Tony: A Look Inside an Underground Kansas City Dinner Party

Kansas City Foodies are a strange group.

Local culinary aficionados go out of their way to try stuff I never knew existed. During a dinner party last night in Midtown Kansas City I got a close look at their antics. At this particular midtown, underground foodie gathering folks were going out of their way to experiment with different spicy Indian dishes. However, because I’m kind of finicky about food that isn’t pre-packaged or processed by the good people at fast food restaurants, I didn’t partake. But it was quite a scene. Take a look:

Yep, that’s right. This is a photo of a woman kissing a goat head. The great thing about this is that I was heretofore unaware that there was any place that folks could find a goat head with brains, eyes and tongue intact.

The Indian food party was hosted by concert promoting impresario Jeff Fortier and his homie Tyler Fox who is contemplating a move to get into the local catering biz. They plan to host these parties every month but want to keep them very low key. There were quite a few notable Kansas City personalities in attendance but that’s probably because Fortier knows just about everybody in this town.

I was thinking about it and this is probably the first dinner party I’ve attended in more than 5 years. Back when I had a pain in the ass girlfriend who made me take a shower and wear nice clothes to the event they seemed like a waste of an evening. Fortier’s get-togethers are A LOT more interesting than the average collection of Kansas City stuffed shirts inviting each other over for dinner in order to brag. And if he brought out a goat’s head for his Spring foodie festival, I’m sure his friends are all wondering what he has in store for next time.

Tony Botello