SET final words

Without a doubt I definitely enjoyed this vacation.

Let's get this straight, great high calorie food, my own schedule, my cell phone off, my love and best friend at my side What's not to like about that?

Even without all the great food and interesting locations I would have enjoyed this time just eating a twig and sleeping under a plastic tarp because I enjoy any time that I get to spend with EAT.

I personally think that the term "Soul Mate" is somewhat trite and a very overused term because people will say "He is my soul mate" one month and then say "we have grown apart" the next. If you have really found your soul mate it is a final a permanent pairing (like mashed potatoes to gravy, pancakes to syrup, Zinfandel to cheddar, gravy to Chicken Fry, OK I'll stop now) that always works and will carry you into the next life. If you find your true soul mate(like I have) everything, the good times and bad times, seems to make sense and is comfortable in this life but is targeted at eternity rather than just at the selfish pursuits of today that by nature we tend to want to chase. Both EAT and I share a firm commitment to the FACT that Jesus Christ had paid the price for all our sins and because of that we are accepted into the kingdom of heaven.We are justified and have the freedom to experience things such as our vacation without guilt.

Because of our mutual commitment to the reality that we are forgiven through Christ EAT and I are forever and joyfully bound to enjoy this life together with the direction of continually striving towards achieving sanctification through serving Christ our lord.

How is touring the DDD serving Christ you ask? Well any work we do with the intent of serving God is a work unto the lord. That is a basic tenet of the reformation and it remains true today. You don't have to be a priest to serve God. Whatever your daily work, it is a service unto the Lord. God is sovereign in all things and I can tell you that most of the places that we visited are clearly works of devotion whether they admit it or not. When approached with the proper purpose of serving God, devotion to one's work is service to God. Being a fast order cook is not a particularly glamorous job and I'll bet very few of these people actually aspired to be a cook they probably just ended up in the job. But I learned something about being content in whatever you do by watching these cooks spending their days realizing the same menu day after day but with care and excellence. And with that basic pursuit of excellence in their work achieving a level of fame and notoriety. Watching these people at work during our DDD tour made me realize that we all should, and can, be content with just going about the perhaps simple work that we have before us with the solid intent of serving God with our work and doing the best that we can. With that action we will be serving the Lord day by day. Your daily work is a work unto the Lord as much carrying the banners down the isle during Easter service. And with that thought and we can achieve some contentment in life just by doing our job well.

And perhaps eating some fried food here and there.

Would I do a DDD tour again? ABSOLUTELY! What would I change? Like EAT I would Limit our DDD exposure to one or at the max two restaurants a day. Just to be kind to our gastrointestinal tracts.

But for now I think our next adventure will possibly be "FoodiesGoFasting". Purely out of a need to repair the damage done to our bodies over the past week.

EAT tells me that our scale shows that she only gained one pound over the course of this trip... I have got to replace the batteries in that scale!

SET

Upon arriving home, a sign that hung on the front door read "Welcome Home Foodies"... thank you Art. And it was good to be home!.  Elwood came running across  the street to greet us, and Jake kept my spot on the bed warm till I got back;. To summarize the road trip and all the food experiences, let me list all the fried foods I have eaten.

French fries
Fried onion rings,
Fried okra
Fried pork patties
Fried spattzle
Home fries
Hash browns
Fried eggs and bacon
Fried potato salad
Fried chicken
Fried chicken wings and waffles.
Chicken fried steak
Fried cinnamon roll
Fried lamb fries
Fried calf fries.

I must say that I enjoyed it all!  About 15 years ago I got to spend 18 days in the Boston area with Set, and by the time we got  back home I had eaten all the lobster I could eat and since then I've haven't wanted to eat lobster much. So I am hoping that I won't want to eat any fried foods for at least for a long while! I love all the time that Set and I spent together traveling about and doing one of the things we enjoy most...eating good food .Will I do another "foodies gone wild" road trip. Yes, in a heartbeat, but with some small changes. First plan a longer trip that take us further. Secondly, plan only one "Diner, Drive-ins, and Dives" a day. Hitting three places in one day is little hard on the digestive track. Set thanks for being my dining companion, my traveling buddy, and my true love.

