Things started off well when we walked in and were surprised to find our waiter was an old friend of my wife's, and former favorite of ours from Le Fou Frog. He showed us out to our seats and on our way, I noticed the restaurant breaks into three separate areas: a quaint dining room - hard wood floors, nice paintings on the wall; a tiny bar with photo-realistic wallpaper featuring Aspen trees (I think); and an outdoor beer garden, where we sat.
The beer garden is lots of fun. It's narrow and long, filled with about 5 or 6 communal picnic tables - a growing trend that I, personally, enjoy in a fun, low key atmosphere like this. A wooden structure covers the entire patio and is partially draped with vines, that help cut down on the direct sunlight.
The menu is designed nicely for the type of atmostphere Westside Local is creating. It features lots of snacks and small dishes, perfect for noshing with your specially-selected beer from their amazing beer list. It's not a huge beer list, but the choices are unique. I didn't recognize half of them and enjoyed trying the Bell's Two Hearted IPA, Anchor Porter and KC's Boulevard Dry Stout. The Anchor Porter was incredibly delicious and is avaialble at many liquor stores throughout KC. I highly recommend you pick up a 6 pack in the near future - usually runs $8.99 or so.
Food-wise, we tried the deviled eggs (mustardy, good), tomato salad (simple, refreshing), Sardines and Pickles (get the pickles alone from the Localities menu - the sardines are just canned - not bad, but nothing special, either), garlic fries (as good as you'd hope and maybe then some), and the maytag blue cheese, which I ate as an accompaniment to the tomato salad and highly recommed to others. The cheese was creamy and zesty, with that nice pungent kick from the "blue".
A special surprise - the wine list is unique and moderately priced. If you're not a beer fanatic, there are great wine choices here that you may not have had and are sure to please.
I left hoping to try some of the dinner entrees in the near future. Our first experience at The Westside Local was pleasant and it was extra fun knowing the food was sourced locally. Of cour sourcing the food locally means it tastes best because it's fresh and in-season, but it's also nice knowing we have another good alternative in town to the all-frozen, all SISCO chain establishments.
(PS - I'm aware of the dire need for photography on the site and will address that in future reviews/articles. Sorry for the lack of visual appeal!)
Rating - two napkins
