greasy suburban KC dives from an earlier era - that are still in operation?

[chrizow]

Bahua and i were discussing a very specific sort of establishment this morning.  there are many ways to describe such a place, but the most vivid way for me to evoke this sort of place is this:

the sort of place a child growing up in the late 70s or 80s would have gone to after a saturday soccer or baseball game.  soccer trophy parties or youth birthday parties may have been hosted here as well.

characteristics:

* decor frozen in a very specific era, such as 1968, 1972, or 1979.
* a generic, VERY greasy menu of burgers, fries, chili dogs, maybe pizza, maybe gyros.
* the menu will almost certainly be rendered in changeable black letters on a backlit menu, often with a Pepsi logo from another era on the top
* located in a suburban area which dates from the 50s through the early 70s.
* a couple of really random old arcade games (ZAXXON, Ms. Pac Man, Bad Dudes, etc)
* large soda selection, including, in Bahua's words "root beer without a brand name"
* "circa-1973 ads for frozen treats that haven't been available since 1975"

and so on. 

i would have to imagine that places like this still exist in the older suburban areas of KC. 

does anyone know what i am getting at?

ALSO: if the nostalgic pizza/burger joint of your childhood is now closed, please tell us about it.  i love this kind of stuff.

[LenexatoKCMO]

Before it exploded a year or two ago, the pizza shoppe on 87th in OP fit your description to the T.  They had the 70's wood panelling, the table-top style mrs pac man, the 70's era soft drink art, etc.  But post gas leak it is all faux finishes and flat screen tvs.    A substantial downgrade if you ask me. 

[chrizow]

yeah Pizza Shoppe!  i didn't know it exploded.  that is really sad. 

Fun House in Raytown is the place that evokes these memories for me.  i loved the arcade, huge bench-style seating, really retro big screen projection TV, wood paneling, stage and tiny dancefloor.  ah, memories!  i haven't set foot in this place since about 1995 out of fear of ruining it.

[mean]

I think I get the vibe. I think these fit the vibe in general:

Hi-Boy Burgers, 40 Highway
Dixon's Chili, 40 Highway
Pizza Shoppe (gone, but the chain exists), 24 Highway
Jim's Family Restaurant (still around iirc, but in a new building), 24 Highway
Pioneer Restaurant (long gone ), 24 Highway

Perhaps the best example I can think of was this old trailer thing in a dirt parking lot on the outskirts of Buckner. I have no idea what the place was called or whether it is still around, but you'd roll up into a tiny dirt lot which was basically in the middle of nowhere, and there was a small brown trailer with a menu and I believe a couple ads for frozen treats from a decade earlier, with one guy in there serving up the goods. Very popular post-Fort Osage football games.

[LenexatoKCMO]

yeah Pizza Shoppe!  i didn't know it exploded.  that is really sad. 

Yeah some dufus backed his car into the gas meter and blew the roof off the joint.  There are dozens of pizza shoppes now but that one was a classic since they hadn't touched the decor since it opened.  

[mayor_of_waldo]

I don't know the spelling but Zeppies Pizza at 83rd terr and Wornall. It was the after the sporting events or birthday party mecca, in the late 70's early 80's.

[scooterj]

Hi-Boy Burgers, 40 Highway

That was the first one I was gonna throw out.  I remember going there as a kid after seeing movies at the Blue Ridge Mall.

Perhaps the best example I can think of was this old trailer thing in a dirt parking lot on the outskirts of Buckner. I have no idea what the place was called or whether it is still around, but you'd roll up into a tiny dirt lot which was basically in the middle of nowhere, and there was a small brown trailer with a menu and I believe a couple ads for frozen treats from a decade earlier, with one guy in there serving up the goods. Very popular post-Fort Osage football games.

Was this on Buckner-Tarsney Road?  I don't remember the name of the place or where exactly it was but I remember a place my grandma would take us to for hot dogs and ice cream after trips to Fort Osage.  I think it was near a honey farm.

[DaveKCMO]

new york deli on troost.

[mayor_of_waldo]

ALSO: if the nostalgic pizza/burger joint of your childhood is now closed, please tell us about it.  i love this kind of stuff.

