White Cheddar Fondue and A Zombie Musical, Too

We had a long overdue night out with treasured friends Ronnie and Jeff recently.  We descended on points 'round mid and downtown, doing our best to evade the Big 12 crowds in town.  We fit a fave brunch spot for dinner by the name of Grand St Cafe.  Grand St Cafe is located in the Country Club Plaza area and has been a venerable gathering spot with fine grub for over 20 years.  We had indeed been duly impressed with their Sunday brunch and were eager to give dinner a whirl.  It was as good as I'd hoped: after a satisfying Mojito cocktail for me and a Sidecar for Keith, we split a spectacular savory white cheddar fondue with Granny Smith apple quarters and thick, doughy Bavarian-style pretzels.  Dinner for myself was the house special that night; tender duck sauteed with cavatappi noodles in a fabulous sauce made from the juices of the duck fat.  It was very tasty.  Grand St Cafe has a host of delectable-looking entrees...just hit the link for their website, check out the gallery and let your mouth water!

Before the show, we stopped at the Brasserie Bar at the Westin which was connected to the Crown Center where the performance was located.  Over cocktails, we settled into some serious people-watching in the lobby.  Hotel lobbies always make for masterful people-watching and so we watched this great cross-section of sports fans in for the Big 12 tournaments and folks in for the KC Dog Show walking their prized pups.  I got the biggest pick out of seeing my home state West Virginia University logo directly over the bar entrance as part of the lobby decor welcoming all of the teams and their fans.

Soon.we were off towatch the big show; to once again bear witness to Ron Megee's latest pop culture creation.  Ronnie and I are longtime Megee groupies dating back to his Late Night Theatre days and were anticipating the latest show: Slashdance; a mash-up takeoff of 80's flick Flashdance and zombie movies.  The Coterie Theatre put it on as part of their Coterie Ignites series at the Off Center Theater and this performance space was truly decked out to look like the setting of the Walking Dead, replete with  heavy fencing, flickering lights, siren sounds and Missing posters featuring some local KC notables. The play itself was an absolute hoot and holler as all of Ron's productions are. The cast gamely performed some seriously impressive dance moves when they weren't slashing their zombie attackers. We were lucky not to get hit with too much splatter, but we were always looking for the shuffling undead to appear from various corners of the theater.  And yes, indeed, the 80's music was merrily intact and you haven't seen that manic Maniac step until you've seen it with zombies involved.  Ron Megee seriously seems to have the most fun with these colorful, madcap productions and therefore, so do we, the audience...as always, I can't wait to see what he does next.