Kansas City Playlist: Local COVID Restaurant FAIL Cont'd

Here's a theory that reveals my bitterness that local advertisers never really showed this blog any love and the feeling is more than mutual . . . Given that we were never going to extol the virtues of local slop at premium prices. 

Here goes . . .

Best KC BBQ: McRib.

Best KC Pizza: Pizza Hut

Best KC Chicken: KFC

Best KC Mexican Food: Taco Bell

Why??? Because people who have worked at restaurants know that virtually every local place has substandard facilities and cleaning in order to cut costs. At the very least, corporate fast food is forced to protect against liability and so the fare is about as clean or dirty as it was going to be any place else.

Also . . .

COVID changed the game for local places . . . Take-out or pricey Internets delivery is the new luxury for the middle-class. 

Why pay a premium at a fancy local place when online tech orders will bring home soggy french fries at nearly quadruple the price???

Don't bother doing the math on that . . . If anybody was doing math there wouldn't be 1 TRILLION worth of American consumer credit card debt hanging over this country in a manner that's far scarier than the national debt run up by both Republicans & the Democratic Party.

And all of this pondering was inspired by the departure of two more beloved local establishments:

Vested Coffee in the Garment District served its last cup of coffee on Dec. 23 and Tribe Street Kitchen in the River Market permanently closed on Dec. 22.

Patrons loved these places dearly . . . Just not enough to secure any kind of reliable revenue. 

We have no doubt these establishments provided a far better experience & fare than any corporate chain but in the end that didn't matter. 

What did matter is that not-so-long-ago Kansas City local government conducted one of the most drastic crackdowns on local restaurants in recorded history and the consequences continue to resonate more than a couple of years later.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

'Thank you, Kansas City': Two popular, local eateries permanently close doors before holidays

Two local and popular eateries, Vested Coffee and Tribe Street Kitchen, in Kansas City, Missouri, closed their doors permanently right before the holidays.

And all of this inspires our www.TonysKansasCity.com playlist tonight on the savory subject of food, eating out and other luxuries that the local working-class can't really afford . . .

Let's start with a bit of garnish as Green Onions by Booker T. & The MGs reminds us of a simpler time when most broke-ass people ate at home instead of getting a bank lone to pay for a burger:

Cheeseburger In Paradise is a musical miracle if only because the restaurant was much better than the song and the late Jimmy Buffet figured out how to charge people 50 bucks to eat a mediocre dinner because of ridiculous pink flamingo decor . . .

We share The B-52's - Rock Lobster if only because it represents a glorious time when musicians could be genuinely weird and indulge in their creativity without attaching a political agenda to their songs.

Herb Alpert - The Tijuana Brass - A Taste of Honey posted only because everything about this song is HORRIBLE and it reminds me so many local places that TKC frequented as a youngster that had clearly outlived their usefulness.

Don McLean performing American Pie is as good of a place as any to call it quits for tonight not only because the song is iconic and maybe even a bit historic but, like many local restaurants, the tune is also way too full of itself and overrated.

As always, thanks for reading this week and have a safe & fun Saturday night.