Archive for "Food and Drink"
Dinner at Piatto
Posted on August 2, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink.
It was actually more like a late lunch and early supper but that doesn’t make for a good title. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. LOL.
Sometimes I go for months without eating a slice of pizza and then there are weekends when that’s all I seem to eat. The weekend of Kimberly’s birthday we had Knolla’s and then, almost immediately after, we had Piatto’s. Brian objected at first but I pointed out to him that these are two very different kinds of pizzas. They are both good but they’re not the same.
I like Knolla’s pizza also but I like Piatto’s better. This is my kind of pizza. But don’t take my word for it because I’m not generally a pizza eater.
The sangria on tap is one of the things I like best about Piatto’s — besides their pizza dough and they way they fire their pizza.
Here’s a picture of our pizza up close. We had the trio de carne. Why? Because I love meat and this one comes with all the good stuff – spicy salami, pepperoni, sausage. And it doesn’t have any veggies, which Brian doesn’t like in his pizza. It is literally the perfect pizza for the two of us to share. Sharing is key because then we don’t have to take any leftovers home and I’m not really keen on leftover pizza.
It was a quiet afternoon at the restaurant. We were pretty much the only two people there the entire time we ate.
I really enjoy the pizza at Piatto but, to be perfectly honest, part of the reason we decided to eat there is so we could walk next door to Hopping Gnome to get some stamps on our #WickedBrew cards.
I can’t remember which beer Brian had but I had the HBIC sour.
The guy sitting next to Brian was already wearing his #WickedBrew shirt. What a show off! He’s like, “I got it done in the first week. What amateurs you are!”
Okay, so he didn’t really say that but that was the vibe he put out walking in wearing this year’s tour shirt.
We did eventually finish our tour and earn our shirts as well. Here’s Brian showing his off. Now we can also wear our shirts and walk smugly into various participating establishments. LOL. Until next time. GNG.
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It’s Been a While
Posted on July 24, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Brian and I went to Nortons on Sunday. Partly because we needed dinner but also partly because are on a mission to complete our #WICKEDBREW tour.
Neither of us were all that hungry so we just shared a basked of really bad for you, fatty fries. I wanted some s’mores for dessert but we actually got too full. Part of it was I had some hummus and spinach dip at the pickleball benefit at Chicken N Pickle before swinging by to pick Brian up for dinner.
Brian had a stout (pictured above, first pic) and I had a beer slushy.
Nortons is closed on Mondays so Sunday nights are usually pretty busy. We had to wait a few minutes to be seated.
I actually really like Nortons. We will probably go back another time when we are more hungry. This weekend, we mainly just wanted to get our cards stamped.
Until next time, GNG.
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Feeling Spontaneous
Posted on July 22, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Brian and I were feeling spontaneous this past weekend and decided to drive up to Topeka. We had to reschedule our nail appointment but Saturday was truly the perfect day to do it because the pickleball tournament portion of Sunflower State Games was going on. It basically allowed me to kill two birds with one stone. Brian has never been to Wheel Barrel, one of my most favorite restaurants in Topeka, so I could take him there and then also catch some Sunflower State Games matches.
I got a pic with Kim Knotts and Karen Fox to prove that I was there. 😉
I tried to watch as many matches as I could but Brian was getting hangry and put his foot down so we finally had to leave and go to the restaurant. I texted my friend Tom who lives nearby and he met us at the Wheel Barrel.
Tom is a regular at the restaurant. He even has his own beer mug on the wall labeled “Tom Terrific.” We were already seated when he arrived. When he came in, the server greeted him by name and when he came to sit at our table she was like, “You didn’t tell me that the friend meeting you is Tom!” I made a mental note to drop his name on future visits.
It was great to see Tom. It’s been too long. Anyway, here are some pictures of the sandwiches that Brian and I had.
I had the Monte Cristo which is one of their award-winning sandwiches while Brian had the Hangover sandwich, which is everyone’s favorite.
The Wheel Barrel has amazing sandwiches and they also have yummy cocktails. Brian didn’t drink because he was driving. I think we will have to return sometime when we are staying overnight.
There are a few more restaurants that I used to frequent when I spent a lot of time working in Topeka that I want Brian to try so we will definitely need to make another trip. For now, we can cross the Wheel Barrel off the list.
Until next time, GNG.
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Dinner at River City Brewery
Posted on July 20, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink.
We are on a mission to complete our #WICKEDBREW tour before they run out of shirts! The other night, I picked Brian up after my Aqua Zumba class and we went to River City Brewery for dinner. It was a Thursday night but the place wasn’t busy. At least not when we first arrived.
We were mostly there to get our cards stamped and neither of us were all that hungry so we just shared a soft pretzel and a pizza. We like to get the Kansan because it’s all meat and there’s no veggies, so nothing for us to pick off.
Brian had just opened a bottle of wine at home so he didn’t feel like drinking beer. I had to take one for the team that day and do the drinking for our stamps.
Thankfully, our server recommended a super delicious beer that was right up my alley. It’s called the raspberry sno cone. It was both refreshing and delicious and I didn’t mind having to drink two glasses of it one bit. I probably could have had a third had it not been a weekday. RCB makes such good beer.
Speaking of beer, Haus of Brews is back this year. RCB is one of the local breweries that regularly attend. I believe they are going to participate again this year. If you enjoy drinking beer, you must pencil this date in on your calendar – September 25. We are still looking for some sponsors. You can find out more here.
