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Eat! Eat! Eat!

Posted May 8, 2007 by James E. Nelson

For years after moving from Kansas City we always ate at Hayward’s Barbeque, on Antioch between I-435 and College Blvd, in Overland Park when we passed through town. It consistently is in the running for the best BBQ joint in Kansas City, most recently winning the award in 2005. They are also renowned for their burnt ends, which have been featured in BBQ books, the Food Network, and magazines. Hayward’s burnt ends and Arthur Bryant’s brisket have historically been the quintessential symbols of Kansas City barbecue. But a few years ago we decided that we were in a rut and started trying other BBQ places in town. As a result it’s been a long time since we’ve been at Hayward’s. (So long, I couldn’t remember the name of the place and only had a vague sense of where it was located, but we managed to find it.)

But tonight we were in town at dinner time and we had the time (there was always a long line at Hayward’s when you had no reservations), so we stopped over at Hayward’s, arriving at 5:30 p.m. But something was terribly wrong:

The parking lot was empty. In fact, we were the only customers in the restaurant. Two other customers arrived when we were walking out the door, but that was it. Hayward’s has always had a brisk take-out business because they are located on the edge of Corporate Woods and people working there stop by to pick up dinner, but the lack of dine-in customers is a very bad omen. It makes me wonder how much longer Hayward’s will be in business.

After all, Kansas City has a new BBQ darling in Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue. Their store at the corner of 95th and Metcalf is always amazingly busy, even in the middle of the afternoon. And my nephew, who lives in Memphis—a great barbecue town—says that the Jack Stack in Kansas City is his favorite joint.

Furthermore, the burnt ends at Hayward’s weren’t up to their normal quality. Burnt ends are fatty meat, so they need to be burnt in order to be good. As the fat melts through the meat and ultimately burns, it gives the ends an amazingly rich chewieness. But tonight’s ends were fatty and evidently not cooked long enough. So it could be that an end of an era has come in Kansas City and Hayward and Hattie Spears will have to pass the mantle of barbecue greatness to the Fiorella family.

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In fact, the last few days have been a sort of restaurant pilgrimage. Yesterday we were passing through Texarkana and stopped at The Dixie Diner. It’s on the Arkansas side of Hwy 71, north of downtown. It featured fresh made bread and desserts. It was a basic diner menu and we both had burgers served on fresh baked rolls. Even the lima beans were fabulous. (Is that weird or what?) We figure it might be worth driving back to Texarkana just to eat at the Dixie Diner.

The day before we ate at Boudreau & Thibodeau’s Cajun Cookin in Houma, Louisiana. It has a kind of hokie theme restaurant with a real stuffed alligator near the register named Gaston (who met his demise because he was eating the local hog population) and really fabulous food. They also have an interesting twist on beignets. We weren’t particularly impressed with the beignets at afé du Monde, but Boudreau & Thibodeau’s brings them hot out of the fryer, plops a scoop of ice cream on them and then drenches the whole thing in chocolate. It was a blue collar desert that was second to none.

Friday night (the last night the IOCC volunteer team was together) we ate at the Boston Street Food & Spirits in Covington, Louisiana. It is one of the best (and priciest!) restaurants we’ve been at in a long time. Brenda had lamb and I had mahi mahi drenched in a Cajun crawfish and shrimp sauce. The wait staff was as professional as anywhere we’ve been and the food was definitely gourmet quality. We spent two hours out on the deck underneath the magnolia tree and were treated to nearly perfect service the whole time.

Of course, not all was wine and roses. Breakfast at the marina on Grand Isle was bad. The complimentary cookies at the motel in Ft. Smith upset both our stomachs and we skipped dinner altogether because neither of us could face food that night. But overall, we managed to strike it rich looking for local faire traveling north from New Orleans.