Justus Drugstore

So John and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on Thanksgiving day. We knew we wanted to do something special for just the two of us and decided on going out for a grown up fancy dinner at a fancy grown up restaurant.

We narrowed our search down to two places; The Skies and Justus Drugstore. The Skies is a revolving roof top restaurant in mid/downtown KC. Yes I did say revolving. The outer walls are all glass so you can watch the KC skyline slowly pass by as you enjoy dinner and drinks. The Justus Drugstore is a tiny little place in Smithville. I know a few folks who have eaten there and one of my friends said "The food was so good I wanted to cry."

I put the final decision in John's hands and left the reservations up to him. John looked at their websites and decided on Justus Drugstore. (You can check them out at http://www.drugstorerestaurant.com/justus.php?id=1)

The GM seated us and asked if we had ever been there before. She explained how everything was made to order, on the spot and using all local ingredients. She then told us we might want to order a few courses as we would be there a while. She wasn't kidding. From placing our orders to drinking our complimentary Thai Basil infused champagne after dinner - we were there for three hours. I have never been anywhere for dinner for more than an hour or so and much of that was talking AFTER dinner. Not so at the Justus Drugstore my friends...

They started us off with a house made potted goose served over crostini with greens and diced onions. It was a small little mouthful of absolute heaven. Then we shared their Farmer's Platter which included "wild persimmon seed spiced rabbit terrine" topped with mustard seed something. Then there was the house made chicken sausage (which was as tender as a cloud), house smoked Berkshire bacon, the most amazing olives I have ever eaten, bone marrow mousse (I wouldn't say the mousse was heaven but it was very good and I couldn't stop talking about it being bone marrow.) In the middle of the plate was a large dollop of warm soft cheese topped with grilled onions and served with toast points which was utterly delightful. Last but not least, there were house made potato chips - OK, OK, they were called gaufrette potato - but they were tres yummy paper thin potato chips.

Then came our Goat Cheese Salads. People, this "wild blackberry jam stuffed, house cured Berkshire bacon wrapped, local goat cheese, crostini, shallot white wine vinaigrette, mixed greens, apple" salad had me sitting at the table able to do nothing more than put another bite in my mouth and tell John that I was going to cry. This concoction was so amazing that I changed my Facebook status to read that I was going to run off with Mr. Bacon Wrapped Goat Cheese.

For Dinner, John ordered the Newman Farm Berkshire Pork 2 ways: grilled pork rib eye, fall spice pork shoulder sausage, house made dry vermouth/foraged Autumn Berry sauce, barley/chestnut risotto, white wine shallot white shard. And I must say that the rib eye with the sauce was so good I was nearly senseless.

I ordered the Autumn Striper Bass which was a "pan seared hybrid bass filet, tomato onion chard/olive compote, mushroom, exotic spices, saffron rice, frisee." I learned that saffron rice is not one of my favorite things, but it complimented my amazing piece of fish so well that I ate every bite (and then some of John's!)

Now, John is not a dessert fan, but he decided he wasn't going to pass up dessert on our special day at such a fancy place. John ordered the Mint Chocolate Decadence. I don't have the menu and I don't see the desserts on their website so I can only say it was a 3 inch tall piece of layered cakes with a ganache? There was a glass of mint infused milk topped with chantilly and a large thin wedge of milk chocolate accompanying the milk. There was also a rose hips infused mint chocolate sauce drizzled on the plate along side the cake. Delightful.

My Blueberry Crumble was insanely amazing. A lemon chantilly topped with a riduculously, insanely delicious house made basil ice cream and nestled between two thin wedges of what tasted like very dense blueberry muffin and served with a lemon something I have no idea how to pronounce let alone spell - but it all sent me to heaven.

Did I mention that the GM brought us complimentary glasses of Thai Basil infused Reisling after dessert? It was A-MA-ZING.

Is there anything left to say? Well, I say, if you have anything to truly celebrate - RUN, do not walk to the Justus Drugstore in Smithville. (And it wouldn't hurt to have a reservation.)

Oh - And Happy, Happy Anniversary John. I love, love, love you.