Until next time, GNG.
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Wicked Brew Tour Challenges
Posted on July 16, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink, Things to Do.
Brian and I are normally done with the #WickedBrew tour by now but we started a lot later this year. We typically complete the drink tour which usually starts after Memorial Day during the month of June. Part of it is I can walk to to several coffee places that participate in the tour from my office downtown. However, this hasn’t been possible since I’ve been working from home.
Also, the tour didn’t happen last year because of the pandemic so I didn’t realize it was happening this year until much later. Anyway, we didn’t get started until after we returned from Colorado a couple of weeks ago.
I tried to get Brian to complete the tour with me over 4th of July weekend (we would have 3 days to get 10 stamps) but he was worried that his liver wouldn’t be able to handle it. Besides that, most of the places were closed on the 4th of July. We did manage to get four stamps on Saturday, July 3, though.
We started our tour by having lunch at the East Central location of Wichita Brewing Company. As East-siders, that location is most convenient for us.
We got our cards and first stamps and we were on our way.
Our next stop was Il Primo, a cute coffee shop across the street on the other side of Woodlawn. The coffee shop has been around for 20 years and yet, amazingly, Brian had never been there.
Look at this handsome guy!
I took a few pictures of the inside.
Also, I solved the “Riddle in the Dark Roast” and got a couple of extra punches on my Il Primo card. Go me!
They had one of the shirts on display at the counter.
We kind of did a beer-coffee-beer-coffee pattern, so our next stop was the PourHouse ICT, Walnut River Brewing’s taproom at Union Station.
Cheers! BTW, did you notice that Brian had on his 2018 Wicked Brew shirt?
My old fashioned wasn’t very good but our server was nice and still gave me a stamp for it. Not a lot of places can make cocktails as good as the Belmont.
We had lunch at WBC and some light food the PourHouse so then it was time for dessert, which was perfect because our next stop was Cocoa Dolce. Brian had never been to their downtown location.
The Cocoa Dolce Sweet Lounge is super cute inside!
I had a tipsy gelato which typically vanilla ice cream with salted caramel whisky poured over it but they actually let you pick your own spirit. I opted for Bailey’s to be poured over mine.
It kind of looks like a bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy but I promise it’s gelato and it was amazing!
I highly recommend grabbing a friend and enjoying some coffee or one of the many flavors of hot chocolate they offer. And of course, trying some of their decadent and delicious artisan chocolates and gelato.
Brian got his usual black coffee and a couple of Wichita flag truffles and then we also got an Oreo cheesecake to share.
The Wichita flag truffles were almost too pretty to eat. Almost.
When this location first opened we got a bunch of free cheesecake from my coworker Amir’s friend who was the manager. That was my first experience with these amazing cheesecakes. Brian had never had it so I wanted him to get a taste. So even though we weren’t really hungry and didn’t need extra food, we got a cheesecake. We ended up taking most of it home.
They have the cutest cheesecake to go boxes!
We managed to get four stamps that day and that was Brian’s limit. The next day was 4th of July so then all the places were closed. It took several days before we could get our next stamp.
Stamp #5 was at Leslie Coffee Co.
I went to play pickleball with some friends after my Aqua Zumba class last Saturday. Then a bunch of us decided to have lunch at Merle’s after. Leslie Coffee, which is within walking distance of Seneca Park, is just down the street from Merle’s so it worked out perfect.
On Monday, I tried to talk Brian into getting a few more stamps so we planned to have dinner at River City Brewery after my Monday night Aqua Zumba class. Unfortunately, they were closed. So then we drove down the street to Norton’s. They were open but there was no food because there were only open because of the art show. Norton’s is normally also closed on Mondays.
So then were were like, “What about Hopping Gnome?” Piatto’s is next door and they have great pizza. They were also closed.
At this point we were just hungry and we didn’t even care about getting our cards stamped anymore. We ended up eating at Dempsey’s Burger Pub. Neither of us had been there in a while and they have great food also.
We were so hungry that we ordered way too much food. Brian got the beer cheese dip with pretzels and fries.
He also got a burger for himself because that’s what you get at Dempsey’s.
We shared a big basket of truffle fries, which were completely unnecessary after the regular fries which we didn’t know came with the beer cheese dip.
I got a couple of sliders, which were the perfect size. I told Brian that we should just get sliders and truffle fries next time to minimize all the wasted food but it’s kind of hard not to order one of the gourmet burgers when you’re at Dempsey’s because that’s kind of their thing.
Dempsey’s kind of reminds me of the Burger Stand (in Topeka and Lawrence) except I like the food at the Burger Stand better. I think it’s the closest thing to the Burger Stand that we have here. Dempsey’s burgers are pretty good — they are just not as good.
Anyway, the experience made me miss the Burger Stand. Brian has never been there so I’m hoping we can go one day. They have pickleball tournaments in Topeka sometimes. In fact, the Sunflower State Games is this weekend. I didn’t sign up for it though. Maybe I can sign up next year and then Brian and I can hit the Burger Stand while we are there.
Anyway, we still have a long way to go on this Wicked Brew tour. I’m hoping to get the rest of our stamps over the next few days because there are only a limited number of shirts and we don’t want to miss out.
Until next time, GNG.
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