Denis Culinary Tours

One thing I like and appreciate about the restaurant industry is that it is possible to rise from dishwasher to chef to even owner over a period of time.   While Matt Barnes, Executive Chef of Pierpont’s , didn’t exactly do that, he did begin 13 years ago as a chef’s apprentice and through his hard work, attention to detail, creativity and he added, luck, he managed to, as he put it, “Work my way up for a great company in a great job.” Matt and I sat in the iconic bar the other day, drinkless alas but not deliberately as part of my less drink regimen.   We talked about his position, his life, and his restaurant – which he regards as too hidden away to be a KC regulars’ spot.   I have to say, I think Pierpont’s has the most beautiful bar in town, and as I thoroughly perused the happy hour and other menus, I concluded, like most of Kansas City should, that I ought to come here more often. I asked him what was the hardest chunk of his work and he said he thrives o...

Re-Discovering Reason The other day, despite not being all that hungry, I stopped by Porto do Sul in sunny southern Overland Park. No real reason – just hadn’t been in for a while.   I was so pleasantly surprised I thought I’d tell you about it. First, I’m not sure I really knew I didn’t have to eat a whole bunch!   You know the feeling . . . if you’re buying dinner for 49 bucks for 17 cuts of meat and a huge harvest table of all kinds of assorted side (and main) dishes, you feel like you gotta eat lots.   Buffet fever I call it.   But I learned I could also try some Brazilian favorites starting at just $12.50 for lunch or dinner.   Things like the picanha house special which is a sirloin sandwich on their famous cheese bread and their special Porto sauce for $13. Or their churrasco plate with sirloin slices, bacon-wrapped chicken, sausage and pork loin grilled with parmesan cheese and two slides for $17.   Ok, that’s a lot – but my friend...

Since it was cool, even if rainy, at long last this week, I took some friends on the streetcar and we ate at il Lazzarone , a not so new anymore pizza place in the city market. What struck me most was that three of them hadn’t been on the street car and that the entire excursion could be considered an adventure – which one kept exclaiming it was.   What if we started looking at all such trips as adventures?   Life would be so much more exciting.   And even if you’re going to a familiar place, you can turn it into an exploration. For instance, one HOT day last week, I was at McCormick and Schmick’s .   No way was I going to sit outside.   Yet there was a breeze, hot again, but we braved the heat and decided to sit on their lovely patio, ordered a tropical drink and then their fresh strawberry lemonade, ate the perfectly seared bigeye ahi tuna and despite the cars, I pretended I was in Hawaii.   It certainly all felt tropical – and I felt better about ...

5 Great Reasons to Happy Hour on the Plaza Friend Nancy and I went to Café Trio this week and it reminded me I need to come here more often.     There are several reasons for this brilliant assessment.  1. The food and drinks are VERY good. And there are so many choices – including soups and salads which you seldom see on a happy hour menu. I went for the chicken livers and they were great and plentiful – and I am an expert on chicken livers, at least eating them. But there’s also excellent truffle fries, flatbread, fried chicken, mussels, crab cakes and steak burgers – 14 different items right now.  2. The prices are REALLY reasonable -- $4 well drinks and wine, $5 martinis, $3 beers. Their food features range from $5 to maybe $8 and these are good sized portions, folks.  3. They have a GREAT location with their OWN parking. It’s the Plaza and you can easily park there. Whoo-Hoo.  4. They have TERRIFIC ambiance inside and a WONDERF...

Dinner and a . . . Sometimes I could kick myself. I eat out a lot. But I could be eating out and doing more at the same time if I just opened my eyes a bit and planned better – just the tiniest bit. Here’s what I mean: the Gaslight Grill in Leawood offers periodic (free) music by talented KC musicians on their Cabaret evenings besides their five days a week jazz in their Back Room. On May 8th, which I missed of course, they had Kristen Alley and Alyce Pickering singing tunes from James Taylor, Carol King, and Chicago. See my first sentence. Webster House has a full program of events including their monthly supper clubs, jazz trios, special happy hours and the like. Back on the 9th their supper club featured Candace Evans and on May 23, they have a special wine tasting. There’s lots going on – there are three ways to find out easily. The first is to go to our Events Calendar . The second is to search by nightlife , or to sign up for our Instagram , or twitter . The t...

