What to Eat Now at Springfield's Best Restaurants

Food is like fashion—it’s always changing and evolving, and there’s always something new “on trend.” Lucky for us, southwest Missouri is filled with forward-thinking chefs who are constantly searching around the globe for inspiration, and they’re bringing all those latest and greatest flavors back to our corner of the state. We talked with the team at CultureWaves, a Springfield-based consumer qualitative insights and digital segmentation company, to learn about what’s trending in the food scene all over the world and right here in our own backyard, and then we scoured our local restaurants to find the spots serving up their own takes on these innovative creations. Read on to learn about the world’s trendiest foods, then go taste them for yourself right here in Springfield's best restaurants.

Kimchi Cravings

Why the homemade kimchi at The Press might just be the best around.  

When Alice Oh closed her franchise of Caffe Bene in Farmers Park, she wasn’t ready to leave 417-land’s restaurant scene for good. Instead, she decided to open The Press Coffee & Juice Bar (2144 E. Republic Rd., Springfield, 417-501-1014), a restaurant that uses quality ingredients Oh grows in her own garden or picks up from the nearby farmers market. One of the tastiest healthful treats available here is the homemade kimchi, a dish that’s always in the works. To create the fermented fave, Oh combines Napa cabbage with salt, lets it sit overnight and then plunges the heads into a pool of flavors containing radish, red pepper flakes, garlic, onion and sea salt. After a few weeks, the kimchi is chopped and added to your favorite dish. It’s also sold in 12-ounce jars so salivating Springfieldians can take it home for their own home cooking.

Ethnic Desserts

In a cone! In a cup! Straight from the carton! Ice cream is one of those universal treats loved by people all over the world. So, how do you make something so big even better? You make it fresh, fast and customizable. This is the idea behind Thai ice cream, a dessert trend that’s been edging its way into sweet shops all over the country throughout the past couple of years. 417-landers can get a taste of the instant-freeze favorite at La Boba Café (1601 W. Sunshine St., Suite D, Springfield, 417-720-1328), which offers a variety of preset menu offerings as well as the chance to customize your own. Those who personalize the treat first choose a flavor (there are more than a dozen options), then pick toppings, add-ins and drizzles. There are fun creations like Bonfire with chocolate, graham crackers and toasted marshmallow and Tella Nut with banana and Nutella (swoon!) After ordering, you watch them mix the creation with fresh ingredients, then they freeze it right in front of your eyes. A sweet and a show!

Breakfast All Day

Crave the hearty flavors of breakfast but hate the buzz of an alarm? So does everyone else, and that’s why places are offering it any time of day. 

The big dogs in the fast food world spend millions to learn what customers want, and data says what they want is an egg on a toasted English muffin any time they damn well please. That’s because breakfast is so much more than a time of day now—it’s a flavor profile. The breakfast-all-day trend is spilling into the finer dining scene as well, and a perfect example of this is Vespa Kitchen (2931 E. Battlefield Rd., Springfield, 417-889-4951), one of east Springfield’s newest restaurant hot spots serving hungry 417-landers their Bs & Gs until closing time. “We crack eggs until 2:30,” says Vespa Kitchen’s Executive Chef Branden Bentley. You’ll find many breakfast entrees on the menu, plus fare that’s been fancied up a bit—we love the house-made agave buttermilk biscuit with fried chicken, cheddar cheese, slab bacon and house-made chorizo sausage gravy. 

Artisanal Butchery

Vegetarians, look away—this trend is all about meat. Cutting up creations is quite the craft, and Hörrmann Meat does it best.

Pies, Please

We’ve watched desserts take turns in the world of food trends—first it was fro-yo. Next it was cupcakes. Now it’s pie. Learn where to find a sure favorite.

Flaky, buttery crust. Sweet fruit filling. A heavy hat of homemade whipped cream. There are so many things that make pie a pleasing treat, and Eleanor Taylor of Prairie Pie (417-459-8222) has figured out how to create each of them perfectly. After working at bakeries both locally and in New York City, Taylor was inspired to start her own baking adventure in which she creates inventive pies that are sold by the slice, in mini forms and even by the jar at various spots around Springfield. Taylor tailors her menu according to season, so you’ll find fruit pies in warmer months and creations such as sweet potato pumpkin, chocolate pecan and other delicacies throughout the fall and winter. One of our favorites here is the caramel apple, which is broken down ingredient by decadent ingredient below. 

Indian Food Goes Mainstream

Indian food isn’t limited to Indian restaurants anymore. The cuisine has grown immensely, and it’s being fused into nontraditional dishes at area restaurants. 

We’re always pleased when we get a new restaurant in 417-land. When Zayka Indian Cuisine (311 S. Jefferson Ave., Springfield, 417-351-4400) opened earlier this year, we couldn’t wait to get our first taste. We love the chicken tikka masala dish for its rich tomato and yogurt sauce (and we promise, you’ll crave for weeks to come). And you won’t be alone in those cravings—actually, Indian food is mainstreaming all over the globe. That’s why it’s no surprise we’re seeing the flavors pop up at non-Indian restaurants. There’s the chicken tikka masala pasty at London Calling Pasty Company (836 N. Glenstone Ave., Springfield, 417-380-7943), which comes filled with curry-spiced tomato cream sauce and diced chicken breast. It’s a great change of pace from the Britain-themed restaurant’s other hearty pasty creations. You’ll also notice a tikka takeover with the tiki masala rice bowl at The Golden Girl Rum Club (137 Park Central Square, Springfield, 417-425-5162) made with pulled pork, house curry sauce, bell peppers, kimchi mayo, green onion, cilantro and caramelized onion. You can check out even more Indian-inspired dishes at Farmers Gastropub (2620 S. Glenstone Ave., Springfield, 417-864-6994). A fave here is the smoked trout and shrimp mappas with coconut milk, tomatoes, cilantro, chilies and almonds that’s served with rice pilaf and naan.

