Providence New American Kitchen

I'm admittedly not a food critic. I'm not even a food blogger, although I do enjoy posting my recipes and meal planning tips. But I know good food when I taste it, and when I find something that I fall in love with, I can't help but share it with everyone I know...which is all of you!

Let's get two things straight right off the bat:

1. Providence New American Kitchen did not ask me to write this review or reimburse me for it. I'm writing this purely because I can't stop thinking about the food. Yes, it really is that good!
2. I'm currently trying to remind myself of basic writing rules that include not using exclamation points all of the way through a paper. So while I try to stay within writing guidelines, you'll just have to imagine that there is an exclamation point at the end of every single sentence in this post. Yes, it really is that good!!

Providence New American Kitchen is located in Downtown Kansas City inside the historic Hilton Hotel President. The restaurant opened in October 2012, so is still new on the culinary scene. It's a very comfortable, cozy space filled with art commemorating the Nation's History and reclaimed wood to make it more cozy.

How did we find out about this place? I was reading a blog and entered a giveaway for a gift certificate to a newly opened restaurant. Happily, I won, and tucked the gift certificate away for when we could escape our quadruplets long enough to try it out. Our 5th Anniversary celebration weekend, which was also our first time away from our kids since they were born, seemed like the perfect time to try it. I am so glad that I brought my camera with me!

We found a GEM! 

The hardest part about visiting a new restaurant is deciding what to eat. The menu at Providence New American Kitchen made it far more difficult than usual. Everything sounded delicious!

Eventually, we settled on three entrees with one of them being a salad that we split in half. The server, Allie, was very gracious and had the Smokehouse Cobb Salad split in the kitchen for us. We were thrilled with the half portion size that we each recieved and thought the topping ratio to salad was perfect. We had eaten a horrible starter salad at dinner the night before, so this salad shone extra bright. The highlight was definitely the housemade smoked tomato vinaigrette. I wish I could get a bottle of that dressing for our home!

Smokehouse Cobb Salad

While we were waiting on our salad, Sean pulled op the FourSquare app on his phone and saw that the restaurant had a check-in special. By checking in, we got a free Campfired Cured Salmon appetizer. How fun is that? It came with four small cornmeal English muffin halves and a piece of whisky cured salmon dressed with a corn creme sauce. It disappeared pretty quickly! Sean especially enjoyed this one!

Campfire Cured Salmon

After eating our two appetizers, our main dishes came.

We are those people who like to read reviews before trying a new restaurant. It helps us decide if a restaurant is worth trying and what the best items on the menu are. The Apple Wood Smoked Meatloaf was mentioned in a couple of reviews as being delicious, so Sean decided to give that one a try. It came with smashed potatoes, green beans, and a wild mushroom gravy over the meatloaf itself. Sean thought is was delicious, and I managed to snag a bite before it was gone. I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of meatloaf. I actually try to avoid eating it, but if all meatloaf tasted like this one, I would be a meatloaf convert! The mushrooms on top were a wonderful addition!

Apple Wood Smoked Meatloaf

For my main dish, I chose the Turkey and Asparagus Sandwich. It sounded a little strange to me, but I like turkey sandwiches, and I like asparagus, so theoretically, I should like this sandwich, right? Wrong. I fell in love with this sandwich! This is one of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten. Period. It had an absolutely gorgeous spicy goat cheese on it that I think made the sandwich what it is. You could taste the flavor of the chili without any heat. Of course, at this point in the meal, I was already partially full from our appetizers, so I was eating more slowly. The server asked several times if I would like the rest boxed up, but I told her I wasn't leaving that table until the entire sandwich was in my tummy. If I could eat this sandwich everyday, I would. So amazing! (I hope you remember that you are supposed to add exclamation points to every sentence!)

Turkey and Asparagus Sandwich

While we were eating our main dishes, I realized that I was making our wonderful server nervous with the camera. She was so sweet, so I told Sean that I felt like we should tell her that it was a special weekend for us, and that I'm a blogger and wanted to document everything so we wouldn't forget. She was very gracious and seemed happy to know why I kept taking photos of everything.

