Kansas Quick Bites: Seoul USA (Salina) and Gella's Diner/Lb. Brewing (Hays)

The front of Salina's Seoul USA Korean Restaurant

Interstate 70 scrapes the northern edges of the town of Salina, KS; if you want to drive into the downtown or the more populated south side, you will have to dip southward on to old US Route 40 or venture down on Interstate 135 towards the regional airport and Central Mall. The latter is the detour we took down to find the modest strip mall eatery that is Seoul USA.

Seoul USA offers tasty Korean basic dishes and
friendly a friendly demeanor to Salina diners.

I'll start off immediately by saying the food here are mostly the basics (bulgogi, kalbi, etc.) and the somewhat toned-down flavor profiles probably would disappoint hardcore aficionados of Korean cuisine. With that said, our visit to Seoul USA was enjoyable - the staff behind the counter were welcoming and friendly, with numerous regulars in house or stopping by as during our time there.

The banchan was a serve-yourself affair, allowing customers to try a little of everything and/or focus on their favorites. And our food overall (we ordered ordered japchae and bulgogi) was pleasantly tasty and priced reasonably.

We try our best to vary our cuisines on our longer road trips, and finding something that wasn't traditional "American" style eats isn't too easy smack dab in the Heartland of America. Seoul USA proved to be a nice little culinary diversion on our journey to Colorado, and it seemed to us that this eatery has established itself as a neighborhood destination for the residents of this Kansas town.

Seoul USA
2100 South 9th St. Suite A
Salina, KS 67401
(785) 404-2114
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Hays, Kansas, has emerged from a wild west frontier existence (the Army established Fort Fletcher, later Fort Hays, nearby to help protect stage wagons on a nearby trail) and several notable natural and man-made disasters to become the largest town in the region with a population of around 20,000. Hays also qualifies as a college town - Fort Hays University, founded in 1902, boasts an enrollment of 11,000 students.

We have learned in our craft beer pursuits that a brewery need not be located in an area with a large populace, nor does it have to be a fancy setup (an impromptu tap system in an light industrial space serves as the tap room area for quite a few microbreweries.) We knew Gella's Diner and Lb Brewing was a slight step above that level, but we didn't realize how many steps they were above that level until we actually stopped in for lunch on our return to Ohio.

Gella's Diner/Lb. Brewing offers beer and pub-style food favorites
inside a space featuring a modern rustic feel with hints of nostalgia.

Gella's/Lb. Brewing sports a fairly substantial interior, falling fairly close in size to Dublin, Ohio's 101 Beer Kitchen or Columbus' expanded Wolfs Ridge Brewing. Their current brewery space, opened in 2005, is actually the conglomeration of four storefronts in the town's old Chestnut Street district, itself the focus of continued revitalization efforts. Painted murals, based on old historical photos and businesses in the area, and unique uses of implements like egg baskets as decor, add a nostalgic touch to the rustic-modern feel of the interior.

Of note also is their beer - a few Lb. (the Lb. is short for "liquid bread") Brewing's takes on traditional styles have won their share of medals at both the Great American Beer Fest and the World Beer Cup. My spouse decided to go that route with a pint of their 2013-GABF Gold Medal Winner American Hefeweisen; she detected some lager-like characteristics but found it to be quite enjoyable. No medal winners on my side of the ledger, but the Brownell Brown Ale was something I could drink on a daily basis, with a nice balance of hops and malts and a hint of chocolate.

Gella's/Lb. presents a fairly traditional pub/American-style menu for the diner, with perhaps a little more non-meat oriented offerings than typical and a nice half-and-half lunch special pairing up a half-a-sandwich with various sides for a good price. We decided to go with the standard issue Club Sandwich with Gella's potato chips and a Falafel Pita for our orders - they were nothing earth-shattering taste-wise but more than adequate in this little bastion of satisfying beer offerings on the northwest Kansas plains.

Gella's Diner & Lb. Brewing Company
117 East 11th St.
Hays, KS 67601
(785) 621-2739
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Caffeinated Kansas: Black Dog Coffeehouse (Lenexa); Ad Astra Coffee and Books (Salina)

Searching for promising local coffee purveyors in previously unvisited parts of the country has been one of my favorite pastimes since my spouse and I got together. Our Kansas visit list included a coffeehouse with a toast option as well as a place to hang out and find a book.

Black Dog Coffeehouse: Despite numerous owners over a decade-plus of existence, Black Dog has maintained both a culture and neighborhood focus that has earned it a loyal following in the region since its opening in 2003. On our visit, we were able to sample some of the changes that the Matsch Family, the business' latest owners, have brought to Black Dog much to our delight.

