KC's Best Food Blog 2009

We have to admit we do not like corporate blogs.

By their very nature business blogs are biased. They often use blogging to push their clients’ interests in a more informal and therefore (perceptually) more honest fashion when in fact many corporate blogs are nothing but press releases.

Blogs run by newspapers tend to schizophrenia: Crime Scene KC, for instance, honestly and effectively serves as one of the first definitions of ‘blog’, a simple link aggregater; the Star’s Prime Buzz blog however (particularly the Blogwatch section) not so subtly reinforces the Star’s editorial viewpoints both in tone and by the blogs it chooses to link; INK and Mom2MOM, speaking of vomitous trash, are so bad they can almost be forgiven their hustling nature.

Sometimes, however, corporate and news blogs get it right.

Take Fat City. It does everything from serious restaurant reviews, glib takes on road trip snacks, recipes for Kool-Aid wine, restaurant openings and closings, the passing of Gidget (you have to read/view it for yourself), why one shouldn't put Pez in their nose and when KC's worst Texas Tom's will reopen. And that's just a handful of posts from a 2 week period. Jonathan Bender is one busy guy.

The Editors are also fond of the fact that Fat City not only uses material from local blogs, but acknowledges and links them.

Yes, there are blogs that are slicker. There are blogs that have access to 'celebrity' chefs. There are blogs that will roast your lobster, draw your butter and squeeze your lemon. However, Charles Ferruzza has long been the standard for food bloggers in Kansas City and we've seen nothing in this last year to change that. Combine that with Bender's enthusiasm for for any and everything food related and you have the complete food blog.

When the sauce is finally reduced, The Editors find Fat City the Best KC Food Blog of 2009

Honorable Mentions: Kansas City Lunch Spots, Kansas City With the Russian Accent (M.V. is seemingly coming to terms with being a closet 'foodie' )and Noodletown (Sara: hear our pleas and come back to your blog. Pu-leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze!)

NEXT: Mommy blogs.

KC's Best Blog 2009

Without doubt the most interesting and compelling personal blog in Kansas City currently belongs to John Guzman: Logtar's Blog. The emotional honesty and correspondingly intelligent comments found here elevate the blog above its many competitors.

The blog also sports clean design and organization (favored indulgences of The Editors), as well as a gratifying lack of blinking gewgaws, polls and other useless crap (dark beasts, one and all).

But what carries Logtar's Blog is content. Posts such as He is Just Not That Into You, When Humans Attack and Hello, My Name is Not Juan exemplify the depth and breadth of Guzman's ideas. Ideas Guzman presents as gifts to be opened and shared, amidst a great flurry and and rending of paper - thoughts to be savored long after the wrapping has been discarded.

Those who insist on proper grammar in their blogs will be disappointed, though not in a Midtown Miscreant or TKC fashion. Guzman is intelligent and literate, English is just not his first language. This sometimes results in awkward sentence construction and an endearing misuse of common phrases and words that remind the reader of Guzman's fresh perspective and frankness.

All said and done, The Editors find Logtar's Blog a delight to read and the Best KC Blog of 2009

Honorable Mentions: Curb Girl, Frighteningly Uncommon Sense and Hip Suburban White Guy

NEXT: Food blogs.