By D’Ann Dreiling
During Restaurant Week in Kansas City we celebrate great food from great restaurants at reasonable prices. Kansas City has a reputation for fine dining that includes more than bar-b-que, but as demographics change and consumer tastes evolve, restaurants come and go. Many of our favorites are gone but not forgotten.
Remember Stephenson’s Apple Farm in Independence dating back to 1946 with its iconic recipes for green rice, frozen fruit salad and apple fritters? Italian Gardens at 11th and Baltimore opened in 1933 during the Great Depression and survived at that location for 70 years. Much of Kansas City’s future was determined by the politicians who gathered there. And who can forget Putches 210 on the Plaza or Romanelli’s Bar and Grill in Waldo?
These restaurants and others were more about the people who gathered there and friendships acquired than the culinary skills of the chefs in the kitchen. Menus were simple, customers were loyal and wait staff were on a first name basis.
Crosby Kemper Jr. opened EBT’s Restaurant at 435 and State Line in 1979 and named it after and repurposed structures from the renowned department store, Emery, Bird, Thayer. It closed December 31, 2015. One of their diner’s favorite desserts was this recipe for Bananas Foster.
Here’s the dish…
EBT’s Banana’s Foster
- 1/3 stick butter
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup Creme de Banana liqueur
- 1/4 cup brandy
- 1 banana sliced
- 2 scoops vanilla ice cream
Combine butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon in small skillet.
On low heat, add banana liqueur. Stir until ingredients are dissolved and smooth.
Add banana slices.
Turn up heat, add brandy. Flame the ingredients.
Spoon bananas and sauce over ice cream. Serves two.