The plan was to return the car, check in at the Four Points
MCI Airport, and walk to Cafe Weatherby a mile up the road
at the Hilton, one of the hotel restaurants worth the trip
to an otherwise unprepossessing location. The first part
went okay, but it turns out that Munchin' Hogs has abandoned
the Hilton, whose restaurant is now called Asado, and now
devotes its time to its own restaurant, which is Q39 as
mentioned before. So we figured on taking the hotel shuttle
to Zona Rosa and its outlet of The Smokehouse, but there was
this wine to deal with, which we'd gotten at Gomer's down in
town in order to prepare for a possible Sunday drought.

A big comfy room, top floor (I think 4th) corner. Beds quite
nice. After a short nap I woke to find that lili had poured
me a glass of wine and was well on her way with her own. The
Juan Benegas 13 Malbec is very pleasant and smooth with a
peachy aroma and palate; good long finish and much better
than its price point (about $10). I wager that it rates
lower than it ought because of the peach nose, which is
atypical for a Malbec, fine, all the more for me. The bottle
went down quickly. Quickly enough that we decided not to
brave the bus down to the mall but hit the Boulevard Grill
downstairs instead. This place gets horrid reviews on Google
and TripAdvisor. but if you read these you find that they
sound rather like trolls, or at least the writers shouldn't
be let out without a white-coated keeper. Lots of complaints
about "homemade beer" and stuff along the lines of, this is
Missouri, can't you get a decent Budweiser product around
here? (answer: yes, on special request, in bottle only).

Standard objection #1. The service is slow. Granted - the
place is kind of understaffed.

Standard objection #2. The food is bar food. Granted, but
what do you expect. We got one basic burger, rare, and an
order of wings. Both were done as ordered and as required.
Nothing to write home about one way or the other.

Standard objection #3. Strange beer. Boulevard products.
If you don't like them, have the hotel shuttle take you to
the mall. I was well satisfied by Boulevard pale ale at $3
for a US pint, $4 for an Imperial. I had two US. Not until
afterward did lili discover that she had been given a
coupon for a free beer, which got saved for another time.

In an excess of enthusiasm I'd ordered a chocolate molten
lava cake, and having had almost half a burger shunted in
my direction, I thought about cancelling the order; the
waitress, who was actually quite agreeable, sort of pouted
and said that we could have it put up to go. I agreed but
reminded her to omit the ice cream that normally goes with.

-

We had coupons for the breakfast buffet, which turned out
not to exist. There was however a working kitchen and
someone to cook, so in return for our coupons we got meat
and eggs and potatoes and toast and juice and coffee. I
had sausage and sunny side; lili got bacon and an omelet.
Mine were better than hers - the sausage was standard, but
there were four double size ones; her bacon was thick cut
and done beyond crisp, so eating it was rather like chewing
on salty planks. Eggs fresh, so slightly underdone was
better than cooked with a heavy hand. Breakfast potatoes
were pretty much exactly what you get on the standard
buffet. My wheat toast was just like her white toast only
with hard little wheat berries mixed in. Went well with
peanut butter, of which there were two kinds, Smucker's
and Sysco. Smucker's actually is slightly better.