One such change the new owners put in was based on their research of so-called third-wave coffee shops around the country; as a result, Black Dog discontinued the self-service coffee dispensers in favor of coffee served by manual brewing and upgraded drip coffee equipment.

Other changes reveal how Black Dog has truly become a (Matsch) family affair: their coffee is sourced through area-roaster, Messenger Coffee, a company partly owned by John Matsch. Messenger focuses on sourcing the best coffees while paying farmers higher-than-Fair Trade pricing, according to their company website. As expected, our coffee drinks were quite good, matching some of the best we've had in the Columbus area.

Another change that is definitely a Matsch touch involves Black Dog's toast bar. John's brother Chris had returned to the area from a stint in California with the intent of opening up a bakery. Inspired by the growing toast movement on the west coast as well as the excellent products of bakeries like San Francisco's Mission-district based Tartine, the Matsch family created Ibis Bakery next door.

Black Dog features several loaves of Ibis' bread offerings every day in their toast bar. As opposed to Columbus' Dan The Baker's Toast Bar, this is more of a hearty breakfast (as toast goes, anyway) versus a sampling experience. Black Dog offers thick slices, with each variety of bread matched up with a particular spread. While the Rosemary Olive Oil toast slice, with a combo of butter, pesto and cream cheese was quite tasty, it paled in comparison to the Cranberry Walnut with butter, almond butter, honey and sea salt.

Black Dog Coffeehouse's main menu board and interior space.
Their thick-cut toast uses bread from Ibis Bakery next door. 

According to Ibis' baker Matt Matsch, the slow-rise process used in their breads allows those with celiac and gluten issues to consume their products, Related to this, Black Dog also offers a so-called "Gluten Free Tower" filled with various pastries. Special lunch-oriented items also are offered after 11 AM.

One thing that has not changed is the the coffeehouse's community focus, with live music, game nights and a weekly community farmer's market as regularly scheduled events. The fairly expansive interior space is well suited to handle a decently-sized crowd, and is nattily attired to allow for the now much-observed tradition of hanging out at the coffee shop for an hour or two. Based on our experience, you can definitely do a lot worse than end up at Black Dog for that time.

Black Dog Coffeehouse
12815 W 87th St Pkwy
Lenexa, KS 66215
(913) 495-5515
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Ad Astra Coffee and Books: At a population of around 47,000, Salina ranks up there in size with Newark, Ohio in Licking County. But unlike Newark, which has sported local coffee shops from the folks at One Line/River Road since the early 2000s, it took Salina until November of 2011 to get a downtown shop to call its own in the form of Ad Astra.

With the opening date so close to the winter months, and being in a town that was more or less unfamiliar with the coffeehouse concept, Ad Astra struggled in its first few months. A successful Kickstarter campaign launched in early 2012 gave the fledgling business the needed funds to upgrade various aspects of its business as well as getting the word out that they actually existed. The funds apparently were spent pretty wisely, as it allowed my spouse and I some extra caffeination to survive the relatively numbing stretch of I-70 through western Kansas to the Colorado border.

Along with coffee, Ad Astra offers an appealing mix of locally-made
products and artwork, kitschy decor, a mix of new and used
books for sale, and a place for locals to to gather for
various community events within its brick-lined interior.

The pairing of coffee shop and book store is pretty ubiquitous these days, especially with the proliferation of big box retailer Barnes and Noble and coffee giant Starbucks. However, there's just something truly appealing about this combo at the local level, as we have experienced at places like Malaprop's Bookstore and Cafe in Asheville, NC, Indeed, there's plenty of space to hangout within Ad Astra's appealing interior.

Ad Astra is operated as a worker cooperative, similar to Pattycake Bakery in Columbus and The Cheese Board in Berkeley, CA. My spouse asked the barista about what he would recommend on ice and came through with a rather delicious dirty chai with a shot of espresso. I went with a more conventional iced latte, which turned out to be a notch up from the big-chain versions like Starbucks and similar.

Other than the regular community events, Ad Astra's operations help out local businesses, using the roasted coffee beans of Blacksmith Coffee out of nearby Little Sweden-based town of Lindsborg.

While a Starbucks might be more conveniently located for I-70 travelers going through Salina, those looking for something a little more should take a little detour "to the stars" (the literal translation of Ad Astra from Latin) for a nicely rewarding experience.

Ad Astra Coffee and Books
141 N Santa Fe
Salina, KS 67401
(785) 833-2235
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