I recently saw a tweet referencing a soon-to-open restaurant featuring a build-your-own mac & cheese. Intrigued, I followed their twitter to their website to find out Kansas City is getting another freaking hamburger place. In the past couple of year, the metro has seen a flood of "gourmet" hamburger outfits pop up. Just off the top of my head: Blanc Burgers & Bottles, Chef Burger, Five Guys Burgers & Fries, Hamburger Mary's, SmashBurger (opening soon). This doesn't even include normal restaurants that serve gourmet burgers or places like the Westport Flea Market that some still claim as the best burger in KC.

For my money, it's doesn't get any better than Blanc, but I saw something glorious while looking at the menu for BRGR Kitchen + Bar. Something that will have me checking this place out as close to their March 10 opening date as possible. And that item? The Jucy Lucy.

I may be wrong on this, but the Jucy Lucy has been noticeably absent from KC since it was dropped from the Foundry's menu, giving me little to no reason to return. Blanc has a similar burger stuffed with bleu cheese, but nothing compares to the molten lava-ish ooze of processed American cheese pouring out of two compressed hamburger patties.

A solid read of the BRGR Kitchen menu actually has me incredibly psyched to pay them a visit. Before getting down to the Jucy Lucy, the San Antion burger w/ Cheez Whiz, black beans, onions and Fritos sounded like a dream come true. Many of their burgers sound like something I'd defintely like to have a go at. I'd also be doing a disservice if I failed to mention their hot dog options. What BRGR calls the Standard is known mostly as a Chicago dog in these parts, and they have a Chili Cheese to compliment.

There will be a number of fried side items available like at most gourmet burger places. Unlike most of the local places though, BRGR Kitchen does not have their head up their ass and will feature a sampler where you can get a small portion of three different offerings. I don't know why this is such a hard concept for the other restaurants. If your sides are meant to be shared, how do you not have a sampler option?

Finally, a Jucy Lucy is best enjoyed with a little sauce in you, and BRGR Kitchen + Bar looks to have a beer & wine list to get you there. They currently list 8 beers on tap with most of the true variety coming from a substantial list of cans. While thinking back to the one can of Corona I had makes me want to vomit, thinking about being able to grab a Chicago dog and a can of Old Style takes me to a special place. If you're looking for a higher quality beer, three Ska brews will be available, one of which was recently featured on the KC Beer Blog. There are three local options with Annie's Amber Ale available in cans and Boulevard Tank 7 and Free State Ad Astra on tap. I'm kind of curious to know how New Belgium ended up on three tap handles.

BRGR Kitchen + Bar will be opening March 10. It is located at 4038 W 83rd St in the Corinth Square shopping area of Prairie Village.

Back in August, I found myself in a strange liquor store looking for something new. That's when I spotted a few beers called Tallgrass, which was apparently a new brewery out of Manhattan, KS...home of my alma mater. That was enough to peak my interest and I decided to try their Ale. As I was pulling it out of the cooler, one of the employees starting talking about it and said it wasn't too bad. He slightly recommended the ale, but said he wasn't sure about the wheat which he had on a drunken night and thought it tasted like hot dogs. Well, that was more than enough to rope me into buying both...

The ale? Not bad. The wheat? Seriously tastes like hot dog water. Like you took the juice out of a package of hot dogs and mixed it with your drink. It might be one of the worst beers I've had in my life. I thought maybe I got a bad batch, so I made sure to try it when I was at this year's KC Beerfest. Just as bad on tap.

On a trip the liquor store this weekend, I happened upon a new color in the Tallgrass section. They've got a fresh new green box to go with their new IPA offering. I'm a fool for a decent IPA, so I went ahead and picked up some. That night I went home and had a wide variety of beers from New Belgium Giddy Up (now available in bottles in the Folly Pack) to Boulevard's Sixth Glass and BBQ. The Tallgrass IPA was the last of the beers I tried that night, and I completely loved it. I ended up cracking open three of them before heading to bed, excited about being able to write a glowing review for Tallgrass.

After I took the above photo, I cracked the bottle open to confirm the previous night's exploits. The other two bottles remain in the fridge this night. I can only assume on that first night, I fell victim to the drinker's blessing/curse of things tasting better the more you toss back. Their packaging is good and the bottle labeling looks stellar IMO, but when it comes to that taste of all of the offerings, the bad traits just seem to linger in my mouth. While I wouldn't call it a bad beer, I would hesitate before buying it again compared to other offerings in the market.

The Tallgrass website touts the IPA as "the first IPA brewed, bottled, and on tap in the Great Plains region." Congrats on beating Boulevard's Single-Wide out to market by a few months. When it comes to comparing the taste of the two, Tallgrass may have benefited from the extra development.