[lost meals] Glace by Christopher Elbow / LaMar’s Donuts / You Say Tomato, Kansas City MO

The lost meals entries consist of meals that occurred at various times throughout 2012 which, for any number of reasons, escaped my documentation – some due to a cross country move and a new job, some due to the Los Angeles Kings run to the Stanley Cup, and some simply as a result of too much travel. Having enjoyed many of these meals with friends or family and with some of them amongst the year’s very best the reality is that with time my memory has deteriorated and as life moves forward I’ve realized there is little hope to ever “catch up” or document these experiences as well as I’d hope, yet in order to preserve them I present these pictures, notes, and thoughts on the experience.

Glace by Christopher Elbow

Cream Cheese, Fleur de Sel Caramel, Salted Pretzel

Side of Salty warm caramel

Facts: #1) If you drive quickly it is possible to make it from Green Dirt Farm’s Farmtable Dinner to Glace before they close. #2) For anyone, the cute girl behind the counter will offer you some free tastes – as expected, Elbow’s Dark Chocolate is superlative and the Sweet Corn is a Midwestern Dream. #3) If you’re lucky, the cute girl behind the counter will hear your story of a cross-country trip and a drive to make it to Glace mere minutes before they close and give you your ice cream “compliments of the house.” #4) If you are smart you’ll order the Fleur de Sel Caramel and Salted Pretzel, both intensely creamy and a beautiful balance of salty and sweet, while the server additionally suggests the Cream Cheese – an ice cream that tastes like chilly southern style cream cheese frosting. #5) If you’re really smart…or perhaps just gluttonous…you will order the “salty warm caramel” on the side – trust me, as good as the ice cream is, this is probably the best thing in the store with light crystals of salt flecking the intense buttery caramel. #6) After leaving a $5 tip you’ll walk to the car and lick out the cup – both the one for the ice cream and the one for the caramel…not that I’d know anything about that.

LaMar’s Donuts

Lemon Glazed Cake, Strawberry Raised/Glazed, Red Velvet Cake, Pecan Caramel Butterfly

Facts: #1) Monday is BOGO – all types, all styles – and they aren’t stingy about it…buy two, get two. #2) The servers are charming and the “regulars” are all known, even if LaMar’s is a “chain.” #3) No Fritters and the glazed yeast donut is a bit more doughy than I would prefer. #4) The Cake donuts are good, but not great – a bit dry, but nicely flavored. #5) The signature “Butterfly”, recommended by the clerk, is where it’s at – like the bastard child of a cinnamon roll and a donut topped with pecans. It’s salty and sweet, raised like a baked good but definitely fried, and the toasted pecan bits add both texture and a light nuttiness that helps to quell the sweet while ribbons of cinnamon lie beneath the glaze – truly unique and really a treat when warm from the fryer

You Say Tomato

Coffee – Organic Fair Trade

Cinnamon Roll

Breakfast Flatbread with Scrambled Eggs, Roast Potatoes, Country Gravy, Cheddar, Ham

Mushroom and Sausage Breakfast Casserole with Country Gravy

Facts: #1) Cute little market of organic foods and ample seating and goods from local artists. #2) Open at 7am for breakfast on weekdays and 8am on weekends; two varieties of fair trade coffee plus decaf and free refills and plenty of room to spread out I’m sure it would make a great place to sit and chat, study, or read. #3) A slow kitchen whose market board was unfortunately not up-to-date, both the French Toast and an omelet “sold out” from the weekend brunch. #4) Pricey – understandable given the quality of the produce and proteins – but overall poorly executed with potatoes undercooked and eggs overcooked; not that such things mattered too much when slathered with the hefty country gravy, but overall just average for a nearly $40 tab. #5) The Cinnamon Roll was nice and I sort of wanted to try the green tomato pie, but the server talked me out of it by describing it as “an acquired taste.”