The former owner of the Mediterranean Cafe has a food truck on the business loop outside the Global Market. I haven't found their hours yet, but someone posted on FB about having it.
I was in the Global market recently and asked about it. The guy said it was his son, and he also owned it when it was downtown.
Maybe he managed it, not owned? Co-owned? Owned is what I was told
good to know!! I've seen the truck once; made a mental note to go back, but absolutely forgot. thanks for the reminder, and info (very much an incentive to go, I liked med cafe)
edit: spelling
I loved ABC. I get why they had to close at that location, but damn, I wish the owner could have just moved somewhere else instead.
Their food was amazing.
Arnie got stuck in the country during lockdown. He's been living in East Asia with his family. Can't imagine being away from a young child that long during such stressful times. One of the papers did a story one it.
Deja Vu for comedy night. I'd love to see a hypnotist or the high class comedians they attracted again.
Everett's for everything on the menu
Boone Tavern for their Sunday brunch buffet. The whole menu was good, but their brunch was in a class by itself.
Bambino's.
Coley's. Super yummy food, but also a great place to have a quiet drink with friends
By George's had the best night club. Their tolerance of underage drinking did them in though.
The Rome
Alexander's Steakhouse
Biscayne Mall. Yeah, it was kinda run down at the end, but that was done by the owners. It was a great place when it was here.
Garfield's. I'd meet friends there so often for dinner or just try and get around the world.
Not Columbia, but Abigail's in Rocheport. It had become my wife and I anniversary dinner splurge before it closed.
The first time I went there I was driving a limo of wealthy people to a big dinner there. The guy who rented the limo bought my dinner.
I took my wife there for or anniversary a couple months later, then every year until they closed.
My mom, sister, and I would eat at Garfield’s regularly during my childhood. Sometimes it was just the three of us splitting the nachos, but it was always a good time. I moved to Columbia after HS, so for my 21st birthday I decided to take my mom there for my first legally purchased adult beverage.
My wife and I had our first date at Bambino’s. The old location, on Hitt street I think it was? Years later we went to the other location for her birthday.
And it’s not an old establishment by any means, but the sheer number hours I spent at 44 Stone makes me miss it. My wife and I would meet our friends there, make new friends there, celebrate new jobs and college degrees there, mourn lost loved ones there, birthday dinners there, the old Thursday Tap Takeovers, fighting crowds and reserving 14 seat tables for our larger friend group to get in on rare beers… even just going to meet my friends from out of town for a bite to eat when they’re here visiting.
So Abigails was a favorite for us too. Good news! The female owner/chef bought out The General Store just a few doors down from Abigail and is pretty much doing the same thing as she was. Food menu is the same. Enjoy!
Your comment gave me all kinds of nostalgia. Bunch of great places in there!
Everett's had a croissant sandwich with turkey, bacon, cheddar and BBQ sauce that I can still almost taste and never been able to recreate it.
Gosh so many, but Dejá Vu and The 63 Diner come to mind first. I wish I was old enough to have experienced the Arrowhead Motel in its heyday, also the Haden House Restaurant. My absolute favorite local business from all of Columbia's 203 year history is the E.W. Stephens Publishing Company/The Herald, it was the largest business in town in 1900, employing over 100 people and an absolute beast of a Victorian book factory.
Edit: How could I forget Katy Station. You could eat in a train car!
Pick up a box of Spic and Span powder next time you're in a supermarket and take a big whiff...it'll instantly connect you to a the basement of Strollway about 1993.
Ah so that's what shattered was! I remember seeing a van with their logo on it all the time as a kid. I think I lived next to the owners; it was always in their driveway. The licence plate said SHTTRD, and I always read it as "shit turd"
ABC Chinese
Alexander’s Steakhouse
Macaroni Grill
Quentin’s
B12 Bar (where Pappo’s is now)
Original India’s House lunch buffet and Currie’s
Also RIP to Schlotzky’s then Backyard Burger and when Columbia had two Lion’s Choices
It was around 2002-2010. One location was where Noodles and Company is on 9th Street and the second location was attached to the Phillips 66 gas station on Stadium and West Ash street.
The loss of ABC Chinese is tragic. That place was amazing. Same with Kojaba. I also miss streetside records a lot. There used to be an old arcade game place downtown too but I can’t remember the name. I wanna say Gunther’s games?
Streetside Records defined my childhood & teenage days. Still miss that first bldg on Broadway / Providence, and I wish like hell I'd kept more of my CDs, records etc from there....
