I'm on a roll just like a pool ball, baby
I'm going to be there at the roll call maybe
At the Depot
- from the song Depot, Depot
written and performed by Tom Waits
We had a nice respite from hotels and airbnbs by staying a couple of nights just south of Kansas City, KS with our friends, the lovely Ms. Jane and the worldly Mr. Bruce. On a Sunday morning I talked Mr. Bruce into driving all of us to Leavenworth, the first incorporated city in the Kansas Territory. I had heard and read very positive reports about a two year old restaurant in town serving breakfast.
The depot
Leavenworth, Kansas
AMBIENCE: The depot is a restored train station originally built in 1887. The Romanesque-style sandstone building was constructed by the Leavenworth, Northern, & Southern Railway which was a subdivision of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe. Passenger trains stopped here until the 1930s and then the station accommodated freight operations up until 1982. The building was bought from the Santa Fe Railroad and became a restaurant called the Santa Fe Depot Diner. That restaurant in turn was bought by the current owners, went through an extensive renovation, and opened in 2015 as The depot. I'm not quite sure why the owners did not capitalize the "d" in depot. Perhaps its due to some legal trademark reason to differentiate the restaurant from the previous diner's name or perhaps it is simply artistic flair.I'm going to be there at the roll call maybe
At the Depot
- from the song Depot, Depot
written and performed by Tom Waits
We had a nice respite from hotels and airbnbs by staying a couple of nights just south of Kansas City, KS with our friends, the lovely Ms. Jane and the worldly Mr. Bruce. On a Sunday morning I talked Mr. Bruce into driving all of us to Leavenworth, the first incorporated city in the Kansas Territory. I had heard and read very positive reports about a two year old restaurant in town serving breakfast.
The depot
Leavenworth, Kansas
We arrived on a Sunday morning before the church crowds let out. Still, the place was busy and mostly filled to capacity. You enter the building into a long hallway flanked on each side by some of the benches passengers sat on while awaiting their train. The restaurant is divided into a number of separate rooms. Back in time, the male passengers would await the train in one room and women passengers in another room.
Much to the relief of Mr. Bruce and I, the four of us were escorted into the Men's Waiting Room. Our fragile egos probably would not have been able to handle being placed in the Women's Waiting Room. The room gave some sense of what it was like being here more than 125 years ago. You could almost picture a nattily dressed man with a top hat standing by the window, satchel by his side, smoking a cigar, while pulling out his pocket watch from his vest to check the lateness of the train. The floor was wood and looked original. The ceiling was very high. A large transom over long vertical windows held amber colored squares of glass. The tables and chairs were solid wood, similar to Mission style furniture. A Victorian era chandelier hung above us. The walls were tastefully decorated with old photographs of trains and Leavenworth street scenes.
The room was mostly filled with diners but the tables were nicely spaced apart and the noise level tolerable enough to carry on a conversation.
5 out of 5 stars
FOOD: We received our coffees almost immediately and shortly thereafter four donut muffins showed up at the table. Nice! My dining companions immediately gave notice so there was no opportunity to sneak the plate under the table onto my lap. Eating one of these was a tease, almost like eating one Dorito. I suppose that was the point. They were available as a menu extra with a half dozen costing three dollars.
It was time to order and one item jumped out from the menu at me, "Traditional Eggs Benedict". "Traditional" is what I had in mind yesterday morning when I ordered a "Country Eggs Benedict". What I got yesterday was about as traditional as rap music. The menu described this dish as ham, poached eggs, and hollandaise on top of a grilled English muffin. That is what I wanted.
The dish was a masterpiece. The Hollandaise sauce was the work of the devil. It was so sinful and decadent, I couldn't stop grinning between bites. It had just the right amount of lemon to give the rich, buttery, molten elixer some tang. The poached eggs were appropriately runny The ham had a nice smoked taste and the English muffin was the beneficiary of all that seeped down from above. The crisp hash browns weren't bad either.
Mr. Bruce ordered "The Gringo" omelet filled with chorizo, cheddar, salsa , peppers, and onions. Ms. Jane also went the omelet route and ordered "The Western" with aged cheddar, ham, onions, and peppers. She also asked for a small bowl of fruit (not pictured).
