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One of my favorite moments at Bryants. You wait in line at a counter to order your food, which is then prepared in front of you and the plate is handed to you through a window.

One time there was a New Agey-looking woman in line in front of me, staring at the huge man slapping down fistfuls of fries around the sandwiches on the orders in front of us. When her turn came, she asked him, "do you use polyunsaturated or saturated fat for those fries?" He stared at her in disbelief, waited a few seconds and then bellowed, "we use LARD, ma'am!"

Another favorite moment--back when the Royals were good, we used to go to Opening Day as a given, and always stopped at Bryant's on the way for a ritual meal. As we sat and ate, we noticed a white haired man in a three piece suit standing in line with the hundreds of others, waiting to get to the window. We realized that it was Henry Bloch, founder and CEO of H&R Block.

Edited by Hot Ptah
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.....and then there's also Jake Edwards and their sweet potato fries. :wub:

Yeah, I saw someone try to order a salad at Gates once. Rookies. :rolleyes:

Did we mention Oklahoma Joe's yet? Another joint, great barbeque. The Carolina-style pulled pork sammich (w/the slaw on top) is awesome, and their fries may be the best in town.

Of course, I'm not allowed to eat at any of these places more than about once or twice a month. <_<

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One of my favorite moments at Bryants. You wait in line at a counter to order your food, which is then prepared in front of you and the plate is handed to you through a window.

One time there was a New Agey-looking woman in line in front of me, staring at the huge man slapping down fistfuls of fries around the sandwiches on the orders in front of us. When her turn came, she asked him, "do you use polyunsaturated or saturated fat for those fries?" He stared at her in disbelief, waited a few seconds and then bellowed, "we use LARD, ma'am!"

Yes, and if your forget to hand the man a plate, he barks out "PLATE"!

He also has a stainless steel mixing bowl full of sauce which is applied with what appears to be a medium-sized paint brush.

The sammich is topped off with white bread and the man (using thumb and forefinger to steady the sammich), slices it in two with an enormous butcher knife. If you are lucky, the impressions made by his thumb and forefinger are embossed with the bright orange sauce that happened to be on his hands.

I loves Gates and there is one close to my house (the smell guides me home every night). But nothing beats hopping over to Bryant's, for all the reasons cited above :wub:

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Another favorite moment--back when the Royals were good, we used to go to Opening Day as a given, and always stopped at Bryant's on the way for a ritual meal. As we sat and ate, we noticed a white haired man in a three piece suit standing in line with the hundreds of others, waiting to get to the window. We realized that it was Henry Bloch, founder and CEO of H&R Block.

Indeed those were the days ... I used to work downtown and it was ritual to stop off at Bryant's on the way to a Royal's game.

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Oklahoma Joe's is also notable for sharing its space with the interior of a gas station.

It is across the street from the fabled location of Capers Corners, which had been one of the greatest record stores in the world, owned and run by Ed Asner's brother. He closed it and passed away soon after. It was a serious bummer when Capers Corners closed.

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Michael, I have been thinking about how you will spend a day in Kansas City after you eat barbecue. It is a good place to live but there are not that many tourist attractions or even interesting places to hang out. Many people walk around on the Plaza, a high end outdoor shopping/dining area with faux-Spanish architecture, built in the 1920s. Near the Plaza, if you like this sort of thing, the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art are within easy walking distance of each other and are really good art museums.

The Nelson Atkins has a great place to "chill out", as the youngsters say these days, Rozelle Court, a remarkable room and great place to have a beverage (alcoholic or not) and food, or to just relax. It is a multistory room with skylights, a fountain in the middle, and very old stone walls.

Anyway, some might scoff at my attempt to add some "high culture", but the art museums are as pleasant and interesting a set of places as you would find in one day here.

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Oklahoma Joe's is also notable for sharing its space with the interior of a gas station.

It is across the street from the fabled location of Capers Corners, which had been one of the greatest record stores in the world, owned and run by Ed Asner's brother. He closed it and passed away soon after. It was a serious bummer when Capers Corners closed.

I remember discovering jazz when I was at KU and coming into KC to visit Music Exchange, Pennyland and of course Capers Corners (that is where all the hip KC kids bought their records). Talk about your triumvirate of record heaven :) Up until they closed, you could stumble on to an old Capers Corners sticker affixed to some obscure record at Music Exchange.

and oh yeah, Oklahoma Joe's kicks butt :g

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It has been my experience that there really is no BAD BBQ place (at least not in Kansas City!). Some are better than others, but I've never eaten in a bad one. I brought up Jack Stack's Freighthouse because it is quite good and it is the closest place to the Folly. Wherever you go, you can't lose. Then go to the Phoenix........ ;)

Edited by Herb
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  • 2 weeks later...

So, I'm assuming you guys went to Arthur Bryant's. Hopefully you experienced the excellent Bryant's :g and not the sometimes mediocre Bryant's.

Bryant's was excellent to me, but what do I know. I didn't need to eat a thing the rest of the day.

I liked the lobbies of some of the old downtown hotels: The Phillips and the President, where we went for drinks after the concert. Other than that, downtown was kind of desolate. The Folly Theater was nice.

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  • 5 years later...

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