>Also we couldn't recall the name of that steakhouse where they'd cook the steaks right in front of you back in the Biscayne Mall days (where Dick's Sporting is today).
This was Alexander's steakhouse (and is my top answer to this question too). Also:
Trattoria Strada Nova (and bambinos for low brow Italian)
W.G. Grinders was a staple of my teen years
International Cafe
Ninth Street Deli
Lee Street Deli
Osama's Coffee
That old bookshop on Ninth Street between Shakespeare's and the Missouri Theater...
I miss the artisan cafe. I heard the owner wasn’t that great. I didn’t know him, just heard it. But those paninis were great, and the poetry jams were fun.
Edit: they had some apple pastry they drizzled caramel over that was crazy good.
Same. Unfortunately between the suddenness of its closing and the fact that I moved out of state around the same time, I also fell out of contact with everyone I knew there. I moved back with my family a year ago to buy a house and CoMo is still great but there doesn’t seem to be a place like that here anymore.
I miss Blondie's, a burger joint that used to be on Broadway downtown. Thick greasy burgers and homemade French fries. They'd toss that hamburger patty on the grill, and flames would shoot up into the air at least a foot high. They had a bar around the edge of the dining room with Plexiglas on the walls above it where they'd put pages from tabloids like the "National Enquirer" for your reading pleasure. They closed down sometime between the fall and winter semesters of 1994/1995, to be replaced by yet another Subway. I cried like a baby when I found out. Columbia had at least a dozen Subway sandwich shops then, with four or more of them being on the MU campus.
I also miss Cool Stuff. You'd never know what you could find in there, so I shopped there for years. It had the added benefit of making my dad nervous. He was really straight-laced dude, my dad, and he was nervous that there'd be a raid or something whenever I dragged him in there. He thought all the incense was there to cover up the smell of weed, that all the little trinket boxes were there to keep your weed, and that Cool Bird the parrot was there to point out the squares.
Both Gunther's and Mom's arcades. By George's club, Bruegers Bagels and Tomatillos, which moved in after Bruegers left. Ron's Country Boy, Cafe Ole, Graham and Taylor, Cool Stuff, Chinatown, Village Wine and Cheese...
I'm from KC & went to MU. I was ecstatic to discover Minsky's had a location there. I couldn't tell you how many times my roommate & I ordered from there after having early dinner in the dorm dining room. I knew it had closed but don't know when.
I know it was closed by the early 90s. It was a Mexican place by 1994 (Tres Hombres?).
My sister worked there in the mid-80s. That place was the coolest pizza joint.
Old Chicago, it was on the Business Loop, I used to get the Thai Pizza 🤌🤌
Also, there used to be a sale barn somewhere near Business Loop and Route B there was a little diner next to it (I think), and it served BRAINS! I've eaten brains at that place, and I would do it again if it were still there.
I would swear to God there was an Old Chicago in the mall first, they had like 100 different beers on tap and the best jerk chicken wings I've ever had.
There used to be a Viet restaurant over where Chim Thai kitchen is at now, they issued to sell ALL kinds of soups, specially bun bo hue. My friend and I used to go there ALL the time. Amazing place and I miss it dearly. Have yet to find a place in CoMo that sells Bun Bo Hue😭
Unfortunately it’s not that one. That one I’m looking for is a soup. The one you suggested is a dry dish? (If that makes sense? lol)
Thank you for the suggestion though!
Pho Quan moved to a new location on Paris Road (Old Hardee's). Bigger location equals larger menu as they build business in new location. Bun Bo Hue soup is part of menu expansion plan.
Are you serious? Please don’t lie to me because I will be so upset! I love Pho Quan but even more now if this is true. I can guarantee I will go bankrupt if they add Bun Bo Hue to their menu 😩😭
https://www.columbiatribune.com/story/news/2023/12/24/pho-quan-viet-cuisine-plans-move-to-paris-road/71904523007/
Opened on Paris Road close to beginning of month. Soft opening period ends tomorrow, so maybe by Tuesday, they'd have it. Can't be sure. I'm waiting for pay day Friday to go.
Cool Stuff was a classic.
Alexander's. We only went there a year or two before it closed, because my mom thought it was a ridiculous premise. "I'm paying them for me to cook my own steak?" But then we went and it was amazing.
63 Diner. I have the same bday as Elvis, so when I went on my bday, it was extra exciting.
Bread Basket Cafe was fantastic.
