Where to Eat In Lawrence

As you all know, this is a relatively slow time for sports nationally, and even more so at the University of Kansas. Which, if you have yet to notice, is where we here at It's Business Time focus most of our efforts. But despite this downturn in the wide world of sports, I continue to rather blog than do my actual job. So, for reasons known only to me (or those who might have read Burnt Orange Nation a few days ago), I have decided to put together a restaurant list for the city of Lawrence. Feel free to disagree. But you better substantiate any arguments.

The Top 5 (In no particular order)

Free State Brewery

Pros: First off, when it opened in 1989 it became the first legal brewery in Kansas in over 100 years. And to run with that fact, they brew several damn good beers – enough so that they have at least one for everyone's taste. Taking a big step further, nearly everything on the menu can sound good at some time and they always come up with delicious and original specials.

Cons: Typically occupied by a few too many hippies, especially in summer.

Papa Keno's

Pros: It's the best pizza in town. And a "best places to eat" list that doesn't include a pizza joint has no credibility whatsoever. In addition to the fresh ingredients and original menu, they also offer gigantic, fresh-baked slices. If that weren't enough, despite not really being a bar, they have TV and beer.

Cons: Too many screaming kids sometimes.

Border Bandido

Pros: It has an all you can eat Mexican buffet! That's probably all that needs to be said, but for those unfamiliar, here are some of the highlights. For $5.75, you have unlimited reign on any type of taco you want to make, be it hard, soft or burger. On top of that the buffet includes some delicious queso and tater tots. That ought to about do it.

Cons: No alcohol. But given how much dirty Mexican food you're consuming, that's not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to the 'Dido.

Teller's

Pros: Quite simply, the best restaurant in the city. Much like Free State, it has an all-encompassing menu that always has something to offer for everyone and typically has a special or two that won't let you down. This is one of those places that you're bound to spend quite a bit of money because you'll want to enjoy wine, appetizers, an entrée, and possibly desert. And yet, you'll never leave disappointed.

Cons: None come to mind. Except that it can't be frequented too often due to cost.

La Familia

Pros: Yes, we've already represented Mexican food with Border Bandido. But if you've been to both you'll know they're nothing alike, and more importantly, that neither could be left off. Whereas 'Dido offers you quantity, Familia goes for quality – both highly important factors. Among other things, La Familia presents you with a sweet salsa that simply can't be matched. Oh, and they have some excellent margaritas, a must for any Mexican restaurant.

Cons: Size? Personally I like this, but it can be an issue if you're out with a big group.

As you may have noticed, I didn't include a single bar in this group. Partly because none were deserving, but also because they really need to be their own group in a place like Lawrence. And since I'm busy not working, here's that list (again in no particular order).

The Wheel

Pros: In all likelihood, this is where to go for the best burger in the city. SVP and Neil Everett have made it a cliche, but I don't enjoy any burger more than the Wang. Throw in the country fried steak special on Friday and some fantastic late night pizza from creepy Pizza Pete and there's no way you miss this list.

Cons: It's in no way a sports bar. The Wheel is great and I'll forever love it, but you can't actually watch a game there and more often than not on a weekend night you can't even move in there. It also gets docked a few points because you can't eat dinner there – the Wang burger is a lunch time item only.

Ten & the Jayhawker

Pros: Easily the nicest bar in the city and of course gets major points for: being partly owned by KU great Bobby Douglas, residing in The Eldridge Hotel, co-existing with the Big Six room, and serving some damn good food. If you don't like their French Dip we probably can't be friends.

Cons: Unless you're at the actual bar, it's not great for watching games. Along that same line, it's also not really a sports bar, but rather a hotel bar that has some decent TV coverage and ample KU paraphanalia. Also, it attracts an "I'm too old to be out looking to hook up" crowd.

Yacht Club

Pros: Now this is a place to watch a game. In addition to the several big screens throughout the place, there is also a TV in every booth and several on every corner. No matter where you're standing/sitting or how crowded it is you'll always be able to see a tube. To take that a step further, I've still yet to find a place anywhere with nearly as comfortable of chairs as those at the Yacht. On the consumption side of things, the food is hit or miss depending on how high the cooks are, but they've got a solid overall menu. As for alcohol, they rarely have great specials, but they do have beer towers, which for those of you that don't know are either 2 or 3 liter towers that have a stand and a spigot.

Cons: I alluded to them in the pros listing, but the food is pretty inconsistent and they never really offer any good drink specials. Also, they have a great patio with a bar that is extremely under-utilized.

Louise's West

Pros: Schooners, Bloody Mary's, darts and the best jukebox in the city. Also, you likely won't have to deal with anyone underage (you can decide if that's a pro or not).

