Matilda's Juicy Lucy

Wes and I caught lunch over at the Foundry today. I've been wanting to go there since I found out about it. I didn't have a meeting at either 1 or 2 so lunch could be extended to whatever length I deemed necessary. I was pretty proud of myself for actually leaving the downtown area for lunch, something that I don't recall happening in the 2 years I've worked downtown. Wes picked me up at my building and drove us over for lunch.

We arrived down in Westport and found a parking place just off of Broadway, across from the Riot Room (formerly The Hurricane), in front of the tattoo parlor (I'm assuming I can use the word “the” there instead of “a” but it is Westport so I shouldn't assume). We walked over and tried to figure out if we had to go into McCoy's or if we could enter the Foundry from the outside. Turns out we can enter from the outside (or from McCoy's if you so desire).

We were seated in Nate's section and I couldn't have been more delighted that he was redheaded AND bearded (that is unless he was a hot female AND topless (okay you caught me, she wouldn't have to be hot)). We got our menus and they were a lot to absorb, 3 or 4 pages with over 100 beers and 20 different pizzas. Luckily I knew from previous perusals of their wonderful website, that I wanted a Matilda* (made by Goose Island), a better $4.50 can not be spent. Wes was less prepared and made Nate come back 2 or 3 times before he made a selection, a Moretti.

*When I went to beer school at Goose Island in Chicago, a couple of my classmates were a couple of homebrewing kids (I say kids because I'm apparently 85 years old, they were probably 25). The only thing they wanted to talk about was Matilda, the instructor was getting pretty tired of talking about it by the time we were done. But, it made me really want to drink Matilda whenever I got a chance.

With the troublesome beer selection made, next we had to tackle the menu. Nate suggested either the philly cheesesteak (made with cheez wiz) or the juicy lucy. I kind of wanted one of the pizzas but felt that I should have a juicy lucy because it just sounds heart stopping good. Wes decided on a juicy lucy as well. I got fries with mine and Wes got onion rings.

While we were waiting for our food, Nate brought out our beer. The Matilda was fabulous, the Moretti, less than stellar but Wes liked it. As we sat there I saw my second favorite waitress from the Flying Saucer, Cassie. She came over and chatted for a minute and for the first time in my life I felt like Jess, from “When Harry Met Sally”, because she quoted me to me. Only in Jess' case it was flattering, Cassie wasn't very pleased about the “second favorite waitress” thing. I told her that I thought the KC Beer Blog was obviously written by idiots. Wait a second, this may just blow my cover a little bit. Cassie was pretty bummed that her section was the outdoor deck (which looks great btw) but it was approximately 130 degrees out there, hence no people.

When our juicy lucies came out, Wes and I decided to eat some of each others sides. I grabbed his o-ring and he grabbed my fry. I smothered Wes' o-ring with jalapeno ketchup and shoved it in my mouth, Wes did the same with my fry. Both were fabulous.

The juicy lucies come wrapped in hamburger paper, it looked an awful lot like a Burger King burger all wrapped up. When it was unwrapped, a little bit of the cheese stuck to the wrapper, the way any good cheeseburger should. I got a little bit fatter just looking at it. Wes ate his juicy lucy as quickly as Dom DeLuise would. I preferred to savor mine, in much the same way that I imagine Patrick Swayze savored making love with Baby.

I finished my beer sometime during my savoring and noticed that they had McCoy's cask IPA on tap. I needed one of those. I strongly encouraged Wes to get one too, he'd never had a cask ale. Nate came back a couple minutes after our order and told us he was waiting for the head to go down. I knew there was a joke in there somewhere but I didn't have it at the time. I still don't have a great one but I'll go with “that's what my wife says before she will come to bed”, but I'm not sold on it.

The cask IPA was great and well worth the trip over to McCoy's or the Foundry. Also, Matilda was great and I'm not sure where else you can get it in a bar (you can get a 4 pack for $9.95 at most area liquor stores with a good beer selection). The Foundry has a happy hour with $2 pints (but I don't know which pints). Also a great patio where you can bear witness to rolling gun battles down Westport Rd. if you stay there late enough. It is a little bit pricey, 2 good beers and a burger was about $21 and the burgers were some of the cheapest things on the menu. The pizzas sound fabulous but $12 for a 12 incher is a bit pricey.