after we checked out part of town, the fort and the prison in leavenworth (read about it here), we had dinner before we left. i had written down several places from travelks.com and, after we found one closed, we ended up at pullman place, located at 230 cherokee (pretty much all the streets in leavenworth are numbered or named after indian tribes). the restaurant serves "homemade food in a railroad-themed decor in historic downtown". pullman place has a smoking section that would hold around 50 people & the rest of the dining area was about 4 times that size. it's very casual & the clientel was mostly older couples plus half the people in the smoking section were wearing scrubs (i guess it's near a hospital). all the walls were covered in railroad pictures & memorabilia but in a very viewable way, not crammed full of mismatched crap like an applebee's or friday's.
i started out with an ice tea & john had water. the heat of the day had us hungry but not wanting a lot so we decided to share again. the menu contains all the great "country", home-style, down-home homemade (and some more words with "home" in them) comfort food you could want. i was first drawn to the "chicken fried chicken" because i constantly want fried chicken but never actually order/buy/make any. but, what i saw below the chicken actually made me gasp audibly: liver and onions. i know what you may be thinking, but hear me out.
when i was a kid, my grandpa raised cows & pigs & the entire family came over every winter to help butcher them. i was never grossed out by it, i just saw it as a time when i got to see a bunch of my cousins. after the butchering was done, we'd have fresh liver with onions & milk gravy for dinner (after dinner we'd make the sausage, but that's another story). i haven't had liver & onions in probably 20 years because you don't see it at most restaurants & if you buy it at the store it's been frozen & liver that's been frozen just isn't the same. so, the vast majority of you out there who hate liver have probably just had icky frozen liver & don't know what you're missing. liver & onions is kind of a nostalgia dish for me. i was wary but asked the waitress, paige, if the liver was fresh or frozen. after i was told that the liver was indeed fresh, i decided to give it a try.
so we got the liver & onions with choice of potatoes (i got mashed), choice of veggies (my choice green beans) and either a dinner salad or soup. it was way too hot a day to go for soup so we chose the salad for john. i'm not a big salad person & i'd never eat all my dinner anyway.
selection: as i said, comfort food is the m.o. at pullman place. the appetizers are pretty average (spinach artichoke dip, mozzarella sticks, tater skins, etc) but the rest is full of surprises. they have a huge selection of hot & cold sandwiches, including a traditional reuben, a french dip & even a chicken pesto sandwich. there are also 7 salads to choose from, soups & chili and a selection of burgers named for railway lines. the entree section is where i fell in love: country fried steak, fried chicken, roast beef, pork chops & my beloved liver & onions, among others. taste: okay, yum. everything, yum! the iced tea was fresh & delicious. john ordered onion rings as an appetizer & they were nice & hot, the breading was wonderfully crisp & the onions were cooked perfectly (i hate when the onions are undercooked & crunchy). the salad was your average dinner salad with tomato, onion & croutons. john liked that they they didn't scrimp on the dressing, but it wasn't drowning in it. then came the star of the show. the liver & onions didn't come with milk gravy (i'm realizing now i should have asked for some since they do serve it with the country fried steak & chicken) but i really didn't miss it. the mashed potatoes had the creamy texture with wonderful little lumps not found in instant, they were obviously made from real taters. the potatoes came with plenty of thick, perfectly seasoned brown gravy. the liver & onions were beyond perfect. the liver had a light breading which was browned just right with a mound of browned & caramelized onions on top. the edges had that dark brown extra done-ness that's just short of crispy. the texture of perfectly cooked liver is almost creamy & barely needs to be chewed & this liver was perfect. the taste was just like i remembered & took me right back to my grandpa's table. it came with bacon on top which i thought was a little out of place so john put on his salad. the only complaint i have, and it's a small one, is that the green beans were overcooked & mushy. i was happy to see little pieces of onion & bacon in them, though. if you happen to be at a restaurant that serves liver & onions (and they verify it's FRESH, not frozen) i hope you'll give it a try. ranch: when john tasted the ranch, he got that "oh yeah, this is it" look on his face & dunked his onion ring again. perfect.
service: our waitress, paige, couldn't have been a day over 17. she was super sweet & got adorably confused by a couple of our questions (we ask some weird ones sometimes) but recovered well. she was very attentive & asked us at least 4 times in the half hour to 45 minutes we were there if we needed anything. it took 8 minutes to get the onion rings & then 7 minutes later we had our meal.
value: most dishes are $5-$8 with the most expensive items on the menu being the kc strip steak ($13) and the alaskan salmon ($11). we got 10 big onion rings for $3.50. our entire bill was $11.21 before tip. we both left with satisfied tummies and a little left in a to go box.
bathroom: i didn't use the bathroom but john did. his exact words were "cute & quaint". he said it was clean & smelled good. i couldn't get him to say anything else. maybe there was a special secret club in there he can't tell me about.
reheatability: i'm weird about leftovers. if it sits in the fridge more than 24 hours, i won't eat it. i didn't end up eating the liver & onions on friday so i didn't end up eating it at all.
i'm really glad we ended up at pullman place. it was an all around great eating-out experience. the atmosphere was small town casual & comfortable, the entire staff was friendly and the food was very nearly perfect. i wish it was down the street (and not 40 minutes away) so i could eat there every week. i wouldn't just recommend this place to someone who's going to be in leavenworth, i'd recommend people go miles out of their way to go to leavenworth just to go to this place. and if this review gets just one person out there to try (fresh, please make sure it's fresh!) liver & onions then my mission is complete.
Hey Webmasters! New Photo Album Service Launched - Check it out!
Bravenet Blog 
Blog Community
Get a Free Blog
Manage your Blog
bravenet.com