Cons: If you're looking for food other than a bag of chips you've come to the wrong place. Also, it's only a good place to watch a game if that game holds no significance to the city of Lawrence. It Kansas is involved, stay far away. But if it's Tuesday and you want to get drunk while you watch CP3 tear up the flopping Spurs, by all means.

Quinton's

Pros: First and foremost, the food is fantastic. Soups, sandwiches and Spinach Dip. That may not sound like your typical bar food, but no matter what time of day you eat it, it's incredible. And because of their phenomenal food and downtown location, Quinton's has effectively turned into a place you can drink for free. Their daily specials can be ok, but more importantly, if you frequent the place, you're likely to know the bartender(s) and since the place doesn't police how alcohol is charged, you're likely to get hammered for the extremely discounted price of whatever you choose to tip your friend.

Cons: Another terrible place to watch a game. Aside from that, I rarely have any complaints other than the amount of yeyo typically making its way through the patrons/employees. Not that there's anything wrong with that…

The Hawk

Cons: There truly is no worse place to watch a game. The only food is when they decide to fire up the grill during the afternoon of a nice day. And unless you're hammered, you probably won't enjoy yourself.

Pros: This is in no way a sports bar and obviously you've already read the cons. But I simply could not, in good conscience do a write-up about Lawrence establishments and not mention The Hawk. It's already damn near killing me to leave off The Cadillac Ranch, but ever since a man we'll call W took over, it just hasn't been the same.

Your thoughts?

Mario Can't Be a Spur

As you all know, there isn't a lot to report out of Jayhawk Nation these days – which is probably a good thing considering how Mother's Day went at USC. Even the LJW started covering the baseball team so as to dispel the common misconception that they're unaware Kansas does have an NCAA sanctioned team. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great weekend for the Hawks, going 1-2 against Methzou, bringing it to an even 2-2 split on the season (only the games this weekend counted toward the league record, though). If this upsets you, go ahead and take this link to the best championship video that I have seen. It's 16 minutes, but worth every second. On that same note, if any of you are interested in purchasing a square foot of the Final Four court, autographed by the Jayhawks, take this link. Before you buy though, take note that it is not the actual floor and in no way licensed, but does look to be a nicely autographed piece of wood with a Final Four logo.

It seems the Jayhawks-to-be all received sizeable bumps in their national ranking. As you already knew, Rivals has all five high schoolers in their top 150 (only Thomas lower than 77). But now, USA Today has moved all five into the top 79. Personally, I guess it's good to see. But honestly, it just gives more fuel to the fire of my belief that half of these rankings are based on the schools interested rather than actual ability. Hence, why Brian Zoubek, etc. get named McDonald's All Americans once they commit to Duke. Meanwhile, Stephen Curry gets rejected by Va Tech and ends up at Davidson.

Sticking with basketball, it looks like all of those salivating NBA GMs will have to wait another year. Yes, it's true. Leo "The Lion" Lyons (he had to be born in August, right?) has pulled his name out of the draft and will be returning to Methzou.

Unfortunately, I don't think Jayhawk fans will be hearing the same out of either Darrell or Mario any time soon. Call me naïve, optimistic or just plain dumb, but I really thought Mario would return. Now, Chad Ford is by no means the authority on this, but clearly he has talked with GMs/scouts and the early consensus is that all three are moving on up. Here's his latest Top 100. And here's a snippet of his reasoning for moving all three up the board: "KU forwards Darrell Arthur and Brandon Rush, along with point guard Mario Chalmers, are all still seeing a bump in their draft stock off their NCAA championship run. I've had a number of GMs and scouts tell me that I have all three ranked too low in our Top 100. GMs are now saying they have Arthur ranked anywhere from 10-15 in the draft. Rush is ranked as high as 15 on many boards and no lower than 25 on the boards of the teams I spoke with. Chalmers sneaks into the late first round on many of the boards and doesn't drop below 35 on any. It will be interesting to see if the bump continues once they get into individual workouts. We now have Arthur at No. 13, Rush at No. 20 and Chalmers at No. 31 in our Top 100."

Of course I'm happy for them and clearly it will do wonders for recruiting to have three early entrants drafted in the first round, but I would really like Mario Chalmers to have a senior night in Allen Fieldhouse. If this is not meant to be though, hopefully he at least won't go to the Spurs because it's physically impossible for me to root for them and Jacque makes it hard enough as it is.

More on Blogging...

Ok so I was watching a replay of thurs daily show and KU professor David D. Perlmutter was on there talking about political blogs (but you could expand it to sports as well). And also why traditional media looks down on blogs. But the real reason for the post is in the first 15 seconds where you can hear Jon Stewart saying go jayhawks. Pure television magic... Now if he said something about the orange bowl and/or national championship it would have been the cherry on top but I will take it... I mean I am sure if a methzou prof was relevant enough to be on the show he would be greeted with a rousing go tigers... not...

