I've finally hit 100 restaurants! My original plan was to reach this milestone in 18 months. It took just over 2 years, but that's okay. This has been such a fun journey. I've branched out and tried new food, found lots of great new restaurants that I really love, found new items at old favorite restaurants, and have had a great time doing it. A couple months ago I started tweeting the posts to the restaurants, and getting retweets and favorites from them has been really exciting as well.
Sometimes people still look at me kinda weird when I'm taking pictures of my food, but I don't even pay attention. I also furiously take notes on my phone from start to finish so I don't have to rely on memory. That has helped tremendously. And just because I'm at #100 doesn't mean I'm stopping...just the opposite. I plan to keep this up for at least another 100!
The morning after my conference ended I got up and went running, and by the time I got packed and ready to go I was hungry. A couple mornings during the week I had gone to Cosentino's, a little gourmet shop a couple blocks from the hotel. But I wanted something different. Kathy had suggested Ingredient Restaurant, and said it was really good.
It's located in downtown KC, just about 2 blocks from the hotel. They've got about 8 other locations in Kansas and Colorado. I honestly almost didn't go there, because when I first walked in it was completely empty and I really thought it was closed. I walked back out and across the street to another place, but it was more just coffee and danish, so I went back to Ingredient. By then there were a couple other people inside.
At Ingredient you order at the counter and they bring the food to you. It's a very typical downtown eatery that's probably packed when they first open with people on their way to work, and then again at lunchtime. It reminds me a lot of a diner, and kind of like train station diner. But that's not a bad thing. Large open kitchen in the middle, seating on 3 sides of the kitchen, about 75 tables in all. The tables are a mix of booths and regular tables. I sat at a 2-person booth.
I ordered a bacon cheddar sandwich on wheat English muffin, and all of the sandwiches come with skillet potatoes
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| Two griddled eggs, smoked apple wood or crisp turkey bacon, and cheddar on a sourdough, wheat English muffin or biscuit |
I love that you get a ceramic coffee cup instead of styrofoam. I'm sure I could have requested one to take the coffee to go. The coffee urn was empty when I first got some, and I mentioned it to the lady at the counter. By the time I picked up utensils and put my stuff down at the table, there was a new, fresh urn of coffee. Perfect.
My food came out super fast. I mean, within 5 minutes. I'm sure when it's packed the wait is quite a bit longer. But even though it was fast, the food was very fresh. The breakfast potatoes were really crisp and delicious. A little too much salt for my taste, but not too bad. I got the wheat English muffin and it was really good. Not sure what made it different than the ones from the store, but I really enjoyed the flavor. When I picked up the sandwich the eggs immediately started falling out. So I ate the top of the muffin by itself, and made the rest of the sandwich a knife-and-fork deal. The cheddar had a delicious smoky flavor that I really liked. I didn't think about it until after I had started eating, but I should have ordered the eggs over medium because they were cooked a little more than I would normally like.
Will I go back? No doubt. The food was fresh, hot, and very good. And I was in and out of there within 30 minutes. And it's an inexpensive meal.
