Business Lunch Review of Cafe on the Route
By Olive L. Sullivan
BAXTER SPRINGS — For more than a century, the town of Baxter Springs has been accommodating itself to all sorts of people, from pioneers to soldiers to miners, and now to tourists who come to historic Route 66 for a taste of small town Americana.
Like the town itself, Café on the Route somehow manages to offer all things to all people, while maintaining a standard of excellence in its eclectic menu. Featured on the Food Network show “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives,” hosted by Guy Fieri, the café doesn’t really fit any of those categories. The restaurant is located in the old Crowell Bank Building in downtown Baxter, and with its high gold-painted tin ceiling and fireplace mantel it looks a bit like a historic hotel dining room. But booths and simple tables for four, plus an open counter to the kitchen, and old-fashioned candies by the cash register, give it a diner feel. It’s perfect blend of comfort and class, leaning toward comfort.
The menu offers that same mix of comfort and class, with lunch offerings such salads, burgers, and sandwiches. You can order a California Cobb Salad ($6.25), a Reuben sandwich ($6.00), or a bowl of potato soup served with a muffin ($3.50). But you can also find more exotic entrees and specials, like nut-crusted catfish ($7.00), blackened tuna sandwich ($6.50), and Kansas-style jambalaya ($6.50).
We started with an appetizer, choosing tobacco onions ($5.50) from the limited lunchtime offerings. We had been hoping to try the avocado and chicken phyllo torte ($5.50), but it was only available at dinnertime. The tobacco onions, so named because they look like dried tobacco leaves, were tasty and served in a generous portion, but the mayonnaise-based remoulade sauce seemed to be trying too hard for my taste. For the main meal, I ordered the Sourdough Boy, a sandwich stuffed to overflowing with corned beef, shrimp, mascarpone cheese, marinated vegetables, and clam strips. For $6.25, it was a great sandwich and a good value — accompanied by a choice of side items — but it wasn’t a good business lunch choice because it was just too much to handle. It’s not the sort of sandwich you can pick up with two hands, and it takes some concentration to manage it at all. It’s a sandwich for the complex palate with time to burn. Others in my party ordered the Greek salad ($6.00), blackened salmon ($6.50), and the eight-ounce ribeye steak ($10.50). Except for the salad, each included a choice of potato and salad, fruit, or soup.
Soup choices include the familiar cream of baked potato, and a soup of the day, which was tomato salmon Florentine. We expected a tomato base, but this was a cream soup with hearty chunks of sundried tomato, fish, and spinach. It was delicious, and provided that little touch of the unexpected we had come to anticipate at Café on the Route. Other unique side options included parmesan potatoes, fried potato salad, and duchesse sweet potato.
The side salad was heavy on iceberg lettuce, but the strawberry vinaigrette boosted it up a notch, while the Greek salad overflowed its plate.
We realized that, from a business lunch point of view, we would have been better off ordering the lunch specials posted on the lobby chalkboard — pulled pork sandwich ($5.50), the combo plate of chicken, ham, and chopped brisket ($6.25), or a bratwurst sandwich with sauerkraut, onions, peppers, and cheese ($6.00).
It’s a great place for tourists to stop for lunch or the Sunday buffet, but does it work for the business diner?
The restaurant has some plusses, such as the tasty food and unique historic ambience, but there are some drawbacks. The booths are small, except for one round corner booth. While four people could squeeze into a booth, they are more comfortable for two, especially if the diners also want to spread out to review paperwork or set up a laptop. The six tables seat four diners, but again offer little room to spread out and work. If you’re after a celebratory lunch, the café is perfect; if you need to get down to business, you may want to ask for one of the meeting rooms at the back or upstairs.
The café has two meeting/banquet rooms, one seating 35 and the other seating 80. Upstairs in the Little Brick Inn Bed and Breakfast, a kitchen nook with two tables is also available as a private meeting space.
However, Café on the Route seems like a great place to take a client for conversation and a nice meal. The diners tend toward tourists and those working nearby, and the room stays quiet enough for serious conversation. Another real advantage is the bed and breakfast. An out-of-town client could enjoy a comfortable evening in a homey setting, accompanied by really good food.
Café on the Route
Baxter Springs, Kan.
1101 Military Ave.
Phone: 620-856-5646
Owners: Richard and Amy Sanell
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