EAT

Clantons

The last day, back in Oklahoma, our last resturant. Clanton's is truly a dive:

Just Kidding!  Clanton's is not a dive here is the REAL Clanton's I have no idea what that other building is on the back lot. Clanton's is  a Diner and a fine example of one (ignore all the road work going on);

You have to love the EAT sign. What better hallmark of a road diner could there possably be. So we had to get EAT under the EAT sign.Clanton's special dishes are their Calf Fries, Chicken and Stuffing, and Chicken Fried Steak (if you don't now what a Chicken Fry is then go read some other blog you are clueless!). On the menu they list the chicken and stuffing as the favorite of Ronnie Dunn of the country group Brooks and Dunn. They brag that their Chicken Fry is the best in the world but have you ever heard of someone saying that their Chicken Fry (or anything) was the second best? Saying you have the best Chicken Fry in Oklahoma territory is a brave thing. We know our Chicken Fry, We love our Chicken Fry. We eat Chicken Fry on a regular basis. We actually recognize catagories of Chicken Fry. We take our Chicken Fry serious. Don't say you have the best unless you can back it up.
And Calf frys. This is a special appitizer at Clanton's and they have served it for years. I don't think anyone actually likes the taste of calf fries enough to develop a craving for them. In fact when we asked the waitress how they were she immediately said "They don't really have a taste. All you taste is breading". Even the owner later echoed the same comment. So why does one eat calf fries? I really don't know. I think it is all wrapped up in some sort of macho redneck tradition. "Bet you won't eat those cow testicals! Oh yeah? Dare me! I dare you! Watch this!". Haven't we grown past all this doing stuff on a dare stuff?  Apparently not!
We ordered all of the special dishes and braced ourselves for the calf fries. Soon they delivered a standard diner salad replete with the requiste dressing in the 2 oz solo cup nothing special but fresh and a good size, not too small, not too big, and quite welcome.

Then our main course arrived:

 

But no calf fries, we complained. EAT got a squash dish for her side and actually requested some gravy on the side. Can you ever really have too much gravy? "Please give me gravy on top, gravy on the side, an extra cup of gravy, and gravy on the rocks". Her real intent was to give me a chance to taste the gravy but she needn't have worried there was already plenty. As my side I had green beans which are one of my favorite vegetables and of course the standard mashed potatoes. The green beans were obviously made from fresh and very well executed. The rolls were light and fluffy and good. The Chicken and Stuffing lived up to it's fame of being the best. I got a brown gravy on top of the chicken and they had de-boned the chicken without totally shredding it so there were still some large pieces in there. 

EAT's Chicken Fry was the pan fried variety as opposed to the battered deep fried type which is more popular in your chain restaurants. EAT's grandmother would make her own chicken fry and she used this technique and she was defiantly comparing it to that. It lived up to all the hype, this chicken fry is truly a fine example of what chicken fry should be.

But at last the calf fries arrived:

There were two sauces the standard cocktail sauce and a new horseradish based sauce that the owner told us was created by Guy and given to them. He actually had a big story about Guy and his time at the resturant but I'll just sum it up with the statement that I heard over and over "He is what he is on TV".

Oh, and I guess EAT earns the macho award for the trip because she downed both lamb fries AND calf fries.

 

I did too but being the macho studmuffin that I am it was expected of me!

Would we go back to Clanton's? In a heartbeat!

Cafe on the Route

This one was a little different because it is located Baxter Springs Kansas. Not that there is anything wrong with that but there is hardly a hotel around Baxter Springs unless you want to stay at the Casino. We are not Casino people. In fact one time when we were in one of those Colorado gambling towns (if you go up in the mountain areas you will run across towns who's only purpose it seems is to support the local gambling establishments) and we located a nice place for lunch but when EAT found out that she would have to cross the gambling floor to get to it, well that was a no-go! We had to find someplace else to eat even if it was burritos at the Quick Trip (hopefully with those nice little potato hotzi's). Needless to say staying at the Casino hotel just wasn't going to work out for us. But that put us in a dicey position because where to stay? Well it turns out that the Cafe is on the first floor of a turn-of-the-century building (the late 1800's not the late 1900's silly) and that the second floor is a Bed & Breakfast run by the same people. Score! both the Cafe and a kitschy little B&B to experience all at once. EAT found this out when she called in to create her schedule. All that planning comes through for us again.
We actually went to check in to the hotel at about 3pm and found the whole establishment to be locked up. After a moment of panic that we would not have a place to stay we started snooping around Baxter Springs and came across a museum that had two floors and memorabilia from back to the turn of the century and displays from all the wars from the civil war on. Crazy! We could have spent more time there and it was quite interesting and free, heck they even let you paw through the high school yearbook from all the past years. You should see how ugly high school seniors were back in 1935. Who knew that there would actually be things to see and do in Baxter Springs!