Mr. Bruce ordered "The Gringo" omelet filled with chorizo, cheddar, salsa , peppers, and onions. Ms. Jane also went the omelet route and ordered "The Western" with aged cheddar, ham, onions, and peppers. She also asked for a small bowl of fruit (not pictured).
I polled the table asking, on a five star basis, how many stars they would give their breakfast. I gave my eggs benedict 5 stars. Mr. Bruce said 5 stars. The Healthy One said 5 stars. Ms. Jane weighed in with 4 1/2 stars because the omelet was very good but her fruit didn't have much taste.
4.875 out of 5 stars
COFFEE:
The coffee, poured into the depot's personalized cups, was satisfying. Maybe, now that we are out of the upper Midwest, we're finished with weak coffee. Mr. Bruce, who loves coffee said "it was good - not as good as mine."
3 1/2 out of 5 stars
The coffee, poured into the depot's personalized cups, was satisfying. Maybe, now that we are out of the upper Midwest, we're finished with weak coffee. Mr. Bruce, who loves coffee said "it was good - not as good as mine."
3 1/2 out of 5 stars
SERVICE: Right off the bat, our personable server Michael let it be known that his parents owned and operated the restaurant. I'm not sure whether this was to emphasize the fact that we were in a family run enterprise or that he was operating under a higher than normal accountability standard. In any event, he did his parents proud. His service was efficient, yet at the same time seemingly relaxed. He did a great job on a busy morning.
5 out of 5 stars
.
5 out of 5 stars
A FEW WORDS ABOUT LEAVENWORTH:
Fort Leavenworth came before Leavenworth, having been established in 1827 by General Henry Leavenworth. The city of Leavenworth was founded in 1854, a few miles south of the fort. Naming the city Leavenworth involved an underhanded marketing ploy. A town founder thought that the sale of plots would be accelerated if outsiders reading the advertisements for property in Leavenworth would be confused, thinking the city was the military fort which was a desirable location. Fort Leavenworth was located outside the city limits until 1977 when the territory was annexed by the city.
Fort Leavenworth is the 3rd oldest continuously active military base in the U.S. and the oldest west of the Mississippi. The fort was located at the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe and Oregon trails. You can still clearly see the wagon ruts running from the bank of the Missouri up to the western bluff where the fort is located. The fort's original purpose was to protect settlers traveling west. After the civil war, it was more of an outfitting post for the army in the west. In 1866 the U.S. government authorized the formation of four African American regiments. The 10th Calvary, stationed at Fort Leavenworth under Colonel Benjamin Grierson, became known as the "Buffalo Soldiers". A short and interesting myth-busting article about the "buffalo soldiers" can be found here: http://www.blackpast.org/perspectives/myth-buffalo-soldiers
In 1881, General William T. Sherman established an officer's school at Fort Leavenworth. Now called the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, it has had many distinguished graduates including Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, and George Patton.
Leavenworth, the city, has a population of 36,150. It is located only 25 miles Northwest of Kansas City, Missouri on the western shore of the Missouri River. Its location on the river made it a destination for escaped African American slaves seeking freedom from the slave state of Missouri. Prior to the Civil War, the city had been strongly pro-slavery but the political tides shifted and the city supported the union during the Civil War. For a time after the Civil War ended, Leavenworth operated as a town out of the "Wild West". In the 1880s, there were some 200 saloons, or about one saloon for every 30 residents. Today, the number of watering holes is down to about 15.
Speaking of bars, Leavenworth has quite the captive population, with six prisons in or very close to the city. The most famous one is the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth. Also known as "The Pen" or "The Big Top" because of the huge dome on top of the building, it is now a medium security federal prison with an all-male inmate population of 1,870. Famous inmates have included James Earl Ray and Michael Vick. There is also a privately run maximum security federal prison in town called the Leavenworth Detention Center. It answers to the U.S. Marshals Service and has an inmate capacity of 1,126. Just down the road from Leavenworth is the state prison, Lansing Correctional Facility, with an inmate population of about 2,400 and in town is the Leavenworth County Jail with 130 beds.
The U.S. military operates two prisons within Fort Leavenworth. The U.S. Disciplinary Barracks is the Department of Defense's only maximum security prison. It houses convicted members of the military who have sentences of 10 or more years. Also within the fort is the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility which serves as a "holding" jail for those who are to be transferred to the Disciplinary Barracks and also as a correctional facility for inmates with a less than 10 years sentence.
