My dearest friend, whom I have known since middle school, met me for Italian food in South Kansas City the last week of June. I was excited to see her and to try North Modern Italian Cuisine, but I’m afraid it wasn’t much fun for her. She was supposed to have a temporary crown replaced by a permanent one and thought her appointment would take all of 30 minutes. But instead the dentist got to drilling, I forgot about her appointment and kept texting her about why she was late, and she ended up having dinner with a sore mouth.
It was still great to see her, and the food was pretty good too, definitely better than Brio Tuscan Grille, the other chain Italian I’ve sampled in Kansas City (both, only once), but not as authentic as Il Posto in Denver. North is owned by Fox Restaurant Concepts, which also started the Bloom restaurant chain; I ate often at the location in Broomfield, Colorado. There is a North restaurant in Cherry Creek in Denver.
The waiter, who knew my friend from the many Wednesday nights she spent at the restaurant drinking half-price bottles of wine, brought us pretty butter whipped with red pepper. 
My friend ordered the zucca chips, which were a little soft (like the focus) but good.
She then moved on to pizza, which apparently didn’t do anything to make her mouth feel better as she took most of it home. I ordered the scallops with corn risotto infused with white truffle oil. The scallops were perfectly moist and tender, with no grit, and the risotto was good. I was impressed by the number of scallops in the serving and by the fact that the dish was not too heavy.
Thanks for meeting me for dinner, my friend. I hope you’re feeling better, and I’ll check out your new kitchen in November.
and the filet tips and the mushroom Cabreles. The ceviche was fish-forward: I couldn’t taste lime or cilantro, which were supposed to be seasoning the lobster, shrimp, crab, and tomatoes. But it was refreshing against the marvelous grilled ciabatta. The filet was wonderful;
I loved the blue cheese taste of the sauce and the silkiness of the meat.
It made me feel like the queen of bacon-gooeyness. When I had the leftovers for lunch today, they were still good. But I would not call this dish subtle. Is there such a thing as a subtle schnitzel?
and the German apple cake, similar to carrot cake. 
As we drove home, I wondered if it were responsible of me to feed my elderly father so much food. But other than an occasional complaint about how full he was, he didn’t seem to mind.
when it should have been more like the ceviche mentioned above. And the roasted tomato and chicken risotto with prosciutto and asparagus was to risotto
what this blurry picture is to photography. It lacked the density of risottos I’ve had, in which the rice was a match for the sauce rather than drowning in it. I did enjoy the fluffy crab and shrimp cakes
but not their too-sweet sauce, which my friend said tasted like Miracle Whip. I’ve never had that (at least, not willingly), so I don’t know how it tastes.
Bella Bridesmaid, the Clock Shop, Ward and Ward Custom Picture Framing, Brookside Antiques, and J’Adore (European antiques and interiors). Of all those, the framing store was open and, happily, the Oak Street Coffee Shop.
The barista, who said she was new, made me a hot chocolate with Hershey’s syrup and then said I should tell her if I wanted more chocolate. Since it tasted like hot, weak chocolate milk, I did. (Hot chocolate varies so much in quality from one coffeehouse to another that I’m thinking of going back to coffee.) After I ensconced myself with Marie Claire in a corner to read all about Hilary Swank, a woman came in to buy the rest of their rich, dark, chocolate cake.
On the way out, I was still stopping to look at jackets and scarves and purses. Shop Girls is a great place.
When I ordered the Alexander Valley Chardonnay and lobster ravioli with brandy and lobster butter cream, the bartender brought me a white napkin, folded into a triangle, to use as a placemat. “Everyone gets one,” she said, assuring me that she didn’t think I was a slob. The wine glowed yellow-gray and tasted of citrus followed by something softer and smoother, perhaps the vanilla and caramel mentioned on the menu. I liked the irregular shape of the ravioli and the delicate flavor of lobster. The ravioli were firm, but I would have appreciated more, perhaps even crunchiness.
On my first trip with my sister, I ordered a beautiful latte and a red velvet cupcake. 
This time, it was an Americano and a chocolate mini-cupcake.
in which to indulge his coffee-jones, and people seem to like it.