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A friend asked me if I was planning to see the new Bodies Revealed exhibition at Union Station. "Are you kidding?" I answered. "I can barely stand looking at my own body, let alone a bunch of preserved cadavers that are probably in better shape than I am." Unless it's a burlesque show, I prefer most bodies to be wearing clothes.
Besides, I've been more interested in the resuscitation of the Harvey House Diner. Several months ago, Union Station officials gave the boot to Treat America, an institutional food purveyor that had been running the diner in a space once occupied by the legendary Fred Harvey's railroad-station restaurant. PB&J Restaurants Inc., creators of Grand Street Café and Yia Yia's Eurobistro, is now in charge, and the changes have been, shall we say, revealing.
When I first visited the Harvey House Diner in 2006, I was appalled at the less-than-mediocre food and the incompetent service. I told my friends that Union Station would have been wiser to bring in a few Denny's or Waffle House staffers to untangle the obvious chaos in the kitchen and on the floor. In this day and age, I never thought I'd hear a third-rate waitress snap, "That's not my station." A Harvey Girl she was not.
PB&J founders Bill Crooks and Paul Khoury have done some impressive housecleaning, literally and figuratively. I've recently eaten two breakfasts and two lunches at the Harvey House, and though the service needs a little polishing, the food quality has improved dramatically. It actually comes to the table hot. That might sound like faint praise, but a reputation for bad service and lukewarm food can close a restaurant pretty fast.
And that would have been heartbreaking for this rehabbed historic spot for which recent life has been tenuous enough. An interesting footnote — interesting to me, anyway: A few months after the original Harvey House Grill in Union Station closed in 1968, another iconic Kansas City gathering spot, the Folly Theater, stopped hiring strippers and started showing dirty movies. A local bon vivant who loved both places tells me that those two unconnected events "marked the beginning of the end of nightlife in downtown Kansas City."
Now that nightlife (if not strippers and stag films) is slowly returning to downtown, it seems like a good time for the return of a good old-fashioned diner. Unfortunately, this Harvey House doesn't stay open late, so it won't become an after-hours destination, serving the late-night "snacks" that Harvey House patrons of the 1920s and '30s loved so much: caviar sandwiches and chicken à la king.
A wall of blown-up vintage photographs displays several shots of the Harvey House in its glory years, when it was one of the few dining establishments in Kansas City that was strictly nonsmoking (it still is). The modern revision looks remarkably similar, though booths have been installed along one wall and the plates and serving dishes are now all heavy plastic. (C'mon, people. Even Chubby's uses real china.)
One day at lunch, Ned looked around in wonder. "It's kind of a paradox, isn't it, that this place serves blue-collar diner food in this ornate, neoclassic space with gorgeous moldings and balconies?"
I reminded him that, from the day it opened in 1914 until its final days as kind of a seedy, forlorn joint a half-century later, the Harvey House Grill was a short-order dining spot that had been known as the "lunchroom." A fancy dining spot, the Westport Room, had been next door to the Harvey House and was elegant enough to offer jellied consommé, crêpes suzette and the famous chicken Maciel.
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We went last Saturday 1/1/10. It was awful to say the least. We checked in at the hostess stand and they guy told us it would be 10-20 minutes tops. We had my 4 year old niece and my 5 year old son with us. We opted to wait... about 40 minutes later we got sat down. The servers were arguing about where people were sitting. At this point they were full and had a large line of people waiting. I wanted to ask them if they'd never had a lunch rush before or what because it was pure chaos. We had gotten there to eat 2 hours before our movie was to start. Finally after about an hour and 45 minutes STILL w/out our food and with anxious kids we asked him to just box up our food and took it with us to the theatre to eat. My niece is diabetic so she needed to have "real" food to keep her sugars on track not theatre food otherwise we'd have walked. Looking back the hot dog vendor in the middle of the station looked like a better idea. The food would have been better...