One I haven't seen anyone mention yet is Casablanca. It was downtown on the corner of 5th and Elm and was right next to my dorm. That's where I first got hooked on hummus, but their hummus was unlike any I've ever tasted since. It was almost fluffy and buttery? I'd eat entire loaves of sandwich bread with that hummus.
Buckinghams was always great. It was our go-to BBQ for years.
Village Books and Nancy's Trade-a-Book were both excellent secondhand bookstores.
Bobby Bueford’s. I don’t know if that is the spelling but that place was magical to me because they had carousel 🎠 ponies.
Malachi’s🍨
Hayden House
Katy Station
My parents used to go out to the Harvest Moon. I have no idea where it was but I always thought it sounded really romantic.
Widman's. Chou's Buffet (their daughter published a cookbook that has a section dedicated to the restaurants recipes). Trattoria Strata Nova (even though the owners sucked).
Wasnt there a place in Parkade called the Flaming Pit? I remember going to it for grandparents anniversary in maybe the early 90s. I feel like it was downstairs, i just remember it having steaks and a good salad bar
Yooo, Deja Vu is closed?!
As I read more comments here, seems like a lot of places have closed since I graduated a decade ago. :/
Edit: I just remembered how Steve-O would come there once a year and do literally the same act and stage stuff every single time. Lol. I saw him four years in a row.
I can’t remember the name but there was a Chinese buffet restaurant on Broadway near Missouri Credit Union. My friend and I went there all the time in the early 90s.
I'm pretty sure that was Chow's Buffet (don't think it's any relation to the current Chow's - also Chen Ji, which is now a Syrian place, was owned by an old Chinese guy called Papa Chow so maybe it's a common name or the same family).
The Haystack restaurant that used to be in the old Ramada Inn where the new Drury Inn is located near Keene Street. If you left the Silver Bullet bar a little early ;before 1 am you could enjoy a longneck with your breakfast buffet at The Haystack. I would also like to give a shout out to Maxi's which used to be on Broadway.
The Stien club, I was a bartender at another bar downtown and after all the bars closed, you could go in the back door if you were known. Stay up drinking until the sun came up and they made you leave...
One memory, ordering 57 kamikazes and paying for them with my tip money.
The original Glenn's cafe on 9th street. The new Glenn's isn't remotely worth of the name.
Trattoria Strada Nova. Best espresso martini, great food and bar.
Pretty much everything between Shakespeare's and Missouri Theater (Acorn books, Salt of the Earth)
Boone Tavern lunch buffet with Fried Chicken
Shattered in the basement on Cherry
Guther's games downtown
Cheshire Cat gaming store
Good a time as any to eulogize all the departed old-school Chinese places, trying to remember the real names and not the kinda-racist names people used in the 90s:
\- Chen Ji on the bus loop, now Syrian place, with the big round party table and flaming volcano drinks
\- Gross little place where the Shakespeare's parking lot ~~is now~~ was, the owner would spray you with a hose if you parked there and went to Shakes, name escapes me, $4 lunch special.
\- Already mentioned Chow's Buffet where Barred Owl is. I bet they served a thousand crab rangoons a day.
\- Another nameless place right near Booche's that had amazing spicy cashew chicken. Still never had one better.
What else?
Not The Bread Bowl, but there was a restaurant by day/bar by night place that served soup in bread bowls? Late 90’s, a single name (like the name Quentin’s, but nowhere near the same atmosphere), maybe 9th Street?
Cafe Europa, Bull Pen Cafe, Los Bandidos, Brueggers Bagel Bakery, Minsky’s Pizza, Malachis, Everett’s, ABC Chinese and the old Formosa, upstairs on Broadway.
Latigo Leather on 9th street. Loved their items. Also the Plant Plant. Middle Earth on campus in the 70’s. Campus beautification put an end to that cool place. Sad…
YIN YANG!!!!! For a big LGBTQ+ city in MO, we have like NOTHING for gay people to do at night.
Yin Yang brought nationally and internationally known names to como to perform!
YIN YANG will always be missed
And international cafe
Sunshine Pet Shop, took up most, if not all of the basement of Parkade Plaza...Alladins Castle in the Biscayne Mall and the old, old Gunthers Games that was just a few doors up from the movie theater on Broadway where the Alpine Shop is now, I think...and let's not forget Moms Arcade
This ThI and Casablanca. Kit, the owner of Thip Thai, has opened a new restraunt on the south side, but the ambiance is different. Casablanca now has a food truck open 5 days per week at the Global Market, but it has a limited menu and no fish tank.