A Spoonful of Ramen

Full of complex flavors, ramen is a Japanese dish making a splash on menus across town. Here we deconstruct a local favorite.

Joe and Lora Still’s fascination with Asian cuisine helped inspire the menu for their business, Skully’s Food Truck (505 W. Commercial St., Springfield, 417-298-2021). “One of my first jobs was working at Master Wongs in Bolivar,” Joe says. “On my days off, I’d experiment cooking ramen and cooking pho at home.” Today he has developed solid recipes for pork- and mushroom-based ramen broths, and he serves them to hungry diners on the reg. There are always a couple batches brewing at Skully’s, with the pork broth made from a base of pork bones, chicken bones and other pork pieces from Hörrmann Meat Company. Here's what else goes into Skully’s dreamy pork ramen bowl.

1. Pickled Daikon
One of the most intriguing things about ramen is the dish’s many textures. The pros at Skully’s pickle matchstick slices of daikon radish themselves, then add a pile to each bowl for crunch and complexity.

2. Green Onion
Green onion is used as a garnish for the ramen and adds a hint of freshness. Rather than being sliced into traditional ring-style shapes, the onion is sliced into slivers so it’s easier to pick up.

3. Pork Belly Tare
The pork ramen at Skully’s is topped with house-made tare. To create the drizzable garnish, chefs cook off pork belly and reserve the drippings. This rich sauce is drizzled on top of the creation before it is served.

4. Pickled Carrot
Although carrots are sweet in their natural state, they take on a bit of brininess and a vinegary flavor after being pickled by the pros at Skully's. These flavors help cut through the dish’s rich broth.

5. Cilantro
Although cilantro is not traditionally used in most ramen dishes, the foodies at Skully’s like adding it as a fresh garnish to their version of the dish. Along with the pickled vegetables, the fresh cilantro shines among the rich, deep broth.

Hot Chicken Miss’n

Nashville hot chicken is a hot and crispy fried favorite that’s huge in most parts of the country. A Springfielder with Southern roots speaks out on what we’re missing by not having much of it here.

Although Josh Sullivan is at least three-fourths 417-lander, he’s also a little bit of a Southern gentleman at heart—the Sullivans lived in Hollandale, Mississippi, for a dozen years before moving to Springfield. But even after heading north to settle in the Queen City, the family still often gathered around the dinner table to feast on Southern-inspired fare. “My dad would often prepare Southern foods,” Sullivan says of his father, Gary, who is from Florida. “My grandmother used to cook Southern foods as well. She was from Arkansas.” As Sullivan goes on to speak of the food styles and culture of the south, he mentions it’s likely responsible for his love of all things hot. “I’m a spicy food addict,” Sullivan says. “Nashville hot chicken is definitely made for people who like spicy foods.”

And although Sullivan didn’t discover Nashville hot chicken until adulthood, it quickly became one of his favorite dishes—and it’s still one of his favorite things to feast on when he goes back down south. “The best I’ve had is probably from Prince’s Hot Chicken in Nashville, or Hattie B’s in Nashville,” Sullivan says. When it comes to hot chicken in 417-land, though, there isn’t anything to order. Sullivan says he’s tried a couple versions over the years, but they never seem to last on local menus. “No one around here seems to really want to make things super spicy for people, unless it’s Buffalo wings or something,” Sullivan says. “Anyone who does it here, they often tone it down too much. It’s too sweet.” Sullivan says that the hot chicken at CB Social House (314 S. Patton Ave., Springfield, 417-368-0778) (Editor's note: Since the initial publication of this article, this restaurant is no longer in business) was a delicious exception to the rule, but they stopped serving it. Our challenge for all the chefs reading this story: bring us Nashville hot chicken, make it hot, and keep it around awhile.

Foraged Foods

You’ve heard of farm to table, but what about forest to fork? Thanks to the foraging trend, chefs are creating meals from a quick walk in the woods.

Drake Tillman is best known locally for his work at former pop-up restaurant Canvas. Each of Canvas’s dinners included courses that were innovative and new, sometimes even with ingredients found buried in the woods. “It’s hard to find stuff,” Tillman admits. That was the beauty of the pop-up, though—if they did have success foraging, they’d build a menu around it, like the time they hit the jackpot with a huge bunch of morels. The meal? Poussin (chicken) from Providence Farm topped with morels and a sauce of foraged alliums, chive sprouts and chickweed foraged from the farm the chickens roam on. Canvas isn’t hosting meals now, as Tillman is focusing on building his new restaurant, Indie, which will include foraged menu items as well as native Missouri edibles. “What I would like to see happen here is a native plants program where we cultivate wild, native edibles,” Tillman says. “I met someone running a program called the Native Plants Program at Lincoln University. They grow a lot of unheard of ingredients no one uses anymore, and they cultivate them as crops.”