MCI BBQ Do
 

was US5624 IAD CLT 0520 0641 CR9 2A
and 1906 CLT MCI 0750 0950 319 2F

About an hour before SuperShuttle was going to pick me up
I got a notification that my flight had been cancelled.

US Air had rebooked me nicely - but out of Baltimore,
without telling me, so there was a certain amount of
hustling about on my part. I managed to change my
onward to my satisfaction; it didn't hurt that the
connection they'd given me was booked up, and the one I
wanted was wide open.

SuperShuttle was good about refunding my payment but could
not find a reaccommodation on such short notice. So I woke
my brother and told him I'd pay taxi rate to get me to BWI
by 6; I was in his car at 4:30ish, and I was in fact at the
airport around 5.

Slight anxiety as US Air hadn't put my number into the AA
reservation, so it initially appeared that I was in some
kind of limbo, but a fairly cheery and efficient agent got
me squared away in a couple minutes. She pointed me to the
C PreCheck, where everyone was polite to the point of
obsequiousness, and I was unleashed for an hour of poking
around a part of the airport I hadn't seen in years.

Sunrise was exceptionally lovely, and I was not the only
person taking snapshots of it.

AA1373 BWI DFW 0705 0935 M80 6A

The connector between B and C was built after my time, so
I made good use of the extra time to check out the food
offerings in A, B, and C; I'd known about Phillips and the
oyster bar but was pleased to see BGR (in the Southwest
area) and Kraze Burger (in the less-Southwest area). These
were for future reference only, as I was entitled to
breakfast on my flight. [subsequent note: BGR is pretty
good; I couldn't figure the appeal of Kraze Burger.]

Sunshine of Your Love was playing on the PA. One of my
favorite songs, but after a few iterations, maybe not so
much. Doodoodoodoot doot doot doot do dooo do.

The gate area seating in this pier is inadequate and
boarding rather chaotic. Also the lowness of the ceilings
is oppressive: this is probably the last of the terminals
to remain unrenovated. I was engrossed in my e-mail, though,
and didn't notice until boarding was halfway.

I don't mind the last first row of these aircraft; though
my AA informant lili hates this row, when I was assigned
here I didn't change my seat. It was fine, as the limited
recline is okay with me.

For breakfast they offered oatmeal with yogurt or a
broccoli-red-pepper quiche with sausage and potatoes. I
chose the latter; it was slopped into its dish in an ugly
unappetizing manner but tasted surprisingly okay. Extremely
weird bad fruit appetizer.

My original cheapest available itinerary was scheduled
to arrive really, really early, and I was going to sit
around for several hours maybe getting snockered at Vino
Volo or somewhere waiting for lili's flight, but I had
rearranged things, given the irregular operations, to
connect through Dallas and meet up with her there; also
I had no problem changing her seat to be next to mine,
which has some creepy stalker potential if one thinks
about it.

I was quite early arriving and considered making a pit
stop at Dickey's or Railyard but thought better of that.
Wandered around the construction zone that is DFW and
took the train to lili's arrival gate, where she seemed
reasonably pleased to see me.

AA 340 DFW MCI 1210 1352 M80 3EF

I admit that the first row of the cabin is somewhat
nicer than the last row, but the differences are pretty
negligible. The company makes more difference I think.

The American red wine is quaffable if not palatable.

We landed on time after a slightly bumpy flight (a
harbinger of things to come) and went right off to the
car rental center, where a medium-size SUV awaited us
for the weekend: it took Avis a bunch of time to get
the rate right, but eventually it did happen. It was
really more car than we needed.

The Sheraton Crown Center, in its current incarnation, is
a pretty nice place to stay. It's been renovated at least
twice in its 35-year history and is pretty nice, with no
echoes discernible of its dubious history. We were issued
a quite nice, very big suite on a lower floor, the main
disadvantage being that we had to switch elevators to get
to the executlve lounge, which we didn't make much use of
anyway, as we fed and watered ourselves very well this
weekend, thank you, and eschewed breakfast next day so as
not to spoil our quest for burnt end nirvana.

We parked the car as usual across from the Westin and went
through the enclosed walkway to the usual opening haunt for
this do, Jack Stack Freighthouse Square, where we were
fairly early arrivals but still too late for happy hour
prices, so our snacks cost twice what I had budgeted for.