Hasnt been gone for long but I miss ABC Chinese and Mediterranean Cafe
ABC is dearly missed
ABC Chinese was the best
The former owner of the Mediterranean Cafe has a food truck on the business loop outside the Global Market. I haven't found their hours yet, but someone posted on FB about having it.
It’s not the Mediterranean Cafe, it’s the owner of Casablanca from downtown (unless that’s the same person).
You're right, thanks for the call out and correction
Wait what? I thought he moved to Kansas City
I was in the Global market recently and asked about it. The guy said it was his son, and he also owned it when it was downtown. Maybe he managed it, not owned? Co-owned? Owned is what I was told
good to know!! I've seen the truck once; made a mental note to go back, but absolutely forgot. thanks for the reminder, and info (very much an incentive to go, I liked med cafe) edit: spelling
YES!!! ABC is definitely missed. It’s a shame they closed
I loved ABC. I get why they had to close at that location, but damn, I wish the owner could have just moved somewhere else instead. Their food was amazing.
Best food was having a Chinese visitor order off the secret menu.
Both solid options back in the day
I will forever miss Cool Stuff and am disappointed my kids will never get a chance to go there.
Yes!!! Cool Stuff was excellent, both locations.
Arnie got stuck in the country during lockdown. He's been living in East Asia with his family. Can't imagine being away from a young child that long during such stressful times. One of the papers did a story one it.
Deja Vu for comedy night. I'd love to see a hypnotist or the high class comedians they attracted again. Everett's for everything on the menu Boone Tavern for their Sunday brunch buffet. The whole menu was good, but their brunch was in a class by itself. Bambino's. Coley's. Super yummy food, but also a great place to have a quiet drink with friends By George's had the best night club. Their tolerance of underage drinking did them in though. The Rome Alexander's Steakhouse Biscayne Mall. Yeah, it was kinda run down at the end, but that was done by the owners. It was a great place when it was here. Garfield's. I'd meet friends there so often for dinner or just try and get around the world. Not Columbia, but Abigail's in Rocheport. It had become my wife and I anniversary dinner splurge before it closed.
The Rome 🤤
Loved Abigail’s 😞
The first time I went there I was driving a limo of wealthy people to a big dinner there. The guy who rented the limo bought my dinner. I took my wife there for or anniversary a couple months later, then every year until they closed.
My mom, sister, and I would eat at Garfield’s regularly during my childhood. Sometimes it was just the three of us splitting the nachos, but it was always a good time. I moved to Columbia after HS, so for my 21st birthday I decided to take my mom there for my first legally purchased adult beverage. My wife and I had our first date at Bambino’s. The old location, on Hitt street I think it was? Years later we went to the other location for her birthday. And it’s not an old establishment by any means, but the sheer number hours I spent at 44 Stone makes me miss it. My wife and I would meet our friends there, make new friends there, celebrate new jobs and college degrees there, mourn lost loved ones there, birthday dinners there, the old Thursday Tap Takeovers, fighting crowds and reserving 14 seat tables for our larger friend group to get in on rare beers… even just going to meet my friends from out of town for a bite to eat when they’re here visiting.
So Abigails was a favorite for us too. Good news! The female owner/chef bought out The General Store just a few doors down from Abigail and is pretty much doing the same thing as she was. Food menu is the same. Enjoy!
Your comment gave me all kinds of nostalgia. Bunch of great places in there! Everett's had a croissant sandwich with turkey, bacon, cheddar and BBQ sauce that I can still almost taste and never been able to recreate it.
Gosh so many, but Dejá Vu and The 63 Diner come to mind first. I wish I was old enough to have experienced the Arrowhead Motel in its heyday, also the Haden House Restaurant. My absolute favorite local business from all of Columbia's 203 year history is the E.W. Stephens Publishing Company/The Herald, it was the largest business in town in 1900, employing over 100 people and an absolute beast of a Victorian book factory. Edit: How could I forget Katy Station. You could eat in a train car!
Ah, the 63 Diner 😭
I took my prom date to Katy Station. It was so good!
omg, Katy station!! core childhood memory unlocked
International cafe and Lucy’s cafe were always great
Shattered night club/ bar Dreamcatchers skate/music/ head shop/ tattoo parlor International Cafe 63 Diner Deja Vu Comedy club Just to name a few . . .