With all these prisons in Leavenworth, the city may be interested in obtaining this one I spotted in downtown Lancaster, PA. This McPrison could be used for incarcerating people who have been found guilty of petty crimes. Punishment would be having to eat McDonald's meals morning, noon, and night.
BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:
Fort Leavenworth came before Leavenworth, having been established in 1827 by General Henry Leavenworth. The city of Leavenworth was founded in 1854, a few miles south of the fort. Naming the city Leavenworth involved an underhanded marketing ploy. A town founder thought that the sale of plots would be accelerated if outsiders reading the advertisements for property in Leavenworth would be confused, thinking the city was the military fort which was a desirable location. Fort Leavenworth was located outside the city limits until 1977 when the territory was annexed by the city.
Fort Leavenworth is the 3rd oldest continuously active military base in the U.S. and the oldest west of the Mississippi. The fort was located at the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe and Oregon trails. You can still clearly see the wagon ruts running from the bank of the Missouri up to the western bluff where the fort is located. The fort's original purpose was to protect settlers traveling west. After the civil war, it was more of an outfitting post for the army in the west. In 1866 the U.S. government authorized the formation of four African American regiments. The 10th Calvary, stationed at Fort Leavenworth under Colonel Benjamin Grierson, became known as the "Buffalo Soldiers". A short and interesting myth-busting article about the "buffalo soldiers" can be found here: http://www.blackpast.org/perspectives/myth-buffalo-soldiers
In 1881, General William T. Sherman established an officer's school at Fort Leavenworth. Now called the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, it has had many distinguished graduates including Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, and George Patton.
Leavenworth, the city, has a population of 36,150. It is located only 25 miles Northwest of Kansas City, Missouri on the western shore of the Missouri River. Its location on the river made it a destination for escaped African American slaves seeking freedom from the slave state of Missouri. Prior to the Civil War, the city had been strongly pro-slavery but the political tides shifted and the city supported the union during the Civil War. For a time after the Civil War ended, Leavenworth operated as a town out of the "Wild West". In the 1880s, there were some 200 saloons, or about one saloon for every 30 residents. Today, the number of watering holes is down to about 15.
Speaking of bars, Leavenworth has quite the captive population, with six prisons in or very close to the city. The most famous one is the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth. Also known as "The Pen" or "The Big Top" because of the huge dome on top of the building, it is now a medium security federal prison with an all-male inmate population of 1,870. Famous inmates have included James Earl Ray and Michael Vick. There is also a privately run maximum security federal prison in town called the Leavenworth Detention Center. It answers to the U.S. Marshals Service and has an inmate capacity of 1,126. Just down the road from Leavenworth is the state prison, Lansing Correctional Facility, with an inmate population of about 2,400 and in town is the Leavenworth County Jail with 130 beds.
The U.S. military operates two prisons within Fort Leavenworth. The U.S. Disciplinary Barracks is the Department of Defense's only maximum security prison. It houses convicted members of the military who have sentences of 10 or more years. Also within the fort is the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility which serves as a "holding" jail for those who are to be transferred to the Disciplinary Barracks and also as a correctional facility for inmates with a less than 10 years sentence.
With all these prisons in Leavenworth, the city may be interested in obtaining this one I spotted in downtown Lancaster, PA. This McPrison could be used for incarcerating people who have been found guilty of petty crimes. Punishment would be having to eat McDonald's meals morning, noon, and night.
BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:
We went on a self-guided tour of Fort Leavenworth. With its 8,000 acres and 1,000 buildings, it had the feel of a tree-lined, large university campus . After touring the fort, we headed to Kansas City, MO where we walked around Country Club Plaza on a beautiful warm afternoon. The Plaza consists of 18 separate buildings styled to make you think you're walking in Seville, Spain. The buildings are home to numerous restaurants, and high-end shops. Built in 1922, it was the first shopping center in the world designed to attract shoppers arriving by car.
October 15, 2017
NEXT UP: MISSOURI
I appreciate your carrying the breakfast rating stars out three places, very precise and helpful. I live in the neighborhood, but learned a lot about the area from this blog post. Thank you. I'm a little taken aback there was no mention of the smooth parallel parking job on the Plaza.
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