But then we went to the Cafe and things had opened up so we checked in. We got one of the better rooms because it had both a sitting room and a bed room with a full king size bed. There were 10 foot ceilings and satellite TV and one thing that I really did not expect, wireless internet! 1890's meets DSL. The rooms could use just a little more sprucing up compared to other B&B's that we have been at but we chalked that up to perhaps the fact that the B&B was fairly new and they were probably trying to control costs until it became more of a money maker. In any case it was all quite comfortable and fun for us. I even ended up watching a Eureka marathon on the sci-fi channel late into the night. The only problem that we had with the rooms was that the whole hotel was wood construction and everything you did made quite a racket with creaking and squeaking and thunking and bumping. Literally rolling over in bed would elicit a squawk from the flooring underneath. Needless to say it was quite the quiet and peaceful night with us not wanting to make too many sounds for the other patrons to hear. I know what your thinking! All that meant was that that EAT and I made sure to walk very gingerly and make as few a trips around the room as possible. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

But on to the food. The Cafe by far had the most "Gourmet" offerings of any place on our trip. Stuff like Aztec Chicken, shown here, and Thai beef soup put this place above the mark. This is no diner food. They are truly trying to be a four star type restaurant here in this small town community in this diner style setting. And they pretty well pull it off! ET got the Aztec Chicken with twice baked potato and I got the Slattary Chicken with the fried potato salad. The Slattary Chicken was a chicken breast split and stuffed with a wad of corned beef (mmmmm corned beef) and some Swiss cheese all covered with a white sauce. This thing didn't know if it was a weird cordon-blu or a chipped beef on toast with chicken for the toast.

We also both had what we thought would be a cup of the Thai beef soup with cashews but it turned out to be a huge soup bowel. It was sort of like a standard vegetable beef with cashews and Thai spices thrown in. Very tasty, very inventive, very large, very rich. The included vegetables were very well prepared and seasoned and EVERYTHING was obviously made from scratch. These guys have impressive skills in the kitchen. The fried potato salad was really chunks of potato that had been pan fried and then a fine mustard sauce ladled over the top. If they had not named it potato salad I would not have recognized the flavor of the sauce but imagine a very strong mustard based potato salad and take out the potatoes and that describes the sauce. Very inventive and very flavorful and very rich (getting a theme here?). To end it all EAT and I shared a slice of their turtle chocolate pie. It was an Ice cream pie with a ton of carmel sauce and chocolate sauce and again with the cashews and real honest to gosh fresh whipped cream in great supply.

 It was very good in fact this is the one dish that EAT and I actually finished. Which kind of lets a little cat out of the bag. This stuff was great! Gourmet food executed well. But it was soooo rich. I was stuck between eating it because of taste and making myself sick with all the heavy ingredients. EAT opted out and picked at her plates (a decision for which she was quite happy later). I gorged myself on the corned beef and ate all my vegetables like some sort of half starved junk yard dog until I almost rolled over and started whimpering from pain. I also paid for that one later because I actually had to break into the pepto to get things settled. My fault not theirs! But that sort of explains why I was up so late with the Eureka marathon now doesn't it?

The next morning we were treated to a delightful breakfast (which we specified the time for but not the content of) two pancakes a slice of ham a well cooked egg , some fruit and a huge glass of OJ. It was like being roality because we just sort of emerged from our room at the appointed hour and there was the server finishing up placing our breakfast out on the table. He asked our coffee preferences and prepared that for us and then disappered never to be seen again. If not for those other pesky patrons at the next table we would have been alone in our second story breakfast nook with a great view of a mural on the next building. Nice.
We enjoyed the Cafe a lot. It was a real treat. But it would have been better if we had starved ourselves all day and had plenty of room for all that goodness.

Would we go to the Cafe again? Most defiantly. In fact we are planning a trip up that way later this month and we will stop by to try the other side of the menu (hopefully with more self control).