Usually by the third week of April, I’ve dined/imbibed at one or two outdoor dining spaces in K.C.  These are also known typically as patios and several restaurants around town have created lovely spaces for those who want to dine al fresco. This year, however, no dice.  For starters, it’s snowed, sleeted, semi-hailed, or rained or been freezing cold every weekend – but you are probably also aware of that. Once I got over my surprise at being unable to control the weather, I sought solutions. I found four that could come close to the answer.  Sullivan’s Steakhouse ’s outdoor dining is partially covered and enclosed.  You can eat an entire steak dinner or just snack on their bar bites – either works well.  You can also, the last time I was there,  smoke a cigar.  Brewery Emperial in the Crossroads has an entire “beer garden” where you can get much more than a beer.  You can warm up around their “au natural” (almost) fire fit.  You’ll ...

One Great Chef: Colby Garrelts In doing a bit of research on Colby Garrelts, I found his recipe for chipped beef on toast with white gravy.   My navy guy dad called it s*** on a shingle, and my mom made it from packaged dry beef and cream of mushroom soup.   He wouldn’t eat it but we kids liked it though we couldn’t call it what he did. Colby’s recipe has 16 ingredients, and reading it, I immediately wanted to make it.   Or rather, I wanted to order it. But it did make me go buy his second cook book, Made in America .       You probably already know all of Chef Garrelts’ credentials: a 2013 James Beard Foundation Best Chef: Midwest award winner, 2005 Food & Wine’s Top 10 Best New Chefs, author of two cookbooks (with semi-finalist Outstanding Pastry Chef, wife and co-owner Megan), semi-finalist Outstanding Restaurant for Bluestem in 2018, the third time on this prestigious short list, and all kinds of showcases and awards in various mag...

Fast Breaking Deliciousness In the last couple weeks, I’ve broke my fasting relatively early to try two different places on the Plaza for a real breakfast.   Not just coffee but a true breakfast with eggs and bacon and carbs and all my favorites which I never do at home.   There are really only two choices right in the heart of the Plaza for that and of course, that’s the iconic Classic Cup Café and then the new – to the area – Rye Restaurant , which maybe isn’t necessarily thought of as a breakfast place. The Classic Cup is frequently touted for its long-term status, its people watching, its patios, its wine events, and its famous buttermilk pancakes.   Though I have long wanted to try their bread pudding and just call it a day, I typically opt for one of three benedicts or one of five omelets – though three eggs do make for a hefty breakfast.   Their French omelet is especially tasty – smoked bacon, spinach, apple and brie. I’m going to either get t...

You Sweet Thing, You It’s appropriate that I’m writing this on International Women’s Day (even though I decry the need for this “holiday” which has been around since the 1900’s) because I’m writing about Rye ’s desserts, all crafted by Chef Megan Garrelts. You probably know she is again a James Beard Semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef. Her previous nomination was for the pastry (a very broad category really covering everything from bread to doughnuts to cakes and elegant concoctions) at Bluestem, the other restaurant she co-owns with her husband. Her pastry expertise and creativity is the foundation of all the desserts at all three restaurants – to say she’s busy is an understatement. But on to the goodies . . . The Rye dessert menu has a little something for everyone. There is the famous lemon meringue pie of course, sprightly tart and sweet and in my opinion, even as a confirmed chocoholic, the perfect ending to any meal. Her MOKAN pie is another favorite – her...

The (Not-So-Secret) Secrets of 11 Great Chefs “I’ve Got a Secret” was an old TV series, even before my time almost (1952-67) but then it was revived a couple of times in various formats which I never saw.  The schtick was that a panel tried to guess a contestant’s “secret.” The definition of secret was pretty broad but it was supposed to be amazing, unusual, humorous, or embarrassing.  The contestant could be a famous person or someone more like you or me.  I remember there was a lot of back and forth banter and that my parents liked the show a whole more than I did. Maybe that’s because the secrets never seemed all that fascinating to me, or that’s how I remember it anyway.  A secret should be really that – deep, mysterious, intriguing.  The whole problem with that concept today is that there seem to be few secrets – everybody knows everything about everybody.  Thank you, internet. Well, that’s not really totally true.  What if, I thought, w...

