Take your kids to Fritz's

Fritz's railroad restaurant is the place to go for kids.  We visited one in the Crown Center mall, in Kansas City.  It was started in 1954 when Fritz returned from the Navy, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and started to make hamburgers the way his father used to make.  Fritz was a bit of an inventor at heart and after he opened his first restaurant, he thought of a way to deliver the food to people dining at his restaurant.  He called it the "Skat Kat" but the name never held as it appealed to people as a train.  Fritz didn't really like the train idea and tried to downplay it but eventually went along with it.  With so many people liking the train concept, he started to market and sell hats and gifts involving trains and his restaurant.

Now, the restaurant we went to at this mall, had a track attacked high on the wall, near the ceiling, which covered the whole restaurant.  The way this place works, is that you order your food, on a phone at your seat, and then the drinks are delivered to you via a server.  The food is brought to you by a train.

The food here is just like any other good diner you can go to.  I'd say it is comparable to a good Steak n Shake or Red Robin.  I give the food a 3 out of 5, but the fun for the kids, that Scat Kat gets a 5 out of 5 for me.

Is it better than Soulard's? Yes.

During a recent trip to Kansas City, Missouri, I had a chance to check out their farmer's market and boy, have they got St. Louis beat.  I guess St. Louis could have had a better farmer's market had they kept the large market open, where the Drury used to be downtown.  I know we have the Soulard market, but it pales in comparison to KC's market.

According to the flyer, the City Market of Kansas City was founded in 1857.  This spot was used for everything from trading, farmer's selling goods, horse shows, medicine shows and even circuses.  There are as many as 100 different stalls for people to enjoy at this market.  What I like about this farmer's market, is that the buildings are set up so they can be both indoor and outdoor.  It would be as if the sellers at Soulard's market would open up the doors behind them to allow fresh air and people to come from all sides to purchase their foods and goods.  The City Market has about 10,000 square feet of space for sellers.  The buildings are old, and one side has two stories and the other has one.  So, if you were to walk inside a random building, you would see a large garage door to your right, that opens up to the back of an outside vendor's area.  In the middle is a large walkway and on the left is a store.  It could be described as a strip mall, with a permanent awning and giant garage door on the other side, to allow for more open-air room for stalls.

I enjoyed seeing this large space for vendors and farmers and thought of how St. Louis, or in particular, Soulard cannot accomplish this because it is land-locked into a tight space.  The City Market also has a decent sized parking area.  It would be like building a market in a horse-shoe pattern of buildings and using the space in the middle as parking.  They even had covered walkways for you to access towards your car.

This is an image of this guy who I will refer to as the "Spice Trader.  This man spoke English and Arabic and had to have over 10 pounds of every spice you can think of or not even imagine.  He had whole star anise, cinnamon sticks and curry powder mixes.  He had every spice that you would need or even want for every cuisine imaginable.  Because, whatever his clients need, he gets so he can get their business.  His prices were cheap as well and we stocked up on spices and took them on the trip home.

You can also see by the way that the structure is made, that by that garage door being there, it not only brings in natural light, but also allows for this seller to have more room.  Opposite of his stand, is a store, specializing in dried fruits and also has many Middle Eastern goods and foods.

So, the bottom line, can St. Louis make a market like this so large and easy for people to access?  Yes.  Will they?  No.  I figure that no one wants to make a farmer's market that could compete with Soulard because of its historical significance and the possibility of causing it to close or run out of business.  So, unless people near to the market come up with some ideas to extend it and make it bigger and better without hurting it, St. Louis may always be stuck with a small farmer's market.

Best BBQ in a while

When I first learned that I was going to go to a BBQ place in Kansas City, MO, I thought that I was a traitor.  Everyone knows that St. Louis has great BBQ and I thought of myself as a Benedict Arnold, patronizing a BBQ establishment in another BBQ city.  But, this was really good BBQ.

Gates BBQ started as just a family making their own BBQ sauce and used their sauce on various meats.  This started in 1946 and  demand for their sauce grew.  Like other stories, they became successful and started to open one restaurant after another.  There is definitively something different and tasty about their sauce involving one spice that may or may not be the secret ingredient: pepper.

Here is the counter.  It is set up where you stand in line, order your meats, order and pick up your drinks and then sit down at your table.

The restaurant is old fashioned looking inside.  Nice booths, mirrors on the wall, nice sturdy tables and fans, attached by a single chord, where one spins the next and spins the next and is all spun by a single motor.

The fan is spinning and you can see two chords on the upper left and two on the right which turn the fans.

Doesn't this look delicious?  This was called the President's tray.  It was all of this meat: pork, turkey, chicken and beef, along with sausage.  This was $74 and was more food than 6 adults and two kids could eat.


As I mentioned, the secret ingredient could be pepper, because on every table there was the absence of a pepper shaker.  The sauce was peppery and truly lip-smacking good.  It was just enough spicy, from the pepper that it just made the meat that much more addictive. My final conclusion: if you are driving near KC and you see a Gates restaurant, stop in.