The BBQ Shack

On thet way to Baxter Springs we stopped "The BBQ Shack".

 

Not much of a shack really but a testimant to the power of the Food Network. Before Guy happened along The BBQ Shack truly was a shack. A converted mobile home with no seating just BBQ shoved out the window (after paying of course). Now it's a nice, clean, tidy well decorated shop in a brand new strip-mall. You have got to know that that is a direct result of the influx of traffic caused by the Food Network notoriety.  That can be seen in evedince becuase both side walls have huge posters of Guy (signed of course) and in the middle of the back wall of the serving bar is a 50" flat-screen permanently tuned to the Food Channel. No pretense here they know they owe their new found success to the Food Channel.

But not really. They really owe their success to BBQ well executed.  This is the real deal, they have won  several BBQ competitions and they obviously do the same level of quality work for their patrons. An the patrons are there. We were a tad late for lunch and the place was hopping mostly with locals. I could go on and on about the "Andy Griffith, Mayberry" theme that was deeply infused all around the resturant, wihich I actually found kind of cute, but that was merely a distraction from the food. Eat ordered her all time faviorate "Burnt Ends" which are the end of the brisket meat that typically get over smoked and a bit charred. Most places throw that part away and this is only the 2nd restaurant that we have been at that actually has it as a menu item.  I got the 2 meat, pork and brisket. My two sides were a baked potato in a cup thing and their "gypsy moon beans" which were more of a spicy brown bean chowder than really anything else. EAT got one side which she chose "Pearl" potato that turned out to be small new potatoes seasoned and roasted. Eat is a long time lover of new potatoes and she instantly fell in love with this dish.At first I didn't have the heart to burst her bubble and tell here that that is commenly available in Tulsa but I got over that pretty quick and pulled out my pin and jabbed away at her bubble.

These potatoes are identical to the potato "HOTZIE" at the QT that you can get. That is not a knock in any way! I always was amazed that the QT would serve something on their "hot bar" that was actually healthy and that actually had a flavor that was not laden in fat. These Perl potatoes are actually pretty good. We also both had a single rib on the side and a thing called "Flaming Cucumbers" which were basically spicy hot pickle spears. And yes they were flaming. I can take some heat and after two of those I had to recover a bit before the burning got to a tolerable level.  That also speaks to their sauce. They have 3 kinds "whimpy", "hot", and "sweet hot" both of the hots had the same level of heat as the pickles, beware. The pork was a pulled port variation and was quite good, not tough or dry. The brisket had a pronounced smoke ring and the ribs were well executed. And to top it off everything was served properly by way of which I mean dry. Those people who slather sauce on thier BBQ before serving, or worse yet during the cooking process, should be taken out and shot.

All in all we enjoyed "The BBQ Shack" and we would go again. EAT even said that if she was within a 50 mile radius she would make a detour. That's saying something. I'm thinking only a 10 mile detour myself.

.

Mama's KC-MO

I find it a bit crazy that there are two sides to Kansas City, the Kansas side and the Missouri side. There is no difference your talking one side of the river as opposed to the other. We were watching TV this morning and there is a huge crises that the KCK government is running out of money. I know, why don't you shut down one of the government arms merge and save all that money. Then you wouldn't be in as much trouble would you? But Noooo the politicians would never allow that. That would put their jobs in jeopardy.
Mama's is in Kansas City MO...

Absolutely the largest breakfast menu we have ever seen:

That grey square down in the lower left is the number of omelet combinations. No limit of "Cheese, Denver, or Mix" here you had 66 choices for your omelet. And they had several other "World Famous" menu items which made choosing hard.
Well sort of.
Mama's was noted by Guy as making their own corned beef hash from fresh corned beef.  You have no idea what this means to me. I am a corned beef fiend and a proper corned beef hash is probably the perfect breakfast in my humble opinion. I have sought out every type of canned corned beef hash that I can and have ate and compared them. I have sought out every restaurant that I can through several states that serves corned beef hash and have made my way to them in order to check out their offering. I have made my own corned beef hash with different recipes (except for Fanny Farmers "Flannel" hash. It has beets in it and that's gross. Does anyone really like beets? I thought the only real purpose for beets was to be canned  and sliced and put on the side of your thanksgiving plate for color only).
Obviously I am a corned beef hash hound and aficionado so imagine my excitement when EAT told me that this joint was actually noted by Guy on the Food Network as preparing their hash from scratch and even corning their own beef in a multi-day process. I was pumped!
We specifically over-ordered with the intention of leaving most of the food behind, except for the hash of course. We got:

 

Kitchen Sink Scrambler

Corned Beef Hash... Duh!

