Sugo's Spaghetteria

We're doing a "restaurant review" writing series in class where my eighth graders are learning how to be food critics.  I was searching for examples of actual restaurant reviews and found a KC Star write-up of Sugo's Spaghetteria.  After reading the review several times, I was in agreement with my students; it sounds awesome.

So I was happy to choose Sugo's as our October Wednesday Night Dinner destination.  It's casual Italian dining.  And it was everything I expected, and more.

Dinner was scheduled during one of my peak training weeks before the Chicago marathon, so I was literally starving when I arrived.  I walked in and was greeted by a warm loaf of bread and olive oil for dipping.  Way to start our rendezvous off right, Sugo. 

This was also during my term of sobriety, so I skipped the wine.  It was not easy.  But I stuck with water.  I ordered a salad and one of the Neopolitan pizzas; the funghi.  It was crazy huge.  And crazy delish.

Holy mushrooms, Batman!

Kate offered to pay for my dinner this month AND next month if I could finish the thing.  I was able to down 2 slices.  And then I had lunch for the next day week.  Although my wallet was sad to miss out on free meals, my tummy thanked me for avoiding disaster.  And my thighs are still thanking me for avoiding the extra pounds.

All of the meals were huge.  But extremely tasty!  Don't order anything labeled "funghi" unless you are a serious mushroom fan.  Lucky for me, mushrooms are my jam.  So I was a happy lady.  They also have a funghi pasta dish.  Huge.



I cannot make this picture smaller.  Probably because the dish was so huge.

 

We all agreed that Sugo's was a definite plus.  The food was good and the price was right.  It isn't a fancy gourmet restaurant, but it isn't supposed to be.  It is a nice, well-priced Italian eatery.  I will absolutely go back... on a Monday night because the pizza and salad is on special for $10.  That will feed me for a week!  Holla!

 

Happy Ladies.  Big Plates.

Port Fonda

I have been wanting to try Port Fonda for the longest time.  I'm pretty sure Lauren instagrammed a pic from there many many months ago and I was like, "What is that I want it now!!!!"  And then proceeded to wait months to try it out.

Finally I scheduled Port Fonda as our August G-Phi Wednesday Night Dinner.  Port Fonda is located in Westport and is just as funky as you'd expect a Mexican restaurant in Westport to be.  It had a very alternative vibe.

The first thing I noted, the chips and salsa cost $5.00.  I understand that at higher-end (is that the word I'm looking for?) Mexican restaurants you are not going to receive unlimited refills of free chips and salsa.  But if I'm paying $5.00 for it, they better be good.

I am not kidding you when I say these were the best chips I've ever eaten.  I could have just had the chips and been raving about this place.  They were amazing; thick and crunchy.  Oh so good. 

The salsa was good too.  There were two kinds, both very mild.  I wasn't raving about it so much, but that could have been because of my obsession with the chips.

Oh so good!

Listen, I have a Spanish minor* so I usually feel pretty comfortable with a Mexican menu.  This one was incomprehensible.  We had to ask lots of questions and in the end I still wasn't totally sure what I was ordering. 

I ended up getting something with lots of cheese, lots of mushrooms, and lots of chipotles.  It was heaven.  Tortillas were served on the side to gather up this delicious mixture.  I made the mistake of just spooning lots of it in my first tortilla, along with whole chipotles.  My mouth was on fire.

Delicious pot of spicy goodness.

After that I tried to avoid the chipotles, but the damage was done.  I was chugging water like crazy, but didn't want to stop eating because it really was so good.

To help quench my thirst I ordered some kind of spicy red beer.  Spicy wasn't the best option when my mouth was literally scorching, but the drink was also amazing!  And so pretty!

Delicious glass of salty/spicy deliciousness.

I think everyone agreed that Port Fonda is a must-try!  It definitely isn't your typical Mexican joint!

On Wednesdays we wear pink... and eat at Port Fonda.

If you are looking for a new restaurant to spice up your dinner adventures, check out Port Fonda!  But please beware of the chipotles!

 

*Lies.

Remedy

When making the decision to go vegetarian, there are some truths that you must automatically accept.  The first one is that you will never ever order a steak at a restaurant again. 