Esteemed publisher Kathy Denis and I had lunch last week at Webster House , one of my favorite haunts.   Not that that old school is haunted in any sense of the word.   They’ve freshened up their menu again which Chef Brandon Winn does seasonally at least, so we felt compelled to eat heartily.   The mushroom soup managed to be light but hearty with the mushroom flavor unmistakable – and the slices and chunks of mushrooms helped that of course.   Determined to be healthy, I ordered the house salad then said we’d split.   Kathy got the pan-seared scallops with butternut squash puree and an apple cider reduction and they were perfect.   Since I’d been so healthy so far, I then proceeded to wolf down most of the short rib tartine whose eponymous rib just dissolved in my mouth along with the caramelized onion and smoked pepper jam.   We shared both dishes (somewhat) and finally, sated, sat back and sighed happily. And then our cute and very obl...

Kansas City, to my mind, has never been a particularly great place for hotel dining and drinking. (Oh, sure, there was the Peppercorn Duck Club and Skies, I still miss them both.) You are welcome to disagree but among my friends and me, we never think about getting happy in a hotel in this town. Traveling, sure. But now I’m starting to think we should put hotels on our list. Case in point: The Drum Room adjoining Providence New American Kitchen in the Hilton downtown. Their happy hour runs from 4 – 6:30 p.m. – I like that extra half hour. Also there’s parking across the street which is less expensive than most of the lots around and who knows, you might get lucky with street parking. You’re downtown, folks. But during that time, you can actually have dinner if you have that burger craving all good Midwesterners fall prey to – it’s just six bucks as are their duck fat fries (I ALWAYS ask for extra crispy no matter where I go) that come with a beer and cheese fondue. ...

Wow! I know some of you believe every year is the day, week, month and year of the dog, but according to the Chinese New Year Calendar, this year occurs only every 12 years but the earth dog occurs in only 2018 (and years 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, and 2030). But no matter, the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum will celebrate the Chinese holiday new year on January 28 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and this year is especially special.  Bo Ling's Chinese Restaurant is going to be there (rooms 4 and 5) to help by serving some of their fine cuisine like dan dan noodles with pork, Sichuan dumplings, roasted chicken, vegetable fried rice, and rangoon dip with crispy noodles. Besides trying some unusual dishes, you and your family can enjoy several different dance groups, a traditional Chinese dress show, even a yo-yo demonstration along with special Asian influenced menu items in the Rozzelle Court Restaurant. There’s so much going on – and it will help you learn about a different cultu...

Braised Red Cabbage One Great Dish A while back, as I’m sure you’ll recall, I spoke with Chef Jeff Dietzler at Jax Fish House and Oyster Bar and wrote in that blog that he does even cook at home when he has time.  One thing that creative chefs do is reach into their memory banks and recreate.  This recipe is an example of that and a perfect wintry pick-me-up as well. Braised Red Cabbage Ingredients: 1 head red cabbage, finely sliced                              2 carrots, medium grate on box grater   2 apples, granny smith, medium grate    1 red onion, small dice                   ½ t. nutmeg                ...

Thanks for the Memories, 2017 I’m a lucky girl as I get to eat out often.  A lot.  But when asked to come up with the best meals of 2017, I must pause, ponder, try to remember.  I would say that entire spectacular meals are tough to recall –  , well, not to recall beyond, “That was all wonderful,” which makes for really boring reading.  Instead, I tend to remember one especially wonderful dish which casts its glimmer on everything else to create that total glowing impression. So I’ll mention a few, briefly. First things first.  That means, before dinner, a drink.  Surprise. I’ve been on an old-fashioned kick recently (well, the last ten years) so I think I’d pick the one made with Scotch at Porto do Sul or one of the newer riffs on the classics at Pierpont’s .  I also really like the aquavit tasting at the Krokstrom Klubb and Market – you drink these and your mouth even feels clean as your brain gets cold. Since my perfect meal dre...