By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
A new restaurant north of Plainville brings the taste of the Chesapeake Bay to Kansas.
Jason Kephart and his wife, Kari, were born and raised in the Chesapeake Bay area. The couple has a history of working in the restaurant industry for about 15 years, but the Chesapeake Roadhouse is their first attempt at ownership.
"We were born and raised on the Chesapeake Bay, and we crabbed and fished recreationally and grew up fixing that sort of food," Jason Kephart said. "That is in our culture and our background."
Jason first came to Kansas in the Air Force and was stationed at McConnell Air Force Base. After most recently living in Topeka, the family moved to northwest Kansas so Kari could work in an area school system.
The new restaurant is in the former Rooks County Golf Course restaurant building, which is about three miles north of Plainville on U.S. Highway 183.
Specialties on the menu include crab cakes and oysters. The couple hopes to add whole crab, lobster and crawfish when they come into season in the spring and summer.
The seafood is shipped by air to Kansas. The majority of the food is overnighted, and Kephart cooks the dishes fresh, never frozen, and made from scratch.
The restaurant's most popular dishes thus far have been its crab cakes and crab dip. Raw and fried oysters come in a close second.
In addition to seafood dishes, the restaurant also serves steaks cooked sous vide and then pan-seared with garlic, thyme and rosemary, as well as prime rib. Sous vide is a process of cooking through water submersion that allows the meat to be cooked to an exact temperature and allows the meat to stay very tender, Kephart said.
The restaurant specializes in half-pound and one-pound burgers that are cooked to order with a variety of options for toppings and specialty cheeses.
"You can get a burger anywhere in Kansas, around every corner, but once someone sits down and actually sees our burger and tastes our burger, they know there's a difference," Kephart said.
Kephart said the burgers are a meal for at least two people. All of the fries are fresh and hand-cut per order.
The roadhouse offers a special menu item for two called the 19th Hole, which includes a ribeye, crabcake, steamed shrimp and fries.
Appetizers include Rocky Mountain oysters, fried pickles, battered green beans and loaded nachos. The roadhouse also offers a kid's menu.
The restaurant offers full bar service with a special mead (honey beer) cocktail. It includes half honey hibiscus mead, half Arnold Palmer with a splash of cranberry on top.
The roadhouse is open late on the weekends to allow for extended bar service. It has a game room in the back with pool tables, air hockey and a jukebox.
The restaurant had not been open in six years, and the Kepharts did extensive remodeling to the interior of the building.
The restaurant has been serving for 30 days, but Kephart has been rehabbing the building for four months.
The main seating area has a bar, gas fireplace and television.
"When I had an idea for a restaurant, 33 percent of the idea was the atmosphere," Kephart said. "I wanted people to come out and have a good time and feel relaxed. I wanted people to be able to come and hang out and enjoy themselves."
Kephart said work on the building is ongoing, with plans to revive the building's patio by this spring.
Although the restaurant is off the beaten path, Kephart said the restaurant's soft opening has been successful, with people coming as far as Salina and Hastings, Neb., to try a taste of the Chesapeake Bay.
The restaurant's hours starting in January will be noon to 9 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and noon to midnight Fridays and Saturdays.
Reservations are recommended on Fridays and Saturdays. The restaurant can be reached at 785-688-4000.
The restaurant will be open special hours on New Year's Eve from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. The special that day will be a 16-ounce ribeye with baked potato and six grilled shrimp.