Scene

BON VOYAGE

Christopher Elbow’s cannabis-infused chocolates are a nice splurge for medical marijuana patients.

BY PATRICK MOORE

CHRISTOPHER ELBOW has been making some of the city’s best chocolate bars and bonbons since 2003. In 2020, he asked the important question: “What if we put weed in them?”

Elbow has partnered with Clovr to create THC-infused chocolate bars and special versions of his famous bonbons— they’re just as pretty as the bonbons that made Elbow famous, but they’ll get card-carrying Missouri medical marijuana patients high.

The medicated bonbons come in a variety of flavors including salted vanilla caramel, creme brulee, citrus caramel, Italian espresso caramel and pumpkin spice. Each bonbon contains ten milligrams of THC, and they are typically sold two per box. I remember buying them in four-packs earlier in the year, but maybe that never happened and I was just high. Either way, a two-piece box will run you $16—they’re available at many local dispensaries. I tried the pumpkin spice flavor, and they were delightful. It was like an autumn gusher exploding in my mouth. I could eat a dozen more, but, sadly, my medical marijuana allotment and checking account prevent this dream from becoming a reality. If you’re a heavy edible consumer, then twenty milligrams doesn’t do a lot. But it did provide me with a very mellow and pleasant high. They didn’t make me wanna lay down and think about every bad decision I’ve ever made, which can happen. If edibles aren’t really your bag, then start with one and wait at least an hour before eating the other in the pack.

These are a little pricey for the dosage, and you can find many less expensive edibles, even in the “fine cocoa” class. These are a special treat— perhaps a Valentine’s Day gift. My mom really wants to try them. It’s Christopher Elbow’s fault my mom wants to experiment with drugs. Sadly, my mom lives in Kansas, so she’s out of luck unless she can find a less scrupulous patient to share.

Pizza Tascio

NEWSFEED

WHAT’S NEW IN KANSAS CITY FOOD & DRINK

New Nork

The Northland has new New York pizza with a pedigree thanks to Pizza Tascio (1111 Burlington St., North Kansas City). The project comes from Erik Borger, who is wellknown to Kansas City pizza geeks as the founder of Il Lazzarone, home of some of the city’s top Neapolitan pies.

Borger grew up in the Hudson Valley, just north of New York City, before moving to St. Joseph, Missouri, where Borger’s father was in pharmaceuticals.

“Being from New York, pizza has always been the highlight of life,” Borger says. “We could get the local pizzeria’s pizza instead of school lunch in elementary school. It was just ingrained in life. Coming out here, it was a culture shock.”

Pizza Tascio pies are a return to Borger’s roots—and his chance to perfect a new style. “I never mastered New Yorkstyle, I’m going to be honest with you,” he says.

You can see Borger’s pizza-nerd bonafide in the detailes like the tomatoes he’s using—California-grown San Marzanos from a farm run by Phoenix pizza king Chris Bianco.

“Going into this, I just wanted to make the best New York pizza anywhere,” Borger says. “I spent a year on the crust. I went through every hydration level. I went through every different flour on the market, every different tomato on the market. Honestly, I couldn’t find anything better than the Bianco.”

Also of note in the Northland: Wolfepack BBQ has opened just down the road, inside the brand new Callsign Brewing building (1340 Burlington St., North Kansas City). Read more on page 90.

Buck Starts Here

The old Plowboys barbecue space in Johnson County (6737 W. 75th St., Overland Park) won’t sit empty for long. Buck Tui barbecue will be opening on 75th Street “soon,” owner Teddy Liberda announced via Instagram.

Plowboys barbecue announced its closure around the start of the new year, joining Brookside Poultry as one of two high-profile closures at the end of the year. Owner Todd Johns told Kansas City that “staffing has been a big challenge” during the pandemic and that closing his third local spot (there’s also one in Nebraska) made sense in order to keep quality high.

Meanwhile, Buck Tui’s opening at another location, just south of the I-435 loop, has been long delayed by what the post described as “crazy pandemic setbacks.”

Buck Tui is a Thai-influenced barbecue spot that landed at number nine on our list of the ten best in the city back in October.