We didn't realize this, but she went and told the restaurant manager, Rick Brook, about what we were doing. He came over to greet us, and talk a bit about our kids and weekend. A truly warm and welcoming gentleman! He then asked if we had considered dessert yet. Sean said that he had seen a good review on the Carrot Cake (which is also his favorite dessert) and was thinking about trying that. Mr. Brook then turned to me and asked if I liked chocolate. I said, "I'm a woman. I love chocolate!" He told us to give him a few minutes and he would bring out some desserts he was sure we would enjoy.

When he returned, he brought us each a dessert to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Sean had the Carrot Cake. It was a delicious slice of cake, topped with candied c
arrots. I didn't even realize you could candy a carrot, but they were a perfect compliment to the cake. It also came with a scoop of carrot ice cream. This was such a fun surprise to taste! It was delicious and unique. Mr. Brook told us that everything on their menu, from their vinaigrette to their ice cream, is made in house. Nothing pre-made is brought in from the outside. He has some seriously cleaver chefs in his restaurant! Kudos to Executive Chef Eric Carter and Executive Sous Chef Alejandro Diaz!

 Carrot Cake

He brought me, the S'mores Flavors dessert. I knew we had just met him, but could he possibly have figured out that I often make s'mores in the microwave while the kids are napping, because I love them just that much? I was beyond delighted to see what he had picked out for me! It had a piece of chocolate cake that was still warm and gooey through the middle, a scoop of graham cracker ice cream, and toasted marshmallows on the side. It was all of my favorite types of dessert combined to create the adult version of my favorite snack. Oh wow! Even though I was full from my meal, I ate the entire dessert and enjoyed every last bite!

S'mores Flavors

Do you know how sometimes you can go out to a restaurant and have a great dish, but the rest of the meal is just okay? The chefs at this restaurant definitely go against the norm. Every. Single. Dish. was spot on! The quality, flavor, and presentation was so consistent, it really blew us away! That is why I absolutely had to write a review on this restaurant. Restaurants that do everything right are hard to come by. Providence New American Kitchen is most certainly one of our favorites now!

Sean and I spent the whole meal trying each other's dishes, and enjoying each other's company. What a truly perfect way to spend part of our weekend getaway!

I'm admittedly not a food critic. I'm not even a food blogger, although I do enjoy posting my recipes and meal planning tips. But I know good food when I taste it, and when I find something that I fall in love with, I can't help but share it with everyone I know...which is all of you!

Let's get two things straight right off the bat:

1. Providence New American Kitchen did not ask me to write this review or reimburse me for it. I'm writing this purely because I can't stop thinking about the food. Yes, it really is that good!
2. I'm currently trying to remind myself of basic writing rules that include not using exclamation points all of the way through a paper. So while I try to stay within writing guidelines, you'll just have to imagine that there is an exclamation point at the end of every single sentence in this post. Yes, it really is that good!!

Providence New American Kitchen is located in Downtown Kansas City inside the historic Hilton Hotel President. The restaurant opened in October 2012, so is still new on the culinary scene. It's a very comfortable, cozy space filled with art commemorating the Nation's History and reclaimed wood to make it more cozy.

How did we find out about this place? I was reading a blog and entered a giveaway for a gift certificate to a newly opened restaurant. Happily, I won, and tucked the gift certificate away for when we could escape our quadruplets long enough to try it out. Our 5th Anniversary celebration weekend, which was also our first time away from our kids since they were born, seemed like the perfect time to try it. I am so glad that I brought my camera with me!

We found a GEM! 

The hardest part about visiting a new restaurant is deciding what to eat. The menu at Providence New American Kitchen made it far more difficult than usual. Everything sounded delicious!

