The legendary Madonna proved at last night's Super Bowl XLVI half-time show that one really can look young, limber and sexy at age 53. Not so true, alas, of the two KC-area Waid's restaurants. In fact, the Prairie Village Shopping Center location at 6920 Mission — which appears to have been last redecorated back when Madonna's debut album was released — has such an air of shabby sadness to it that I'm starting to wonder if this old-fashioned diner has much of a future. After all, two stylish new restaurant operations — Tavern in the Village and Story — opened in Prairie Village Shopping Center last year. Hasn't the badly dated Waid's become almost an anachronism for the shopping district?
"We're on a month-to-month lease," whispered one of the servers to me on a recent visit to the restaurant. "We're really only busy anymore on Saturday and Sunday mornings."
The Waid's restaurants — once a popular locally owned chain of modestly priced casual restaurants — date back to 1953. They have been owned, since the 1980s, by the Haddad Restaurant Group. The clientele has skewed older — really older — for years: "Anyone over 60 years and older gets a 10 percent discount on their bill," boasts the cashier at the Prairie Village location.
That would explain some of the more vintage offerings on the menu, like liver and onions and salmon croquettes — and a custard cup for dessert. It's Applebee's for the Depends crowd. I can't help but wonder what might happen to the Prairie Village Waid's in the near future.
"We don't comment on our current tenants," says Tripp Ross of Lane 4, the leasing agent for the Prairie Village Shopping Center. "We also don't tell them how to maintain their property."
Let's just say it's not aging as well as Madonna.
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Poor Waids....until about a year and a half ago, they were serving decent food. Then the "cost cutting" began. Staff cuts; quality of food cuts; etc. Probably could be brought back to life if the owner cared!
Hey man, I don't know how you and your cracker munching, Fish on Friday, one-hour-a-week-counted-as-church posse rolled, but in the pentecostal bosom of Sweet Beulah Land, Waid's was the workhorse- Sunday afternoon, evening and Wednesday evenings...sometimes Saturdays if there was some big Cantata practice or something. Joe's Barn was strictly mid-tier...relegated to Sunday afternoons. Top tier was obviously Mrs. Peters, occasionally Red Lobster followed by a trip to Dolgin's.
Zeeman, I call BS.
Joe's Barn was THE place for the post-church crowd to congregate.
The Waids in Lees Summit off 50 has a broken sign. So at night it illuminates "aids". There are not a lot of cars there.
My first job ever was as a dishwasher at the long-gone KCK Tower Plaza location. Prior to the Applebee's phenomenon, it was THE place for the post-church crowd to congregate, and I would totally go back for some pigs in a blanket nostalgia. My mom had a friend who would always scold the server if her English muffin was brought to her after being sliced, not forked, open....that was my first introduction to a totally classy broad.
Does that annoying overweight Korean woman with the finger nails on chalkboard voice still work at the Mission road location?? Just asking
The last time I ate at the Waid's on 103rd, I there was a piece of pot scrubbie/shiny Brillo Pad in my omelet. The feeling of pity for the poor senior with worse eyesight who would have eaten it heavily outweighed my disgust.
I put away enough eggs at the Winner road Waid's to populate Gilligian's Island with chickens.
They always served Cain's coffee too.
Like you say Charles-the times have changed, and Waid's did not.
The crowd at Waids is definitely very old and the decor is very dated, but the food is actually decent, not great, but a solid quality basic menu.
While I don't go there very often, it is nice to walk in for breakfast on a Sunday morning, sit down, have a decent meal and get on with the day. When you don't want to deal with a 40 minute wait at 10am on Sunday, Waids starts to look pretty good.
You might be over 60 if you ever ditched school to eat breakfast at Waid's.
I think I was wearing my Benton jacket too.
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