Welcome back to Let’s Dish — an inside look at food and drink in Kansas City. I’m Katelyn Umholtz, The Star’s Food Insider.
November is probably one of my favorite food months, largely due to a major holiday that’s all about feasting. Chef Sarah Nelson would agree with me, and her butcher shop and gourmet grocery store goes big for the holiday in order to help her customers make the most of it.
The Carne Diem owner is featured in this week’s very meat-forward On the Menu.
Also perfect for the holidays: There’s a new restaurant-bar in JoCo, perfect for when you need a little beer break from family.
Let’s dig in.
A new JoCo restaurant
A neighborhood bar and restaurant has expanded across the state line, reports my colleague Jenna Thompson.
The Brooksider, aptly originally located in the Brookside neighborhood, has expanded to Leawood, bringing its sizable menu of bar food classics (burgers, buffalo wings, fried apps) and beer to the ‘burbs.
The space is massive and is able to seat 688 patrons in multiple spaces that offer diners a slightly different experience depending on where they’re seated.
But, as Jenna reported, the restaurant there before Brooksider was involved in an infamous case that resulted in the 11-year prison sentence of a former employee. Her first look goes into what the “brand-new” space looks like now.
Sarah Nelson’s favorite bites
Turkey (or tofurky, for our vegetarian and vegan diners) season is nigh, my friends. And it’s also chef Sarah Nelson’s favorite time of year.
Maybe it’s because she’s surrounded by slabs of meat at her Northland butcher shop, Carne Diem, which she owns with her husband. Ahead of the holidays, her gourmet grocery store is buzzing with orders from customers seeking out whole brined turkeys and all the fixings that they don’t have to cook themselves — only a reheat is necessary.
While the holiday attracts much conversation over favorite side dishes, her favorite part of the meal is the main dish. But when she’s not preparing a turkey for her family — and for Kansas Citians — she’s eating at these meat-forward spots around town.
Cosmo Burger: Another Cosmo Burger fan hits the On the Menu series. What is it about these smash burgers? For Nelson, she loves that you can turn a regular cheeseburger into one topped with peanut butter and jalapeño jam, also known as the option to “goob it.”
Go Chicken Go: As the owner of a whole-animal butcher shop, Nelson isn’t afraid of offal or tough cuts of meat. One place where she eats the former is Go Chicken Go, where she gets a mixed bucket of fried chicken — including the gizzards and livers. Make sure you add this to any order: “Their G-sauce is spicy, tomato-y, and it’s amazing.”
You can get more recommendations from Nelson. Want your recommendations featured here? Drop me a line!
À la carte
✴️ A chicken restaurant inside a brewery has ceased operations at the 18th & Vine space. But according to social media, it isn’t the end of the concept.
✴️ Is Bojangles coming to the KC area? Yes, reports Jenna Thompson — but not as soon as we all thought.
✴️ A non-chicken update: It turns out that Kansas City is the best at Kansas City-style BBQ. Here’s how USA Today readers ranked our joints.
Eat like a food reporter
How does a Kansas City food reporter eat each week? Well! Here are the food and drinks I’ve enjoyed recently:
Tamales from Café Corazón: I relish the tasty, flaky empanadas and the side chimichurri sauce at Café Corazón, but one recent breakfast required even more than my already stacked plate of beef and cheesy empanadas. I added the tamales, which came warm, seasoned and not too dry. Pair it with a yerba mate or coffee — the best start to my day in a while.
Juicy Lucy burger from City Barrel: I am always on the hunt for the perfect burger, and while there are many great smash burgers in town, trends make me grumpy. I want a classic pub burger, and while this one was of the Minnesota-style (a Juicy Lucy, with cheese stuffed inside the patty) and still slightly smaller than a usual pub patty, it satiated this occasional smash burger hater.
Hungry for more?
Happy eating! We’ll see you next week.
Katelyn Umholtz is The Star’s Food Insider and covers Kansas City’s restaurant scene and food and beverage news. She comes to Kansas City from Boston, where she was an award-winning food and restaurant reporter for Boston.com and the Boston Globe Media Partners. She has worked in newsrooms across the country for nearly a decade as an education journalist, breaking news reporter and editor. Katelyn is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where she studied journalism.
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