Eventually, we settled on three entrees with one of them being a salad that we split in half. The server, Allie, was very gracious and had the Smokehouse Cobb Salad split in the kitchen for us. We were thrilled with the half portion size that we each recieved and thought the topping ratio to salad was perfect. We had eaten a horrible starter salad at dinner the night before, so this salad shone extra bright. The highlight was definitely the housemade smoked tomato vinaigrette. I wish I could get a bottle of that dressing for our home!

Smokehouse Cobb Salad

While we were waiting on our salad, Sean pulled op the FourSquare app on his phone and saw that the restaurant had a check-in special. By checking in, we got a free Campfired Cured Salmon appetizer. How fun is that? It came with four small cornmeal English muffin halves and a piece of whisky cured salmon dressed with a corn creme sauce. It disappeared pretty quickly! Sean especially enjoyed this one!

Campfire Cured Salmon

After eating our two appetizers, our main dishes came.

We are those people who like to read reviews before trying a new restaurant. It helps us decide if a restaurant is worth trying and what the best items on the menu are. The Apple Wood Smoked Meatloaf was mentioned in a couple of reviews as being delicious, so Sean decided to give that one a try. It came with smashed potatoes, green beans, and a wild mushroom gravy over the meatloaf itself. Sean thought is was delicious, and I managed to snag a bite before it was gone. I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of meatloaf. I actually try to avoid eating it, but if all meatloaf tasted like this one, I would be a meatloaf convert! The mushrooms on top were a wonderful addition!

Apple Wood Smoked Meatloaf

For my main dish, I chose the Turkey and Asparagus Sandwich. It sounded a little strange to me, but I like turkey sandwiches, and I like asparagus, so theoretically, I should like this sandwich, right? Wrong. I fell in love with this sandwich! This is one of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten. Period. It had an absolutely gorgeous spicy goat cheese on it that I think made the sandwich what it is. You could taste the flavor of the chili without any heat. Of course, at this point in the meal, I was already partially full from our appetizers, so I was eating more slowly. The server asked several times if I would like the rest boxed up, but I told her I wasn't leaving that table until the entire sandwich was in my tummy. If I could eat this sandwich everyday, I would. So amazing! (I hope you remember that you are supposed to add exclamation points to every sentence!)

Turkey and Asparagus Sandwich

While we were eating our main dishes, I realized that I was making our wonderful server nervous with the camera. She was so sweet, so I told Sean that I felt like we should tell her that it was a special weekend for us, and that I'm a blogger and wanted to document everything so we wouldn't forget. She was very gracious and seemed happy to know why I kept taking photos of everything.

We didn't realize this, but she went and told the restaurant manager, Rick Brook, about what we were doing. He came over to greet us, and talk a bit about our kids and weekend. A truly warm and welcoming gentleman! He then asked if we had considered dessert yet. Sean said that he had seen a good review on the Carrot Cake (which is also his favorite dessert) and was thinking about trying that. Mr. Brook then turned to me and asked if I liked chocolate. I said, "I'm a woman. I love chocolate!" He told us to give him a few minutes and he would bring out some desserts he was sure we would enjoy.

When he returned, he brought us each a dessert to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Sean had the Carrot Cake. It was a delicious slice of cake, topped with candied c
arrots. I didn't even realize you could candy a carrot, but they were a perfect compliment to the cake. It also came with a scoop of carrot ice cream. This was such a fun surprise to taste! It was delicious and unique. Mr. Brook told us that everything on their menu, from their vinaigrette to their ice cream, is made in house. Nothing pre-made is brought in from the outside. He has some seriously cleaver chefs in his restaurant! Kudos to Executive Chef Eric Carter and Executive Sous Chef Alejandro Diaz!

 Carrot Cake

He brought me, the S'mores Flavors dessert. I knew we had just met him, but could he possibly have figured out that I often make s'mores in the microwave while the kids are napping, because I love them just that much? I was beyond delighted to see what he had picked out for me! It had a piece of chocolate cake that was still warm and gooey through the middle, a scoop of graham cracker ice cream, and toasted marshmallows on the side. It was all of my favorite types of dessert combined to create the adult version of my favorite snack. Oh wow! Even though I was full from my meal, I ate the entire dessert and enjoyed every last bite!