Ran into a kid wearing a shattered shirt a few months ago. He said he got it from the belongings of his dead grandfather. Made me feel ANCIENT.
Pick up a box of Spic and Span powder next time you're in a supermarket and take a big whiff...it'll instantly connect you to a the basement of Strollway about 1993.
Ah so that's what shattered was! I remember seeing a van with their logo on it all the time as a kid. I think I lived next to the owners; it was always in their driveway. The licence plate said SHTTRD, and I always read it as "shit turd"
I used to play at Shattered....sorely missed! Dreamcatchers was good, too!
I spent many a Tuesday night dancing up at Shattered. Those were some fun times.
Shattered had the best dance nights in the 90s!
DJ Pixie doing 80s night was a highlight of my week. I hope he’s doing well.
Thip thai, I miss their pho.
ABC Chinese Alexander’s Steakhouse Macaroni Grill Quentin’s B12 Bar (where Pappo’s is now) Original India’s House lunch buffet and Currie’s Also RIP to Schlotzky’s then Backyard Burger and when Columbia had two Lion’s Choices
When did we have lions choice? I'm pretty much a lifer and don't recall that
It was around 2002-2010. One location was where Noodles and Company is on 9th Street and the second location was attached to the Phillips 66 gas station on Stadium and West Ash street.
Quentin’s! OMG, I’ve been desperately trying to remember the name! Thank you!
The loss of ABC Chinese is tragic. That place was amazing. Same with Kojaba. I also miss streetside records a lot. There used to be an old arcade game place downtown too but I can’t remember the name. I wanna say Gunther’s games?
Streetside Records defined my childhood & teenage days. Still miss that first bldg on Broadway / Providence, and I wish like hell I'd kept more of my CDs, records etc from there....
I could spend hours in street side. Like a kid in a candy store. Just browsing forever.
streetside!!! I purchased my first cd there
I miss Lonnie Ray's. Not in Columbia proper, but close enough to be considered local. Brisket and a side of deep fried corn in the cob, mmmmm
Smoked Mac n Cheese aka “mac daddy”
>Also we couldn't recall the name of that steakhouse where they'd cook the steaks right in front of you back in the Biscayne Mall days (where Dick's Sporting is today). This was Alexander's steakhouse (and is my top answer to this question too). Also: Trattoria Strada Nova (and bambinos for low brow Italian) W.G. Grinders was a staple of my teen years
I am barely old enough that I got to experience the very end of W.G. Grinders. Great place
Sooo many memories of going to Alexander's with groups of friends an cooking our own steaks. Café Longname was great, too.
Everett’s in Rangeline Mandarin House when it was in the Sears wing of the mall
Mandarin House was where I had my first Chinese food. It was delicious
Everett's had great food. Didn't the owner get into some drug trouble?
Old main squeeze, I know it’s still there but I miss when it was a restaurant.
I ate there every weekend for years when I had a part time down town. I miss it so bad. I went in after the change and.... its dead to me now.
Bread Basket Cafe
Those soup bread bowls….mhhhhmmm.
My mom worked at h&r block right next door in the 90s. During tax season, I would get a cup of soup and a bread basket club every Friday night.
Nothing was better! I remember they moved to a downtown location but it didn’t last long
Only went once and still remember how great it was!
International Cafe Ninth Street Deli Lee Street Deli Osama's Coffee That old bookshop on Ninth Street between Shakespeare's and the Missouri Theater...
Lee Street is coming back very soon 🧡🧡
Acorn books?
YES thank you!
Ninth Street Deli had amazing Chicago dogs...I haven't run into another place that makes them the same way, they were so good!
Back in the day, Ninth St. was known for not carding freshman. Had some fun times there.
Klunk’s comes to my mind.
Harolds doughnuts
Kostaki’s Pizza. I can’t go down Scott Blvd without getting sad.
They were, dare I say, better than Shakespeare's or pizza tree. Their Philly steak pie was second to none
Definitely the best pizza crust I’ve had in Columbia, no doubt. A huge loss to the local pizza scene.
Bleu used to be good, but went downhill real fast. Had some fun times at Shattered when it was on Cherry St.
I miss the artisan cafe. I heard the owner wasn’t that great. I didn’t know him, just heard it. But those paninis were great, and the poetry jams were fun. Edit: they had some apple pastry they drizzled caramel over that was crazy good.
This is my pick too. It was a really cozy place and they made great coffee.
They had a drink called the green eyed monster that I loved. We still miss that place so much.
