Fall has arrived in Kansas City along with a vast selection of seasonal beer, as breweries new and old have rolled out their finest brews to coincide with the increasingly chilly weather.
But one cannot survive on beer alone. So, in the interest of keeping stomachs full and hearts warm, Central Standard's food critics recently shared some of their top food-and-beer pairings.
Mary Bloch, Around the Block:
- Brewery Emperial — Wood-fired chicken tacos. Chicken is served with tortillas for DIY tacos, which go down easy with one of BE’s rotating beers. I also love the Rabbit Molé, with black beans, smoked chilis and chocolate.
- Cacao Restaurant— Mole enchiladas with shredded chicken. The rich chile and chocolate flavor goes so well with beer.
- Port Fonda — Chorizo fundido with melted cheese, poblanos and corn tortillas. There's also pozole verde with green-chile marinated pork shoulder, spicy tomatillo broth, hominy, crunchy garnishes and fried egg, or the carne asada-style tostada topped with a grilled flat-iron steak, beans, fajita vegetables, guacamole and pico de gallo.
- Waldo Thai— Pad Thai or Pam’s Special with calamari, minced pork, green bean and red curry paste are must-tries.
- Princess Garden – Harvest vegetables and Szechuan noodles.
- County Road Ice House– Brisket nachos with beans, guacamole and meat from Joe’s. You can sub pork, carnitas, or smoked chicken.
- Plowboys – The BBQ nachos can be ordered with any of Plowboys' award-winning meats.
- Tom’s Town Distillery – French onion grilled cheese sandwich with Farm to Market panini bread, swiss, gruyère, parmesan and French onion soup onions.
Jenny Vergara, Feast Magazine:
- Colony Hand Crafted Ales – Meatloaf burger. A pint of Colony’s house-made suds would also wash down the waygu burger or fried- or buffalo chicken sandwich.
- Boulevard’s Beer Hall– Crunchy Cajun peanuts. Those crunchy Cajun peanuts are a delight to eat and so flavorful; once those are gone you can order the pretzel dog. The chicken andouille Creole-style chicken sausage is good with beer cheese dip.
- Stockyard Brewing Co.– Crab chips. These potato chips have been sprinkled with Chesapeake Bay crab seasoning. Order these chips and watch those beers disappear.
- Martin City Brewing Company, Pizza and Tap Room – Cuban in Kansas City sandwich. The pizza's good here too, but the Cuban sandwich features Carnitas pork, tasso ham, house-made spicy pickle, Hard Way IPA mustard and swiss cheese, served on telera bread.
- Flying Horse Taproom – Fried cheese curds are just one option at this new beer bar and restaurant in Brookside. There's also the BLT Wedge with tomatoes, crumbled bacon and blue cheese dressing; or flatbreads — Thai chicken basil; buffalo chicken or Greek Goddess flatbread, which is a cheese pizza topped with freshly tossed Greek salad.
- KC Bier Co. – The giant Bavarian-style soft pretzel, which clocks in at 14 ounces, is perfect for sharing. This brewery is focused on beer brewed German-style, and same goes for the food, where daily specials will make you a regular.
- Brew Lab – Street tacos. On a small menu of comfort-food favorites, I'm partial to Latin-inspired dishes like street tacos featuring corn tortillas with chicken, pork or tofrito with pico de gallo, queso fresco, avocado cream and lime, or Loaded Lab nachos with black beans, espinaca con queso, charred corn, pico, jack cheese, arugula, chipotle cream and chicken, beef or carnitas.
- Crane Brewing Co. – Seasonal beers such as orange or grapefruit Goses and tart Weiss options like apricot, kumquat, tea and beet make it OK to drink your dinner. Year-round beers include the toasty malt and fruity yeast of the aromatic Belgian-inspired Saison and Farmhouse IPA.
Listener recommendations:
- Martin City Brewing Co. – Their Hardway IPA is delicious!
- Lawrence Beer Co. – It has really great food and great beer. They are enthusiastic and do a great job.
- River Bluff Brewery – It is a nice new gathering spot in St. Joseph. Occasionally, they have live local music.
- Bier Station – Their food is amazing. The owner is awesome. They’ve raised a lot of money for lots of good charities.
- Callsign Brewing Co. – A lot of retired military, Air Force reserve guys have put together a really cool brewery in North Kansas City.
Chris Young is an associate producer for KCUR's Central Standard. Reach out to him at chrisy@kcur.org.
