Manifesto

by Sharm | Mar 11, 2011 | Articles

A Modern Day Speakeasy

In the back alley of the address at 1924 Main, you will find a small call box aside what looks to be some kind of staff entrance. This entrance takes you to the underground modern day speakeasy known as Manifesto, a laid back cocktail lounge that takes its cocktails seriously. If you are lucky enough to have gotten in, (reservations are recommended) one push on that call box will have someone from the Manifesto staff at your beckon call.

Once inside you are guided downstairs and through a long dim lit hallway that takes you to this cocktail Mecca.

Owned by Ryan Maybee who is also founder of the Greater Kansas City Bartending Competition knows a thing or two about cocktails. He has created a cocktail menu that is truly one of a kind. Some drinks on the menu are just a twist on the classics; others are seasonal and use local and seasonal ingredients when available.

I have actually been a few times now and have not had a single drink that was nothing less than spectacular.

On our first visit, we actually entered through the Rieger Hotel Grill and Exchange, which is a restaurant, housed above Manifesto. Lucky for us there was seating available. (It is best to call and make a reservation 816-536-1325) As we were lead through the restaurant down the stairs and the dimly lit limestone walled hallway, I could feel the anticipation building as to what lied ahead. Once in we took a spot at the bar. I was thrilled to see Ms. Jenn Tosatto (a contestant of last year’s bartending competition) mixing up the cocktails. Having tried some of Jenn’s creations before I knew she could mix a mean drink. As we scanned the menu, the cranberry cobbler caught my attention. (Think cosmo, only not). This drink is a perfect example of how Manifesto takes a classic like the Cosmopolitan and then takes it to another level by adding lemon, orange, cinnamon, and fresh cranberries. The cinnamon really pops in this drink and is a great one to try.

I could have been happy drinking those all night, but my curiosity got the best of me with the Ward and Precinct. This drink is set on fire and consists of Bourbon, lemon, sugar, orange, homemade grenadine, and Angostura Bitters. The sugar and oranges are added to the glass and then it is set ablaze which caramelizes the ingredients and gives this drink just a bit of sweetness.

As we watched Jenn and the other amazing bartenders work, I was amazed at the intricacy these drinks have with most having their own specific house made ice cube. Cocktails that are considered sipping drinks like the Smoke and Choke my husband ordered, are adorned with a large block shaped cube. The cube is designed to melt slowly as not to water down the drink. The Smoke and Choke is another fabulous cocktail that has Applewood Smoked Bourbon, maple syrup, lemon, and oranges. Funny name for a drink but the smokiness really does come through and if you sip this drink like it is intended to be, there will be no choking involved.

Some other drinks we have tried at Manifesto have been the Shatto Blanc made with Vodka and Shatto Root Beer Milk. This drink is like a root beer float for adults and almost to pretty to drink.

Other drinks have included The Winter in Buenos Airies, which has cinnamon bark simple syrup, lemon and butternut squash puree. The Old Oazacan, (mostly Tequila with a tough of agave) and The Stay Wet (Vodka, lime, lemon and egg white.) The handcrafted cocktails at Manifesto are intricate and intriguing. Some are shaken, while others are stirred but one thing they have in common is they are all unique and delicious.

Along with the cocktails, Manifesto offers a few small plates. We ordered the breads and spreads. The bread is from the local Fervere Bakery and is served with a variety of house made spreads including a basil butter, goat cheese beet, olive tapenade, and apple butter.

Located above Manifesto is The Rieger Hotel Grill and Exchange. There you will find a modern take on classic American and European fare. I have yet to dine at the Rieger but will be soon. Chef Howard Hanna who has made a name for himself at Room 39, the River Club and now The Rieger will be hosting a four-course dinner.

This dinner is put on in part with the Slow Food chapter of Kansas City, a non-profit organization that focuses local and seasonal foods. This dinner is open to the public to attend. There is a discounted rate for members of Slow Food Kansas City. Menu, details, and ticket information is below. I suggest making reservations at Manifesto beforehand so you can enjoy one of their fabulous cocktails. Call 816-536-1325 for reservations.

Chef Howard Hanna’s four course dinner menu featuring local products.

Insalata – local greens (Crum’s Heirlooms), Lily Cheese (Shatto), sherry vinaigrette

Pasta – Tagliatelle al Coniglio (Rare Hare Barns rabbit)

Porchetta – (heritage breed pork from Paradise Locker Meats), presented whole, carved tableside with family style sides – local polenta and braised tuscan kale

Sformato – candied Missouri Northern Pecans (local pecans, cream from Shatto, eggs from Campo Lindo)

The Rieger Hotel Grill and Exchange
1924 Main
Kansas City, MO 64108
816-471-2177

Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 6:30 PM Reception / 7 PM Dinner

Members: $35, Non-members $45. Price includes punch at the reception, and a four-course meal. Tax, gratuity, alcohol are not included. Suggested wine/drink pairings will available by the glass.

