Monday, May 20, 2013

Welcome, this is our Farmhouse

May brings springtime to Kansas City, and last weekend was perfect for a warm-weather dinner outing. It was Beth’s turn to choose the restaurant, and choose she did: we went to Farmhouse in the City Market area.

This is a bit more upscale than we Gastronomical All Stars usually experience, and was totally worth it. I can’t wait to go back.

Aside from the River Market, I haven’t spent much time in City Market. It’s a fun area with a great vibe. All the old brick buildings and leafy trees reminded me of Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood.

When we joined the group at the restaurant, Beth announced she would buy wine for the table as punishment for not blogging. Boy am I glad she forgot to blog. Justin followed suit by getting a few cheese plates and Erin crostini. (These were not your average appetizers of shame, folks!)

Décor was cool: a mix-match of country-style tables and chairs and huge barn-looking door. The art was funky mixed with paintings of cows.

I went simple and ordered the polenta on the recommendation of our server. I’ve always known polenta to be bland, but they do it right at Farmhouse. It came with roasted tomatoes and goat cheese, with a little caramelized onion and balsamic vinegar. Wow. This was the choice for me.

I sampled almost everything else, and everything was delicious. I will have to come back so I can have more of the grits, salmon, rabbit-lentil soup and lamb.

The only disappointment is the lack of local wine selection: there wasn’t much. All the wine from the local wineries were sweet (darn Missouri grapes): to get a dry red, I had to go to Argentina for a malbec.

Next time I want to try one of their fun cocktails (served in--what else?--a mason jar). And maybe a dessert or two.

I gave Farmhouse a 4.8/5 stars—the highest to date.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Endless Mimossa's Yes Please

So it was my month to pick for GAS and I decided to follow in Josh's footsteps and do something other than dinner.  I have a friend who had been raving about Louis Wine Dive so I decided to try it for my selection. I walked in and loved the decor and atmosphere.  I thought it was very cute and modern. When we ordered I had the hardest time deciding what to order, other than knowing I wanted Mimossa's to drink! I finally decided on the Mac and cheese omelet. I LOVE mac&cheese and omletes are one of my favorite breakfast foods.  Unfortunately I was very disappointed with my selection. The omelet was very bland and had almost no flavor to it.  I was expecting like an explosion of tastes in my mouth and instead I got nothing close to that. The omelet could very easily be improved by adding a few ingredients.  Although the omelet was disappointing, the salad it came with was delicious. I think I may have just made the wrong decision because everyone else's that I tried was very good. The French toast was great and my friend Shannon ordered the hash, which was great. My plan is to go to Classic Cookie one morning for breakfast than go and enjoy Mimossa's and try lunch at Louis.  Although I didnt care for my selection, I think i just made a poor choice. My overall score 3.6/5