Updated: June 20, 2024
Do you have a podcast?
Possibly returning Summer 2024.
How long have you lived in Kansas City?
I grew up in South Kansas City, lived elsewhere from 1989-2003, and then returned.
What is an ovo-lacto vegetarian?
A vegetarian who eats eggs and milk. Chuck has been one since 1989.
What is a “near vegan”?
Chuck considers his current diet to be near vegan. He doesn’t adhere to a strict vegan diet, but his de facto daily diet is near vegan. He does eat seafood occasionally and has done so for the past 3-4 years. Prior to that, he was a strict ovo-lacto vegetarian.
Does Chuck receive free food and stuff from restaurants or anybody you review?
Most of the time, No. There may be rare exceptions, as when he reviews food at a client’s restaurant, or when he receives food as part of an interview, but in those instances, the relationship will be clearly stated up front.
What is “JoCo Mexican”?
This describes a style of sadly drowning a Mexican entree with a plate full of yellow cheese. You took perfectly good food and assaulted it with a lake of cheese. Save this approach for nachos. A style preferred by unadventurous American suburbanites.
What is “Midwest mild”?
Ethnic restaurants in the Midwest sometimes tone down the spice level of their dishes to appeal to Midwestern tastes. You may want to ask up front about the spice level if you want to kick it up to authentic levels. This is changing as native Midwesterners are becoming familiar with international spice profiles and more folks from outside the Midwest move here. This fussiness about ethnic spices can be silly, as the same people complaining about spiciness eat barbecue and Cajun food all the time.
Kansas City is the capital of BBQ. How can you review food if you don’t eat meat?
While I don’t eat (red) meat, I do visit and dine at BBQ restaurants with friends and family. I have my favorites like Q30 and Char Bar. I’m considering adding the opinions from family and friends to any reviews of BBQ restaurants. I also eat seafood sometimes when dining out.
Who are the Dining Companions?
Dining Companion #1: A long time friend and Kansas City resident. Excellent cook, food lover and restaurant enthusiast. Appreciates vegetarian foods.
Dining Companions Kids: Our younger culinary experts. Helping you find kid friendly food around Kansas City that isn’t cheese quesadillas or $8 Kraft macaroni and cheese.
What are your favorite foodie things?
I enjoy watching lots of cooking shows, especially the Food Network, while I work. Favorite shows include Chopped, Worse Cooks in America, Beat Bobby Flay, Pioneer Woman and especially The Great British Baking Show.
Why don’t you list websites for each restaurant in your guides?
Many restaurants, unfortunately, don’t have websites. Others only have a presence on Facebook or social media. As an independent media website, we don’t link to walled social media. Other restaurants foolishly use “websites” made for them by exploitative food delivery companies. We find it unethical to link to shoddy websites made by these companies. There are also restaurant “websites” out there that have been illegally created by Google and third party delivery app services. There are many delivery services out there which create listings for restaurants without permission. When in doubt, call a restaurant to get info or find out how to order.
Do you enjoy cooking?
I love to cook! Pretty good cook when it comes to utilizing ingredients on hand. Love to collect cookbooks and my only New Year’s resolution for 2019 and 2020 was to cook more from recipes (haven’t done that yet). Haven’t cooked much in recent months for medical reasons.
Do you work with local restaurants?
I’ve worked with the Blue Nile Cafe for the past decade, as their web developer, designer, digital marketing expert, and consultant. Always open to working with other restaurants.
Why don’t you have a Facebook page? Why not more active on social media?
We are supporters of the Open Web, so we are part of the growing movement that is re-building an independent Internet that is free of corporate fiefdoms like Facebook.
Restaurant Listings (New October 2022)
Can you link to a restaurant’s Grubhub, Menufy, or Ubereats ordering link?
Probably not! These companies are bad for customers, horrible for restaurant owners, and highly exploitative of workers. We provide at least the phone number of each restaurant. We do provide ordering links for some restaurants when independent or co-operative ordering services exist for that restaurant (like Slice for pizzerias).
Why don’t you provide links to a restaurant’s Facebook page or Google website?
These “websites” are not anything of the sort and businesses sabotage themselves when they solely rely on these “services.” Facebook is bad for small businesses, often lying about reach and advertising metrics. Google creates “listings” with an algorithm which often gets basic details wrong like phone numbers, hours and menu items and prices.
Can I improve my listing here?
We will soon have a paid plan where you can have us expand listing information for a reasonable cost. We also will have higher tier plans where we write long descriptions about your business. Reviews are independent of these listings. We will not take any comp meals or services in exchange for reviews.
Do you use AI?
No! Of course not. We want no part of those scams and we do not use any of those awful, garbage tools. Everything that Chuck writes and creates for this website and associated channels does not use AI.
It is possible that our calendar listings may include AI-generated text, as we copy event descriptions from third party sources. We also cannot guarantee that every bit of music added to our video shorts are free of AI. We try to avoid the scam as much as possible.