Link Love for the Weekend

All the pretty horses. At Heartland Presbyterian Center in Parkville, Missouri.
Photo by Linh Trieu

Mmmmmm, Cheddar Drop Biscuits.
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Minneapolis design always knocks my socks off.
This burger joint got a complete rebrand and it looks fantastic.
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Another one from Allan Peters. He's a gold mine. Type Sandwiches!
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This is the kind of menu I love to steal.
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Instead of a whole turkey for Thanksgiving, how about turkey meatballs instead?
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The Runcible Spoon has their new foodzine up for the holidays.
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Gorgeous and kind of expensive cheeseboards.
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It's finally feeling like chicken pot pie weather.
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Pumpkin Soup with Chanterelles.
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Going girly - these are amazing dresses.
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Watch this cool video of how to syphon coffee.
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Link Love for the Weekend

Six-Layer Rainbow Cake made by Rachel Feldkamp. Photo by Linh Trieu.

This week's link love is a bit different. It's a round up of food blogs. Enjoy!

Roost

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Sunday Suppers

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What Katie Ate

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Give Me Flour

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A Cozy Kitchen

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Evan's Kitchen Ramblings

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Sprouted Kitchen

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Fussing with Forks

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I Made That!

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Eating and Living

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BFF: Burger, Fish, Fries

Beer Kitchen

Kansas City, Missouri » Westport

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It was a Friday afternoon when Tina and I went in for a late lunch at Beer Kitchen, it was a gorgeous, warm, sunny fall afternoon. Sometimes, when we start the day, it's easy to forget that other people are ending theirs....until you see them order PBRs and realize, oh right, it's Friday afternoon and they're probably starting the weekend early. Westport was buzzy and alive....it was great to see a lively crowd inside, even during the supposedly quiet hours.

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Their housemade ketchup, a smoked chipotle and an original blend.

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Fish & Chips, $14

Tempura ale-battered whole cape capensis filet,
malt vinegar aioli, cider slaw & a bucket of hand-cut fries.

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American Kobe Burger with "Small Fry", $13 + $2.50
Heartland creamery goat cheese croquette, shitake mushrooms,
red onion jam & white truffled micro-greens on brioche bun.

gregory k.

Gregory K. | Owner, Coffee Blacksmith

Oddly Correct

Years of Industry Service: We didn't ask (oops)!

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When Gregory started Oddly Correct, he roasted beans out of a friend's garage in Raytown, Missouri. The only rent he had to pay was to share his coffee knowledge and teach that friend how to roast beans. Since then he has moved into two other spaces, finally settling into his current location at the intersection of Westport Road and Main Street after a year-long process of "clawing out the space."

Oddly Correct started out, and still is, a mail order and wholesale coffee business. "You can do those things out of a very small space," Gregory said. With this latest move, they now have a storefront to brew and serve coffee. Their space also functions as a small letterpress printshop. He calls it expanding the basis of their success, saying, "You build it. You buy it. And you hope people will find it."

Oddly Correct is one of those shops you hear about by accident. Then another person mentions it and then someone else. You start saying to yourself, I have to check this place out. It's the small rumbling you hear before everyone else knows what's coming. Although Oddly Correct is located on a busy, high profile road, it was still not easy to find. After looping around the same intersection three times, we spot a painting with the word coffee and an arrow leaning against an obscure storefront. That must be it....right? And it was. Everything in their shop is the work of one artist friend or another. The awning was no exception and it was currently being worked on, thus the challenge in finding it that day. 

"You go back and forth between being a rockstar and enjoying your obscurity," Gregory says. "[Obscurity] allows us to make mistakes without too much pain." His vision for Oddly Correct is to help bring life and honor back to Main Street. He wants to encourage people to think differently and slow down. "It's a counterculture refuge for people to come and get recharged," he says. 

Whether it's recyling their chaff (coffee waste) and sending it to Nebraska to be made into paper, or designing and printing his own packaging, it's all about find ways to maximize their potential while finding ways to be creative. It's a weird general store of sorts, where he gets to feature artists from muralists to furniture makers, transforms his walls-on-wheels-shop to work for cupping classes and jam sessions, and literally climbs the walls to reach a bookcase situated above a door.

Gregory grew up in Chicago and lived in North Carolina before moving to Kansas City in 2007. He's married, has two kids and is committed to Kansas City. "It's long-term for us," he says. His non-work life is spent with his family. "That's what I like to do." He's also a bass player, rock climber, bicyclist, illustrator and painter. 

With his business, he hopes what he has started is a revitalization for the soul of Main Street. He has the noble goal of "pioneering a spirit of local quality and craftsmanship." His commitment to making the community he lives in better, is heartening to hear and his passion is contagious.

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To read more about Gregory, click here for a great piece written by Jonathan Bender in The Pitch. Gregory and Oddly Correct were featured there last week. Chris Mullin did the photography on their article and it was really nice seeing it from another perspective.

  Make KC Better » If you have a problem, come up with a solution. 

