During this past weekend, I made my second voyage to Blanc, a burger restaurant in Westport.

Now, I know that most readers of this blog don’t live in Kansas City and have rare occasion to visit.  But if you’re ever in town, go to Blanc. As many times as your time/budget/stomach allows you to.

Blanc’s slogan is “Burgers and Bottles,” which seems simple enough.  The menu has about 10 different types of inventive burgers.  There’s an inside-out burger, which is stuffed with bleu cheese; a pepper-encrusted au poivre burger; a freakin’ meatloaf burger; a pulled pork burger topped with spicy coleslaw; a bison burger; and, of course, your regular classic burger.  There’s also a Kobe burger for you high-rollers, if you’re into that.

The bottles part comes from their menu which features dozens of different kinds of sodas and other fizzy drinks, and — for the lushes out there — more than 110 kinds of beers from all over the world.  All in bottles.

One my first trip, I tried the au poivre burger, which was perfectly cooked and had just the right amount of heat from the pepper.  My second trip, I settled on the pulled pork burger, which has perfectly-seasoned, slowly-braised pork that fell apart upon eating.  You know, in a really, really good way.  I imagine my next stop at Blanc will probably lead me to the inside-out burger, which is apparently their most popular menu item.

In addition to the incredible burgers, Blanc does the little things well.  Its name ties to its minimal decorating scheme, which has plenty of white and brick, in a sort of Mac-inspired hipness.  They use a local bakery for their buns, along with Shatto, a local milk company.  And their milkshakes feature Foo’s Fabulous Frozen Custard, which is outstanding.  Blanc also makes in-house its own ketchup, mustard and chipotle aioli sauces for dipping.

Did I mention that the fries are incredible?  On top of that, Julie’s sister, Anne (a great cook in her own right), had the onion rings, which she called “the best I’ve ever had.”  I tried one and also thought it was great; and I don’t even really like onion rings.

In a desperate attempt to stop the gushing of this review, and seem balanced, I tried to find negatives to the restaurant.  I pretty much failed.  Certainly, Blanc is a little pricier than some burger places — expect to pay $8-10 for an ala carte burger — but it’s hard to not feel like it was worth it after you roll walk out of there.

So, in short, go.  Eat.  Enjoy.  Thank me later.

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This kind of meal can probably only be found in Missouri.

There’s a pretty cool Web site out there called Chowhound for people who are really into food and finding new restaurants in their area. The site is divided into regions and cities around the U.S., and it seems to be a pretty active community. If you hunt around for a while, you’re sure to find some new recommendations for your area.

However, as with any online community, you’re going to end up seeing some dissent and pretentiousness. Since I mostly peruse the Kansas City area, I’ve noticed a heavy emphasis on restaurants on the Missouri side of the metro area. Kansas? Not so much.

This sort of Missouri-snobbery happens all the time in Kansas City. There are basically two sides to the discussion:

1. Missouri people: The Johnson County (Kansas) suburbs are the worst place in the world. Nothing but big SUVs, rich people and chain restaurants. They’re so entitled, just existing in some sort of sterile corporate bubble and living in shoddily-made houses in the suburbs. I bet they aren’t even aware enough to know how miserable their vain, suburban lives are. I hate Kansas.
2. Kansas people: Mortified by Missouri; enjoy large parking lots.

This dichotomy is understandable, to some extent, because there are far more independent and local restaurants on the Missouri side, since that includes the midtown and downtown areas. But, I can say I’ve had great meals at many places on the Kansas side of the state line.

Julie and I have often joked that we should publish book entitled something like “A Guide to America’s Best Chain Restaurants.” We could eschew all attachment to hip, independent eateries and just dive fully into becoming franchise connoisseurs.

Out of boredom, I decided to act on this impulse and created an account on Chowhound with the username “rockinthesuburbs,” with the full intent of recommending every Johnson County eatery I could think of. The first thread I found was for dessert options in Kansas City, and the previous responses were predictably mostly from Missouri-based places. So I stepped in with my inaugural post:

“Oh, so many good options!I just love Perkin’s for the best pie in the area. So many to choose from! I believe there is one around 87th and I-35.

If you want ice cream, look no further than a little place called Baskin Robbins. Great ice cream, great atmosphere and — best of all — there’s several of them in the area, so you never have to search too much to find ice cream. Enjoy!”

I thought it was pretty funny.

Unfortunately, a moderator did not find it as funny, and my post was deleted six minutes later.

I’ll bet you that the mod lives in Missouri.

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