MCI777 of course preceded us; FriendlySkies and gvdIAD
arrived shortly after we did, followed by ConditionOne,
HPN-HRL, and several others whom I know by name and not
by handle.

Burnt ends were a mixed bag. The first batch were decent,
flavorsome, partially fatted, a little stringy in spots.
Subsequent orders got progressively more burnt, sad to
relate. Multiple iterations of Boulevard Amber helped down
both the good and the not-quite-so-good. After a while I
got tired of this and switched to Dark Horse Reunion rye,
eye-openingly rich and spicy, reminding one of brandied
Christmas pudding, almost enough to make one switch from
Cognac to whiskey as tipple of choice. Almost. I was
pleased. lili stuck with the Rodney Strong Cabernet. At
8 something it was deemed that our select group of a dozen
was complete (somewhat smaller than in years past), so we
headed to our table inside. For lili and me I got a
pleasant also spicy and rather too sweet (great with
barbecue) Ravenswood Zen of Zin 2012 to go with our
split order of ribs and burnt ends, both quite good, the
latter redeeming their reputation from the shrivelled
examples of the last batch outside. Sides were cheesy corn
(in a liquidy Velveetoid sauce) - I gave some to Katie next
to me on the other side, and she liked it a lot - and
coleslaw, which I didn't bother to taste.

We stayed until closing time and beyond, having had far too
much fun.

Next day.
The first order of business was World Famous Joe's KC,
formerly known as Oklahoma Joe's but renamed when the
original Oklahoma Joe went off to Oklahoma or someplace like
that. We got there at 10:30 only to find people already
inside. They actually let us in half an hour early in
contrast to the old way, when they unlocked the door right
on the hour. They didn't take orders until just before 11.
lili and I split a burnt ends lunch plate. which came
with one side; we chose beans and rice. The meat was as
before exemplary - perhaps even better than in years past,
because back then they used to presauce it heavily, which
masked the goodness of the meat. This way lili got to add
ladylike little dabs of the regular (which to me tastes more
like syrup than sauce), and I could add lashings of the hot,
to my own specifications. Yay! The beans and rice had a
strong celery-bouillon flavor but were otherwise pretty
decent with a good but not overwhelming hit of heat. Someone
(HPN-HRL?) offered me a taste of the onion rings, which were
done in fresh fat (it was the beginning of the day). By the
time we left around 11:30, the line was out the door the way
we remembered. It turns out later that Seat 2A was looking
for the crowd, but we passed like buses in the night.

Next stop - Danny Edwards, not my favorite place, but people
like the burnt ends and the smiley staff at the counter.

Things are different now. It's a sort of uneasy hybrid of
Q joint and sitdown restaurant. We were shown to a long
table at the end but allowed to order piecemeal as we
arrived (which we did in dribs and drabs).

lili and I were still digesting so didn't order any meat
(as I said, this is really not one of my faves) but had
drinks, mostly Boulevard amber; also I got side orders to
taste of jambalaya and spicy beans. The jambalaya was like
nothing I'd ever seen before - gray mush, the rice grains
long exploded, and a texture similar to elementary school
paste. The flavor, though, was terrific. I sent the cup
around for people to sample, which few, put off by the
amazing appearance, did. I was glad to find the cup still
mostly full when I got it back. MCI777 says that the beans
are the best in town. They are only slightly sweet, very
peppery, with abundant doses of both bell and jalapeno
pepper: they are in fact quite good, and when I sent them
along for tastes, a fair amount of them went away.

We got samples of others' orders of burnt ends and brisket -
the former, tender enough this time, had a funny reheated
flavor, and the brisket, though respectable, was nothing you
couldn't get better of all over town. Some people got ribs
and found them pretty decent. But on the whole I think that
most of us would rather go back to LC's or Bryant's or maybe
the Woodyard instead next year.

I think I'm recovered from the Do at this point. Time to go back? :)

Thanks for the writeup!

As lili needed more Starwood credits to keep her exalted
status, we moved to the Sheraton Overland Park, where the
accommodations were prettier and newer than downtown but
the beds were sort of lumpy.

The hotel was pretty full up with a barbershop quartet
convention and various dance events going on all at once.
We had to park not just in the convention center lot, but
the faraway overflow lot. Well, more power to them - it's
a fairly nice facility, and the people are nice, and the
price is nice.

