Southerner could...

Going to Chicago at the end of the summer is a big difference than the beginning. I ventured up this weekend to see the last NIN show (for me) for awhile. I had been up there in May, which was nice sunny weather similar to what we are experiencing now. They don’t call it the Windy City for nothing. I was wearing long sleeves and a light jacket the entire time this time around. …

As I continue following the Nine Inch Nails Wave Goodbye tour, weekend two brought me to Chicago for two shows. Since Ryan and Angela were also attending this weekend’s shows, I chose a hotel close to theirs since we were sharing a car. They were staying at the Hyatt Regency O’hare, which is where they flew in. I chose the Aloft Hotel a “vision”of W hotels a few blocks away. After weekend one, in New York where I stayed in a run of the mill, cookie cutter like, however clean Holiday Inn, the Aloft was...