On Tuesday, we snuck across Missouri under threatening skies to take up residence at the Worlds of Fun RV Park in Kansas City, MO. Our proximity to the amusement park made for some nice pictures.
One might think we were there to enjoy the rides, but we had more important things on our minds…some Kansas City BBQ. Zagat rated Jack Stack BBQ the best in the nation. After setting up camp, we made our way to the Freight House location near downtown KC. The Freight House is a historical warehouse built in the 1880’s to house goods unloaded from trains. Over the last 20 years, developers have turned it into a number of restaurants.
Jack Stack impressed from the beginning with a menu that included just about every kind of BBQ you could want. I chose the “Jack’s Best” combination. It included baby back ribs, burnt ends, and a big honkin’ beef short rib.
Now, I’m not ready to anoint Zagat the authority on BBQ, but Jack Stack was mighty tasty. The ribs and burnt ends were terrific. The star of the show, the big honkin’ beef short rib, was cooked perfectly tender and melted in my mouth. It was good, but I found myself longing for the peppery coating used by Fox Bros. on its short ribs (a piece of jalapeño cornbread would have been nice, too).
Wednesday began with the realization that we had a water leak in our bathroom. Unfortunately, diagnosis and remediation of the problem required the removal of a tremendous amount of stuff we had stashed in the sink cabinet and the removal of some cabinetry. With the problem connection identified, we shut the water off and left a fan running to dry out the cabinet area.
While the cabinet dried out, we thought we would live on the edge and visit the Truman Library and Museum in Independence, MO. Sound boring? Well, M3 “liked it, it was interesting and new.” L said it was ” factual and cool because they had real things from Truman’s past.” The adults liked it, too. For me, it was a great reminder of just how challenging times were during the Truman administration: Winning WWII; Drop the bomb?; Rebuilding Europe (the Marshal Plan); Shifting the U.S. economy from wartime to peacetime; Russians get the bomb; and Korean War.
Our minds were full, but our stomachs were empty. To remedy that problem, we crossed into Kansas to try a Kansas City, Kansas, institution–Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant.
We arrived at the original location only to find out that it closes at 3pm. Undeterred, we drove to Shawnee, KS, and ate at another location.
Fritz’s is primarily known for it unique system of food delivery. You order using a phone at your table. When the order is ready, a train carrying your basket of food leaves the kitchen on an overhead railroad track that circles the restaurant. When the train is over the correct table, it drops the basket onto a platform. The platform lowers the basket to your table. Great fun!
How was the food? Well, it does come in a basket. The food is definitely a step up from the Varsity, but they are playing in the same ballpark. The shakes (not delivered by train) were tasty.
On the way home, we picked up some supplies to fix the leak. M, M3 and L swam in the park pool, while I made the repair.
I’m sure we did not do KC justice in our short stay. But we have places to go and people to see…
My mouth is watering looking at that pic of bbq.
oh man, Mom would LOVE that BBQ!