Kansas
Travel Blog
Chronicling
changes to KansasTravel.org and Keith's exploration
& photographing Kansas restaurants, attractions, museums, festivals
and art. Contact him.
|
|
Wednesday
- April 2, 2014: It had been a little over a year since I last dined
at Jumpin' Catfish Restaurant
in Olathe, so I had lunch there today. I could see no real changes since
the last visit. Service was good and family style servings of hushpuppies,
coleslaw and beans were brought to the table before I ordered. I like the
hushpuppies and the sweet, salty slaw, but found the beans to be tasteless.
I
ordered fried chicken gizzards and fried potato wedges. Both were good,
if not outstanding. The gizzards are cut very small, so they are easy to
eat with a fork but no knife. I would like the wedges better if they were
cooked a little longer. The smallest ones were crispy and my favorite.
In
the evening, Linda and I had supper at the Pizza
Man in Lenexa. Although I have eaten their more recently, I was surprised
to discover that the menu listed on their review had not been updated since
2009. That is now corrected.
The
prices have changed little in 5 years, making the prices very reasonable
today. For example, a personal size deluxe pizza is only $7!
We
split a large (14") all meat pizza. It was actually a little bigger than
two people would need. The thin crust pizza with Italian sausage, ground
beef, bacon, pepperoni and Canadian bacon is $16.00. It is one of my favorite
pizzas in the Kansas City area.
|
hushpuppies, slaw & beans
All meat pizza |
|
|
Friday
- April 4, 2014: We drove to Kansas City, Missouri for the home opener
of the Kansas City Royals. It was cold and windy, so I dressed warm, but
discovered that I hadn't dressed as warm as I thought. I wasn't miserably
cold, but it was uncomfortable. It was a good game and the Royals beat
the White Sox, but it was also a long game, nearly four hours. |
National Anthem |
Saturday
- April 5, 2014: Linda and I tried a Kansas City, Kansas drive-in which
we had never previously visited. Paul's Drive In is 53 years old, 43 of
them at this location. There is no curb service, you walk into a small
space to place orders to go.
We
sampled an Italian steak sandwich, chili dog and a beef tender sandwich.
My favorite of the three was the chili dog, which was a little unusual,
the fairly small hot dog was sliced long wise twice and served on a hamburger
bun. Linda that the Italian steak was pretty good. Its sauce was kind of
a cross between Italian and BBQ.
Unless
you request otherwise, a basket comes with a combination of fries and onion
rings. The fries were crinkle cut and not very crispy. The onion rings
were my least favorite fresh made rings in a very long time. Very thin
slices of onion, coated in a thick pancake like batter. I ate only one.
|
Paul's Drive In |
Saturday
- April 12, 2014: We are busy preparing our home for Easter and there
was no time for exploring Kansas this weekend. Still, we did want to at
least visit a few restaurants for this web site.
For
lunch we went to GrandStand
Burgers in far northern Overland Park. Actually it in a narrow section
of Overland Park that most people believe has to be Shawnee. Even Google
Maps gets it wrong.
The
13 year old restaurant is a tiny place with only 4 stools at a small counter,
plus picnic tables out in front. On a day like today, there isn't enough
room for people to order and wait for their food. Many customers have to
rely on other customers passing along which order number is ready.
With
the tiny kitchen, GrandStand Burgers is a bit restricted in what they can
prepare and may try to offer too much. Many items, particularly the sides,
are just prepared from frozen.
But
they do three things very well. the hand formed hamburgers, pork tenderloin
sandwich, and onion rings are all superior. There is a tendency to overcook
the burgers, but if you request that the burger be cooked to 168 degrees,
it still a touch more cooked than I prefer, but very good.
For
a change up, supper was at the two year old Sweet Siam Thai Bistro in Lenexa.
The restaurant was busy when we arrived at 7:45 PM and although there was
no line, we had to wait for a party to leave and a table to be cleared.
Beverages were slow coming, as they had run out of clean glasses.
Linda
had the $12.50 Thai BBQ Chicken - a half chicken which had been marinated
in a sweet BBQ sauce, slow roasted and char grilled. It was served with
shrimp fried rice and sweet and sour sauce. She would have preferred that
the shrimp was cut up and mixed in with the rice, rather than whole shrimp
sitting on top, but that is a minor complaint.
At
$20, my dish was one of the more expensive on the menu, Sweet Siam Snapper
- two pan fried snapper filets, ground chicken, shrimp, asparagus, red
& green bell pepper. yellow and green onion, served in a spicy ginger
and garlic sauce.
|
GrandStand Burgers
Sweet Siam Snapper |
Wednesday
- April 16, 2014: This evening was spent updating the reviews of many
Wichita, Kansas attractions with new fees, hours and other changes. Pages
updated include Wichita-Sedgwick County
Historical Museum, Sedgwick
County Zoo, Old Cowtown,
Exploration
Place,
Great
Plains Transportation Museum, Museum
of World Treasures, Great
Plains Nature Center, Ulrich Museum
of Art,
Botanica &
Kansas
Firefighters Museum.
|
|
Saturday
- April 26, 2014: We drove to Bonner Springs and Leavenworth today.
The first stop was unplanned, but when we were passing Wagners Classic
Cars, the old cars drew me right in. Wagners began as an automobile collision
repair & paint shop in Kansas City, Kansas in 1968. The classic cars
developed until the store moved to Bonner Springs in 1996 to focus on the
rapidly expanding car business.
The
salesperson apologized that the showroom is usually filled bumper to bumper
with collector cars, muscle cars, street rods & trucks of all kinds,
but several were away at an auction. It seemed like a nice selection to
me and was live visiting a small museum.