Hole Story

Mornings got a little sweeter in south Overland Park with the mid-January opening of Daylight Donuts (14852 Metcalf Ave., Overland Park). Daylight is nut-free, meaning you can buy a dozen doughnuts for the school or office where someone has an allergy. It’s also making unique, letter-shaped frosted doughnuts so you can deliver a message in delicious fried dough. There’s also a very impressive tea menu for a doughnut shop, including matcha lattes and masala.

Met Mitch

The long-awaited Johnson County restaurant from Char Bar co-owner Mitch Benjamin is finally open. Meat Mitch (3620 W. 95th St., Leawood) took over a massive six thousand-squarefoot spot on the northern side of Ranchmart. Benjamin, who has promoted his projects by courting attention from Barstool Sports boss Dave Portnoy and former Royals great George Brett, told the Kansas City Star that the new spot is “the next step of the evolution of my brand.” The new restaurant already has hats, hoodies and branded Yeti tumblers for sale, along with “sixteen-hour smoked Black Angus handcarved brisket” and vegetarian smoked jackfruit.

SMOKING THAT WOLFE PACK

There’s a new live-fire barbecue pit at Callsign Brewing in the Northland promising everything from potstickers to pot pie.

BY MARTIN CIZMAR

JARED WOLFE’S ORIGINAL PLAN was to call his barbecue pit Lone Wolfe. That, he quickly came to feel, would be living a lie.

“I didn’t feel like it was a good fit, to be honest,” he says. “I definitely learned I cannot do this myself, and I’ve built a team around me. It’s not a small feat to try and do this. I’ve learned that if I didn’t have the support I do, there’s no way I could do this.”

And so the solitary Lone Wolfe evolved into the more humble and cooperative Wolfepack, a just-launched barbecue operation at the massive new Callsign Brewing space on Burlington Street in North Kansas City. It’s a livefire pit where prime Creekstone brisket and heritage-breed pork will be cooked over oak and hickory, with no gas assist. Wolfe’s operation is in the pop-up phase now, but it will expand into a standing space soon—Wolfe is building his own thousand-gallon offset smoker from an old propane tank.

Wolfe is thirty-two and a lifelong resident of Platte City, north of the airport. In his mid-twenties, he was working as a salesman for an automation company, which meant being on the road all the time. “It took a toll on me,” he says. “I had to make a decision. I figured I’m young enough now; I’m going to chase my passion for the next three or four years.”

That meant barbecue, which he’d learned about by hanging out with buddies on the competition scene and doing a little judging.

He found himself adapting his sales gig to his passion by targeting clients in the barbecue belt. His conversion came from a spot you don’t hear mentioned much by fellow craft barbecue, the charcoal-grilled racks at Rendezvous in Memphis.

“I was a rib guy,” he says. “I hated Kansas City brisket. It was shaved and always dry to me—I just didn’t like it growing up.”

After being bit by the ’cue bug, Wolfe took a job as the pitmaster at Scott’s Kitchen near the airport, one of the region’s elite but oft-overlooked spots. He worked at Jousting Pigs, too, then moved on to help at Fox & Fire, which was at Callsign for years before moving up to Kearny early last fall. If that sounds like a lot of pitmasters swapping spaces and knowledge, it’s because that’s how Wolfe sees “the new wave” of barbecue going.

“It’s almost becoming like the beer scene,” he says. “Everyone’s helping everyone else.”

Callsign Brewing just moved into a massive new 33,000-square-foot space, where there will eventually be two food spots. Wolfepack will be on the sell-out model and make only what they know they can serve fresh. Presently, they’re operating as a pop-up with inside seating in the brewery. Look for a proper restaurant operation open inside the brewery sometime this summer: They’re shooting for May or June, but given delays in everything right now, it might be the Fourth of July.

At Wolfepack, you can expect housemade pickles and sauce and a steady stream of innovative ’cue-based cuisine. Among the offerings planned are potstickers, pot pie and Wagyu hot dogs from KC Cattle Co.

“There are twenty different ways to make a potato salad—why not have some fun?” Wolfe says. “We’re going to keep pumping out fresh stuff, and we’re going to have fun with it. We want it to be an experience every time.”

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