Remember Ruby’s? A new book explores Kansas City's beloved and lost restaurants

In “Iconic Restaurants of Kansas City," author Andrea Broomfield catalogues the independently-owned cafeterias, burger shacks and diners that shaped the city's taste buds.
Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque stands today as one of Kansas City’s most iconic eateries, but our culinary claim to fame extends far beyond our famed “grease houses.”

A ghostly array of long-shuttered taverns, roadhouses, cafeterias, lunch counters, burger shacks, diners and steak houses have played a role in shaping our collective taste buds. These “lost” restaurants were independently owned eateries that existed for at least three or four generations.

“You build a cuisine — a food heritage — by religiously making the same foods to the same standards over and over,” says author Andrea Broomfield, an English professor at Johnson County Community College and the author of “Iconic Restaurants of Kansas City” (History Press).