S'mores Flavors

Do you know how sometimes you can go out to a restaurant and have a great dish, but the rest of the meal is just okay? The chefs at this restaurant definitely go against the norm. Every. Single. Dish. was spot on! The quality, flavor, and presentation was so consistent, it really blew us away! That is why I absolutely had to write a review on this restaurant. Restaurants that do everything right are hard to come by. Providence New American Kitchen is most certainly one of our favorites now!

Sean and I spent the whole meal trying each other's dishes, and enjoying each other's company. What a truly perfect way to spend part of our weekend getaway!

{2013 Summer Bucket List} Eat Out at a Restaurant

Happy Mother's Day to all of you sweet moms who are with us one our parenting journey! I never stop feeling blessed when I think of you!

And to all of the women who have lost babies, or who are still waiting for children of your own, my heart goes out to you. If you've been following our blog since the beginning, you'll know that we struggled to have children too. Much love to you today and prayers for peace. You aren't ever forgotten!

**********************************************************

We've checked off another item on our 2013 Summer Bucket List! If you want to see other bucket list posts about our adventures this summer, click HERE.

Last summer, we took the kids to a buffet and a fast food place, but we hadn't taken them to an actual sit-down restaurant yet. Oh. My. Word. Does taking four 2-year-olds to a restaurant sound terrifying to anyone else??

Group shot! In addition to Pa and Ma, Tuma and Papa (the kids' great-grandparents), Uncle Todd, Aunt Ruby, and Cousins Marissa and Toby were there!

But my mother-in-law wanted to go out for Mother's Day, so we packed the kids up and took them to a delicious local place that makes some amazing homemade fried chicken with all of the fixings. RC's Restaurant is so, so good! In preparation, we took our usual two diaper bags plus a tote full of things to keep them busy: coloring books, crayons, books, magnetic doodle pads, and puzzles.

Pa and Caleb

Caleb and Elijah right after we sat down.

Daddy and Abby

Ellie 

Surprising, they did a really good job! Baskets of crackers kept them occupied for awhile, and when that failed, we brought out the coloring books. Yay! I didn't even need to get out the puzzles or books.

Ma with her Mother's Day Gift

They ate pretty well (even Abby), and I only caught Elijah throwing a biscuit on the floor. I put a quick stop to that. Also, apparently the way they make green beans is way better than when mom opens a can of green beans and dumps them on a plate (That's okay, kids. I thought they tasted better too!)

Chicken Fingers and French Fries!

First chicken fingers and they loved them!

Caleb got to dip his French fries in gravy since he was sitting next to Pa

Toward the end, they got really restless, and I could tell that our hourglass was running out of sand. We beat a hasty retreat back to the car and succeeded in escaping without any meltdowns. Yay!

To be perfectly honest though, I found the whole meal stressful. Granted, I tend to run on the high-stress side anyway, but I kept waiting for a meltdown, or for them to run crazy through the restaurant. Although I'm proud of them for sitting in their high chairs with no whining until the very end, I most definitely prefer to do mealtime in a childproof home where they can go play when they are done eating. That, and it appears that the bill skyrockets when you add four additional people to the table. No offense, kids, but if we are going to spend that kind of money, I'd rather be on a date with your Dad where I can relax. :)

Hey, but the goal is to get through the whole Summer Bucket List, so I'm really happy that we can already mark this one off, and it's still May!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you sweet moms who are with us one our parenting journey! I never stop feeling blessed when I think of you!

And to all of the women who have lost babies, or who are still waiting for children of your own, my heart goes out to you. If you've been following our blog since the beginning, you'll know that we struggled to have children too. Much love to you today and prayers for peace. You aren't ever forgotten!

