A Burger State of Mind & Other Weekend Possibilities

Football season is wing season. Since the football season has ended in Kansas City (sorry), perhaps you’d consider a different kind of wing? VegLife Kansas City is putting on the third annual plant-based Wing Bowl from 6 to 9 p.m. at the City Market. Tickets are $20 and must be purchased in advance. They include two drinks, snacks and vegetarian wing bites from Happy Apple Cafe and Kind Food, among others.

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Get a trio of Old Fashioned cocktails, a new take on walking tacos or fries covered in duck fat gravy and cheese curds. Downtown Lawrence Restaurant Week runs through this Saturday. Need some ideas? Check out Flatland contributor Cody Boston’s tour through five of the spots participating in the fifth annual restaurant week.

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Talking Food at 1900, a new discussion series, kicks off at 4 p.m. Saturday at The Restaurant at 1900 (1900 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Mission Woods, Kansas). Food writer Bonjwing Lee, known for his Ulterior Epicure blog and Instagram account, is the force behind the three talks that will begin with a discussion of aquaculture (the farming of fish and plants). Lee will moderate a panel featuring Norwegian chef Christopher Haatuft and fish farming expert Magdalena Wallhoff.

At 5 p.m. Sunday, Haatuft will be cooking with The Restaurant at 1900’s executive chef Linda Duerr for a five-course meal ($150) highlighting aquaculture.

Great brisket doesn’t just arrive from the heavens. You need a mentor, someone who knows their way around a proper barbecue session. Burnt Finger BBQ, the competitive barbecue team run by Jason and Megan Day, is hosting a Brisket Boot Camp at from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at The Olive Tree (7044 W. 105th St., Overland Park, Kansas). Learn to cook and slice brisket, as well as the secret to burnt ends, Kansas City’s signature barbecue dish.

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Picture beaches and drinks with pineapples. Think warm thoughts. The Lenexa Public Market is hosting the Great Lenexa Luau from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday. Mad Man’s BBQ is doing a whole hog roast. Hokulia Shave Ice will have Hawaiian shaved ice and Common Descent Provisions will be selling small-batch hot sauce. The market will be hosting limbo, hula hoop and pineapple decorating (you have to bring your own pineapple) contests.

Burger State (8920 Wornall Road) is open in the former The Stack BBQ space. You can get up to a quadruple stack of beef, a turkey burger or beer-battered, deep-fried patty. The burger joint offers the Impossible Burger, a plant-based patty, and a black bean burger, too. The menu also has salads, chicken sandwiches (fried, spicy or grilled), beer-battered fish and a grilled hot dog. Fries, tater tots or coleslaw are a la carte. Burger State is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Some weeks it feels like you earned brunch. You shoveled out your driveway. You punched into work. Go get brunch at KC Pinoy (1623 Genessee St.) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. The Filipino restaurant in the West Bottoms is debuting a new brunch service this weekend with garlic fried rice, longanisa (a pork sausage with a garlic punch), mimosas and sangria.

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Cocktails often lead to great conversations or at least let you escape bad ones. Start a conversation with Sunday Funday at The W, a speakeasy in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, that usually requires reservations but is welcoming drop-ins from noon to 10 p.m. Sunday. There will be cocktails (see if they have Magic City, a salt and vinegar chip-infused gin and bitters cocktail garnered with a mini Babybel gouda), beer (Miller High Life in cans) and wine specials.

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