Until now.

This month we took Supper Club to Waldo for a little dinner and drink at Remedy.  I've been wanting to try out this restaurant since it opened mid-last-year.  They've got an amazing drink menu and are known for interesting veg options.  Both things that I love!

When we arrived, the place was bustling.  That's always a good sign.  We were told there would be a bit of a wait so we saddled up to the bar to scour the drink menu.  I didn't order it, but was psyched to see a Tinto de Waldo. 

Tinto means wine. 

Waldo means awesome.

I ordered a Milk Stout.  I've been seeing this stuff all over and had to try it!

Non-vegan beer.

We were actually seated very quickly.  My seat was... kind of... a couch.  Comfy.  Kinda weird.  We I ordered an appetizer of eggplant fries.

Amazing!!!

The menu is pretty unique.  Drew of course ordered a burger and regular fries.  Let's not get crazy here.

Burger.

He wasn't super impressed.  But to be fair, I don't think they're known for their burger.  I think he should have gone with the Bone Marrow or Pork Belly. 

I, on the other hand was ridiculously thrilled to see a Cauliflower Steak on the menu.  I got to order steak!  Steak for the vegetarian!!!

Cauliflower Steak.

The steak was amaze-balls.  So good.  It was served on top of squash, apples, and hazelnuts.  Yummy.  So yummy, that Drew kept stealing bites from my plate.  He really liked it too!

Cauliflower Steak: the ultimate people pleaser.

All in all, I really loved the restaurant.  Remedy is a little bit unique, but in a very relaxed atmosphere.  My only regret was skipping dessert.  I can't wait to go back to explore the crap out of their drink menu and maybe give the S'mores a try. 

2012 in Review: Best Restaurants

I know I've been slacking in a major way on the ol' blog here this year.  You've missed some seriously great parts of Gibson life because I've just been too lazy to type them out or snap some photos.  So to make it up to you, I've decided to do a year-in-review series over the next couple of days to catch you up on all the very important details of 2012. 

I know.  You're welcome.

To start off our review, let's talk food.  Restaurants in particular.  One of our new year's resolutions for 2012 was to try a new restaurant every month.  We invited ya'll along and deemed these dinners out: Supper Club.

Supper Club was pretty dang successful if I do say so myself.  Although I only posted about 8 new restaurant experiences, there were lots of new places tried out.  We had lots of fun doing it and will continue it into 2013. 

Over the course of the year we tried some really great places.  We also had a few duds in there too.  So here's the list of our favorite new restaurants of 2012.  Again, these are new to us.  Not actually new.

1. Blue Nile.  Who would have thought we would love Ethiopian food so much?  We do!  The food is amazing, you get to eat with your hands, and the place was just an overall great experience.  There's a new Ethiopian spot near us that is definitely on our list for 2013.

2. Urban Table.  You know how much I love BRGR.  So of course I would fall in love with it's new neighbor owned by the same peeps.  I must say though, I LOVE Urban Table for breakfast.  The coffee is fantastic, the food is delish, and the atmosphere is great.  It has the neighborhood feel that I love so much about so many places in PV. 

BUT I wasn't as crazy about the dinner service.  Granted, I've only been once, and I did have an amazing time (my dining partners probably had something to do with it), and their sangria was out of this world.  But I was unimpressed with the food.  And food is what it really comes down to, right?

So I will continue to breakfast at Urban Table as often as possible.  And maybe I'll give them another chance for dinner.  Maybe.

3. Pizza 51 West.  I first tried this little joint in Fairway after an early morning run with Brit.  Breakfast pizza???  YES PLEASE!!!  That visit was followed by yummy pizza & beers on the patio after kickball games.  I even elected to have my birthday celebration here.  I am thrilled to have such a fun & tasty place so close to home!

4. Hamburger Mary's.  If you haven't gone, go.  Just do it.  You will have an amazing time, plus the food is great.  Seriously, the best veggie burger I've ever had.  And drag-queen bingo is not to be missed.  I'm telling you, my in-laws finally dragged their group of some-what-conservative friends to Bingo, and they had a blast.  Seriously, everyone loves drag queens.  My plan is to attend the drag-queen brunch in 2013.  We also have plans for a teacher-function there. 