Reserve your spot at www.brownpapertickets.com by March 14th.
To find out how to become a member, visit www.slowfoodkc.org

Questions? Contact Slowfoodkansascity@gmail.com

If you have a great food find in KC you think I am missing, email me.

In Good Taste,
Sharm

The Sweet Tooth Bakery

by Sharm | Mar 5, 2011 | Articles

Cupcakes – Love – Happiness

The Sweet Tooth is a specialty bakery based in Blue Springs that makes a delicious variety of gourmet cupcakes and was founded by Trevor and Amy Goodwin in 2010. Co-Owner and Baker Amy Goodwin has always had a passion for baking and makes all deserts from scratch using the finest ingredients available.

I just have to tell you I was so excited to find The Sweet Tooth Bakery. I have been writing this blog for a year now and have found that Kansas City is full of cupcake shops, bakeries, and even a mobile cupcake truck, which is great! What I love about The Sweet Tooth is it is in my neck of the woods and their cupcakes are yummy too!

The Sweet Tooth features a line-up that includes 12 regular cupcake flavors and several seasonal cupcake flavors throughout the year. When owner Trevor Goodwin asked if I would like to sample their new spring flavors, I of course was happy to oblige.

I was expecting a little box maybe filled with three or four different cupcakes, but to my surprise, a box of one dozen breathtaking beautiful cupcakes arrived, hand delivered by Trevor himself. It was such a pleasure getting to meet Trevor, as I have said before I really enjoy meeting the business owners. I just love the way their eyes light up when they talk about their business.

Now, back to those cupcakes and the new spring flavors. With a dozen to eat up and only four of us, I called my sister and her family over to try them out with us.

The first cupcake we tried was the Jamaican Sensation. This cupcake gets it flavor from pure mango puree and is topped with a pomegranate cream cheese frosting. This was my first mango cupcake and it will definitely not be my last. The mango puree makes this cupcake moist and the pomegranate cream cheese frosting is unique and delicious. It is also The Sweet Tooth’s first vegan cupcake. My daughter and niece both voted it their favorite.

Next up was the Chocolate-Cherry that is topped with a cream cheese cherry frosting. The inside of this cupcake holds a sweet surprise, which is a chocolate and cherry filling baked right in. If you are a chocolate covered cherry fan, this cupcake will have your name written all over it! I liked it but do have to admit I am a chocolate peanut butter fan and am really looking forward to trying their Peanut Butter Dream cupcake.

The last flavor was the Raspberry Lemonade. This cupcake is made with real raspberries and lemons and topped with a lemon cream cheese frosting. All cupcakes at The Sweet Tooth are made with natural ingredients so there was nothing artificial about this cupcake. My sister and I are big lemon fans and have to say this one was our favorite.

All of these cupcakes were great and all very different. I am looking forward to trying more of their flavors. They just won a cupcake contest and you can read more about that here. They are also holding a contest on their facebook page to name the new spring flavors.

The Sweet Tooth Bakery is busy getting ready to open a retail location later this year and will offer cupcakes, cookies, and gelato made with ingredients from a local dairy. In the mean time, their cupcakes are available for order and they can deliver anywhere in the Kansas City Metro area. Visit The Sweet Tooth’s website for information on flavors, ordering and delivery.

The Sweet Tooth’s mission is to “Promote Happiness” and I have to say those cupcakes certainly put a smile on all our faces.

If you have a great food find in KC you think I am missing, email me.

In Good Taste,
Sharm

Patric Chocolate

by Sharm | Mar 3, 2011 | Articles

Hand-made Bean to Bar Chocolate.

Chocolate Maker Alan McClure has always had a passion for food, even at the young age of 13 you could find him at home making home-made croissants, while other kids his age were out playing. His obsession with chocolate came after he had tasted some dark French chocolate that his father had brought home following a trip to Europe.

While attending the University of Missouri in Columbia, Alan met a fellow student from France, who later became his wife. The two moved to France and that is where Alan dove into the world of chocolate. He visited the Lyon-based chocolate maker Bernachon, which inspired him to learn all he could about the craft of chocolate making.