Peek Into Oddly Correct

Oddly Correct

Kansas City, Missouri » Midtown/Westport

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This coffee shop/letter press print shop sits on the corner of Main and Westport Road. Its charm and warmth lies in the abundance of textures and handmade details, from the the custom furniture in the relaxing area to the climbing bookcase wall in the back of the store. Exposed brick walls, raw plywood,  transformable walls, a sweet rainbow mug nestled in between letterpress blocks and a vintage typewriter sit comfortably amongst all the beaker-like tools of this coffee purveyor. I grabbed a cup of coffee and read a wonderful children's book while I waited. Each coffee they roast has its own special packaging designed by owner Gregory Kolsto (who you'll meet tomorrow) and is printed in-house. Locals get their coffee delivered by bike. A quirky coffee storefront that will win you over with its distinct personality and product. They just put up a new sign, I can't wait to see it!

Smoke 'Em

Fidels'

Kansas City, Missouri » Westport

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There's nothing like the smell that embraces you when you walk into a cigar shop. It smells like a man, a manly man. Fidels', a Westport icon for many, many years, has been expanded (slightly–the space is still wonderfully intimate and cozy) and improved upon when it changed ownership in 1998. A lounge with a large round table and a smaller sitting area were added as well as private lockers in the back of the shop. Although we've stopped into Fidels' for the occasional cigar over the years, we didn't know about the lounge or lockers. There's a waiting list for the private lockers, they're all full up right now as annual membership is a mere $200 a year. The lounge, however, is open to anyone who wants to have a seat and have a nice, slow smoke. They don't sell alcohol, but you are welcome to bring your own bottle of scotch or whiskey to enjoy with their cigars. Fidels' was voted by Best Cigar Shop by Pitch readers this year, and now we know why. What an awesome space. We love the varying shades of dark brown, from the cigars and their boxes, to the tobacco leaves in glass jars and the furniture. The typography and design in cigar culture are wonderful. We think Fidels' would be great for a sophisticated bachelor party or a birthday gathering. And definitely just for an unexpected smoke.

Link Love for the Weekend

Light play in a barn in Weston, Missouri. Photos by Tina Magee-Jenks, Backyard Ink.

With holiday parties right around the corner, these fancy little snacks

would be great whether you're hosting at home or for bringing to a party.

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Ohmygawd. Too funny. Teenage Mutant Ninja Noses. via @FrancisLam on twitter

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Kansas City - Top 10 Destination of 2012, World's Most Beautiful Museums,

one Personal Top 10 of our city.

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A Donut Tree! This post was for Halloween, but great for any day really.

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A blog for our gluten-adverse readers.

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Life on a Cocktail Napkin – really lovely writing, I was only one post in

and hooked. Sad, heartfelt in one, then, next post, I was cracking up.

Thanks to David from Tips for Tips for sharing this link!

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Even though they don't need anymore sweaters for penguins

affected by the old spill, we think this is still a great project.

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Two things I like about this: it's a folded pie you can eat with

one hand and it has goat cheese. via Jennifer Young Photography

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My shower curtain rings/hooks drive me absolutely crazy.

This is an ingenious trick and the photos, of course, are pretty nice.

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33 Ways to Stay Creative - I think we do a lot of these but we'll keep doing it more!

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terry

Terry R. | Owner

Colfax – Market Femme

Service Industry Detour

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Thirteen years ago, when Terry was going through breast cancer treatment, she underwent a stem cell transplant. She is survivor, but one of the side effects of the procedure left her with a memory short circuit.  Terry says she has great long-term memory, but her short-term memory from the last three to five years, everything runs together. "Sometimes I don't know if I've seen someone 10 years ago or this week," she said.

Before she opened Colfax, Terry had Revue, a boutique that for 17 years, was a go-to dress shop for 39th Street. It was further west on 39th Street in the row of shops across from where Donna's Dress Shop currently sits. After she closed the doors on Revue, she didn't think she would be back in the retail business. "I really didn't think I could top Revue,"she said. "I was fairly played out. I did everything I wanted to do. I was winding down. But apparently not." After buying their current building with the owners of Boomerang, Terry and her business partner are back with Colfax, named for the county in New Mexico which is also the longest street in Denver.

Terry is married to a psychologist, they have a great dog named Diablo, a Black Lab-Blue Heeler mix and together, they develop small properties. "Most of our tenants are independent," she says. "We're real pro-small business. It's a lot of fun seeing small businesses develop."

Take a peek inside Colfax. Our original post here.
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Terry was happy to speak with us, but for the love of all that's decent, no pictures.
Tina snuck in a far away shot that I'm in too. That's my "deep listening" pose.

  Make KC Better » A really cool light rail. 

 I think the city is still divided in many ways. 

The Roasterie Story Brunch

Story

Prairie Village, KS » The Village

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You may remember, but last month, our friend and General Manager of Story invited us out for a special brunch out the restaurant. It was a five-course breakfast paired with Roasterie coffees, but you could order off their regular menu as well. I am the only one who splurged for the tasting menu AND a Bloody Mary. The French Toast and Chicken and Waffles on the regular menu were amazing, but really, everything was beautiful. Five coffees, even half cup tasting pours, were a bit much for me though, and it was difficult coordinating the timing with the kitchen. We even saw some familiar faces, Nancy and Michael Smith, out with their family (last picture, above).

On a side note, the busboy, someone we noticed when they first opened for his nervous energy and saggy pants, is getting our thumbs up. He was a bit green and there was some breakage during those early weeks. But during this meal, we were the clumsy ones. He was at our table immediately, expertly and quickly removing all the linens and resetting the table. His pants were firmly up on his hips, he was friendly and we just want to say, job well done!

See their full brunch menu here.

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Full Disclosure: Sloane treated us to brunch. All of it. And it was so good. Thanks Sloanie!