Belgium waffle

 

Deep Fried Cinnamon Roll

Biscuits and Gravy (1/2 order to show SOME restraint)

We avoided going for what was the largest layer cake I have ever seen in person. The six layer banana split cake:

  

We enjoyed just about everything. The egg scramble looked dry but it was not. The tomatoes were canned which was a bit surprising but it worked out quite well. The deep fried cinnamon roll was one of those love it or hate it things and I was quite interested because I like both cinnamon rolls and just about anything deep fried. But sadly the glazing that the waiter poured over on top had some ingredient that did not agree with us so that ended up being a one bite experience for us. The waffle was light and well executed this was a good dish in EAT's opinion and she is the Belgium waffle expert.

The biscuits and gravy were superb. The underlying biscuit was appropriately light and fluffy and the gravy was peppery with a very good sausage in generous quantity. I'm sad to say that this is the best B&G of the trip. Better then Brint's even.

The corned beef hash was massive. I think it must have been at least a pound of food. It actually had chunks of real corned beef in there. But when I bit into it I found that there seemed to be a mix of both canned and fresh made. There were the telltale "diced" potatoes that are the hallmark of a factory made product. You just can't dice cooked potatoes like that by hand. There were also hash brown grated potatoes in there. And to top it all off there was the distinct flavor of a canned variety. I am convinced that they are mixing with canned because they want their patrons to have the taste of corned beef hash that they expect. I have made fresh corned beef hash and it tastes markedly different than canned. If you want to taste what fresh made corned beef hash tastes like go to "Mimi's Cafe" in Tulsa. That's the real stuff.

I could not finish the huge dish but my loyalty to the dish of corned beef kept me from leaving it. Even with with all that disappointment with their execution I took a left over box. I am not really sure what I am going to do with it. For the moment I am keeping it at my side like a puppy. I have no intention of eating it but I cannot stand the thought that I am actually going to throw away corned beef hash. Especially hash that has REAL bits of corned beef in it. I am conflicted.

Would we go back to Mama's? Of course! Their menu is WAY too big to experience in one trip or to be sullied by one dish.

In a way I am glad that Tulsa has better corned beef hash. I would hate to think that I am deprived of the best hash because I just don't get to KCM that often. There! That's my rationalization for why I don't need to move to KCM just so I can go to one restaurant on a frequent basis.

Grinders

I have to get this post out quick I am waiting for EAT to get ready this morining so that we can go to Mama's. Why am I so excited about Mama's? Well! fresh made corned beef what else? But I'll tell you more about that later.

Griners was started by a couple of guys who like to drink beer together and like to make fun thinks to eat. One of the guys is an artist and likes to do those huge sculptures out of steel that you see around places:

 

It is located on the trashy warehouse side of Kansas City which is rapidly becoming the art district. The owner seems to have bought the whole city block and there are about 3 art galaries, a photographer, a tattoo place, and the owner's personal art studio located there. In the back is a large open air arena with a huge stage at the end and several "shack" bars surrounding the arena.

They rent the place out for festivals and concerts and it all seems quite contrived as a way to make even more money off of their gen-x new-age grunge motorcycle hip diverse alternative coffee drinking boutique beer guzzling tattoo wearing friends. Don't get me wrong we enjoyed ourselves and sat outside at one of the wooden picnic tables in the arena area.

Both the inside decor and the menu were just as eclectic.

The menu as a wide variety of things but we settled in on the "death" wings a Philly cheese steak sub and a "Bengal Tiger" pizza. Everything was great. The Philly cheese steak was well executed and the death wings were very good even though the heat didn't really kick in until the third wing or so but it did catch up with us. EAT thinks we should get a batch of these wings and sit and eat them while watching OU beat Missouri by way of our personal revenge for the spice.

 

The bengal tiger pizza had Indian spices, crab and other wierd things the pizza was the flat new-york style (very thin, to the point that you had to fold it over to eat it) made by hand and was well executed. 