Brobeck's is just a mile down the road. We met the DOers
there and again got burnt ends and spare ribs, both quite
good as, one advantage being that they come unsauced, and
not only do you get your choice of their own hot or sweet
sauce (both okay, nothing more), but the place also offers
other companies' sauces too (all okay, nothing more). Used
to be you could get Gates and Arthur Bryant's sauce here.
Now the offerings are along the lines of Ken's Steakhouse
(from Framingham, Mass.). The meats are well marbled and
luscious though maybe a little more literally burnt than
I'd prefer. Sides of coleslaw and cheesy corn were ordinary
as could be. The portion was not so big as at either Joe's
KC or Danny Edwards.

After a large and festive meal we said our goodbyes to our
people, and that was the end of the formal part of the
gathering. The others went on to some casino to gamble and
then the much-heralded Q39; HPN-HRL seemed a bit nostalgic
for Foo's Frozen Custard, and no amount of dissuasion would
make him believe that we were not going. He called a few
times in a plaintive "where are you" way later in the day,
but we were elsewhere. Namely

Hayward's, a sports bar that is said to sport a good pit
and respectable smoked meat. We got a combo sandwich of
burnt ends and sausage on Texas toast. This came as 6 to 8
oz of each meat on a big slab of what looked like hand-
sliced Wondrous bread. The meats were pretty good, the burnt
ends not quite up to the best but pretty close, the sausage
a little fatty-mushy and mild, but there was nothing that a
dollop of the hot sauce couldn't help. Speaking of which,
the server caught me grimacing as I tasted the sauce that
was on offer, so she came back with a bowl of the hot, which
was pleasantly more tart than the regular and quite quite
spicy. I liked it and used most of what she gave me. Along
with, we got a big portion of okay thick-cut fries. Total
outlay $10.

A KC Bier Dunkel went pretty nicely with, a modestly hopped
dark beer with a tad of molassesy sweetness and a rich body.
lili had some kind of Merlot that left her cold.

Back at the hotel, the executive lounge beckoned. lili
tried again with the wine, which the attendant said was
some kind of Cabernet Sauvignon, I believe from Napa, which
she had to actually abandon her post and take the elevator
down to the lobby bar to pick up. The upstairs and
downstairs prices were the same, $5 or so a glass.

There were cheese and crackers, crabby muffins, and some
similarly delicious things out in the chafing dishes. I had
a cookie; lili had some fresh fruit and was ready for more,
but an unaccompanied child started helping himself to some
blackberries but dropped some on the floor - whereupon he
scooped them up and put them back in the dish. This sort of
put us off our feed.

No breakfast.

Instead, Q39, one of the hottest new restaurants in town,
in the formerly dodgy but now quite fashionable Westport
district. This is the place started by Rob Magee, head of
the Munchin' Hogs BBQ team (two-time KCBBS champion, so so
the claim goes de facto world champ) when he escaped from
the airport Hilton.

I forget why, but we arrived around noon for our 11:30
reservation, no problem - the restaurant was probably only
1/3 full, but it was noisy to the point where conversation
between more than a pair would have been difficult. By the
time we left an hour later, the place was packed and almost
bizarrely noisy.

Our waiter, Daryl, approved of our decision to split a pair
of appetizers - the renowned pork belly and a special 10-oz
starter serving of burnt ends - for our meal, which with a
couple glasses of wine and a pint of Tallgrass Buffalo Sweat
were quite sufficient.

I've seen pictures of the pork belly appetizer - often it's
a big serving that looks a bit overdone and undermarbled;
ours was almost fatted enough, a pretty modest couple slices
of meat, which was laid atop a blob of white bean cassoulet
with a big handful of fried onion strings blopped on top.
Ugly presentation, pretty wonderful flavors. Pork: excellent
taste, though I'd actually prefer a bit more fat; cassoulet:
very nice but could use more garlic; onions: lili found
them greasy, I found them delicious.

As Q39 had spent the weekend doing multiple caterings,
there was a glut of burnt ends, which led to a special burnt
end appetizer, 10 oz, $10. These came in a sauce that we
found lackluster, so we scraped most of it off. The meat
itself was very good, to the degree that I ordered a pound
to go for later, dry. Nicely smoked, nicely marbled,
excellent raw product (at least as good as Jack Stack or
OJ's and better than LC, Gates, Bryant, or especially Danny
Edwards, which I think falls far behind in the beef quality
department). For myself I prefer more fat, but I think this
had enough for most people (I seem to recall that this is
all CAB). It had been aggressively brined (Franklin and some
of the other big names do this), which leads to an altered
texture (many like it) but - for a heart patient such as
myself - produces unpleasant side effects. We had to cancel
a side trip to the Smokehouse because of this.

lili's Diseno Malbec was rather nice (I hate Constellation,
I like some of its wines), with enough, not too much, fruit
and a pleasant minerally dry finish. The modest sweetness
went nicely with smoked meat.