We went last Saturday 1/1/10. It was awful to say the least. We checked in at the hostess stand and they guy told us it would be 10-20 minutes tops. We had my 4 year old niece and my 5 year old son with us. We opted to wait... about 40 minutes later we got sat down. The servers were arguing about where people were sitting. At this point they were full and had a large line of people waiting. I wanted to ask them if they'd never had a lunch rush before or what because it was pure chaos. We had gotten there to eat 2 hours before our movie was to start. Finally after about an hour and 45 minutes STILL w/out our food and with anxious kids we asked him to just box up our food and took it with us to the theatre to eat. My niece is diabetic so she needed to have "real" food to keep her sugars on track not theatre food otherwise we'd have walked. Looking back the hot dog vendor in the middle of the station looked like a better idea. The food would have been better...
I just ate at Harvey's in Union Station last evening. There may have been some changes for the good, but I still wasn't impressed. The help was average, not that friendly. I was so looking forward to Box Car Tenders, but they must have changed the recipe or something from a few years ago. They were VERY disappointing. Before they were wonderfully succulent coconut chicken tenders. Now you could hardly tell they had coconut on them at all. They are average somewhat juicy chicken strips. Not the famous Box Car Tenders that I remember having in times past.
I just ate at Harvey's in Union Station last evening. There may have been some changes for the good, but I still wasn't impressed. The help was average, not that friendly. I was so looking forward to Box Car Tenders, but they must have changed the recipe or something from a few years ago. They were VERY disappointing. Before they were wonderfully succulent coconut chicken tenders. Now you could hardly tell they had coconut on them at all. They are average somewhat juicy chicken strips. Not the famous Box Car Tenders that I remember having in times past.
Well, my girlfriend and I went to Harvey's the last weekend of the "Bodies..." exhibit and were not impressed. In fact, we were not looking to be impressed, we just expected something along the lines of a Chubby's or Momma's type experience. This place is terrible. It really makes me feel bad for Kansas City and Union Station. It makes me feel bad in the way you feel bad for a child who has so much potential but never does anything to realize it and all you can say is what a waste of so much that may never be realized. Back to the real problem with Harvey's. The Staff! They don't care and they don't care that they don't care. The food would be good if it were hot and fresh so again to me it is just about the staff which means that is the responsibility of the management and the management is the responisibility of the owners who just must not care.
And such a shame because the place has a wonderful ambiance and would be such a nice place to go on the weekends or for a great late night meal. We even gave them another chance this morning and after waiting 10 minutes for a server to come to our table and then forget to bring us water and those very dry cinnamon rolls, the cold omlet, not one refill on our coffee and to top it off the whole meal we had to sit surrounded by tables filled with dirty dishes and flies. Not cool! Granted the manager did see that we were very poorly treated without me having to mention it and he did take some items off our bill but I didn't go there for a discount. I would rather pay full price for a decent experience than pay half price for a terrible one. Unfortunatly, my girlfriend and I will go back to making our weekly Sunday visit to Momma's. We gave Union Station a chance and they blew it. Sorry!
Well, my girlfriend and I went to Harvey's the last weekend of the "Bodies..." exhibit and were not impressed. In fact, we were not looking to be impressed, we just expected something along the lines of a Chubby's or Momma's type experience. This place is terrible. It really makes me feel bad for Kansas City and Union Station. It makes me feel bad in the way you feel bad for a child who has so much potential but never does anything to realize it and all you can say is what a waste of so much that may never be realized. Back to the real problem with Harvey's. The Staff! They don't care and they don't care that they don't care. The food would be good if it were hot and fresh so again to me it is just about the staff which means that is the responsibility of the management and the management is the responisibility of the owners who just must not care. And such a shame because the place has a wonderful ambiance and would be such a nice place to go on the weekends or for a great late night meal. We even gave them another chance this morning and after waiting 10 minutes for a server to come to our table and then forget to bring us water and those very dry cinnamon rolls, the cold omlet, not one refill on our coffee and to top it off the whole meal we had to sit surrounded by tables filled with dirty dishes and flies. Not cool! Granted the manager did see that we were very poorly treated without me having to mention it and he did take some items off our bill but I didn't go there for a discount. I would rather pay full price for a decent experience than pay half price for a terrible one. Unfortunatly, my girlfriend and I will go back to making our weekly Sunday visit to Momma's. We gave Union Station a chance and they blew it. Sorry!