Once back in the States in 2004, Alan began his self-taught journey on chocolate. After a couple of years of learning about cocoa beans, roasting techniques, the chocolate making process and countless hours preparing batches, Alan McClure started Patric Chocolates in 2006 and had his first bar packaged and ready for shelves July 23rd, 2007.

Patric Chocolate is known as bean to bar chocolate. This means everything is made in house starting with roasting the beans. Alan starts by roasting the cocoa beans himself and actually making the chocolate before it is ever molded into a bar. He is considered a chocolate maker as opposed to a Chocolatier who is one that works with chocolate.

Each micro batch of chocolate is handmade by Alan and most bars have only 3 ingredients which include Cocoa beans, cane sugar and cocoa butter. The exception is the Signature Dark Milk Bar Patric offers, which of course contains milk, and the PB&J OMG, which has natural peanut butter. There is no fruit in the bar; the roasting technique Alan uses brings out the fruitiness in the cocoa beans, which then flavors the chocolate.

I had the opportunity to meet Alan McClure at a special dinner Chef Jasper Mirablie had at Japser’s Restaurant. The dinner was called “A Chocolate Experience.” It was a five course meal that included chocolate in each dish. To read more about that click here.

Alan had his bars for sale and I stocked up. I always keep a stash of chocolate just in case of emergency’s and will take a nibble of it here and there over time. One chocolate bar will usually last me a few weeks.As a peanut butter lover, I was so excited the try the PB&J OMG Bar and OMG was it so good! Before I knew it, half the bar was gone. I had to put it away but broke it out the next day and as you can see from the photo I polished it off. The bar has the perfect amount of nuttiness and the roasting technique brings out the berry flavors, no jelly is used. This bar is only available in late fall to early February so it truly is gone. It is a unique and delicious bar.

The half-eaten bar in the photo is the Patric’s Signature Dark Milk. I am really trying to pace myself on this one. It is light and creamy with that depth and taste dark chocolate should have. The third bar is Patric’s Signature 70% Blend. As you can see it is still unopened as I am trying to savor these bars, however I cannot guarantee how long that might last as an emergency chocolating can erupt at any moment in my house.

Patric’s In-NIB-itable Bar was awarded a Good Food Awards Seal at the 2011 Good Food Awards in San Francisco this month. The Good Food Awards celebrate artisan producers who are turning out delicious, authentic, and responsible food in seven categories: beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, pickles, and preserves. This award was based upon a blind tasting of 115 chocolate entries. Way to go Alan!

Patric Chocolates have a variety of bars available to purchase including a bar he collaborated with Kansas City’s own Christopher Elbow. His bars are available at the Better Cheddar in Kansas City, various stores throughout St. Louis and online. Visit Patric Chocolates.com for more information.

If you have a great food find in KC you think I am missing, email me.

In Good Taste,
Sharm

Jasper’s Chocolate Experience with Patric Chocolate

by Sharm | Mar 2, 2011 | Articles

Two great tastes coming together.

As you may know from some of my other post, Chef Jasper Mirabile of Jaspers Ristorante holds special dinners that he calls experiences. At these dinners he takes one ingredient and makes an amazing five-course meal. One past experience he used lemons and made his own Limoncello that he used in all of the dishes for a Limoncello Experience. Other experience dinners have included prosciutto, mozzarella and locally grown heirloom tomatoes.

I have had the pleasure of attending a few of these experience dinners and am amazed at the talent Chef Jasper has at taking one ingredient and incorporating it into both savory and sweet dishes. All of the dinners have been phenomenal and when I heard he was doing another dinner with local chocolate maker Alan McClure from Columbia, Missouri and owner of Patric Chocolate, I was on the phone making my reservation!

You may think chocolate is just meant for desserts, but I am here to tell you that it works very nicely in savory dishes too, and Chef Jasper did an amazing job creating a variety of dishes.

Here is a little taste of what you missed if you were unable to attend.

Course one: Ciaccolato e Pane del Meadowlark Acres (Bread and Chocolate) – A delicious caramel flatbread, a savory flatbread and focaccia made by Suzanne Frisse of Meadowlark Acres and homemade Nutella made by Chef Jasper using Patric Chocolate PB&J OMG Bar. Other items in the first course included Crostini de Pere, Gorganzola e Patric Cioccolato that was a delightful crostini with gorgonzola and shaved Patric Chocolate and Pastinaca Arrosto e Zuppa di Cioccolato all Patric (Chocolate and Parsnip soup.)

What a way to get things started, The Nutella was made with house-made roasted hazelnuts, cream, local honey, Patric Chocolate, and heavy cream with a dash of sea salt from Sicily, and the breads made perfect dippers. The crostini and soup both had a savory component with the soup almost having a pudding texture and so very good.

