Sampler Festival Weekend
The Kansas Sampler Festival was held in Winfield Kansas this past weekend, so Linda & I took advantage of traveling to south central Kansas to hit some other locations.
My Best Kansas Burger web page is due for a new list in June and during recent trips I have been trying to check out places which other people said should have been on last year's list. We had a couple of extra meals this weekend and hit places in Chanute, Fredonia, Winfield and two in Wichita. None of them are at the "Best" level, but a couple of them may make the listing of Unique Kansas Restaurants, particularly Jack's Coffee Shop in Wichita, which doesn't serve coffee.
Jack's is a dive which opened in 1956, selling more beer than coffee. The current owner has had it for 47 years and her daughter-in-law waited on us. It is open just 11AM - 2PM on Monday - Saturday. You order at a counter and the only items listed on the menu are large cheeseburger, large hamburger, small cheeseburger, small hamburger, water, tea, and canned pop. The small burger is 1/2 pound and the large is 3/4. The burgers come to the table with a communal bowl of lays potato chips. That is it.
The burgers are smashed down flat, so they hang way over the buns like a pork tenderloin. Grilled onions are a free option, which we both requested and they came on a separate plate. Other items at the table are ketchup, mustard, pickles and jalapenos. When Linda commented on the burger being too much (with multiple meals we weren't finishing our meals), the lady did tell us that there is a secret extra small burger that is 1/4 pound.
The burger and the bun were otherwise ordinary.
In addition to attending the Sampler Festival to get leads on attractions and restaurants across the state, we took photos to update our listing of the Sedgwick County Zoo and drove to an area of the state where Linda had never been. The Gypsum Hills (also known as the Gyp Hills) are a region of rolling hills, mesas, canyons and buttes in central Kansas, just north of the Oklahoma border. The area has many red cedar trees and the ground contains iron oxide or rust, so it is also called the Red Hills. This area had huge wild fires this winter and many of the trees were bare and black, but the ground was very green and beautiful.
Sunday was rainy, but it let up long enough for us to attend the annual meeting of the Kansas Explorers and visit parts of the Festival which we we had missed the day before.
Lunch was at the beautiful Old Oxford Mill in Oxford. I was there nine years ago (http://keith-stokes.pixels.com/featured/old-oxford-mill-keith-stokes.html), but had not been there when the building was open. The Entrepreneurship Class at the town's high school operates it as a restaurant, but just for lunch on Sunday. There is just one offering, which changes each week. This week it was BBQ chicken breast, potato casserole, green beans, salad and warm apple crumble a la mode for $11. The meal was more about the setting than the food, but the dessert was pretty good.
By the time we left the mill, the rain was stead and it poured during much of our drive home.
My Best Kansas Burger web page is due for a new list in June and during recent trips I have been trying to check out places which other people said should have been on last year's list. We had a couple of extra meals this weekend and hit places in Chanute, Fredonia, Winfield and two in Wichita. None of them are at the "Best" level, but a couple of them may make the listing of Unique Kansas Restaurants, particularly Jack's Coffee Shop in Wichita, which doesn't serve coffee.
Jack's is a dive which opened in 1956, selling more beer than coffee. The current owner has had it for 47 years and her daughter-in-law waited on us. It is open just 11AM - 2PM on Monday - Saturday. You order at a counter and the only items listed on the menu are large cheeseburger, large hamburger, small cheeseburger, small hamburger, water, tea, and canned pop. The small burger is 1/2 pound and the large is 3/4. The burgers come to the table with a communal bowl of lays potato chips. That is it.
The burgers are smashed down flat, so they hang way over the buns like a pork tenderloin. Grilled onions are a free option, which we both requested and they came on a separate plate. Other items at the table are ketchup, mustard, pickles and jalapenos. When Linda commented on the burger being too much (with multiple meals we weren't finishing our meals), the lady did tell us that there is a secret extra small burger that is 1/4 pound.
The burger and the bun were otherwise ordinary.
In addition to attending the Sampler Festival to get leads on attractions and restaurants across the state, we took photos to update our listing of the Sedgwick County Zoo and drove to an area of the state where Linda had never been. The Gypsum Hills (also known as the Gyp Hills) are a region of rolling hills, mesas, canyons and buttes in central Kansas, just north of the Oklahoma border. The area has many red cedar trees and the ground contains iron oxide or rust, so it is also called the Red Hills. This area had huge wild fires this winter and many of the trees were bare and black, but the ground was very green and beautiful.
Sunday was rainy, but it let up long enough for us to attend the annual meeting of the Kansas Explorers and visit parts of the Festival which we we had missed the day before.
Lunch was at the beautiful Old Oxford Mill in Oxford. I was there nine years ago (http://keith-stokes.pixels.com/featured/old-oxford-mill-keith-stokes.html), but had not been there when the building was open. The Entrepreneurship Class at the town's high school operates it as a restaurant, but just for lunch on Sunday. There is just one offering, which changes each week. This week it was BBQ chicken breast, potato casserole, green beans, salad and warm apple crumble a la mode for $11. The meal was more about the setting than the food, but the dessert was pretty good.
By the time we left the mill, the rain was stead and it poured during much of our drive home.