I received an e-mail today from a reader named Miles who has a very good memory about Kansas City restaurant history -- I mean, he remembered that I was a waiter at a restaurant called Mama Stuffeati's more than 20 years ago -- but has a mental block at recalling specific details.
"I've been wracking my name trying to remember the name of a restaurant that was at 38th and Main Street," he wrote. "Sanderson's moved there in the late 1970s or early '80s."
That little diner was razed in 2001. It was the second location for the legendary Sanderson's Lunch, which was a fixture in downtown Kansas City, at 104 E. 8th St., for more than half a century. Sandersons' original location may have been the last restaurant in Kansas City to have operated without a working bathroom.
But the glass-and-metal diner that Miles remembers was another diner, one from before owner Art Lamb moved Sanderson's to 38th and Main in the mid-1980s. Does anyone remember the name of that restaurant?
Miles would also like to know the name of the restaurant -- it was actually a cocktail lounge -- located in an actual airplane, that stood near 43rd and Main for much of the 1960s. I'm sorry I missed that place and I'd like to know the name of it too. I do know it wasn't the Jet Lounge: that was the name of the bar in the long-razed State Hotel at 10th and Baltimore.
Any readers out there with answers for Miles? -- Charles Ferruzza
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Maid Rite in St Joe isn't called Maid Rite anymore. Can't remember the name, but, it's only about 3 minutes West of the Dunkin Donuts
Hello,
Code word is Suttera's in the West Bottoms. I am crazy but I bought it. It will be opening as Royal Bar this summer. I have a great team of people and it will be a kind spot.
Hope you will join me for a drink down yonder.
xoxox Happy New Year to you,
Joy Jacobs
Constellation Lounge might be right. TWA went all-jet in 1959, and started piling up Lockheed Constellations at their field in KC. Some kid bought one (I remember the Star saying he was building a bar but was too young to buy a drink there), pulled the wings and tail off, and had it trucked to 43rd and Main on a Sunday morning. It was quite an event. He paid $10k for it, and it cost more to move it. They propped it up on concrete posts on the landing gear; the tires were flat but suspended so they just touched the ground so they looked good. They parked a van next to it, painted them to match (in an airline looking graphic style). They put the heat/AC in the van and ran a huge air hose to the plane. Several friends and I, grade school age, sneaked in through a service hatch before it opened, and spent a day exploring the innards of a Connie. It closed within a year or so, as I recall. When it closed, we found our hatch still worked, so we climbed in and stripped it of interesting hardware, light bulbs, gyroscopes, steering wheel, etc. I still have a table radio whose dial is lit by bulbs from the plane.
Seems like it was about that time that Mel's Pompeii Room on the corner blew up, and they knocked it and Antonio's down. That left the whole corner bare, til they built that drive-in bank building that still stands.
I thought Mama Stefeati's was in the space that later housed Bacchus (in the odd triangular shaped row of buildings that Westport Rd dead-ends into. I seem to recall a murder taking place there? Funny, something made me think of Mitch & Tim this morning, and now this. Ghosts of Christmases past, I guess.
Constellation Lounge makes sense - probably where the TWA pilots hung out just before reporting for duty;-) JK - don't flame me.
My friend (and local history expert) Charles Ballew remembers the name of the lounge-in-an-airplane near 43rd and Main as the Constellation Lounge. Does that sound right?
I lived at 38th and Baltimore in '71. The restaurant at 38th and Main at that time was called Patches. That had really good waffles with fresh fruit, wonderful daily specials and good sandwiches. If I recall correctly, they closed because the owners family didn't want to continue when the owners became too elderly to work as much as they were.
I do remember a place called the Hanger at 43rd and Main, but I don't remember it being an actual airplane.
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