Text 28280, 66 rader
Skriven 2015-06-17 06:22:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: midwest trip 845
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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: Lilli 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.

Lilli'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. 


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