No More Yanky My Wanky

Since ginger actually stepped up and added something to the blog instead of letting our much better versed co-writer just continue to blog I felt I had to add something.


First off a long overdue hats off from KJ-IBT to the new championship team at KU, the debate team! That is right 2 out of the last 3 years. Of course we will not put up a sign about this like our purple cousins to the west as our signs are getting a bit full right now. That's how you debate!


This has nothing to do with anything other than I was watching it when I read gingers drivel (so what if I find mrs. olson (whoops now miss, rock on!) attractive). As he counts down to hanna montana's sweet date of freedom he might take some advise from the donger...



Oh and just because you know know how to use photoshop does not mean you should... Technology frightens and confuses you! Like matching a font...

Tasteless is my middle name

While this may not be in good taste, nevertheless it had to be done.  As Hiphopotamus pointed out to me some clever bastards have had a little fun with Montana's Meth Project ad campaign posters ...at the expense of some notorious football schools.  We here at KJ-IBT think of ourselves as equal opportunity bashers(even if Missouri gets the brunt), so I figured let's get ol' Methzou involved for good measure.

(only one I saw that hadn't been edited yet, so what the hell)

Oh, and just for shits and giggles...type Methzou in Google and guess which blog pops up in 2nd and 3rd rank... Air Five bitches!  *sidenote- 4th link down is the hilarious MU one shining moment

Here is a little tidbit from Mr. Katz via ESPNinsider, luckily I scoff at ESPN thinking I won't cut/paste their premium content:

In discussing potential lottery picks with decision makers in the NBA, one thing is starting to become clearer: Fence sitters like West Virginia junior Joe Alexander, Syracuse freshman Donte Greene, NC State freshman J.J. Hickson and UCLA sophomore Russell Westbrook are highly thought of at this point, three weeks before the Orlando draft camp (May 27-30). That means that they'll all have tough decisions to make since they could be potential lottery picks.

That's why all four will likely take their decision down to the June 16 withdrawal date. Workouts and interviews will be a key for all these players if they're going to convince teams to take them in the lottery.

A few other players are receiving positive feedback, like Kansas junior Mario Chalmers, Arizona sophomore Chase Budinger, Cal sophomore Ryan Anderson and North Carolina sophomore Ty Lawson. All four have said they won't sign with an agent to retain their

amateur status.

So...that didn't really tell us anything except he has heard positive feedback, 5 fucking bucks a month for this folks.

Breaking news:  K-State made up a Mitch Richmond Mr. Basketball Award to keep the Purple Popcorn Eater happy.  I agree Mitch was a hell of a player and deserves recognition, but if I was him and they just gave the award bearing my name to Peepants, I would become incommunacado with my former university.  

As someone on Phog.net pointed out, where is the Pervis Pasco Irrational Exuberance Award?

Arizona will not renew Assistant Miles Simon's contract, could be due to the fact that Simon was reportedly sexing up the former Mrs. Olsen(shown right).  Seriously?  What the hell, isn't Miles like 31 or something, I wouldn't fuck her with Robo Boogie's dick.

I don't know if everyone will find this as interesting as I do, but the guys who wrote one of my favorite books(I have only read like 3 books...so it's an easy feat) Freakonomics have an article on sports data posted in the NY Times.  Pretty interesting read, as they point out it might not yield the same results in basketball as baseball, but I wouldn't be surprised to see more teams in an array of sports try it(I am looking at you Bill Self, I can extrapolate with the best of 'em!).

Found this picture of Joey Dorsey predicting his teams inevitable choke during the championship game and thought it was too classic not to post.

Let this statline sink in one more time bro.

Alright, back to my nightly practice of "waiting" for Miley Cyrus to turn 18...

A Look at the Big 12

As my colleague GingerBalls – who did not workout throughout the month of April – told me yesterday, it's starting to look like I don't actually do any work. And today, much like yesterday, I can't refute that criticism. So to highlight that fact, I want to bring to your attention the "America's Best Colleges" list for 2008.

Kansas comes in at a respectable 85.

Ahead of them, from the Big 12 conference…

University of Texas (# 44) – If anyone else had been higher, that would have been much more surprising.

Texas A&M University (# 62) – This one caught me off guard a little bit. I think it speaks more to the general level of league schools than it does to A&M.

Baylor University (# 75) – Not exactly a dazzling performance for the league's only private school.

University of Colorado (# 79)

- Iowa State tied with Kansas for the # 85 ranking – Damn it, we couldn't beat the Cyclones?

Now, rounding out those that came in below the Jayhawks…

University of Methzouri & University of Nebraska (#91) – They also tied with (drumroll)…Alabama. Ouch.

University of Oklahoma (# 109) – This seems about right.

Kansas State University (# 124) – Out of 124! It appears that they're tied for last place with NJIT, Clarkson, Colorado St., Michigan Tech, Arkansas, & Arizona State. But given this picture of the ASU cheerleaders, I'd go ahead and place them a notch or two ahead of the purple wildcats.

