Room 39 Captured My Heart

Blink, and you might miss this little gem-of-a-restaurant located on 39th Street in Midtown, Kansas City.  However, walk inside, and you won't be lost anymore.  The feel inside calls you home, and the generosity and kindness from everyone inside makes it easy to want to dine there daily.  A room bursting with amazing, local food!

It's not just any food.  The local ingredients awaken in your mouth, and the flavors linger on your tongue while you contemplate what secret ingredients were used.  The best part: it's affordable (especially for breakfast and lunch) and simply delicious!  You know you have a great dish when every, single item on the plate is "your favorite"!  There is something truly exquisite about sourcing the best local ingredients and letting the ingredients decide the dishes offered.  It's sort of the difference you taste between
freezer-burned food and something that just came from the farmers market.  Add a few fresh herbs, brilliant cooking skills, passionate combinations, and pure love... and boom: GREAT EATS!

Their fresh nettles soup I tried back in the Spring would put any other "green soup" to shame.  Not only is this soup wickedly medicinal for you, as it brings alkalinity to the body and helps seasonal allergies, but the flavor of nettles mixed with fresh herbs and a touch of cream was one of the best soups I've tasted.  (Note that nettles grow wildly in the Spring when allergies are most prevalent.  Nature is crazy smart this way...  and this is why eating locally and seasonally proves also intuitively smart.)  Order a cup of it, and it will make you hungry for the next dish.



Nettles Soup



I have to sadly confess that I do not enjoy goat cheese.  I try with all of me to adore it to no avail.  So, when their goat cheese gnocchi came highly recommended, I tried to hide my “goat cheese pout” and quickly recommended that my friend get it instead. ;) After watching my friend’s eyes roll back in ecstasy, I decided to try it and instantly fell for the homemade pillows of love—even if they are bathed in local, goat cheese.  For goat cheese fans, these pillows spell the sweetest dreams.



Goat Cheese Gnocchi


Okay, my friends, let's take a moment of food silence for scallops cooked properly, perfectly browned and crisp on the outside, while delicately tender and succulent on the inside.  It’s pure seduction, and I love it!  There are fewer things sexier than a scallop cooked beautifully and topped with a buerre blanc sauce that makes you close your eyes and drool.  Yes, it seems you can chew and drool at the same time.  It's almost like your mouth is impatiently screaming for more, while your soul soaks the flavor up slowly.  No need to thank the heavens, because surely God is in that kitchen! :)

Heavenly Scallops

A delicious sigh also goes out to the farm that provided the okra and green tomatoes that were delicately fried up with a saffron aioli.  I will take two more plates, please, with extra aioli!

We could not decide on dessert because it all sounded perfect, so to save us further agony, the manager brought us three to try all the different flavors.  Life is a beautiful buffet; you should try a bit of all the magic offered.

The menu at Room 39 changes seasonally and sometimes weekly, so please check out their menu online.  The local farmers are listed on the menu also.  I would bet you return there at least 39 more times...

Please visit this link for more information:
http://www.rm39.com/

In Love and Health,

~Christy~