Teachers & drag queens.  What could be better?

5.  The Majestic.  This is Drew's pick for favorite new restaurant of 2012.  He can't say enough about his delicious steak, the amazing bartender, and the delightful jazz.  I have a hard time recalling all those things as I can only focus on getting shushed at the end of the evening.  If we have a reason to go out to a nice dinner in the future, and Drew is the one choosing, he would most definitely pick the Majestic.  Try it out, but please keep your voices down!

So there it is; the best of the best places to eat in 2012.  We're super excited to try more next year too!  It's become one of our favorite things to do.  Plus anything that gets us out of the house and off the couch is a good thing. :)

I ♥ Cinnamon Rolls.

Today we ate cinnamon rolls.

I went to Story , a lovely little Prairie Village restaurant, this morning with Britt for an event dedicated to cinnamon rolls. 

How excited do you think I was???

The answer is "very".

Judith Fertig is a writer {and blogger!} who lives in Overland Park and has published several cookbooks.  Her latest is titled i love cinnamon rolls.  The event included the book, lunch, and a demo by Judith! 

We arrived to the sold out event and were immediately seated and served coffee and a warm cinnamon roll to enjoy while we poured over the book.  Oh my word...  I don't even know where to begin to think about choosing a recipe to make.

 

Do I start with the simple and lovely Traditional?  Or do I choose a more exotic selection such as Mexican Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls, Cinnamon Bear Claws, or Szechuan Pepper Rolls with Ginger Glaze???

 

Did I mention she includes several vegan recipes???  I'm going to write a book called I ♥ Judith Fertig.

 

Then I'll probably make the Whole Wheat Pumpkin-Pecan Cinnamon Crowns.  Because, ya know.

Judith prepared her traditional cinnamon rolls while we all oohed and ahhhed and I took notes. 

Mine never rolls out that nicely.

 

She was super funny and had lots of great tips.  I was very jealous of the fact that she could demo, uninterrupted, and how everyone laughed at her jokes.  Demonstrating for adults, happily sipping their wine, seems much more fun than demonstrating for 12-year-olds.  Not once did she have to ask anyone to stop talking or touching each other.  And she didn't have to ask anyone to move or send anyone out of the room.  Lucky.

Cinnamon Confetti.

Judith addressed lots of questions about ingredients, baking times, and how to test for doneness.  Besides being very informative, she really conveyed the love that goes along with baking, especially baking bread.  There's something wonderful about working with dough.  I think she nailed it when she called it therapeutic.

After the demonstration was over, we moved on to lunch.  I've been wanting to try Story for quite some time now.  It's a small place, and the chef/owner was present and working away on our made-from-scratch meal.  They had no problem adjusting the pre-fix meal to vegetarian.

Drool-worthy menu.

The first course was a Butternut Squash Bisque.  Yum!

Delicious!

Judith sat down at the table next to us and was so sweet to chat with us while we ate.  She told us a bit about her career and how she came to love food, cooking, and writing.  I felt a little bit star-struck.

The chef prepared me an out of this world ravioli with spinach and mushrooms instead of the fish that came with the meal.  I wanted to lick my plate it was so good.  I refrained.

And dessert was an interesting mix.  It was a lemon cake with grape sorbet and cinnamon walnuts.  Very yummy, but not a combination I would have ever thought to put together.

And then, as if we hadn't received enough goodness, we were sent home with a couple of tiny cinnamon rolls.  I probably should have saved them for Drew, but I couldn't help myself.  They were too cute not to eat immediately!

 

Hey little cuties!



What a fun event!  I'm so thrilled to have met such a lovely, successful woman and shared some cinnamon roll love!  I have a feeling you will be seeing a few cinnamon-roll posts this winter.  Get excited!

 

 

Check out Judith's blog if you are interested in her work.  She has posted several of the recipes from the book, including those insanely-amazing-sounding pumpkin crowns!!!

A Majestic Evening

I'm so out of the habit of blogging that I didn't take any pictures at supper club this month... 

