A Few Favorites in Downtown KC

My husband and I are always talking about where we want to take our friends/family when they come to visit us... We try to limit it to say our "Top 5" or our "Top 10".. easier said than done when you are talking Kansas City!!

Since we have found so many I'll start w/ a few favorites in the River Market/Arts District:

The City Market- We love to go on a Saturday morning, eat breakfast at a great place, Succotash. The atmostphere has its own flair. During the summer the restaurant is "open air". I recommend eating outside, but thats just me. The coffee mugs are all different, sort of like they went to a few garage sales and picked some up. The first time we went our waiter brought my husband a First Nazarene mug... said he can always spot the Nazarenes. Lol, not quite but still pretty comical. The menu has some old favorites w/ unique names as well as some more orignal entrees. My husband loves to get the "Kitchen Sink", I usually opt for one of their special french toasts. Everything is always wonderful! After a big filling breakfast we like to walk around and pick up some things to make dinner w/ that night... We love the Pasta Man!! The produce and veggies always look wonderful and are always a good price. All this talk makes me excited for the spring!!

First Fridays- We love going to Manny's to eat dinner... probably our favorite Mexican restaurant in the area. The food is wonderful, the queso to die for and on the weekends they have a Mariachi Band playing music! So fun! Also, we have never had to wait toooo long b/c the place is huge! After a very filling dinner it is nice to hit the streets visiting the various shops and art exibits. There is always plenty of live music as well!

La Bodega- Another place to hit while downtown is La Bodega. We have only been there once but Wow did it leave us impressed! We were fortunate enough to go in during Happy hour, there is one during the afternoon as well as a late night hour. All of their tapas are 1/2 price! We ordered 5 between the two of us to share... it was enough for when we were there (in the middle of the afternoon), for a dinner you might want to order a little more depending on how hungry you are. We tried one that consisted of marinara w/ goat cheese served w/ crostinis, another one was more of a hummus. We had pork and apple skewers, garlic meatballs, and steak crusted in bleu cheese. YUM!! I can't wait to go back and try more of their wonderful creations!