more day 2

After lunch we headed to the butcher shop to pick up our briskets and pork butts. And WHAT a butcher shop. This place is family owned, we talked to the 4th and 5th generation owners. They have a 60 foot fresh meat counter, they sell EVERYTHING, from the oink to the tail. Or from the moo to the hooves if you will... They raise and slaughter their own pigs & cattle too. They invited us back to the aging lockers where all the sides of beef and whole hogs are hung... I'll save those pics for another day! Very nice folks and very welcoming.


Hand-picking briskets & pork butts for this weekend's competitions...


After that we went to check into our hotel, the Best Western I booked a month ago. I called Tuesday to cancel the first night (wednesday) since we weren't going to be here Wednesday as originally planned. I cancelled the first night, promising to check in on Thursday. "OK man, got ya!" was the response I got... Well when we checked in, they had no record of that cancellation. In fact, they charged us for Wednesday night and gave away our room for the rest of the weekend! NO ROOMS LEFT. Perhaps this is where I should mention everything going on in KC this weekend:
- American Royal
- Miley Cyrus concert
- Nascar race
- Chiefs game
- College football game
- And something else I don't remember right now. Safe to say, rooms in this town are few & far between. SO, after some negotiating, many phone calls to central reservations, and some sweet talking of the clerk, he found us a room with one queen bed. So right now, Dad is on a cot, Gord is in the recliner, Jacy is in the bed and I'm on my way.

First, the rest of the day. I did forget to mention the BBQ brisket I had across the street from the meat market... Don't remember the name of the place, just got a half pound of brisket to go. WORST BRISKET I have ever eaten. Clearly re-heated for me, slices were thin and dry, NO flavor of smoke or rub of any kind. This shit could have been boiled, I swear it was that bad. so it all hit the trash. Hoping to find a gem, I found a big rotten lump of coal.

Supper was a Kansas City institution. well, a BBQ Institution that is among the country's few top rated joints - Arthur Bryant's.
We ordered a half pound each of brisket, burnt ends, sausage, and pulled pork. Here's a pic, halfway through chowing down.




The brisket was decent, the pork was shredded and drowned in sauce, nothing to write home about. The burnt ends were bathed in sauce and loaded with flavour - fantastic food. Sausage was a bit different, I liked it but I'm not sure if anyone else did. They did have some ribs out by the time we were half done eating so we picked up a half slab. It was very overcooked, dry, thin, and the two small bones weren't edible. They should not have been served.
This sounds like a lot of complaining but the food was in fact quite good. This sides (especially beans) were awesome.
The place reeks of history, LOTS of celebrities have dined here and the old brick pit in the back has certainly seen decades of smoke.
We'll pay it another visit the next time we're in town.

After supper we just came back to the hotel... Jacy and I headed out to a Target to get a few more ingredients for the weekend. We had a quick dip in the hot tub, then everyone crashed. Well except me, just had to get online and tell our story! That's it for tonight, a big day tomorrow!

later