Missed that part.

Zeppie's sp? it was a dark open hall covered in dark stained wooden walls, and picnic style wooden tables and benches. It had a stage type of area with arcade games and small metal rides (an early chuckie cheese). I can't remember the pizza, because I was too busy running a muck (high on pitchers of Coca~Cola), but my dad said recently that the pizza wasn't bad, and went well with pitchers of beer. Everyone I know that grew up around Waldo has great memories of that place.

[chrizow]

^ so that place is closed now? 

[mayor_of_waldo]

^ so that place is closed now? 

Yes, it close in the late 80's, then the building was "Jamaican Me Crazy" in the 90's and a soul food joint. THe building is located behind what was "Torries Pizza" and is now "Jake Edwards BBQ" on wornall.

[KCMax]

Kudos. This thread is awesome. Hi-Boy on 40 Highway was the spot for me after soccer games.

Bad Dudes. That is awesome.

[chrizow]

despite many connections to independence, i've never been to Hi-Boy.  is it still retro-tastic these days?  what about the Pizza Shoppe on 24? 

Bad Dudes is the shit.  that was my game of choice after playing a soccer game at All-American Sports on Bannister Road.  Cherry Icee + soft pretzel + Bad Dudes at 10am is awesome.  at noon i would go home and play video games until the weekly saturday sleepover at someone's house (often mine).  the 80s and early 90s kicked ass.

[voltopt]

The Torre's on 83rd Terr and Wornall was an after youth sports gathering place for my school in the mid to late 80s, complete with the checkered picnic tables, three or four arcade games in back, fake wood paneling, low soffited bar/take out area, a mechanical bull, and the smell and texture of pizza grease embedded in everything.
I miss it!

Wasn't the building that housed Zeppie's a bar called the Walrus for a bit?

[scooterj]

There used to be a walk-up ice cream stand in Blue Springs called Kremy Kones that we'd always go to after seeing movies at the Twin Drive-In.   The cone I got was pure heaven: chocolate syrup was poured into the code before it was filled with chocolate ice cream and then dipped into a hard chocolate candy shell.   I can still taste it today, 25 years since I last had one.   Both it and the grocery store it was in the parking lot of have been long bulldozed under.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8& ... 3&t=h&z=17

[BurningMustard]

Saturday afternoon when helping Dad in the yard, the lunch was always at Wyndotte II BBQ.   Beef, fry, and a RC.  I still keep RC in the fridge for when I get take-out.

Friday dinners as a boy were spent at Jalisco's in Argentine (early 80's).  Can still picture that Jukebox.  Then when they opened a location in Mission, we bounced between the two.

A short while later, we threw Mr Gyro's in the rotation, old location, East side of metcalf.

I'll have to see if I remember the others.

[LenexatoKCMO]

Taco Via at 95th and Antioch always had a great seventies vibe with greasy-ass, faux-mexican served on styrofoam plates.  Lots of arcade games.  Menu with the press on letters.  I guess they sold it off as it didn't meet their newer franchise image - I don't know if the new owners have maintained the seventies dive atmosphere or not.  

[mayor_of_waldo]

The Torre's on 83rd Terr and Wornall was an after youth sports gathering place for my school in the mid to late 80s, complete with the checkered picnic tables, three or four arcade games in back, fake wood paneling, low soffited bar/take out area, a mechanical bull, and the smell and texture of pizza grease embedded in everything.
I miss it!

Wasn't the building that housed Zeppie's a bar called the Walrus for a bit?

I think your right about Walrus, it was also a produce market for a week, and now I think its a pluming supply.

Your correct about about the the later 80's and Torre's Pizza. I don't remember a mechanical bull?

[LenexatoKCMO]

A short while later, we threw Mr Gyro's in the rotation, old location, East side of metcalf.
.

The old Mr. Gyros was classic!  I remember the lady had a huge plant fetish so the entire joint was filled with houseplants to the point where you could barely sit.  The new place is pretty sterile by comparison. 

[KC0KEK]

Beef, fry, and a RC.  I still keep RC in the fridge for when I get take-out.

RC rocks. Truly one of the world's most unappreciated beverages.