Beyond a shot and a beer for friendly drinks in K.C.

What do you mean, you haven't been to Kansas City? Haven't you heard that it's one of the next great cocktail cities?

This cocktail snob didn't believe it either at first. Yet Kansas City has a broad range of bartending excellence, delivered sans attitude.

"The drinking culture here is relatively laid back," said Ryan Maybee, owner of craft bar Manifesto (theriegerkc.com/mani

festo), which reopened last March within the Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange. (Technically, Manifesto is housed within the Rieger but has a separate address and back-alley entrance.)

Although the growing community of bartenders certainly takes pride in, say, brewing up grenadine from scratch for high-end cocktails, they don't look down on anyone ordering a shot of whiskey or a beer either. Indeed, bar-hoppers laud K.C. for its friendly, approachable vibe.

In addition to his own bar, Maybee recommends that visitors try out Westport Cafe and Bar (west

portcafeandbar.com), a small bistro with streamlined signatures such as the Whiskey Smash (bourbon, peaches and honey-lavender syrup).

Other stops include the Viennese restaurant Grunauer (grunauerkc.com) and its Wunderbar, which has offbeat drinks such as a Dark Rum Flip made with "strudel juice." Extra Virgin (extravirginkc.com), a colorful Spanish spot run by James Beard award-winning chef Michael Smith, is prime real estate for long business lunches and tapas-fueled happy hours.

Whiskey — preferably bourbon or rye — tends to be the drink of choice, and it is no coincidence that both pair with Kansas City's renowned barbecue.

In particular, Maybee recommends ordering The Pendergast, a riff on the classic whiskey-based Bobby Burns cocktail. It's named for Thomas Pendergast, a Kansas City politician famed for his populist touch and Mafia connections during the Prohibition speak-easy years. Among other things, his policies are credited with giving rise to the golden era of Kansas City jazz.

"Kansas City was the wildest in the country back then," Maybee explained. Surely, a legacy like that is worth a drink or two.

Try this cocktail

Here is a recipe for The Pendergast, courtesy of Ryan Maybee of Manifesto in Kansas City.

1 1/2 ounces

Buffalo Trace Bourbon

3/4 ounce sweet vermouth

1/2 ounce Benedictine

3-4 dashes Angostura bitters

Stir together all ingredients and strain into a rocks glass with no ice. Garnish with lemon twist.

Kara Newman is the author of "Spice & Ice: 60 Tongue-tingling Cocktails."

View the original article here

Alaska cruise lite

Glaciers, mountains, whales and fresh fish — scads of fresh fish — all await visitors to southeast Alaska. But if you come by cruise ship, scads of tacky dockside shops and huge crowds also await.

Last summer, cruise liners disgorged 876,000 passengers at Juneau, Alaska's beautiful capital. On the busiest day, with five cruise ships in port simultaneously, 17,000 tourists descended on this town, whose population is just 31,000.

Most boarded buses for trips to popular and worthwhile sights such as Mendenhall Glacier and the peak of Mount Roberts, reached by an aerial tramway. But some folks would argue that snapping a photo of a black bear snagging a sockeye from a mountain creek is hardly a Kodak moment when you're squeezed onto a viewing platform like pickled herring into a jar.

For independent-minded souls, adventurous alternatives await throughout the panhandle of our 49th state, using comfortably sized ferry boats, instead of sprawling cruise ships, to reach various communities, some of which aren't among the big ships' ports of call.

The fishing village of Petersburg, its compact downtown full of rosemaling-adorned businesses representative of its Norwegian heritage, is a destination inaccessible to large cruise ships by design. Local residents voted against building a deep-water port.

"We did not want to change the flavor of the community," said the chamber of commerce's Sally Dwyer.

"We get about 50 people a week that come to our visitor center and say, 'We were on the ferry and decided to stop here.'"

Having made the stop, independent travelers find plenty to enjoy, sans crowds, in this town deep in the Tongass rain forest.

"You go to LeConte Glacier, and you're going to go in a boat with a maximum of six passengers in it," said Dave Berg, owner of Viking Travel.

"You can walk the docks and see the different types of fishing boats. You can enjoy local seafood at the restaurants," he continued. "Whale watching is really good out of here. We can connect people to places to go bear viewing."

Fishing charters, from day trips aboard small boats to weeklong stays on luxurious yachts, also are available. And visitors are welcome to stop in at Tonka Seafood to watch as wild salmon is cooked — in steam, not boiling water — and packaged.

A vital arm of state government, the ferry system provides affordable, year-round transportation to 15 southeast Alaska communities, plus Prince Rupert, British Columbia. "Outsiders," a nickname for folks from the lower 48, can visit as many as five of these towns using the See Alaska Pass. Valid May through September, the pass costs $160.