**********************************************************

We've checked off another item on our 2013 Summer Bucket List! If you want to see other bucket list posts about our adventures this summer, click HERE.

Last summer, we took the kids to a buffet and a fast food place, but we hadn't taken them to an actual sit-down restaurant yet. Oh. My. Word. Does taking four 2-year-olds to a restaurant sound terrifying to anyone else??

Group shot! In addition to Pa and Ma, Tuma and Papa (the kids' great-grandparents), Uncle Todd, Aunt Ruby, and Cousins Marissa and Toby were there!

But my mother-in-law wanted to go out for Mother's Day, so we packed the kids up and took them to a delicious local place that makes some amazing homemade fried chicken with all of the fixings. RC's Restaurant is so, so good! In preparation, we took our usual two diaper bags plus a tote full of things to keep them busy: coloring books, crayons, books, magnetic doodle pads, and puzzles.

Pa and Caleb

Caleb and Elijah right after we sat down.

Daddy and Abby

Ellie 

Surprising, they did a really good job! Baskets of crackers kept them occupied for awhile, and when that failed, we brought out the coloring books. Yay! I didn't even need to get out the puzzles or books.

Ma with her Mother's Day Gift

They ate pretty well (even Abby), and I only caught Elijah throwing a biscuit on the floor. I put a quick stop to that. Also, apparently the way they make green beans is way better than when mom opens a can of green beans and dumps them on a plate (That's okay, kids. I thought they tasted better too!)

Chicken Fingers and French Fries!

First chicken fingers and they loved them!

Caleb got to dip his French fries in gravy since he was sitting next to Pa

Toward the end, they got really restless, and I could tell that our hourglass was running out of sand. We beat a hasty retreat back to the car and succeeded in escaping without any meltdowns. Yay!

To be perfectly honest though, I found the whole meal stressful. Granted, I tend to run on the high-stress side anyway, but I kept waiting for a meltdown, or for them to run crazy through the restaurant. Although I'm proud of them for sitting in their high chairs with no whining until the very end, I most definitely prefer to do mealtime in a childproof home where they can go play when they are done eating. That, and it appears that the bill skyrockets when you add four additional people to the table. No offense, kids, but if we are going to spend that kind of money, I'd rather be on a date with your Dad where I can relax. :)

Hey, but the goal is to get through the whole Summer Bucket List, so I'm really happy that we can already mark this one off, and it's still May!

Eat Mor Chikin!

Today, we finally got to do something that we've wanted to do all together as a family since...oh, since the kids came home from the hospital.

We took them out. In public. To a RESTAURANT!

I'm feeling pretty awesome right now, so nobody rain on my parade by turning this into a political thing. This is not a political statement, but rather a fun family adventure to one of our favorite places to eat: Chick-fil-A!!

I remember sitting across the table from Sean at a Chick-fil-A after finding out that quads were on the way. I slowly chewed my chicken hoping that somehow parenting quads would make sense, just like it always makes sense to "Eat Mor Chikin" (at least for me and the cows :-) ).

Today, nearly two years later, we loaded the kids up in the van, and drove to the new Chick-fil-A in Lee's Summit for breakfast to introduce them to our favorite chicken sandwiches. Yummy!

It also happened to be an adventure since it was their first time out in the rain. It's been all drought since we came out of lockdown, so they weren't quite sure what to make of the moisture.

Rainy Parking Lot

Ellie: It's early. I'm wet. And I don't know where I am.

Elijah: Can I take some pictures?!

We met up with Pa and Ma (Sean's parents), Uncle Todd, Aunt Ruby, and Cousin Marissa. It was quite the family adventure! While Daddy, Uncle Todd, and Aunt Ruby ordered breakfast, Pa and Ma posed for a quick photo with the grandkids.

Abby, Ellie, Pa, Marissa, Elijah, Ma, and Caleb

Our family happily enjoying our first breakfast out!

Daddy and his girls! (Ellie started to warm up when she discovered that the place mat was a giant sticker.)