Correction our experience occured on Saturday, March 15 at 3:30ish.
And the waiter shrugged saying we'd have to wait on another order if she wanted the fruit on the side.
I have to disagree with this article. Saturday, March 25th after an hour and a half looking through the Bodies exhibit. A co-worker and I went to Harvey's Diner for a bite to eat, it was about 3:30ish.
The service was terrible, the food not much better. Our waitress had a chin piercing under her lip that stuck out past her bottom lip, which was distracting in itself. Myself and a co-worker ordered a breakfest dinner. My biscuits and gravy tasted like yesterdays food, the biscuits weren't even open faced. I got hash browns which I did not order. I had to go to the counter myself to have someone refill my iced tea. My coworker requested fruit on the side of her pancakes, when delivered they were on top. All she got was a shrug from the waiter and was told she'd have to wait for another order if she didn't want the strawberries on the side. When our waitress brought our ticket she only giggled and said "I told them to put it on the side". We were not compensated.
I've emailed the manager of Harvey's Diner last week and have sense to hear from him. I guess that explains the service.
Correction our experience occured on Saturday, March 15 at 3:30ish. And the waiter shrugged saying we'd have to wait on another order if she wanted the fruit on the side.
I have to disagree with this article. Saturday, March 25th after an hour and a half looking through the Bodies exhibit. A co-worker and I went to Harvey's Diner for a bite to eat, it was about 3:30ish. The service was terrible, the food not much better. Our waitress had a chin piercing under her lip that stuck out past her bottom lip, which was distracting in itself. Myself and a co-worker ordered a breakfest dinner. My biscuits and gravy tasted like yesterdays food, the biscuits weren't even open faced. I got hash browns which I did not order. I had to go to the counter myself to have someone refill my iced tea. My coworker requested fruit on the side of her pancakes, when delivered they were on top. All she got was a shrug from the waiter and was told she'd have to wait for another order if she didn't want the strawberries on the side. When our waitress brought our ticket she only giggled and said "I told them to put it on the side". We were not compensated. I've emailed the manager of Harvey's Diner last week and have sense to hear from him. I guess that explains the service.
-Your Story brings to mind the following-. sent to me by my cousin Stewart Harvey The remaining bones of the once grand empire.
He that hath seen a great oak dry and dead,
Yet clad with relics of some trophies old,
Lifting to heaven her ag�hoary head,
Whose foot in ground hath left but feeble hold;
But half disbowel'd lies above the ground,
Showing her wreath�roots, and naked arms,
And on her trunk all rotten and unsound
Only supports herself for meat of worms;
And though she owe her fall to the first wind,
Yet of the devout people is ador'd,
And many young plants spring out of her rind;
Who such an oak hath seen let him record
That such this city's honor was of yore,
And 'mongst all cities flourish�much more.
Bellay via Spenser
I was the last member of the founding family to work for Fred Harvey (my Greatgrandfather) Daggett Harvey
-Your Story brings to mind the following-. sent to me by my cousin Stewart Harvey The remaining bones of the once grand empire. He that hath seen a great oak dry and dead, Yet clad with relics of some trophies old, Lifting to heaven her agéd hoary head, Whose foot in ground hath left but feeble hold; But half disbowel'd lies above the ground, Showing her wreathéd roots, and naked arms, And on her trunk all rotten and unsound Only supports herself for meat of worms; And though she owe her fall to the first wind, Yet of the devout people is ador'd, And many young plants spring out of her rind; Who such an oak hath seen let him record That such this city's honor was of yore, And 'mongst all cities flourishéd much more. Bellay via Spenser I was the last member of the founding family to work for Fred Harvey (my Greatgrandfather) Daggett Harvey
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