After my day of hiking at the Wichita Wildlife Refuge. I took the advice of my Uncle and drove to Meers Restaurant a few miles north. The line was out the door of this odd building. This is a good thing! Since I had nothing but time I chose to step in line and see what the fuss was about.
Meers is a unique restaurant with all kinds of history. The building originally sat inside the boundaries of the Wichita Wildlife Reserve. However, when the refuge was established in 1901 legislation by President McKinley, all tents, people and structures were required to be removed. The two owners moved it (and the community) to Medicine Creek a mile and half north of the reserve.
Over the years the building has been bought and sold however, the most recent owner decided to expand. This proved to be somewhat difficult given the granite hill it was dug into. In spite of the granite the building now has 7 different expansion areas at various levels. So there is not much flow inside 🙂
Meers prides itself on its Longhorn beef. They own the herd which roams the refuge. They never freeze the beef but prepare it fresh each day. The herd is grass fed, no antibiotics, and free range. They can do this because the original 30 Longhorn cattle were of the purest breed when they were re-introduced to the refuge. For their work, the beef is 97/3 beef-to-fat ratio. MUCH higher than most everywhere else. This produces a very healthy beef with low calories, high protein, and low cholesterol.
I ordered one Meersburger (1/2# I think) with cheese, lettuce, tomato, and red onion. No pickles, mayo, mustard, or ketchup, for me. What I received was a delicious burger that was actually pretty healthy. Lean beef is more crumbly than beef with more fat, but I was okay with that.
Not wanting to be too healthy for dinner I also ordered Meers other specialty, homemade vanilla ice-cream with pecan cobbler. Uh, DANG it was good. I estimate it is the largest dessert you can buy for $4.50. I had to drag myself out of the building. Yes, the line was still out the door when I left 🙂
Things to know if you go:
- cash only
- they supposedly have a delicious beer brewed special for them
- they serve RC Cola because when they began Royal Crown Cola was the only company which would do business with them
- get there early. It was about 5:30 on a Saturday for me with a 45 minute wait
- The sides are all fried