Summer dining: Savor the season’s fresh flavors

Restaurant patios around the city are abuzz with al fresco diners eager to sip and sup under the stars. Festivals are in full swing, serving up barbecue, cotton candy and street food. Farmers markets on both sides of the state line supply shoppers with local produce for bountiful dinners on the grill.

Boulevard’s Saison-Brett beer hits taps, shelves today

Beer nerd alert: Saison-Brett, a limited-release Boulevard brew, hits taps and retail shelves today. The farmhouse ale, based on the Kansas City brewery’s popular Tank 7, is dry hopped and bottle conditioned with various yeasts, including a wild strain called Brettanomyces, which gives the beer an earthy quality that pairs well with portobello mushroom, nutty Gruyere and English Stilton, a blue cheese.

The Boot, new to Westport, could use some polish

“I wanted to fall head over heels with the Boot, but I’m old school when it comes to love,” reviewer Jill Wendholt Silva writes of the new Italian restaurant in Westport by budding chef/owners Aaron Confessori and Richard Wiles. “I want something I can count on.”

Family finds relief in food desert

On Thanksgiving Day, The Kansas City Star profiled Jamie Svejda and her struggle to provide her family with nutritious foods. Soon after, an emergency room physician at St. Luke’s Hospital, where she works as a receptionist, called to offer her backpacks and drawstring bags to help carry the load.

The search for KC's top (hot) dog

Chicago is the capital of the Wiener Republic, and you really can’t get a bad dog in the city. But where in Kansas City can you find a hot dog that's worthy of the Windy City?

Cutting-edge cuisine finds home in KC

Jenny Vergara recalls the day she stopped apologizing for Kansas City’s restaurant scene. The Lenexa blogger, who dishes about the local food scene at www.makingafoodie.com, was sipping cocktails with Marshall Roth on the patio of Le Fou Frog, the funky French bistro just east of the River Market.

Bacon belly bomb is a big hit

Never underestimate the power of bacon — or the Internet. A pork-on-pork recipe got started in KC, took the Internet by storm and is now getting attention on TV.

Sniffing out a bargain wine doesn’t have to make your head hurt

While there seems to be consensus on several points, including geography, service and smart shopping, everyone’s taste is different, so drinking inexpensively means deciding what works on your palate and with your mood. The more you sample, and the more you look beyond the big-brand, no-surprise wines for variety and value, the more bargains you will find.

Eating for Life: Grilled Salmon Salad

Chefs use marinades to make foods tender and infuse them with flavor. But scientists have discovered marinades also act as a barrier to potentially carcinogenic substances that are created when meat and fish are cooked over flames. Using a marinade before grilling reduces HCA (heterocyclic amines) by 92 percent to 99 percent, according to American Institute for Cancer Research (aicr.org).

Eating for Life: Grilled Chicken Spiedini

Whether you order chicken spiedini at an Italian mom-and-pop ristorante or the Olive Garden, chances are good the benefits of grilling lean chunks of meat over an open flame will be overshadowed by the dish’s overall fat content.