Course two: Il non vostro Nana Maccheroni e formaggio di s, which translates to “Not your Grandmother’s Mac & Cheese”, and it wasn’t. I would have never thought to drizzle chocolate on my pasta, but somehow it works, tender noodles mixed with Formaggio cheese sauce topped with chocolate is magnifico!

Course three: Verdure Selvatiche e Patric Cioccolato Balsamico and Pancetta Croccante e Polenta (Mixed greens with pancetta and a chocolate balsamic dressing with a polenta crouton.) Yum! I just think I found my new diet, it is a salad after all….

Course four: Pollo alla Artusi in Salsa Agro-Dolce e Papas Loco (Sweet and Sour Chicken with Crazy Potatoes.) These tender chicken thighs were covered in a sauce made from balsamic vinegar, red wine, chocolate, and served with a scalloped like potato. I never realized how savory chocolate could be. It worked beautifully in all of the dishes.

Course five: Cannoli al Cioccolato and Liquore al Cioccolate (chocolate cannoli and chocolate-cello). Do I really need to tell you how good it was? I am sure you know it was delicious. In addition to that, the very talented Susanne Frisse of Meadowlark Acres out did herself again and made spumoni biscotti, which I dipped into the Chocoate-cello. Below is her recipe for the biscotti.

All chocolate was provided by Alan McClure, owner of Patric Chocolates in Columbia, Missouri, which he opened in 2006. Patric Chocolate is considered a bean to bar chocolate. McClure starts by roasting the cocoa beans himself and actually making the chocolate before it is ever made into a bar. He is considered a chocolate maker as opposed to a Chocolatier who is one that works with chocolate.

Each micro batch of chocolate is handmade by McClure and most bars have only 3 ingredients which are Cocoa beans, cane sugar and cocoa butter. The exception is the Signature Dark Milk Bar Patric offers, which of course contains milk, and the PB&J OMG, which has natural peanut butter. There is no fruit in the bar; the roasting technique McClure uses brings out the fruitiness in the cocoa beans, which then flavors the chocolate. There were bars available to purchase and as you can see, I stocked up. to read more about McClure, Patric Chocolate, and my indulgence of these decadent bars click here.

Once again, it was another fabulous experience at Jasper’s. If you have not had the chance to attend one his “Experience Dinners,” it is truly worth it. Below is a list of upcoming experiences. Cost is $45.00 per person and does not include tax or gratuity. Call 816-941-6600 or visit Jasperskc.com. All experiences begin at 7:00 p.m.

March 21st – Sicilian Feast Day Experience – celebrate the Sicilian feast day of the patron saint, Saint Joseph – Fresh Ricotta, Nana Mirabile’s Sicilian Pizza, Macaroni San Giuseppe and of course Zeppoles!

April 18th – Italian Pork & Beans Experience – Porchetta and Tuscan Beans

May 16th – An Asparagus Experience – Local Asparagus from Pendleton’s Farm in Lawrence, KS

June 16th – Local Cherries & Tableside Mozza Experience – Local cherries from Alan Rhodes paired with Jasper’s fresh pulled Mozzarella.

July 21st – A Limoncello Experience – Jasper’s second annual Limoncello Experience with dishes featuring his magical lemon liqueur.

See below for Suzanne Frisse’s Spumoni Biscotti recipe. If you have a great food find in KC you think I am missing, email me.

In Good Taste,
Sharm

Spumoni Biscotti Recipe from Suzanne Frisse of Meadowlark Acres.
(Makes about 4 dozen)

2 1/2 C flour
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 C shelled pistachios, coarsely chopped
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 C softened butter
1 C dried cherries marinated in Amaretto or sherry or port wine
1/2 maraschino cherries, patted dry
3/4 C mini chocolate chips
1 C sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract

Pre-heat oven to 325° F.
Line baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
Combine flour, baking powder, salt.
Use an electric mixer to beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, add extracts.
Beat in flour mixture. Stir in cherries (pat dry or drain liquid), chocolate chips and nuts. Shape dough into 2 logs and place on baking sheets 3 inches apart. Bake for 40 minutes or until edges start to brown.
Remove from oven and reduce heat to 250° F.
Cool logs until they are comfortable to handle.
Use a serrated knife to cut logs into 1/”2 inch thick, diagonal slices Transfer slices to baking sheets standing them upright or lay flat and turn midway through baking.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until edges are golden and cookies are almost completely.
Cool on rack.