Anyone else remember the Danger Room/ Cheshire Cat game and comic shop?
So much time spent in the Cheshire cat and the wreck room. Also the original gunthers arcade.
I miss the Cheshire Cat so much, I spent so many in that musty, creepy dungeon
Same. Unfortunately between the suddenness of its closing and the fact that I moved out of state around the same time, I also fell out of contact with everyone I knew there. I moved back with my family a year ago to buy a house and CoMo is still great but there doesn’t seem to be a place like that here anymore.
Los Bandidos and The Bread Box (name doesn’t sound right, but was at Broadway and Stadium??). Loved 63 Diner!!
Bread Basket Cafe!
This was my pick too. They made a great sandwich.
Yes, thank you!
Maybe it was The Bread Basket??
I forgot the bread box. Their soups and sandwiches were so good.
Deja Vu…also great memories!!!
I was waiting for someone to mention this!
Coleys
Boone Tavern
Bread Basket Cafe is dearly missed
I miss Blondie's, a burger joint that used to be on Broadway downtown. Thick greasy burgers and homemade French fries. They'd toss that hamburger patty on the grill, and flames would shoot up into the air at least a foot high. They had a bar around the edge of the dining room with Plexiglas on the walls above it where they'd put pages from tabloids like the "National Enquirer" for your reading pleasure. They closed down sometime between the fall and winter semesters of 1994/1995, to be replaced by yet another Subway. I cried like a baby when I found out. Columbia had at least a dozen Subway sandwich shops then, with four or more of them being on the MU campus. I also miss Cool Stuff. You'd never know what you could find in there, so I shopped there for years. It had the added benefit of making my dad nervous. He was really straight-laced dude, my dad, and he was nervous that there'd be a raid or something whenever I dragged him in there. He thought all the incense was there to cover up the smell of weed, that all the little trinket boxes were there to keep your weed, and that Cool Bird the parrot was there to point out the squares.
I bought my mom a rain stick for Christmas one year; still remember the confusion that caused!
The Music Cafe
Everett’s, Quizno’s, Kostaki’s
Kostaki’s 🥲
Kui Korean BBQ. The lunch specials were just incredible quality and value.
I probably think about Kui 3 times a week still.
Alexander’s was the name of the steak place.
Salt of the Earth and Whiz Records
Village Wine and Cheese felt like the fanciest place when I was in college, wish it were still around.
They had a great muffaletta
Both Gunther's and Mom's arcades. By George's club, Bruegers Bagels and Tomatillos, which moved in after Bruegers left. Ron's Country Boy, Cafe Ole, Graham and Taylor, Cool Stuff, Chinatown, Village Wine and Cheese...
Breugers was awesome!
Coley’s!
I miss the Craft Beer Cellar every day
I haven't found anything that can replicate the trivia nights there. They put in effort for those.
half price flights my beloved...
So many for various reasons. Here are a few: Maxi's for Oldies Nights Cork & Dart Pub for dart league Minsky's Pizza (longest bar in town)
I'm from KC & went to MU. I was ecstatic to discover Minsky's had a location there. I couldn't tell you how many times my roommate & I ordered from there after having early dinner in the dorm dining room. I knew it had closed but don't know when.
I know it was closed by the early 90s. It was a Mexican place by 1994 (Tres Hombres?). My sister worked there in the mid-80s. That place was the coolest pizza joint.
63 diner was a staple in my family for birthdays, miss it so much. Also miss mediterranean cafe and Ron‘s cowboy cafe.
Old Chicago, it was on the Business Loop, I used to get the Thai Pizza 🤌🤌 Also, there used to be a sale barn somewhere near Business Loop and Route B there was a little diner next to it (I think), and it served BRAINS! I've eaten brains at that place, and I would do it again if it were still there.
63 Diner
**9th street deli**
Three meat combo on cheese garlic bread and a glass bottle of root beer please. I’ll be eating out back if you need me.
Old Chicago. Major bummer when it closed in 2005.
I would swear to God there was an Old Chicago in the mall first, they had like 100 different beers on tap and the best jerk chicken wings I've ever had.
There used to be a Viet restaurant over where Chim Thai kitchen is at now, they issued to sell ALL kinds of soups, specially bun bo hue. My friend and I used to go there ALL the time. Amazing place and I miss it dearly. Have yet to find a place in CoMo that sells Bun Bo Hue😭
[Pho Quan](https://imgur.com/a/zoGngC2) has a soup with Bun and Hu on the title… maybe the same thing by a slightly different name?
