The Drop

Deal: Tuesday nights $15.00 for a Ribeye and a Pint or 2 Steaks and a bottle of wine for $30.00

The Drop Bistro may have just added the best steak night in town. A long time Union Hill and Martini Corner Establishment, the Drop announced last week their new Tuesday night Steak Night.  For 15 dollars you get a Ribeye, with Veggies and Mashed potatoes and a Pint of beer if you are solo, or if you have a dining companion and both get a steak you get a bottle of wine along with the steak. That's 2 ribeye's and a bottle of wine for $30.00. Seriously.

As this is in my backyard (quite literally, Martini Corner is right behind my house) I decided to give this a go. I was very glad I did.  If you want something fun to do on a Tuesday night I would highly recommend going

The Drop has excellent cocktails, the best selection of bruschetta in town, one of my personal favorite charcuterie spreads, plus a nice accessible wine list.  So I was pleasantly surprised to see them advertising this However the Drop consistently has some of the best specials in town on the weekdays, so perhaps this will last.  On Thursday's they have a $25.00 bottle of wine and bruschetta special.

While I do love the bruschetta at the drop I am here to discuss the steak night. I brought a dining companion along because, beyond enjoying her company, the real deal here is the steak plus bottle of wine.

Granted the picture here is not great, but you get the idea. They actually give you a decent bottle of wine. It will not be winning any awards, but it did not taste like vinegar and feet. This was a nice dry but fruity with nice plum and cherry notes Crane Lake Malbec that paired perfectly with the steak.

This is about a 7-10 dollar bottle of wine at the grocery store.

I am partial to a good Malbec with a steak from my time in Argentina, however they also offer a bottle of Crane Lake Cabernet-sauvignon as well if you are not a huge fan of Malbec.

As always I ordered my steak medium rare as did my date.  It came out fairly quickly, but looked quite tasty.  It was a big, but not terribly thick cut of Ribeye with a lot of fat.  A lot of fat was good here, it infused the juicy fatty savory flavor throughout that makes steak so good.

The steak itself was well seasoned.  I did not even use any additional salt, which is rare for me. It tasted like they probably used some butter when cooking this as well.  The steak was for certain not cooked on a grill, but a steak on a skillet can be good if done property.

My only complain about the steak was that because it was thin, the chef probably left it on for an extra 30 seconds or so and it went from medium rate to medium by the time I revived the steak.  The flavor, fat and tenderness of the cut made up for a little overcooking.

One of the best things about the Drop is their dedication to solid fresh ingrediants. The steak was tasty, but the sides were really the standout here. The mashed potatoes were perfectly whipped with a smoth and rich buttery garlic flavor I could not get enough of. The zuccini and squash were perfectly cooked to be slightly hard still, but had a nice simple salt and pepper crust to them that went wonderfully with the steak.  I would highly reccomoned this as a perfect steak night for 2.

To Sum it up:

Martini Corner

• The Drop Bistro:
  409 E 31st St
  Kansas City, MO 64108 
• Steak - flavorful
• Sides - ridiculously good
• Drink specials - you get a bottle of wine
• When: Tuesday Nights
  
  

 

Tomfooleries: Thursday Steak Night

Deal: $10.99 12 oz. KC Strip, mashed potatoes, garlic bread and a salad.

Graduating law school is great for about 3 days and then the reality that you have to take the bar exam kicks in. While studying for the bar your life becomes very isolated (perhaps you make vain attempts to have some sort of life by writing lame blog posts). Your friends begin to wonder what happened to you. Relationships get strained. Making time to see people becomes difficult.

As the pressure of the impending bar examination was starting to wear on my soul I opted for a time-tested recipe to solve life's problems: steak night. I decided it was time to emerge from my hole for some comraderie with friends. In my book, there is no better way to enjoy people's company than with steak and libations.

My friends and I all live in the city so I wanted to find a steak night close to where people lived. After some digging I found out that Tomfooleries has a steak night on Thursday.

I sent a text out to a few friends who lived nearby to let them know I was still alive and was going to have a steak at Tomfooleries. It was a very pleasant evening; people were out shopping and dinning as they are apt to do while on the Plaza.  There were great street performers and a wonderful soul band was playing in-front of Scooters on 47th Street.

Tomfooleries is a great restaurant and bar located on 47th street on the west edge of the Plaza. Not only is it a decent restaurant in the day and a nice brunch spot on Sunday, but it is as well a VERY fun place to go at night that always has a great crowd and good times.  

I arrived a bit earlier than my dining companions, but I was quite content because the Heat and Celtics were playing a knock out game and Lebron put on one of the best NBA performances of all time. I had a Boulevard Pale Ale while enjoying NBA playoff basketball, two great things that I had been missing out on while studying. One by one my compatriots arrived and we chatted while enjoying a few suds.

I got there around 8 p.m. and there were no drink specials. By the time we left they had a reverse happy hour, which starts at 9 p.m.

We feigned a look over the menu, but we all knew it was a steak that would satisfy. I ordered my KC Strip, medium rare as always.

The only real choice you have is between a house salad or a Caesar salad. I opted for the Caesar. It came out fairly quickly, with onions on it.  I'm not a huge fan of onions on salad as the flavor is overly dominate so I removed them, but my dining companions enjoyed the twist on the Caesar. Aside from the onion overdose, the salad was great. They didn't overdo it with the dressing, and they had an excellent balance of croutons and fresh Parmesan. Everything you want in a Caesar salad.

The sides were very simple mashed potatoes and a piece of garlic toast. Classic steak night sides.  Both were good, but nothing to write home about. They tasted how you would expect mashed potatoes and garlic toast to taste like. However, the garlic toast came in quite handy to sop up the juice from the steak.  

On to the steak!

The steak I got was kind of a funky cut for a KC Strip, but my dining companions' steaks all looked like you would expect a Strip to look like. Right off I was pleased to notice that they actually had some form of a grill in the kitchen, so the steak didn't have the skillet-cooked, buttery flavor to it.  That is great on burgers when it's 3 a.m. and I'm snarfing down at Town Topic burger, but I prefer a nice charred flavor to my steak that only a grill can provide.

The steak came out a bit overcooked.  I would consider this medium to medium well.  I cut to the center and it was only slightly pink and mostly brown around the outside.  This was kind of disappointing, but it happens to the best of us from time-to-time.

However, the steak was well favored. Tomfooleries clearly has an excellent steak seasoning that involves mostly pepper and salt. Normally I'll add a little salt to the plate to dip my steak in (super healthy, right?) but this steak had an excellent amount of salt and pepper to it. Not a lot of other spices either, which is great because it didn't cover up the steak flavor. The cut seemed to be a regular, lower-end choice quality steak, but it wasn't a terrible cut of meat. There was plenty of fat marbled throughout to keep the steak juicy and tender.

The service was impeccable, always there when you needed another drink but not intrusive.   

Overall this is a pretty great steak night. Had the steak been medium rare this would have been the best I've been to so far. Nonetheless it was a great night with friends I hadn't seen in a while and a welcome break from studying for the bar. This KC Steak Night hit the spot.


To sum up this KC Steak Night Adventure:

• Restaurant: Tomfooleries 
• Location: 612 W 47th Street, Kansas City, MO 64112 (Plaza) 
• Phone Number: (816) 753-0555
• Ambiance: Casual bar that turns into a hot spot at night
• Steak: Good, could be great 
• Sides: Plain yet sufficient
• Service: Impeccable
• www.tomfooleries.com
  

 This is a great Thursday Steak Night if you're in the mood for a big steak.