Neighborhood Cafe is a downtown Lee’s Summit staple on Third Street.
This location has been serving meals since 1950 and has changed owners and names several times. In January of 2011 Tony Olson, Bob Baker and Ben Wine took over the establishment and it became what it is today, Neighborhood Cafe.
Don’t let the side entrance throw you off at first. I went with my family for brunch and quite a few people were waiting outside. There was ample seating so one of the family members dove inside to put our name down on the list.
Of course it was busy for Sunday brunch, with a steady stream of people coming and going. The average wait time was fifteen minutes even for our party of seven.
Stepping inside the smell of their fresh baked cinnamon rolls took me back to small town visits in the Midwest with pictures under glass on the tables, along with some booths already setup for regular customers and a red neon cafe sign lighting up the wall by the door. There’s a lot of open seating with two big neat and clean sections of the old building.
Another focal point that reminisced of diner days were the four stools installed on a raised diner counter next to the checkout station. There was a standing pie display, you know like glass cabinet your grandparents have in the corner of their house only this slowly turning delight contained a delicious selection of pies by the slice or whole pies to take home.
The menu has what you would expect for a traditional all American breakfast. The items that stood out to me for breakfast that you might not find elsewhere include Corn Bread French Toast, Smoked Salmon Lox, a variety of skillet dishes, Turkey Avocado Benedict and the Prime Rib Breakfast Burrito. American fries is standard with the meals so make sure to let the excellent wait staff know if you want hash browns instead. My breakfast that day took me back to ones of my trips to Seattle and Pier 57 to Lowell’s for breakfast.
The special I got that day was salmon and scrambled eggs along with crumble cake pancakes. If you love pancakes and bacon you have got to try these crumble cakes! They serve two platter sized pancakes with bacon chips mixed in! BACON! A little Tabasco with the light and fluffy scrambled eggs and salmon and I was good to go.
The family had a variety of omelets, skillet dishes like the Smoked Salmon Saute Skillet which has green peppers, onion and Parmesan cheese. Everyone loved the cinnamon rolls and ordered some to take home which you can 6 or 12 at time. They reheat very well or were good cold just the same.
All in all, this is a great Sunday morning breakfast spot with your family. On my next visit I will be trying the Corn Bread French Toast. No one at the table tried it so I will have to report back the results.
This was some amazing insight about Neighborhood Cafe’s food. I’ve passed this restaurant many times but never thought about stopping in, but thanks to this well written article I will definitely be going in and bringing my family to try their Corn Bread French Toast! The females in my family love a good cinnamon roll and most of us guys love a well made omelet, so you can imagine, this has me excited!
Thanks for information on the Neighborhood Cafe!
Glad you liked it Cory! Hope you and the family enjoy the Neighborhood Cafe!
I heard about this place from a friend at work. It is right down the street and I have never had the chance to try it out yet but my buddy Brian said the breakfast burrito is by far the best one he has ever had. I’m thinking I need to take my boys this weekend and try it out.