Come gather around the kitchen table. That sounds like a setting for a delicious meal and good times with others. Today we’ll meet a young couple who are using that theme to create a family environment offering good food and fellowship.
Brian and Kathy Mayeske are the creators and owners of The Kitchen Table restaurant in Fredonia. Brian grew up in Fredonia and went to Mennonite church school. He did missionary work and worked in hog production before taking a position with a custom wheat harvester in western Kansas. There, he met and married Kathy, who is from Ulysses.
After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the Mayeskes did humanitarian rebuilding work in Louisiana. They moved back to Fredonia, where Brian took a construction job, but it required a lot of travel. The Mayeskes had three kids by that point and Brian was looking for something that required less road time.
“The restaurant in Fredonia had closed and was for sale,” Mayeske said. The Mayeskes bought it, spent the winter remodeling, and opened it in late February 2018. They named it The Kitchen Table.
“Our idea was to support the family unit like it comes together around the kitchen table,” Mayeske said.
They term it as a place where family and friends gather. The restaurant now serves breakfast and lunch on Mondays and Wednesdays through Saturdays, from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays.
The restaurant offers burgers and sandwiches with fresh cheese on a homemade bun, plus lots of salads and wraps. “Our fresh-cut salads are popular with pulled pork, brisket, or chicken on them,” Mayeske said.
The Kitchen Table uses local produce where possible. “We buy hydroponic lettuce from a place nearby,” he said.
Homestyle specials are offered daily. Wednesday is bierocks. Fridays alternate between barbecue meatballs, smothered meatballs, and meat loaf. Other options include lasagna, smothered pork loin, chicken enchiladas, open faced roast beef “or whatever inspires Kathy,” Mayeske said.
Then there are the pies.
“My wife is well known for her pie,” Mayeske said. “We bake 10 to 14 pies every day.”
Flavors include cherry, apple, peach, rhubarb, strawberry rhubarb, pecan, bumbleberry (which is a four-berry combo) and more. There are the cream pies, such as coconut cream, peanut butter, chocolate peanut butter, lemon meringue, and almond joy. Pumpkin pie is popular during the holidays.
As noted, the Kitchen Table is open till 2 on weekdays. On Saturdays the restaurant closes at noon after serving a hot breakfast buffet. “That just keeps growing,” Mayeske said.
What about the evening meal?
That turns out to be another fast-growing component of the business. The Mayeskes offer what they call Take ‘N’ Bake freezer meals, which are prepared food items that are frozen and offered for sale in a freezer case by the cash register, so a customer can take them home for that evening or a future meal.
“These are casseroles or other meals,” Mayeske said. Examples include pizza pasta, barbecue meatballs, shepherd’s pie, breakfast burritos, poppyseed chicken, chicken or Doritos mexi-bake, chicken hashbrown casserole, and chicken bacon ranch pasta.
The meals come in different sizes to serve different numbers of people. “They might include our homemade breads or cookie dough balls,” he said. “We leave our (restaurant) doors open for a couple hours after the kitchen closes so people can get the (freezer) meals.”
This is a significant convenience for working families.
“The freezer meal business took off,” Mayeske said. “People want wholesome homestyle food without preservatives and without spending the time to fix it up.”
It’s good to find this type of service in a rural community such as Fredonia, population 2,151 people. Now, that’s rural.
For more information, search for The Kitchen Table on Facebook.
Come gather around the kitchen table where families can come together for a home-cooked meal. In this case, the Kitchen Table restaurant also provides home-cooking in a family atmosphere.
We salute Brian and Kathy Mayeske for making a difference with good cooking and family fellowship. So, come gather around the kitchen table — and afterwards, you won’t even have to do the dishes.