Out
next stop was just a block away. I had not been to Moon Marble for several
year and Linda had never been there before. In addition to selling hand
made marbles, the shop has wonderful toys, including the kind of wood and
metal toys and collectibles that you haven't seen in most toy stores in
40 years. Marble making demonstrations are done three days a week and we
saw Moon Marble Company owner Bruce Breslow demonstrate marble making to
a standing room only crowd.
Our
next stop was at the Richard Allen Cultural Center in Leavenworth, but
it turns out that their web site and several other Leavenworth web sites
are inaccurate. They are not open on Saturdays.
On
our way back out of town, we stopped for lunch at All Slabbed Up on the
south side of Leavenworth.
We
were quite impressed with All Slabbed Up when we ate there in July. In
fact one member of our party said that if it was located closer, it would
be her favorite BBQ restaurant.
I
was a little less impressed with All Slabbed Up today. The ribs were tender
and had a very good flavor, but they were about luke warm. The fresh cut
fries, which are cooked with a little onion and dusted with season salt,
were quite good.
The
burnt ends were cold. Not lukewarm, but refrigerator cold. I had already
asked for a new Diet Pepsi because the first one tasted like regular, and
I didn't feel like I cold could complain again, so I said nothing.
I
did bring most of them home. They were more worth eating after they have
been in the microwave.
|
Wagners Classic Cars
Glass blowing demonstration
All Slabbed Up dinning room |
Sunday
- April 27, 2014: Heavy rains canceled other plans so we had supper
at Old Shawnee Pizza in Shawnee, Kansas. The obvious choice was pizza and
we ordered a Meat Locker which was covered with pepperoni, bacon, hamburger,
Italian sausage, Canadian bacon, sausage. $22.40 seemed a little expensive
for a pedestrian 14" pizza.
Service
was inattentive and we had to ask for things repeatedly.
|
Meat Locker pizza |
Monday
- April 28, 2014: For lunch I visited Celebrity's
Sidewalk Cafe in Olathe. It had been three years since the last visit
and the review needed an update.
I
ordered a mushroom Swiss burger and fries. The fries are lightly battered
shoestrings, as they were in the past. Really not to my taste. The hamburger
was cooked to order, but not hand formed. It was not very juicy and the
swiss cheese hadn't been given time to melt into the burger. Everything
turned out to be lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. It really would have been
better with onions and pickles.
If
I returned, I would go back to items from the original menu, such as A-1
Cheese Steak.
Celebrities
offers coupons on their web site.
|
Celebrity's Sidewalk Cafe |
Tuesday
- April 29, 2014: Linda and I had a hard time finding a place for supper
tonight. We first went to Quick's
Bar-B-Q in Kansas City, Kansas, but they have changed their hours and
now close at 3 PM on Tuesdays (and Mondays). Wanting to not waste the drive,
we decided to go on to Rosedale
Barbeque, which is about a mile farther away.
Except
they are closed for some renovation, until at least May 5th.
We
finally circled around to a newer and more famous Kansas City, Kansas BBQ
restaurant - Oklahoma Joe's Bar-B-Que. OK Joe's original location (they
have two others, including one we have reviewed) shares a modest sized
building with a gas station. Joe's has a good, consistent product and even
better marketing. They have received a lot of national recognition and
have become a destination. A group from Chicago stopped us to take a photo
for them.
The
line was almost to the door, which is shorter than it often is. It took
35 minute to get through the line and pickup our order. They have an express
line for carry out, but appear to actually time and slow the service to
the dine in line, so that a table becomes free before you get your food.
I
was already in the mood for Quick's sausage so I had ribs and sausage tonight.
The ribs were good as always. The sausage was nothing special. Linda had
ribs and 1/4 chicken. The spicy chicken was tender and very flavorful.
The
onion rings were better than average. The thin cut fries were lightly dusted
with season salt. Both servings were quite large.
|
Oklahoma Joe's Bar-B-Que |
Wednesday
- April 30, 2014: We had supper at Quick's
Bar-B-Q in Kansas City, Kansas. It had been a year since the last time
we had been there and it was time to update its review.
The
meats we tried tonight were three of my previous favorites (ribs &
sausage) and one that I have had mixed feelings about (burnt ends). What
I like most about the sausage is that it is sliced prior to the smoking,
so the smoke flavor is more intense. Linda likes the burnt ends more than
I do. Unlike traditional Kansas City style burnt ends they are more like
chopped roast meat with a generous coating of sauce.
The
fresh cut fried potato wedges were my favorite of the sides, but the smoked
green beans and the onion rings were both good.
Quick's
will celebrate 50 years on May 14 with $9.19 slabs and 50¢ draws.
They will open at 8 AM and have 1,000 slabs available.
|
Quick's Bar-B-Q |
|
|
Current
Month Kansas Travel
Home
2024:
January
February March
April May June
July August
2023:
January February March
April May June
July August
September
October
November
December
2022:
January
February March
April May June
July August
September
October November
December
2021:
January
February March
April May June
July August
September
October
November
December
2020:
January
February March
April May June
July August
September
October
November
December
2019:
January
February March
April May June
July August
September
October
November
December
2018:
January
February March
April May June
July August
September
October
November
December
2017:
January
February March April
May June July August
September October
November December
2016:
January
February March
April May June July
August September October November
December
2015:
January
February March
April May June
July August
September
October November December
2014:
January
February March
April May June
July August
September
October
November
December
2013:
January
February March April
May June July
August September October November
December
2012:
January
February March
April May June
July August September
October November
December
2011:
January
February March
April May June
July August
September
October
November
December
2010:
January
February March
April May June
July August
September
October
November
December
2009:
January
February March
April May June
July August
September
October
November
December
2008:
May
June July August
September October
November December
|
|
|