The Tallgrass Buffalo Sweat was a coffee-scented oatmeal
stout of the usual sort, very smooth, medium-to-high
alcohol, nice with the pork and would have been good with
the brisket if it hadn't been slathered with the cloyingly
sweet sauce.

Price? I figure 10-15% more than the going local rate.

You will not be disappointed. ^

Good choice.

BTW did you ever meet up with Seat 2A?

LC's and Arthur Bryants... good memories! You managed to make me hungry! Thanks for sharing!

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.

I'm looking at Q in less likely settings - have found quite good brisket at
Mighty Quinn in Brooklyn and decent though a little underflavored at Clyde's
in Washington. Looking to go to DBA in Atlanta this week.

But, yes, I'm always up for a fatty smoky meat run.

Very strange. We were at Joe's, sort of keeping an eye peeled for him
(why do people say that?), and apparently he showed up, and we
missed each other. One contributing factor was that we were admitted
to the sanctum sanctorum a quarter hour early, so by the time he
arrived we were close to finished. Ah, well, next time in Alaska.

Some of us are hungry all the time :), and you're welcome.

I was going to hit the Smokehouse BBQ at noon via the hotel
shuttle, but there were leftovers, namely that molten lava
thing, now no longer molten, and a bottle of wine.

Agua de Piedra 13 Malbec - I was expecting, being innocent
beyond my sixty-something years, more from such a
tantalizingly named wine. Aside from a bit of chalk on the
nose, what I got was a middle-of-the-road wide open fruity
beverage that could have come out of a Woodbridge bottle.
It went nicely with the remains of the molten lava cake.

lili left six hours before me, but I got the famous
Starwood late checkout. Shortly after our goodbyes I got a
frantic call from her at the front desk. The guy who had
taken our airport shuttle reservations had balled things up
royally, so there was no shuttle. I calmed her down and had
the associate take care of it; it took a few minutes for the
A-team to get things squared away. I settled back in with my
wine and cake.

I left the room at 3 and went to the bar to use up that
free beer coupon. The draft of the day was some summer
thing or maybe a Kolsch, so instead I got a bottle of
the Porter, which I like a lot. Then off for the 4:20
shuttle, which got me to the airport in plenty of time
for me to nose around and find that there was nothing of
any kind of interest in the airport.

US1785 MCI CLT 1820 2131 319 3C

The flight went smoothly. We landed with just enough time
for me to check my e-mail and then run off to the next
gate.

US1998 CLT BWI 2225 2345 321 2F

I don't care for the seating in the 321s - the generosity
of space seems to go down as the number of the Bus goes up.
I fussed and fidgeted and eventually got semi-comfortable
leaning up against the window. It was a short flight
anyway. A notably bumpy landing.

My friends Dale and Gail were out there to pick me up for a
couple days' visit. We tried to find someplace decent to eat,
but that was Honey Pig's night off, and so back home we went.
Well, that brisket got unwrapped, and it was indeed very
tasty and tender. There were also leftovers in the fridge,
most notably in the form of rare steak.

Irregular hours and eating habits are the rule here, and I
am very comfortable with that.

Dale and Gail have found yet another entrant in the rather
oversubscribed Indian food in Columbia race. This one is
called Flavors of India and is peculiar in being a Halal
restaurant with a bar in the next room. According to rumor,
that fact lost the enterprise a bit of business.

It's a rather plain cubic room, the ceiling of course
allowing the noise to bounce around, which makes the place
sound bigger and fuller than it really is. We got a booth
that was reasonably comfy, down by the restrooms.

The staff seemed friendly enough.

Mango lassi was available, but mango juice was not. This is
rather peculiar and indicates that they must not make the
drink themselves. As I prefer not to waste pills on such
foods, I stuck with water, which was refilled regularly.

A wide assortment of vegetarian dishes, some even milk-free.

Mixed vegetables (think frozen medley) with scallions and
coconut were surprisingly savorous. I actually had a modest
second serving of this.

