TJ’s South opens in Belton

By Don Bradley

Ask Jim Sadler how many eateries he’s run in his life and his eyes peer up and to the side.

The longtime owner of TJ’s Café in Grandview is looking through the years. Of all the eggs in all the places…

Got it. He nods.

“Seven or eight,” he said Tuesday in a booth at TJ’s South in Belton.

That’s his new establishment. When the long popular Oden’s Restaurant on North Scott in Belton closed last fall after 36 years, Jim and his wife, Angela, bought the place and made it TJ’s South.

So currently, Jim and Angela have three places, including the Englewood Café at 10904 E. Winner Road in Independence, and the TJ’s in Grandview at 12408 Blue Ridge, where they moved after the original location burned to the ground in 2016.

Three cafes, one menu. They are their own mom-and-pop chain.

Jim grew up a Grandview farm boy. Angela’s father was a Marine stationed at the old Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base. Both attended Grandview High School, but didn’t meet until years later when Angela applied for a job at a café in Raymore.

It was Jim’s.

They’ve been married 30 years.

The acquisition of the former Oden’s Restaurant at 1302 N. Scott for the new TJ’s location might not have happened.

“It’s a tough time right now,” Jim said.

Angela is going through a serious health issue, which keeps her away most of the time.

And Jim is 76, an age some people start slowing down.

“I don’t want to slow down,” he said in the booth. “I want to keep going. I get around better than most people 76.”

It was mid-morning, post-breakfast rush, but the place still mostly full. A man in a Chiefs’ cap approached Jim, who wore a Chiefs’ t-shirt, and started talking Super Bowl.

When the man left, Jim said, “A lot of people come in and don’t know I own the place. I’m fine with that.”

A lot of folks would cheer Jim and Angela’s decision to keep going, even expand. They would toast this couple’s energy, their service and their gravy.

Food for the hearty eater.

Biscuits and gravy, chicken fried steak, meatloaf and liver and onions. They’ve been dishing it up for decades.

“A lot of people come in who wouldn’t be able to afford anywhere else,” Angela said. “We do that for a reason. Elderly people can’t afford other places to eat. Our place is kind of their social life. They visit.”

The couple say the key to running cafes spread out in three different cities is having good managers.

“We can go to Mexico for an extended stay and not worry about a thing back here,” Jim said.

Their cafés provide paychecks for nearly a hundred people.

Jim didn’t always want to be in the café business. Farmed for a while, ran a truck repair business, thought about other ventures.

But he said it came down to the business model of a café.

“People pay you when they walk out the door,” Jim said with a smile. “Simple.”

Angela has no complaints.

“It’s been a good life for us.”