The actual location of the school is now a private residence and the marker is on the east side of the property.

While in the neighborhood, it seemed like a good time to revisit Slapp's BBQ, since their review on our site has not been updated since early 2001. I got three ribs and fries, which was plenty of food for me. The ribs are well seasoned from the rub, slightly sweet and just the right texture. They needed no sauce, which was good, since I'm not a fan of their thin, very sweet sauce.

Their battered fries are better than no fries, but not great.

A wrong turn took me close to Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri and I learned that it is now Hy-Vee Arena. I hope they didn't pay much for that naming. I stopped to photograph the Rock Island Bridge redevelopment, which is taking place across the street from the arena on the Kansas side of the state line.

The 740' bridge was built in 1905 and used until 1972. It is now being developed into an entertainment district with bars, events and zip line.

The construction and fences made for poor pictures at this time.

3 ribs & fries
 

Rock Island Bridge

There is an open kitchen and as we waited on our food, owner LaVale Jackson kept busy cooking, answering the phone and operating the cash register. There was no one else in the restaurant but Chipp, a friendly, young, emotional support dog behind a gate at the back of the restaurant.

We had country fried steak and fried catfish.  There are only 9 entrees on the menu (fried catfish, wings, burgers, chicken sandwich, grilled cajun chicken, chicken strip alfredo, chicken strip alfredo, salmon alfredo, and shrimp alfredo), priced from $8-13. None of the prices have gone up since we last tried 7.8.5 in May of last year.

The catfish is the only dish priced at $13. There is a little less catfish than I would have liked, but the serving was generous at the price and the catfish was very good. The country fried steak was above average. but not a standout. 

Sides tried today were gumbo, corn bread, greens, red beans & rice, fried green tomatoes and yams. All of the sides were good, with my favorite being the gumbo, which is the best gumbo I have had in several years. The cornbread was sweet little loaves and comes with gumbo or greens.

LaVale says that everything is made from scratch. He recommends calling in orders about 15 minutes early.

LaVale Jackson
 

Country fried steak

Today I ordered the Ultimate Lunch Platter, which is a fajitas platter with tamale. The meat and vegetables in the fajitas are chopped much finer than I am used to, but have good flavor.I enjoyed it, but probably wouldn't choose it again.

Ultimate Lunch Platter

I like many of the dishes here and went with a couple of my standbys. The Seven Flavored Mushroom is a $4.88 dim sum dish and I savored every bite.

The $17.88 Salt & Pepper soft shell crab was also good, but would have benefited from a smattering of diced onion and sweet pepper.

Seven Flavored Mushroom