 

The spices made the pizza very different flavor and I don't know if it was fishyness from the crab or was it that we were getting too full but we could not finish it.

Would we go back to Grinders?  Absoutly! The menu is way to diverse to catch all the gems in two or even three trips. Would we go attend a concert? I think not. This crowd is not "our people".

This ART is for you

Art, you would love every inch of the Q hotel (formerly know as the Quarterage hotel). From the sheer curtains that divides the lobby form internet/business center to every piece of furniture, carpet, wall paper,  and light fixtures. Plus on top of all that  the hotel is committed to going "green". You and I must come here come someday soon and check out the Q and KC. A real girls get away. MOM

God Bless The Inventor Of The FIber Tablet

BOBO's Drive In

EAT here at Bobo's, what a name. You either have to laugh or roll your eyes when you say it. But this was the first true drive in on our trip and we finally found it.

This was the place that I was looking forward to the most and it was almost everything that I expected. Yeah, almost. Guy said they were famous for the Spanish burger and their apple pie and I would agree. Everything else was Sonic grade and not so memorable.  When we first pulled in it was a bit confusing on how we were supposed to order and be served.  We pulled in to a long line of cars that were covered by an awning and has striped parking slots but no speakers or anything only a giant menu board that could be seen by all cars.

We were sitting in our spot trying to figure out what to do when suddenly a car hop walked up to us and put a plastic card with a number on it under our windshield wiper. I have no idea how they keep up with who is coming or going or how long they have been there but somehow they do. She asked us for our order and we ordered the daily special of a pork sandwich fries and a coke. We also ordered the Spanish burger, onion rings a root beer float and apple pie. When they give it to you it is on a tray that his hooked to your window like they did in the old days. No paper bags here! That is unless you order take out.

 

While we were waiting for our food I went snooping in the enclosed seating area:

And I found proof that Guy had actually been there. Yes he signed their light shade:

The pork sandwich was fine but it is really nothing  to write home about nor could you really tell it was pork. The breading was so strong and the pork was so thin that there was no greasiness at all and the pork flavor was totally overpowered. You could fake out your Kosher friends and say "here eat this it tastes just like chicken" then when the chow down tell them "AH HAHAHA It's PORK. Got you!".   OK maybe that would be a great trick but not such a nice one after all.

One of the stars of the show, the Spanish burger, was a plain ole burger with a very unique tomato based sauce that really made it taste great. Not hot just good. And it was just a burger onions, pickles, and the sauce on a bun but it was great. The other star was the apple pie. Truly home made with fresh apples and served on a real plate with a real metal fork while everything else was in paper and plastic. But it deserved the special treatment it was something special itself.

Would we go to BoBo's again? Yes. 

If you get the chance to touch down in Topeka get to BoBo's and have a Spanish burger and buy a whole pie and bring us a slice or two.

EAT

Brint's Diner

Our first morning in Kansas (on this trip that is) we enjoyed the hotel it was one of those apartment type with a stove and fridge and all. Or at least I did. EAT was feeling all nostalgic for the shabby sheik of the Builtmore. Spend more money get a better place and she likes the decaying best of 60's construction, go figure. We made it to Brint's by 9 and it is just about what you would expect to see as the picture in the encyclopedia under “diner”.

Nothing unique on the menu so I went for the #4 which was 2 eggs poached, corned beef, hash browns,  toast, and OJ. EAT got 1 egg over easy, bacon, hash browns, and dry whole wheat toast (her favorite, I think it reminds her of her infancy chewing Melba toast. Now THAT's comfort food), coffee and diet coke caffeine junkie that she is. We also ordered a ½ order of their biscuits and gravy just to try as that is their signature dish.

This place had on the front of their menu a description of when Guy visited them. They are actually in his book and were filmed before the DDD show actually started airing. That means they were one of the first. And for good reason. This was a great diner. All the decor was there down to the regulars and the characters.

The standout work done by the Chef were the eggs. The over-easy were perfectly done with a gentle hand and not over cooked in any way. The poached were also exactly right deep water poached (no circle egg gizmos here) to exactly the right done-ness. Poached eggs are normally served in a separate cup and one of my pet peeves is sometimes the cook will slop water into the cup and the eggs end up sitting in a little puddle. This cook did a great job of draining the eggs as there was no water in the cup. Bravo.

