Last month I went to Kansas City with my buddy Dave. We go somewhere every year for an NFL game, and this year it was Kansas City to see the Chiefs play the Ravens. We also had an acoustic duo back in the day which we revived to record a few new songs, and I’ll get to the reason I mention that in a minute.

First, we got off the plane and the rental car dude told us where we should go have some great Kansas City Barbecue–Oklahoma Joe’s. Oh my goodness, those may have been the best ribs I’ve ever had. Also maybe the best onion rings I’ve ever had. Damn. My mouth is watering thinking about how those ribs just melted off the bone.

The next night we had dinner with some of Dave’s relatives that live there. We went to a local pub and I saw something on the menu that caught my eye–charred chicken tenders. But not only could you get plain grilled tenders, you could get them fried like traditional tenders, and THEN grilled. And with Buffalo sauce already on, if you prefer. I could not not try this, and they were remarkably kickass. They were crispy, full of wing sauce flavor and then had this amazing, well, charred taste from the grill. That’s something I need to try at home–maybe next spring when I fire up the grill again.

Finally, we recorded at a small studio in Eudora, Kansas–a very small town west of KC and just east of Lawrence. When we decided to get some take-out for lunch, we just had to try the place a few doors down in the center of town–Jasmin Restaurant, known for that all-American combo of….wait for it….Chinese & Mexican. I had a quesadilla and fried wontons, because I could!

I write this to talk about my experience, but also because I want to talk about why I think it’s important to find local gems like that when traveling. Some people like the familiarity of chain restaurants. Not me!