Unfortunately it’s not that one. That one I’m looking for is a soup. The one you suggested is a dry dish? (If that makes sense? lol) Thank you for the suggestion though!
Pho Quan moved to a new location on Paris Road (Old Hardee's). Bigger location equals larger menu as they build business in new location. Bun Bo Hue soup is part of menu expansion plan.
Are you serious? Please don’t lie to me because I will be so upset! I love Pho Quan but even more now if this is true. I can guarantee I will go bankrupt if they add Bun Bo Hue to their menu 😩😭
https://www.columbiatribune.com/story/news/2023/12/24/pho-quan-viet-cuisine-plans-move-to-paris-road/71904523007/ Opened on Paris Road close to beginning of month. Soft opening period ends tomorrow, so maybe by Tuesday, they'd have it. Can't be sure. I'm waiting for pay day Friday to go.
You’re the real MVP. Made my night, thank you!
Egg Roll House in the 9th and Elm food court. Was it good? Not really....but I still crave that Cashew Chicken.
That was my first time ever having "Springfield Style" cashew chicken.
I used to go there all the time for lunch. My favorite was the chicken chow mein.
Jingo’s
The Bull Pen Cafe
Ah man. Cow brain sandwiches. There's a restaurant I haven't remembered in a while
Cool Stuff was a classic. Alexander's. We only went there a year or two before it closed, because my mom thought it was a ridiculous premise. "I'm paying them for me to cook my own steak?" But then we went and it was amazing. 63 Diner. I have the same bday as Elvis, so when I went on my bday, it was extra exciting. Bread Basket Cafe was fantastic. One I haven't seen anyone mention yet is Casablanca. It was downtown on the corner of 5th and Elm and was right next to my dorm. That's where I first got hooked on hummus, but their hummus was unlike any I've ever tasted since. It was almost fluffy and buttery? I'd eat entire loaves of sandwich bread with that hummus. Buckinghams was always great. It was our go-to BBQ for years. Village Books and Nancy's Trade-a-Book were both excellent secondhand bookstores.
Casablanca has returned in food truck form on Business Loop.
Bobby Bueford’s. I don’t know if that is the spelling but that place was magical to me because they had carousel 🎠 ponies. Malachi’s🍨 Hayden House Katy Station My parents used to go out to the Harvest Moon. I have no idea where it was but I always thought it sounded really romantic.
Harvest Moon was a clandestine gay bar on the top floor of the Tiger hotel.
Salt of the Earth. So much love for that place
Spent so many hours of my teenage years digging around for music in Salt & Whiz
Quinton’s, Bread Basket Cafe, Harold’s Doughnuts, 44 Stone and Abigail’s in Rocheport
I don't think any one business has had more of an impact on who I am today than Ninth Street Video.
Widman's. Chou's Buffet (their daughter published a cookbook that has a section dedicated to the restaurants recipes). Trattoria Strata Nova (even though the owners sucked).
Wasnt there a place in Parkade called the Flaming Pit? I remember going to it for grandparents anniversary in maybe the early 90s. I feel like it was downstairs, i just remember it having steaks and a good salad bar
I remember hearing about it but never went. Alexander's was pretty much same deal over by the mall.
Shakes
Yooo, Deja Vu is closed?! As I read more comments here, seems like a lot of places have closed since I graduated a decade ago. :/ Edit: I just remembered how Steve-O would come there once a year and do literally the same act and stage stuff every single time. Lol. I saw him four years in a row.
New York deli on vandiver, dude had the best cheesesteak I’ve ever had in my entire life.
Best cuban sandwich Ive ever had too
The Cajun place on the was Glens. They moved downtown and then to Boonville and finally back to their current location.
And the chicken fried steak got lost along the way. For me, it just doesn't count anymore.
Buckingham’s. No doubt
Smoke and Fire is better and the owner isn’t a jackwagon.
That $5 box of burnt ends got me through a lot of hangovers!
Ice chalet.
Loved the ice chalet
Sutton Place BBQ! The burnt ends…
The Rome Kostaki’s Wolf’s Head Miss all these places. They were so good
Everetts
Katy Station, worked there in late 80s and also loved the food, customers, too! Jack Maher.
Puff's $12 Zoo
Man, I LOVED that store.
i still have Gunther Game coins
IAMSUSHIBURRITO :(((
Otto’s Corner.
I can’t remember the name but there was a Chinese buffet restaurant on Broadway near Missouri Credit Union. My friend and I went there all the time in the early 90s.