The biscuits were light and the gravy was great with the appropriate amount of sausage bits in it. I am afraid to say that they beat out “The Diner” on this one. But they lose out on the hash browns. Brint's hash browns had a mushy greasy consistency and while they had brown bits on the outside they appeared to be actually undercooked a tiny little bit. The bacon was good and crispy but the corned beef hash was canned.

But we enjoyed everything and in fact when we were winding down in a valiant act of kindness I pulled the remaining hash browns out of EAT's range saying “you have to save room we have a long day”. She agreed with me but kept stabbing her fork at this and that and taking little nibbles. It's going to be a long day.

Would we go back? Yes. For either more biscuits and gravy or to check out their lunch.

Savute's Italian Ristorante

So we begin the Kansas edition by visiting Savute's.

This restaurant was not on Guy's list. Perhaps he just has not got around to it yet because it certainly qualifies. It is billed as Wichita's oldest Italian restaurant it was opened in 1944 by Rose and Tom Simone and was bought by Rosie's brother and wife John and Mary Savute in 1950. Defiantly a family business. The family is still involved in fact I believe we had daughter Mattie Savute in the dining room on our trip.

Savute's has retained much of the 1940's charm with cheesy big band music in the background (don't get me wrong I'm a big fan of big band and actually play in one but I have heard Dino sing “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie. one too many times) and a most pronounced World War 2 south pacific decor ever. The original guy must have been a pilot because there is an airplane theme all over. In fact the menu's back page is devoted to airplane trivia and a reproduction of the “Instrument of Surrender” signed of behalf emperor of Japan and the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers General Douglas Mac Arthur. That is on every menu, every day, for 60 years, these people are seriously stuck in the '40's!

The menu has all the usual suspects that you expect at an Italian restaurant, spaghetti with all the trimmings, ravioli, lasagne, but they also have a few surprises like a dish of anchovies for an appetizer, and beef scallopini, A La Provolone. EAT and I decided that given the events of the day before  discretion is the better part of valor so we decided to basically split a single full course meal.

We got a combo platter of lasagne, spaghetti and meat ball, and beef scallopini for our main dish, a plate of anchovies and a standard garden salad for our salad, and an antipasto plate as the appetizer., then we finished it off with a tiramisu.

The salad had a home made Italian dressing on it that actually was a little sweet and good not to vinegary and not too oily. The antipasto plate was a good attempt given that these people have to shop in Wichita and I doubt they have much access to authentic cheeses and sausages. It seemed they just threw a bunch of  stuff that they thought was exotic on the plate and put a few toothpicks with paper Italian flag in it. But what the heck it worked out well to pair with the anchovies. They probably know that people in Wichita won't eat Gorgonzola.
I did find that the menu had been corrupted with some local food like Kansas Rib-Eye steak and believe it or not fried chicken. But I cut them some slack because after 60 years they have to play to the local palate a little bit.
The tiramisu was not exciting, not the worst but not the best. It was a little strange that they managed to cut it in a wedge like a cake.

But I found the combo platter to the be the better features. Their sauce was a little bit sweet not like most modern restaurant sauces you get these days where they try to drive you out of our seat with the spices. It gave me a hint of “Chef Boyardee” canned sauce but is was obviously freshly made from an old recipe. I am thinking that this is just about what the Italian-American palate wanted in a spaghetti sauce in the 1940's. I think it us modern people who have changed our opinion of what a spaghetti sauce should be. So I give their sauce a thumbs up. And the meat ball was superb! Great seasoning and very finely ground. My only complaint there was that there was only one and I had to split it with EAT who wouldn't give up even a little sliver of her half!
The lasagne was good with the same sauce and a very good helping of good quality ricotta cheese. No complaints there. But the surprise was the beef scallopini. It is some low grade cuts of meat beaten into submission to about 3/16 of an inch thick and fast grilled on a flat top with again the sauce and vegetables and a glob of mozzarella. When I first bit into it I came across a flavor that took me quite a while to recognize, it was celery! The beef is truly something special.
Would we go back to Savute's? I would. I would like to try a full plate of spaghetti with extra meat balls. EAT on the other hand would not. She thought that for the money spent there was little delight. For the flavors she got she could do better all by herself at home. A split vote.