Spinach and potatoes were somewhat bland but fixable with
the pleasantly warm red onion chutney that is meant for
something else but that I tend to ladle on a lot of things
where it doesn't supposedly belong.

I am a sucker for lentils; these were yellow-brown, mild,
somewhat meaty as good lentils tend to be. Also helped by
the red stuff.

There were these weird balls that I'd never seen before -
a potato core surrounded by green stuff that appeared to
have spinach in it but with a texture that bespoke the
presence of maybe chickpeas. A labor-intensive preparation
that wouldn't be worth the effort if it hadn't been
redeemed by a nice tomato cream.

On the meaty side, there was a standard brown goat curry
notable only for having some boneless pieces in among the
usual ossuary; I liked it okay, but its clove-heavy spicing
meant that seconds were out of the question for me.

Several chicken dishes, including rather tasty battered
bits called chicken 65, normal tandoori thighs, and a
below-average tikka masala. Oh, yes, a korma that was less
sweet and fruity than what I'm accustomed to, but nice and
creamy, so I got two servings of it.

Rice was above average in taste and below average in
texture (a lot of stuck-together bits).

Desserts were gulab jamun and kheer indistinguishable from
those everyplace else.

This was a little early for my friends to be up and about,
but they were good-natured and got me to the airport in
plenty of time.

US4767 BWI PHL 1043 1130 DH8 4A

This is one of the shortest flights around, usually running
about 20 minutes; if one wanted to just go to the city
center, it would be easier to take the train for twice as
much money (except when the route is on sale). It is also
a substantially bumpy flight both on climb-out and landing.
For some reason, in my experience, Baltimore, Philly, and
Newark always have bumpy problems. This flight was no
exception.

I escaped to the United Club, where Ten High now reigns as
the house Bourbon, replacing the hated McCormick American
Whiskey, which according to Pete the bartender, is no longer
available in the Pennsylvania state store (which is the
largest of all the state stores, because it has a monopoly
that extends to bars and restaurants as well as the general
public). The good thing of course is that this prevents
United from cheaping out too much on the booze, since some
of the worst products aren't listed.

US1994 PHL ORD 1335 1448 752 3F

I was treated at least as well as a gold or platinum by
PMUS as I was in the latter days as a 1K on United. Some
of this has persisted to the present. This aircraft was
reconfigured to have just twelve first-class seats, in
electronically-adjustable angled-lie-flat, followed by a
tiny mini-cabin beloved by golds such as myself even though
there is minimal legroom, followed by the polloi. I think
such planes were originally meant for transatlantic routes
of lower demand, and the seats up front are pretty comfy;
I was sad that this flight took less than two hours,

What happened: not much; I asked for a Bourbon, got a Jack;
found that the footrest was as floppy and broken as all
footrests of this general design; slept an hour; got off
in a relatively unfamiliar part of O'Hare in the drizzle.

Next thing I knew, I was on the shuttle to the Sheraton
O'Hare, where lili had wangled a fairly nice suite, lots
of privacy, more from doors than space, for us in what
apparently was a former Embassy Suites.

As it was my birthday (or within a few days thereof), a
special-occasion restaurant was in order. Harry Caray's is
next door in the unlikely setting of what I think is a
Holiday Inn. We were ushered into a corner table in a
clubby-looking small room with a strange piped-in smell of
blue cheese that rather bothered me.

Robert was an officious but not unpleasant waiter; we
actually liked his much older, more efficient, and taciturn
sub-waiter, whose name was not revealed to us.

Canoe Ridge Expedition Horse Heaven Hills Cab 13 was as
advertised and expected, a very fruity, semi-sweet but good-
tasting dark red bottle of juice that went well with
Bill Kurtis' Tallgrass sirloin strip, a firm, somewhat
chewy about 12 oz of grass-fed beef, extra rare as ordered.
I gave lili some of this in exchange for half of her
burger, about which I recall nothing. Actually, I recall
little of the beef - the meat itself wasn't that tasty,
though the fat was very nice. Sad to say, most of the fat
had been trimmed off, but the gristle had not. I like
gristle well enough, but burned gristle is nowhere near as
good as burned fat (or nonburned gristle).

Creamed spinach was the crabgrassy sort that I've had before
at second-rate places - it was tough and green-tasting, in a
thin untasty cream sauce.

On the whole, a C+/B- meal, not worth the cost.

Adventure continues here.