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We asked Kansas City Chiefs players to name their favorite meals at local restaurants, and their picks shouldn’t surprise anyone. This group favors/craves/gushes for protein. And in Kansas City, that means barbecue.
“My favorite restaurant here is definitely Jack Stack. Barbecue. I love barbecue,” offensive lineman Creed Humphrey told The Star after a recent practice. Humphrey played football at the University of Oklahoma after a remarkable high school wrestling career.
“You know, it’s probably been my favorite type of food all my life. So coming to KC was great for that.
“But really, burnt ends are my thing. Also their cheesy corn.
The admiration is mutual. Jack Stack, which has six locations in the Metro, has named a supersize meal after Humphrey — the “52’s KC ‘Cue.”
It comes with “pork ribs, fire-kissed wings, burnt ends of beef, nutty beans, cheesy corn, and a Creed Humphrey glass.” The $60 party serves three to four people or an NFL player.
Rookie cornerback Trent McDuffie has a penchant for burnt ends at the Char Bar, 4050 Pennsylvania Ave. in Westport, which he called a “banger.” The $22 “bare burnt ends” is one of the restaurant’s signature dishes.
“But I think their ribs are also high on the list,” McDuffie said.
Fellow rookie defensive end George Karlaftis prefers the barbecue of Q39. The restaurant has two locations: 1000 W. 39th St. in Midtown and 11051 Antioch Road in Overland Park.
“Favorite restaurant? Probably Q39 out here, you go there a lot, and favorite dish from there? I would say the routine, the chest routine. It’s really beautiful,” said Karlaftis, who was born in Athens, Greece.
The restaurant suggests that an alternate name for its Smoked Beef Brisket Poutine Appetizer ($13) is French Fry Salad.
Poutine hails from Canada, and Q39’s version has crispy French fries in a bowl, covered in gravy of beef brisket, shredded brisket, white cheddar cheese curds, barbecue sauce, and chives.
Michael Danna’s favorite restaurants serve food for the soul: GJ Fish and Chicken, 6807 Longview Road, and Peachtree Restaurant & Cafeteria, 6800 Eastwood Trafficway and 2128 E. 12th St.
At Peachtree, order “the meatloaf or five-wing dinner with two sides, sweet potatoes and mac and cheese, a little peach cobbler on the side there.”
At GJ’s, order 10 to 12 wings “with the little lemon dressing with the side,” she said.
Some players prefer home cooked food. Literally.
“My favorite restaurant out here is probably my house,” wide receiver Marquez Reshard Valdes-Scantling said. “My favorite dish is the one I cook.”
Fellow wide receiver Justin Watson’s wife is vegan, but he’s not. So when they dine out, “I’ve got to go somewhere, you know, where we can both eat,” Watson said.
In Kansas City, they like to eat at The West Side Local, 1663 Summit St.
“I mean, everything is fresh, you know, it’s one of a kind. They have a great pasta dish that I love,” she said. “So we split the pasta dish and usually something else.”
The restaurant’s vegetarian penne pasta ($17) comes with a vegetable medley with tomato sauce and roasted coconut.
It would be a toss of a coin if Watson can get quarterback Patrick Mahomes to join him in a bowl of vegetables.
We didn’t get to tell Mahomes about his favorite restaurants around town, though we bet it would go like this: “What a burger!”
But two years ago, before the burger chain hit town, food delivery service Postmates gave the public a peek into the star quarterback’s eating habits.
The company revealed the first five meals Mahomes had ordered in Kansas City since joining Postmates in 2018.
Vegetables?
“Greens aren’t my favorite, but I have to eat them, so I make it work,” she told Postmates at the time.
His favorite meals and restaurants included:
Prime Ribs with Rye KC’s Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes.
Z-Man sandwich with fries from Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que.
Grilled Chicken Cheddar Sandwich from Potbelly Sandwich Shop — one of his most ordered pre-game meals.
Chipotle burrito bowl.
Chick-fil-A Chicken Biscuit.
After the Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV in 2020, Mahomes ordered two Cookies & Cream milkshakes from Chick-fil-A, 630 calories of yummy hand-spun topped with whipped cream and a cherry.
