Monday, May 09, 2005

Be Prepared With An Answer

More thoughts on my Cleveland trip:

It seemed that the three of us spent a good deal of time thinking about our next place to eat and to be on the look out for good places. When the client is paying for meals, we can eat well. We are in Cleveland! Let’s see what Cleveland taste like. The hard part came from getting advice from the locals. One of the guys we met with was from Hudson, a rich suburb outside of Cleveland. We asked him for a nice spot to eat in Cleveland and he said “…if you like steak, Morton’s is pretty good.” I am sure it is, but we have a Morton’s in Kansas City. He had trouble coming up with other options. Another guy we talked to said that Outback Steakhouse is pretty good. Eventually, someone told us we should check out the “little Italy” part of town. We did and found lots of unique Italian spots to choose from. It seemed pretty hard to find suggestions of local flavor from the locals. Eventually, we found a best of Cleveland list on the internet.

Be prepared with an answer.

Could I be ready to guide an out-of-towner to a local food establishment? What would I suggest? Where would I take people to experience Kansas City?

Fortunately for us, we have lots of good BBQ joints and I could recommend quite a few, depending on what part of town one is in or if you want the hole in the wall vs. the nice sit down place. For a unique choice of foods, it would be easy to recommend going to 39th and State line (the restaurant alley.) For nice dinning, the plaza has lots of choices to offer, although they do have some higher-end big city chain restaurants. I think I would have good recommendations for all types of food including ice cream (Murray’s in Westport.)

I am by no means a food snob and I don’t cringe at the thought of eating at a Chain, but I think this trip has given me a new appreciation of our local food. I think I’ll make an effort to support them when I can.

7 comments:

Jadee said...

Thanks for these ideas....so next time I am in town to see Dirt and Dash, we can check them out! However, we did go to a famous BBQ place after church...that was so good, I can't remember the name of it! LOL! Of course, with the little dashes and boards....we can always give them PBJs and grapes!

shakedust said...

Out-of-towner: Is there some place nice to eat around here that can give me a good Kansas City experience?

Me: Well, there is a McDonalds and a Subway down this street and to the right. Oh, and the Taco Bell a mile down that street makes the best grilled stuft burritos...

windarkwingod said...

I will miss my favorites here; but if anyone makes it over to see us - I'll have good local recommendations to take you to!

T said...

My favorite place to take out of towners is Fiorella's Jack Stack in Martin City (where we recently ate with jadee.) It's good food, fun atmosphere too!

f o r r e s t said...

I have been to that Jack Stack in Martin City. Yum! Have you been to the Fiorella's Jack Stack across the tracks from Union Station in the crossroads district? It is in an old freight house for the train yard nearby and it is really nice inside. It is far from a hole in the wall joint but the food is good and so is the atmosphere. I think BBQ is my all time favorite food and there are so many good choices in KC.

Jadee said...

When ya'll come over this way to St. Louie...you will have to check out The Hill. It's where all the authentic Italian restaurants are located. And the home of the "toasted ravioli"!!

Doc said...

I'm fond of the old Fritz' on 18th and Central in KCK - much better than the shiny clean version at Crown Center. I have great memories of outings there with my grandparents. They still serve one of the best milkshakes, and the food still arrives by train.