Brad S.
Yelp
You'd be forgiven for assuming the dilapidated and shuttered restaurant at 2065 E. Central has been closed for some time. After all, who could guess that the insidiously simple signage promising bierocks and a drive-thru window was, in fact, all you need to know about the place in four-ish words? Drive up to the window when the small "open" sign is flashing and you'll be presented with three choices: a regular bierock, a bierock with cheese, and a ham and cheese bierock.
Like the crumbly burger, the bierock is a quintessential piece of Kansas' culinary history that hasn't achieved much acclaim outside the Great Plains. Perhaps its simplicity also serves as its hindrance towards widespread adoption: people today are looking for more than just ground beef. Thankfully, the bierock's eastern European heritage and its more recent Midwestern home have allowed for the inclusion of cabbage and cheese, respectively. It's the best way to proceed here: the slightly sour cabbage provides some depth of flavor while the melted American cheese provided salt and a satisfyingly gooey texture. Like everything with bierocks, ground beef seasoning is kept simple, though the heavy dose of black pepper makes M & M's bierocks distinctive. The elongated spheroid of bread that encompasses the filling is larger than you might find at the remaining restaurants in town that serve the dish, but the sweet dough was well-cooked and an appropriate vessel for eating in your car without fear of dripping on your shirt.
This simple, effective, and straightforward approach has done owner Mary Morain well enough to keep business rolling since 2007, though it still doesn't explain the mystery of why the sit-down restaurant never opens its doors to customers. For that, it's necessary to go back nearly twenty years: in 1995 one of the previous owners of the business was assaulted in the parking lot. The elderly victim and the rest of the family-run business were deeply affected, and the restaurant has been drive-thru only ever since. I asked Morain if she had any inclination towards opening up to walk-in customers again, but with significant repairs required to bring it up to code, it's unlikely, especially when the price of the bierocks have only increased a quarter over the past decade. It's probably just as well - the restaurant remains as one of the best remaining purveyors of bierocks in a city that's rapidly progressing beyond its ground beef beginnings. At this point, why fix it if it's not broken?
