Table Hopping – March 2011
“A Spicy, Hot Dish.”
Swagger Fine Spirits & Food
8431 Wornall Road
Kansas City, MO 64114
(816) 361-4388
Co-owner, Derek Boone, who owns Irezumi Body Art, snapped up this restaurant location just a couple of doors down from his tattoo shop, so he, and his brother, Dustin Craighead, could opening this bar & grill together. This neighborhood bar with a small dining room area hit the national stage when Guy Fieri featured it on Triple D. Swagger is not fancy, but fun and features manly men portions and inventive scratch-made food. HOT DISH: Get the Dead Texan Burger with hand cut french fries for $14. It’s a burger made from two grilled cheese sandwiches as the buns. One has fresh jalapeno peppers; the other has bacon. The beef patty is topped with a fried egg, red onions, lettuce and tomato. So good, it’s sinful.
G’s Jamaican Cuisine
7940 Troost Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64131
(816) 333-9566
George “G” Ricketts, opened this little outpost of Jamaican hospitality in Kansas City in 1994, and as the owner, cook and resident personality he is certainly a colorful character. His little piece of the tropics, is located in a mostly washed up strip center, but sample his food along with a Red Stripe and none of that will matter. G’s features reggae bands and dance hall style live music on the weekends, and at lunch, local workers pack his place looking for their Caribbean food fix. HOT DISH: Get Jerk Chicken with red beans, dirty rice and steamed cabbage, for around $12. This is the dish that packs some serious heat. You should also consider the curried goat, fried plantains and Jamaican meat pies, too. It’s all good.
Thai House
9938 Holmes Road
Kansas City, MO 64131
(816) 943-1388
Located almost to I-435, off of Holmes Road, in a shopping center full of mostly ethnic grocery stores, quietly sits the Thai House restaurant. Owner, Ann Chantai, and what I suspect to be her handsome son, opened this restaurant in 2005. Although the spacious dining room looks a bit dated by today’s standards, the staff is quick and efficient and the food come hot and freshly made to your table. The menu is large, and the food is authentic and priced right. HOT DISH: Get the Green Curry with Chicken, eggplant, red and green bell pepper for $8. Get it “Hot” or if you dare, “Thai Hot” to light you up. Like most Thai restaurants, you get to pick the heat you want your dish to deliver.
Swagat Fine Indian Cuisine
7407 NW 87th Street
Kansas City, MO 64153
(816) 746-9400
Owner, Gurdev Choong, took one look out the front window of his strip center location at the new Zona Rosa Shopping Center and saw his future. Today, he has no regrets about the move, he acquired a brand new kitchen, stylish new dining room, and more space to host large parties. Swagat with it’s locally owned authentic Indian cuisine, brings true ethnic flavor and heat to a mostly corporate chain restaurant scene at Zona Rosa. HOT DISH: Order the Chicken Vindaloo, a famously hot curry dish, in it’s own right, made with potatoes and chicken served with rice for around $13 at dinner. Remember you can always ask them to kick the spice up in any dish, but proceed with caution with this already classically spicy curry dish.
Original Juan Specialty Foods
111 Southwest Boulevard
Kansas City, KS 66103
913-432-5228
The factory that makes the some of the hottest sauces around can be found right here in Kansas City. The Original Juan Factory Outlet, located down on Southwest Boulevard, has a Factory Store inside that is open Monday – Saturday that sells the entire line of hot sauces they create and bottle on premise, all sold at discounted prices. If you are a true Chilihead, you gotta go. HOT DISH: In the Factory Store, you’ll find a rack of hot sauces with unmarked labels. These are experimental sauces that were created, but never approved for retail. Perfectly tasty, these are sold as discontinued sauces. The fun begins when you realize don’t know how spicy any of these sauces are. Grab a bottle for the next time you want make “Mystery Chicken Wings.”
