Staying in the southwest suburbs of Kansas City on a recent trip getting ready to meet with a new account the next day, I was sort of hungry, but I wasn't. Ever get that feeling? I knew I needed something or I would be waking up in the middle of the night with my stomach growling, but I didn't want a big heavy meal - like barbecue - that would also keep me awake from eating too much. Down the road aways from the hotel was a place that I'd read about on previous visits to the area - Barley's Kitchen + Tap. I decided to head down 119th Street in Overland Park to go have dinner there that evening.
Barley's Kitchen + Tap is under the umbrella of the KC Hopps restaurant group run by Chris Sutton. Sutton is a native of Chicago and had a keen interest in food while growing up in a family who exposed him to various cuisines. Sutton considers himself a "foodie" and many of his vacations have been food-emphasis taking him all over the U.S. and Europe to try different restaurants.
Sutton started his first restaurant - 75th Street Brewery - in 1993. It was the first brewpub in Kansas City and was open for 23 years before closing for the expansion of a restaurant next door. Over the years, Sutton's KC Hopps company opened and ran a number of places such as O'Dowd's Little Dublin in the Country Club Plaza area of Kansas City, 3 locations of the now closed 810 Zone sports bar, and the Blue Moose Bar and Grill with 3 locations in the greater Kansas City area and 3 more in the Kansas cities of Topeka, Lawrence and Manhattan. In 2013, KC Hopps bought a minority stake in the venerable home-style Kansas City restaurant Stroud's - a place that I've wanted to go to, but just haven't made it to yet - with the plan to expand the Stroud's name beyond Kansas City. In addition to running restaurants, Sutton has also been a consultant to beer-centric restaurants around the Midwest and Southeast.
Sutton opened a beer-centric restaurant - Barley's Brewhaus - in Overland Park in 1995. It featured a large number of beers and an upscale casual menu for food. Barley's Brewhaus expanded to locations in the Kansas City suburbs of Leawood, KS and Shawnee, KS. They closed the Leawood location in the spring of 2016 and later in the year KC Hopps rebranded the restaurant as Barley's Kitchen + Tap with an updated and more eclectic menu that better reflected the quality brands of beer they offered at the restaurant.
The Overland Park Barley's Kitchen + Tap is located near the corner of 119th Street and Quivera Rd. in Overland Park. (see map) It was just after 8 p.m. on a Monday evening when I walked into the restaurant. There weren't a lot of people in there - Monday nights are usually the slowest for most restaurants. (One of the reasons that A) my wife and I like to have our date nights on Monday night; and B) many restaurants are closed on Monday nights, much to the chagrin of my wife and me.)
The space was large and open with community tables near the bar and some booths in the back area. There was a small alcove behind the bar area that featured some tables with a number of contemporary and vintage beer signs. The hostess who greeted me said that I could pretty much have a seat anywhere in the place.
I ended up seated at the bar, which was the most popular place to sit that evening. A group of six people were huddled around the corner of the bar to my right toasting a colleague whose funeral they had attended earlier in the day. Two more couples were seated down the bar to my right. I was greeted by Scott, a friendly guy who was bartending that evening. He gave me a food menu and I took a look at the vast amount of beers they had on tap to choose from. I got a Free State Yakimaniac IPA from the Free State Brewery in nearby Lawrence, KS which was the very first brew pub that I went to back in the late 1980's. The Free State IPA had a bit of a hoppy taste, but I felt it was very smooth and very good.
On the menu at Barley's Kitchen + Tap is a wide choice of food items. The menu features a number of appetizers and sharable plates, soups and salads, a health conscious part of the menu features meals that are 600 calories or less, and they have a number of sandwiches, flat breads, and entrees to choose from. They even have a Chicago-style deep-dish pizza on the menu as a nod to the owner's Windy City roots.
I had been traveling a lot up to this visit to Barley's Kitchen + Tap and I was falling into a serious food funk. I was hungry, but I wasn't. I really didn't know what I wanted, but I knew I didn't want a burger. They had a seafood pasta entree that was intriguing, but I felt it would probably be too rich. There were a lot of interesting items to choose from, but nothing was really tripping my trigger.
At that time, I had been on somewhat of a chicken wings in Buffalo sauce-kick. I saw that they had a Buffalo chicken wrap - breaded chicken strips that were deep fried and tossed in a spicy Buffalo sauce and wrapped in a chipotle flour tortilla shell with chopped bacon, lettuce, tomato, and onions along with both mozzarella and provolone cheese. Blue cheese dressing came on the side. I told Scott that was exactly what I was looking for.
After having a house salad with a wonderful chipotle ranch dressing (I had promised my wife that I'd eat more salads on the road), Scott brought out my Buffalo chicken wrap. And it was pretty big - a lot larger than I thought it would be. It was cut in half and filled with large chunks of fried chicken tenders covered in a spicy sauce. A side of fries came with the wrap. The only problem is that I was given a side of roasted garlic buttermilk dressing and not the blue cheese dressing. Scott saw to it that I immediately got a side of the blue cheese dressing, even though the roasted garlic dressing was pretty good.
The wrap had a number of good flavors going on. The chicken was crispy, yet tender and had ample amounts of the Buffalo sauce all over it giving it a nice spicy kick. Along with the crisp lettuce and onions, it all mixed with with the combination of the mozzarella and provolone cheese. I was able to eat one half of the wrap, but then opened the second part and picked the chicken out to dip in the blue cheese dressing. It turned out to be a nice, light and flavorful meal.
The fries that came with it, well, I wasn't too interested in them at first. However, I tried a couple and found them to be delicious - a nice crispy outside, not too oily or greasy, with a nice flaky potato presence inside. I actually ate more of the fries than I thought I would as they were very good.
Barley's Kitchen + Tap was impressive with the number of beers they had to offer, as well as the somewhat upscale and diverse menu that they present. I went on what was a very slow night, so the service I received sitting at the bar was prompt and friendly. My Buffalo chicken wrap was very good and I enjoyed my dinner salad that was served with a delicious chipotle ranch dressing that had a nice little kick to the taste. While I wasn't all that hungry and in a bit of a food funk when I went into Barley's Kitchen + Tap, I have to say that I was more than happy with what I got to eat there that evening.
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