Apparently, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech were ineligible. I can't say I'm shocked by this.

Going along with today's theme of unsurprising news, Ryan Perrilloux was kicked off the LSU football team. It's crazy to think back about how upset Mack was on losing out on this guy that was "going to steal Vince's job." At this point, I'm not so sure UT didn't catch a break.

At Indiana, new head coach Tom Crean won't have to wait long to get "his team" in there as IU is down to THREE returning scholarship players. One of which, Jordan Crawford, averaged over 1.5 ppg last year.

Moving the focus to something that did catch me a little off guard… Karl Malone apparently impregnated a 13 year old girl. Not recently, but when he was 20 years old and in college at Louisiana Tech. In case you were curious, the kid reach out to him when he was 18 and the Mailman told him it was too late for him to be his father and he would have to "earn his money on his own." I always hated Malone when he was playing. Though I feel for Demetrius Bell, I'm glad this is now public and that I have better reasons for continuing to despise the Mailman.

To close, we'll leave the news and move into a link that may interest you. Here is a podcast interview with Michael Schur/Mose Schrute/Ken Tremendous.

NBA Draft Lookahead

Before we get to the meat of today's post I thought I'd pass along a couple of quick links of interest. The first is to announce that the son of Orlando Woolridge, Royce, has orally committed to Kansas for the 2010 season. I can honestly say that I know absolutely nothing about him except that he is listed at 6'2", is from Phoenix, Arizona and averaged 16 ppg this past season. One would like to think, though, that if Bill has already offered him, he must be pretty solid.

The news from the purple is that KSU AD, Bob Krause, is in negotiations with Ron Prince on a possible extension to his current contract. It should be noted that his current contract extends through the 2011 season and in his two seasons, Prince has led the Wildcats to a 12-13 overall record and he has yet to beat: Kansas, Methzou or Nebraska.

Yesterday, we linked to an article that highlighted the draft performance of ESPN experts Mel Kiper and Todd McShay. Hard to say if they saw this one coming?? In light of their sterling performance, we decided to craft an entire post about the upcoming NBA draft. Most of all, we are just interested in looking back and seeing just how futile these projections prove to be, but we will also make a point to look at each projection from a Jayhawk perspective as well.

Here's a look at the current projections provided by nbadraft.net. Depending on your feelings, it can be seen as either incredibly favorable or disheartening for Jayhawk fans. I say this because of how extremely well represented Kansas is with five players projected and all three early entrants going in the first round. I sure hope they're right about Kaun and Jackson.

Contrarily, this next site is not nearly as kind to the draft eligible Jayhawks. For one thing, the aforementioned Kaun and Jackson are not even represented on this list. And whereas the previous site had Arthur, Rush and Chalmers at 10, 24, & 26, respectively, this one places them at 21, 24 & 34 (2nd round). Though I obviously wish the best for him, I can't say I hate them having Chalmers in the 2nd round.

Similarly, this site caters to those hoping for Mario to return. Unfortunately, it doesn't list a second round projection, so it's hard to say what they think of Kaun or Jackson. It's also the only site I've seen that projects Rush (22) higher than Arthur (23), which I found…interesting.

This next one is a personal blog, rather than an accredited draft prediction site. And since Buzz Bissinger won't bother to give it a look, we will. On that note, this site offers the most favorable projection for the draft eligible Jayhawks. First off, it has DA going in the lottery (10) and Mario (24) going ahead of Brandon (25). Furthermore, not only does he have Kaun (52) and Jackson (58) going, but he has them higher than any other board I've seen.

This one comes courtesy of The Draft Review. And as far as Jayhawk fans are concerned, it's not too favorable. For starters, it has DA going in the lottery (12), with Brandon (21) and Mario (26) also going in the first round. That's all fine and good as we're all hoping for the best for those players. But if we have to deal with losing all of them, we can at least hope that Jackson and Kaun are selected as well. This site has neither being tapped. Then again, despite being updated after he announced he was staying, this site has Sam Young projected at # 45. And even worse than that, it has Leo Lyons at # 57, so how trustworthy can it really be? I mean, really, Leo "The Lion" Lyons?!

What does all of this mean? Probably a little less than nothing. As I mentioned earlier, we just know way too little at this point. According to Chad Ford, 51 underclassmen have declared. However, only 16 of them have signed with agents. Given that there are only 60 available spots and there will also be seniors and foreigners hoping to be selected, you'd like to think that number will dissipate at some point. Furthermore, the first round of the playoffs isn't even over and the lottery hasn't happened, so we're not all that close to determining an order. And lastly, half of the teams in the league aren't even thinking about the draft yet. With that said, take this for what you will, but I thought it was worth passing along.