Also, I forgot to do supper club for like 3 months.  My bad.

This means I'm going to have to rely on words to describe the evening.  And that's a big job.  Because it was quite an evening.  I'll do my best.

Drew's birthday was Friday.  He's been wanting to go to The Majestic for months now.  So we made a reservation and invited some friends.  Because supper club without friends is just supper.

We showed up right on time for our 7:30 reservation.  We were told it would be about 10 minutes until our table was ready.  So we sat down at the bar and ordered some fun drinks.  The bartender was great*.  He wouldn't let me order my first choice because he was sure it wasn't for me.  He recommended something that came out pretty & pink* but didn't taste too sweet and frilly.  I loved it.  He even got Drew to try a new beer*... which he totally loved. 

Bartender = 10

A few minutes later we were escorted downstairs to our table.  We were set up right in front of the stage** where a hilarious trio of jazz players* were performing.  The room was small and the music was loud.  It was a fun atmosphere to enjoy our dinner.

Ambiance = 10

Our waiter was friendly and apologized right away for the fact that we were sitting directly under a speaker** and that he would basically have to shout** in order to communicate with us. 

Service = 9

That didn't stop DeAnna from asking for a vegetarian recommendation.  The Majestic is big on steak.  Which we knew.  So it was no surprise that the vegetarian options were slim.  This did not dampen our spirits.  We had fantastic drinks and the boys were quite pleased with their delicious-o steaks.
 
Food = 10 {Drew} 7 {Jamie}

We ate happily, enjoyed the somewhat unconventional jazz performance, and chatted loudly to be heard over the music.  As we received our checks, we all agreed that this was just a fantastic experience...

... and right as the boys were signing our bills, a man who we assumed was the manager came over to our table.  We assumed (wrongly) that he was checking on our experience and making sure we'd had a magnificent time.  He was not.

He informed us that he had received some complaints about our noise level, that people were trying to listen to the jazz, and asked that we keep it down.  No really.  That's what he said.

We were all seriously dumbfounded.  Like, we thought he was joking.  We were signing our checks and obviously getting ready to leave.  Not to mention the music was loud.  I'm still seriously confused about the whole situation.

Really Rude & Ill-Timed Waiter = 0

I was seriously sad because that guy put such a bad taste in my mouth and really ruined the whole experience for me.  We were just saying how much we loved the whole experience.  And then that happened.  Boo. 

We left the restaurant.  But we didn't let that ruin our night.  We headed to Manifesto for a nightcap. 

Manifesto is supposed to be a speak-easy type place below the Rieger Hotel.  I had texted for a reservation but they told me just to show up.  We walked around like idiots trying to find the place... feeling like maybe we aren't cool enough for such a thing.  When we finally found it, we realized we definitely aren't cool enough as there was a crazy wait for a table. 

I don't like waiting for booze, so we hopped across the street to Affare.  It was here that we saw the greatest mustache of all time*.  And we took the only pictures of the night. 

Happy Birthday!

Welcome to Supper Club!

Okay, so I'm going to pretend the whole stinky-waiter/manager butthole thing didn't happen and try to give an objective restaurant review. 

The Majestic was really a great experience (minus you-know-what).  If you are looking for a nice dinner out and are thinking of going somewhere like Capital Grill or Plaza III or some place like that for a nice steak dinner, think of The Majestic instead.  The bartender alone is worth it!  Just please remember to keep your voices down. 


*No photo
**Important to the story later, so remember this information

Drag Queen Bingo

Every month the Gamma Phi Beta gals from our pledge class who live in the KC area get together for our own rendition of the formal dinner we had every Wednesday during college.  Only our dinners take place at local restaurants, we aren't served by houseboys, there's rarely any singing of the blessing, and we don't have a house mom breathing down our necks about proper dinner etiquette.  Sometimes we pass the salt without passing the pepper too.  I know, we're such rebels.

Since it's summer we decided that we needed to have an extra-fun Wednesday Night Dinner.  We headed to the Crossroads for a fun night at Hamburger Mary's.  Luckily, Wednesday nights are also Bingo Night.  Sweet.