Aboard the ferries, there's a bohemian feel.

"This isn't a cruise ship. We're the bus," observed Mike Queen, the M/V Taku's chief purser.

Small but functional staterooms can be booked at an extra charge. But backpackers often opt to pitch their tents for free on the ferries' open rear decks.

"We tell people to tape them down. We won't go back for a tent overboard," Queen said.

The purser described the sheltered waters of the Inside Passage as the "whale freeway." At times, hundreds of whales can be seen surfacing to breathe while feeding on large schools of herring.

In Juneau, ferries arrive at Auke Bay instead of the downtown docks reserved for cruise liners. A right turn from the ferry terminal leads passengers 12 miles into town (and Mendenhall Glacier beyond), but more intrepid travelers may wish to turn left at the sign that reads, simply, "End of Road 24."

Heading west, or left, from the ferry port, visitors are treated to breathtaking vistas of other glaciers and the shoreline. And the cruise lines' tour buses don't ply this route.

View the original article here

The I-70 reality behind Missouri's TV darlin'

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Truck-stop reality might not strike a lot of people as having TV potential, but when the Travel Channel happened upon a place off Exit 121 along the Interstate Highway 70 corridor just west of here, lightning struck.

TV crews came calling, and everything naturally got amped up. That reality set in over the last several months for Joe Bechtold, general manager of the Midway Travel Plaza, which was made even more famous in "Truck Stop Missouri."

The well-visited stop offers a slice of life — heck, make it two slices — with an interesting cast of characters, the ones visiting and the ones working there.

"You know, it's been a lot of fun and a lot of work," Bechtold said. "It's time-consuming but really cool. ... For us and our customers, it's been great. People come in and they're kind of excited to see people who they've seen on TV."

In its first season, "Truck Stop Missouri" focused on the family-owned travel plaza and became one of the Travel Channel's brightest gems. Thirteen episodes aired, and it will be back again this year as "Truck Stop USA." Run dates have yet to be determined, but you can stop in and see the real reality.

The difference here is that in addition to food, you can buy boots, fireworks and antiques, and even upgrade your body-art portfolio with a new tattoo at Under the Gun Tattoo — you know, all the stuff you need for the road.

Then there are the special events that make the little screen: cow-patty bingo, lawn-mower racing, battle re-enactments.

Sailing down I-70, you really can't miss the cluster of 15 businesses and one church nestled in the quiet countryside about a seven-hour drive southwest of Chicago.

In the restaurant, you get a welcome as if you're part of the family: "How ya doing, baby?" followed by later checkups with "You doing OK, dear?" and "You're welcome, honey." Warm and welcoming without a trace of plastic.

The waitresses know their stuff, such as with 18-year veteran Ruth Marie Roe, who suggests starting a meal with dessert. Here, indulging in a piece of homemade German chocolate pie will set you back only $2.49. It's the same for fresh-baked fruit pies (pronounced "pahz").

All that TV exposure hasn't run up prices yet. A char-grilled hamburger with a choice of mashed potatoes, slaw or the "daily veggie" runs $6.79. And reports are that the biscuits and gravy are second to none. Homemade sausage gravy on two fresh-baked biscuits is $3.99.

The Backdoor Lounge fills to the brim on Friday and Saturday nights, when country music bands take the stage and kick up the energy at 9 p.m. And pretty much by that time 100 or so trucks, lined up neatly like toys, have parked for the night so the drivers can get some R&R.

No doubt those truckers can't wait to finish dinner and get some shut-eye so they can make haste into the Midway Antique Mall and Flea Market the next morning. Its massive inventory arrayed over 60,000 square feet includes vintage toys, glassware and china, quilts and coins, and plenty of Americana, all with seemingly reasonable prices. Currently, 235 dealers offer their wares in 325 booths. It's laid out nicely; no mazes or dark corners to get lost in. The only way to get lost is in time. Some people reportedly breeze in for a break from the road and emerge from the aisles three or four hours later.

If your trunk's full, you can stash that new old dresser you just bought over at Midway Mini Storage. Then go pick up the kids at Cannery Row Daycare or at the Fearfest Haunted House and haul them all to the Gateway to the High Country Cowboy Church, a spiritual font for "cowboys, cowgirls and horse lovers of all brands," for a quick prayer.

Then it's back to the road and all those high hopes for the new TV season.

If you go

The Midway Travel Plaza covers 200 acres off Exit 121, just west of Columbia, Mo., on I-70 almost smack between St. Louis and Kansas City. The Midway Travel Plaza sits about midway between the interstate's terminal points just outside Baltimore and in Cove Fort, Utah, a span of 2,153 miles.

For more details on the Midway Travel Plaza, visit midwayexpo.com/travelplaza, call 573-445-1211, or, of course, watch the Travel Channel.

View the original article here