After many "meetings" on the disc golf course and brewing numerous small batches, adding and subtracting gram by gram of Tommy's friend's family recipe, they finally tweaked out what is now known as AppalaChai! When Joel and Tommy eventually got stuck on how to package and create the business officially, Katie came on board to kickstart the operation. They decided to fine tune a recipe that they could share with the public. Joel also made chai often, as well as many other medicinal teas. Tommy had been making chai nearly every day since he learned an Indian friend's generation old family recipe 10+ years ago. Joel and Tommy met in the summer of 2012 chatting in between sets of the Town Pump Tavern's Tuesday night open jams and discussed topics such as herbal remedies and natural healing over some good local craft brews. Perhaps, with luck, one will end up near you.History: AppalaChai! was founded in Black Mountain, NC by Kathryn Ames, Tommy Winant, and Joel "Windfox" Boyle in January of 2014. The restaurant’s website says, “We plan on stretching our legs and sharing The Big Biscuit with more neighborhoods and even a few new towns.” You might want to check it out since it appears to be a growing endeavor. Our wait was much shorter than their forecast, and it’s now on our list for a return visit if we find ourselves in KC again anytime soon. Oh, and did I mention the Sticky Biscuit? It’s one of their biscuits loaded with raisins, cranberries and pecans. They offer four kinds of Benedicts, including one made with their special chicken fried steak they leave a pot of really good coffee at the table, and the portions are enough so that most people left with boxes. The Cranberry Candied Pecan Oatmeal is dressed up with more than the usual extras and was great, or you can get the New Orleans Oatmeal with banana, candied pecans, salted caramel, and cinnamon. The flavor of everything was way above normal, though. The biscuits & gravy was good, with a little more sausage than normal at a restaurant (still, not enough). More traditional options, such as bacon and sausage, were also available. Called a Scram-Bowl, it was three eggs with grilled steak, jalapeno peppers, tomatoes, onions, and two kinds of cheese. At nearby tables, there were some dishes worth lusting over, like the breakfast bowl that probably could feed a family of four. The meals stand up to the challenge, too. They call out “hand-cracked eggs,” giving at least the feeling that someone is paying attention in the kitchen. They called them “award-winning biscuits.” While I’m not sure who hands out that kind of award, it’s fine – I’d give them one for their biscuits, which were fluffy and delicious. The Big Biscuit is one of those specialty restaurants (with several locations, mostly in the Kansas City area) that hang their hat on one thing, which in this case is a decent sized biscuit. In this case, though, it enabled me to check the menu and see why so many people were apparently willing to wait in long lines to get in. The website was up to date and easy to navigate-which isn’t necessarily top criteria, since some of the best restaurants are sole owners who cook and don’t do tech. The reviews I saw were uniformly good-even taking reviews with a heavy grain of salt, they are a way to start narrowing down your restaurant options. We were in Kansas City for an event, and I wasn’t sure anymore if we were in Kansas or Missouri. And that, my friends, is how I found The Big Biscuit. My own resource is to simply search for “food open nearby.” This gives me a pretty reliable list of restaurants, and it’s easy work to scroll through and electronically check out the ones of interest. Thankfully we have the technology to fill the gaps. Hard to imagine for those who love food, but it happens. Problem is, in today’s economy, half of them won’t be local and the other half may not be interested in discovering hidden food gems. You know how, when you are traveling, you wish you could just stop a few locals on the street and ask them where to eat?
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