Decades-old Mexican that still hits + KCK brewery finally debuts

Welcome back to Let’s Dish — your one-stop shop for all things eats in Kansas City. I’m Alison Booth, an audience development strategist at The Star.

My colleague Lisa Lopez takes us inside her favorite Mexican restaurant in town, a decades-old spot that reminds her of her mom’s home cooking. Plus, after eight years in the making, this KCK brewery is finally open, and KC just got its first-ever anime and gaming bar and lounge.

Let’s get into it.

Carnitas at La Fonda El Taquito

The Star’s newsroom all knows: Our colleague Lisa Lopez is a great cook. She learned how to cook from her mom and carries on the art of creating home-cooked Mexican food for her family, friends and, luckily, her co-workers.

Lisa says she’s often asked by many of her non-Latino friends which Mexican restaurant is her favorite.

Her answer? The restaurant that gets the closest to her mom’s cooking: La Fonda El Taquito, a 40-year-old Kansas City restaurant run by the Medina family.

Especially when she eats their carnitas, Lisa says she’s transported back to her childhood: cleaning the pinto beans so her mom could cook them, the smell of pork cooking on the stove. She would walk in and tell her mom, “It smells like a Mexican house.” Only those who grew up in a Latino household can understand.

Perhaps another reason Lisa loves La Fonda so much is regional familiarity. Lisa’s grandparents were from Guadalajara — and some of the Medina family is from the same region.

The Southwest Boulevard restaurant has a long and storied history. Read all about it — plus Lisa’s favorite dishes — here.

8 years later, new brewery opens in KCK

From conception to its debut last month, Strawberry Hill Brewing Co. took eight years to open. Why so long?

“Children, pandemics, government shutdowns, spine injuries,” said Ben Murray, who founded the Kansas City, Kansas, brewery off Central Avenue with his brother Larry Murray, Philip Kuzila and Joseph Collins.

Spine injuries?

“Yeah, three of us have dealt with spine issues in recent years,” Ben Murray said. “We actually named our fermenter tanks Lumbar, Thoracic and Cervical because of that.”

There’s no lager named “Coccyx Kolsch” on the menu at Strawberry Hill Brewing Co.

But they do have four original beers on tap: an oatmeal stout called Long Road Ahead; a not-quite brown ale, not-quite amber called a Bramber; a malty IPA called WyPA (a nod to Wyandotte County); and a Gaslight Lager, which is actually a cream ale, named after a long-gone bar that once operated a few doors down.

Read more about the new spot from my colleague David Hudnall.

À la carte

✴️ Kansas City just got its first anime and gaming bar — a former kombucha lounge-turned-gamer haven in the Crossroads that offers thousands of video games alongside fun drinks and food.

✴️ Less than a year after this Ethiopian-Caribbean fusion restaurant opened a second location in the Northland, it’s shutting down this weekend.

✴️ This soda chain that’s surged in popularity after going viral on TikTok (and being featured in a new Hulu series) just opened its first KC-area location. Be ready, though — lines are already long.

✴️ If soda’s not your vibe, you can wait out for this energy drink drive-thru chain that’s planning to bring multiple locations to the metro, including one slated to open mid-next year.

My standout dish of the week

Before attending the KC Current’s final home game of the regular season last weekend, I needed some fuel for my hype. So my friend and I made our way over to The Farmhouse, a farm-to-table type brunch spot that’s popular in the River Market.

I ordered the Chicken N’ Biscuit — a homemade biscuit topped with locally sourced fried chicken breast, their country gravy, chipotle butter (yum) and a sunny side-up egg, finished with a drizzle of tingly chili honey. It was delicious and paired well with my cups of French press coffee, another menu standout.

And the game? The Current’s final regular season homestand was a 4-1 blowout win over the San Diego Wave, in which KC star Temwa Chawinga, in her first year in the league, scored her record-breaking 20th goal of the season. That’s a feat that’s never been accomplished in the NWSL before.

All that to say: If you’re not following the history-making success of KC’s women’s soccer team as they head to the playoffs, you should be.

Hungry for more?

• Check out all the restaurants we’ve covered in our Let’s Dish series here.

• Looking for the latest industry news? Here’s what spots have opened and closed in the KC area lately.

• To see what we’re eating next, follow The Star on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok.
• If you were forwarded this email, here’s where you can subscribe.
• And make sure to support local journalists with a subscription to The Star.

Happy eating! We’ll see you next week.

This story was originally published October 25, 2024 at 10:30 AM with the headline "Decades-old Mexican that still hits + KCK brewery finally debuts."