Review: The Gaf in Waldo not Brookside
Yesterday’s Kansas City Star reviewed The Gaf on Wornall at Romanelli (though it’s been a few months since the ‘The’ fell off the sign so you’d be forgiven for thinking it was just called ‘Gaf’) and the review couldn’t be much more favourable if The Gaf owners Ray & Molly Dunlea and James O’Brien had written it themselves.
It should be noted that this review is of The Gaf as an eating establishment - although it does say “the homey Irish pub was rollicking”, which I think is a good thing.
However when I talk about The Gaf I talk of it as drinking establishment - because I don’t eat, obviously. I can’t help it; I come from a land where pubs are pubs and restaurants are restaurants, despite the growth in the pub lunch and the Sunday carvery.
Irish Pubs in this part of the world however, are really restaurants, themed to look lke what somebody thinks a pub in Ireland looks like. And it just so happens that many pubs in Ireland are now styled to look like Irish pubs in America. In other words, once-upon-a-time somebody made a mistake and everybodys has been faithfully copying it ever since. It was probably the man who forgot he left his bicycle by the window.
The food gets a great review, so if that’s your thing, go eat.
I ordered the Buffalo wings the first time, thinking pfffffft: What would an Irishman know about Buffalo wings, an icon of American contemporary cuisine? But one bite of the russet-colored, crunchy skinned wing put an end to my skepticism. My companions and I didn’t stop our gnawing and nibbling until we’d finished the entire lot of six. Our fingers were stained orange, our chapped lips burned from the spice, our napkins were dotted with rust-colored juices. But man, we were happy.
That’s right folks, nobody else’s Buffalo Wings will stain your fingers orange nor burn your lips with the spice. And if you’re eating wings in a place where your napkin stays white, you need to stop and head straight to The Gaf for rust-colored happiness.
See also:
• History of an Irish Pub
• New Bistro Swizzle Opens at Romanelli
• Irish Pub The Gaf Gets a Sign
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