May I just say, the Lee's Summit staff are awesome! Not only were they happy to see a family with four toddlers and the ensuing mess, they offered to help us with high chairs, gave each of the kids their very own Chick-fil-A cow, and obliged me when I asked if they would pose for a photo! We really appreciated how enjoyable they made our first breakfast out...and for the special cows to mark the kids' first Chick-fil-A meal!

Lee's Summit, Missouri, Chick-fil-A Staff with The Ishum Quads

And, of course, we had to check out the new play land!

Marissa, Ellie, and Abby playing in the Toddler Area

Caleb (like usual) was a bit reserved and decided to hang with Pa

I tried for a group photo of the kids with their cows. All four kids and all four cows made it into the photo...you just have look for all of them!

Abby, Elijah, Ellie, and Caleb

Such a fun outing for our family! I'm so glad that we finally got to do it after waiting for so long! We've had a trip to Chick-fil-A planned a couple of times this summer, but had to cancel due to the kids being sick or whatnot. It ended up working out well this way because we got to spend time with extended family, let the kids burn off some energy during a rainy day, and get to see the new Chick-fil-A that just opened.

Pretty sure that this will stay on our list of family outings since it went so well! Success!! :)

Today, we finally got to do something that we've wanted to do all together as a family since...oh, since the kids came home from the hospital.

We took them out. In public. To a RESTAURANT!

I'm feeling pretty awesome right now, so nobody rain on my parade by turning this into a political thing. This is not a political statement, but rather a fun family adventure to one of our favorite places to eat: Chick-fil-A!!

I remember sitting across the table from Sean at a Chick-fil-A after finding out that quads were on the way. I slowly chewed my chicken hoping that somehow parenting quads would make sense, just like it always makes sense to "Eat Mor Chikin" (at least for me and the cows :-) ).

Today, nearly two years later, we loaded the kids up in the van, and drove to the new Chick-fil-A in Lee's Summit for breakfast to introduce them to our favorite chicken sandwiches. Yummy!

It also happened to be an adventure since it was their first time out in the rain. It's been all drought since we came out of lockdown, so they weren't quite sure what to make of the moisture.

Rainy Parking Lot

Ellie: It's early. I'm wet. And I don't know where I am.

Elijah: Can I take some pictures?!

We met up with Pa and Ma (Sean's parents), Uncle Todd, Aunt Ruby, and Cousin Marissa. It was quite the family adventure! While Daddy, Uncle Todd, and Aunt Ruby ordered breakfast, Pa and Ma posed for a quick photo with the grandkids.

Abby, Ellie, Pa, Marissa, Elijah, Ma, and Caleb

Our family happily enjoying our first breakfast out!

Daddy and his girls! (Ellie started to warm up when she discovered that the place mat was a giant sticker.)

May I just say, the Lee's Summit staff are awesome! Not only were they happy to see a family with four toddlers and the ensuing mess, they offered to help us with high chairs, gave each of the kids their very own Chick-fil-A cow, and obliged me when I asked if they would pose for a photo! We really appreciated how enjoyable they made our first breakfast out...and for the special cows to mark the kids' first Chick-fil-A meal!

Lee's Summit, Missouri, Chick-fil-A Staff with The Ishum Quads

And, of course, we had to check out the new play land!

Marissa, Ellie, and Abby playing in the Toddler Area

Caleb (like usual) was a bit reserved and decided to hang with Pa

I tried for a group photo of the kids with their cows. All four kids and all four cows made it into the photo...you just have look for all of them!

Abby, Elijah, Ellie, and Caleb

Such a fun outing for our family! I'm so glad that we finally got to do it after waiting for so long! We've had a trip to Chick-fil-A planned a couple of times this summer, but had to cancel due to the kids being sick or whatnot. It ended up working out well this way because we got to spend time with extended family, let the kids burn off some energy during a rainy day, and get to see the new Chick-fil-A that just opened.

Pretty sure that this will stay on our list of family outings since it went so well! Success!! :)