I was oh-so-excited when I checked out their extensive menu and found that not only were there 2 vegetarian burger options, but you could also choose your burger then choose the style.  So you weren't just stuck with a plain ol' veggie burger like at most restaurants.  You could choose the veggie burger then do a Honolulu Burger, a Meaty Mushroom Burger, or any of their delicious choices. 

The choices overwhelmed me, but thanks to Allie I wound up with a Fireball Burger (with a black bean patty, of course).  Blackened seasoning, hot sauce, jalapenos, ranch dressing... oh my!

Fireball Burger.

I am not exaggerating when I say that this was the best burger I've ever had... veggie or not.  It was amazing.  The fries were amazing.  I was a one happy camper. 

Munch munch munch.

Other happy campers.

Big Ass Burgers.

After a bit the place started to get more crowded as the Bingo enthusiasts poured in.  A gal came around to pass out Bingo cheat sheets. 

Why would we need Bingo cheat sheets?

Crazy Dirty Bingo.

Because this wasn't just ordinary Bingo.  This was crazy dirty Mary-style Bingo.  We played games like Hard-on Bingo, Three-way Bingo, and 4 Prostitutes running from a Pimp Bingo.  So the cheat-sheet was necessary.

Excited for Bingo!

The real deal!

Gamma Phis love Bingo!

Soon we were introduced to our hostess with the mostess, Miss Melinda Ryder.

Miss Ryder

She danced a little number then got right down to calling Bingo.  She used lots of dirty words, told dirty jokes, and was kind of just plain dirty.  We were horrified when right in the middle of the first round a family of four, with two young girls, came in for dinner and sat down at a booth right behind us. 

Horror.

They jumped up and disappeared after Miss Melinda sing-songed, "He's a wiener, he's a wiener!  Hit him in his hard-on!" to the first winner.  We were all quite relieved not to be a part of innocence lost that night.

He's a wiener!

LP is serious about Bingo!

Our Melinda was the first winner from our table.  Yea Melinda!!!

Melinda & Melinda.

After you win you have to run around the restaurant while everyone chucks their crumpled up loser Bingo cards at you.

She's a wiener!

Such a good sport.

Oh, AND, all the proceeds go to help a local charity.  So not only is it dirty and fun, but you can feel good about yourself for being such a great and charitable person.

After 5 rounds we had half-time.  This was mainly so Miss Melinda could do an outfit change.  Then she came back out and did another number.

Get it girl!

 Seriously, the girl has got moves!!!

Front & Center!

After Miss Melinda performed, her friend Jaeonce performed a little "Single Ladies" dance number.  She might be my favorite.

All the single ladies!

When I first walked into the restaurant, she was standing at the front and I thought she was a statue.  Then she moved and I kind of made an audible gasp that Kaitlin said she could hear from the table.  Oops.  So she and I didn't get off the the best start.  I don't know if it would have helped if I'd explained that I wasn't startled by her being a she-man, but that I was startled by her not being a statue.  Honest mistake!

The second half proved to be quite successful for our table.  Ellen won a round of Mile High Bingo.

She chose as her prize a bunch of children's books.  I'm sure she'll enjoy reading her children to sleep with the books she won at drag-queen Bingo.

Everyone's a wiener!

Next Lindsey won the very last round!  Hooray!

Wiener!

Checking her balls.

We all pretended that those were pink carnations.

There's also a raffle where half the money raised goes to the winner and half goes to the charity.

Raffle tickets!

FYI: when you play a raffle like this, it is customary to give the winnings back to the charity.  Good to know... I might have been the a-hole flaunting my winnings and looking like a real jack.

We didn't win the raffle, but Miss Melinda did agree to take a picture with us!

We ♥ Drag Queen Bingo!!!

This will undoubtedly go down as the greatest Wednesday Night Dinner of all time.  So. Much. Fun.

If you are looking for a fabulous time and amazing food, check out Hamburger Mary's!  They have tons of events too.  We'll definitely be hitting up Drag Queen Brunch one of these Sundays.  Maybe we'll even invite our house-mom to help us brush up on table manners.

♥Happy Friday♥