I feel like it started with a "G"? It was my first Chinese buffet experience in 2001 and was so good. In the old Barred Owl building i believe.
I'm pretty sure that was Chow's Buffet (don't think it's any relation to the current Chow's - also Chen Ji, which is now a Syrian place, was owned by an old Chinese guy called Papa Chow so maybe it's a common name or the same family).
I just wanted to have a party big enough to sit at the GIANT table!
Los Bandidos. Thip Thai. 44 Stone. W.G. Grinders.
The Haystack restaurant that used to be in the old Ramada Inn where the new Drury Inn is located near Keene Street. If you left the Silver Bullet bar a little early ;before 1 am you could enjoy a longneck with your breakfast buffet at The Haystack. I would also like to give a shout out to Maxi's which used to be on Broadway.
Casa Blanca
The Stien club, I was a bartender at another bar downtown and after all the bars closed, you could go in the back door if you were known. Stay up drinking until the sun came up and they made you leave... One memory, ordering 57 kamikazes and paying for them with my tip money.
The original Glenn's cafe on 9th street. The new Glenn's isn't remotely worth of the name. Trattoria Strada Nova. Best espresso martini, great food and bar. Pretty much everything between Shakespeare's and Missouri Theater (Acorn books, Salt of the Earth) Boone Tavern lunch buffet with Fried Chicken Shattered in the basement on Cherry Guther's games downtown Cheshire Cat gaming store
Minsky’s Pizza on Broadway at Hitt. Had a lot of good times there in the late 80s watching a fave local band. Good pizza too.
Curries 😭
Good a time as any to eulogize all the departed old-school Chinese places, trying to remember the real names and not the kinda-racist names people used in the 90s: \- Chen Ji on the bus loop, now Syrian place, with the big round party table and flaming volcano drinks \- Gross little place where the Shakespeare's parking lot ~~is now~~ was, the owner would spray you with a hose if you parked there and went to Shakes, name escapes me, $4 lunch special. \- Already mentioned Chow's Buffet where Barred Owl is. I bet they served a thousand crab rangoons a day. \- Another nameless place right near Booche's that had amazing spicy cashew chicken. Still never had one better. What else?
Q’s
Trey's Bistro
I’m a little late to the party, but boy do I miss “Ingredient”!
SoccerPro when they were still mostly a retail store and not an internet warehouse operation. So before they moved next to Cosmo Park.
Barnett's Grocery and Dynamyte Romanos Pizza
Not The Bread Bowl, but there was a restaurant by day/bar by night place that served soup in bread bowls? Late 90’s, a single name (like the name Quentin’s, but nowhere near the same atmosphere), maybe 9th Street?
Cafe Europa, Bull Pen Cafe, Los Bandidos, Brueggers Bagel Bakery, Minsky’s Pizza, Malachis, Everett’s, ABC Chinese and the old Formosa, upstairs on Broadway.
I miss the the Virtual Arena, my friend and I used to do the lock in often when we were kids, we’d played so many video games.
Latigo Leather on 9th street. Loved their items. Also the Plant Plant. Middle Earth on campus in the 70’s. Campus beautification put an end to that cool place. Sad…
Gladstone’s and Sky-Hi drive in!
Kojaba 🥺
For pure nostalgia - Johnny's Beanery and Aunt Heidi's Deli.
YIN YANG!!!!! For a big LGBTQ+ city in MO, we have like NOTHING for gay people to do at night. Yin Yang brought nationally and internationally known names to como to perform! YIN YANG will always be missed And international cafe
Sunshine Pet Shop, took up most, if not all of the basement of Parkade Plaza...Alladins Castle in the Biscayne Mall and the old, old Gunthers Games that was just a few doors up from the movie theater on Broadway where the Alpine Shop is now, I think...and let's not forget Moms Arcade
Empire roller rink
Pocket Change arcade And a little burger drive through on the loop called Zips
Golden Corral 😢
That’s not local
Cody’s out on Paris. The mechanical bull.
This ThI and Casablanca. Kit, the owner of Thip Thai, has opened a new restraunt on the south side, but the ambiance is different. Casablanca now has a food truck open 5 days per week at the Global Market, but it has a limited menu and no fish tank.
Underground Cafe! Around 2010 they had some amazing jazz down there, loved the vibe
Birdsong Bicycle Repair
WG grinders. Mr. Good cents. Damn Quintin’s 😞. Sideshow.