772 US-60
Republic, MO
Web Site
A dark, drizzly October Sunday. I said to my wife: "It's looking like October outside." She replied: "Yeah, but it took all of October to get there."
We piled into the Beast (the 10 year old GM Acadia we own) rather the the 10year old Sonata we inherited, since the Sonata's headlights are a bit weaker. This time of year it would be dark before we headed home.
Angel wanted to try this place ever since she first saw it, in passing, on her way to and from Aurora. . . (long story)
Highway 60 runs the entire breadth of Missouri all the way from Kansas to Kentucky, down near the bottom of the state, mostly alongside active railroad tracks.
Flat Creek Restaurant derives its name from. . . .wait for it, . . a nearby creek of that name. Angel said that when she was young her family would camp out on the banks of Flat Creek, Angel is quick to mention that she always hated those many camping trips.
It is a regional chain, Republic was the third location opened in 2019, the first was in Cape Fair, the newest location is in Bolivar (2023). It boasts "Large portions of fried chicken, catfish, steaks and barbecue."
More about the "Large portions" later.
I knew exactly what I would be ordering, the catfish basket. Adam doesn't care for catfish, Angel will eat it, I love it. So we don't have it at home very often. On the ten-fifteen minute drive to Republic, Angel and Adam were undecided. I told them: "From what I was able to glean online they are terribly proud of their fried chicken."
We arrived, I was confused at first. In front of the entry there was a giant chicken and a bigger than life Shoney's 'Big Boy' character . It made no sense. We entered anyhow. The interior very much reminded me of a place in rural Wisconsin we visited more than ten years ago, The House on the Rock.
I wrote a thing about that trip and the surreal, sensory-overwhelming nature of the roadside venue: Wisconsin
In a nutshell, the man responsible for the House on the Rock was a 'collector' some would classify him as a hoarder who took great pride in his collections.
What did he collect? all kinds of things from the rather common to the rare, fake or real, it didn't seem to matter that much. Mannequins dressed as Angels, mechanical music machines and even mechanical full orchestras, knives, swords, jewelry and even a couple of kitschy 'every animal EXCEPT horses' carousels.
Flat Creek was smaller, and had less stuff, but on every wall and even the ceiling there was stuff. An upside-
down kayak on the ceiling complete with a life-size kayaker, a wall of bicycle frames, front wheels attached, Many U.S. 60 road signs and several defunct restaurant and diner signs. The 'Big Boy' at the entry started to make more sense.
We were led to a booth in the busy place, under some mounted deer heads and an 80+ inch flatscreen showing a muted sportsball competition of some kind. The hostess handed us four page laminated menus, offered a cheery welcome and said someone would be by shortly to take our order.
As foretold, the young lady that would be our server stopped by in a few minutes.
"Can I get you folks something to drink?"
I took the lead, I had done tens of seconds of advance research "I would like the house specialty, the Flat Creek Lager please." I prefer ales, or IPAs and I only have beer of any kind when we dine out, but the fact that this place went to the bother of creating their own lager was intriguing. "Would you like a glass of water with that?" the server asked. "Why yes, yes indeed I would, with lemon please"
Angel asked for an unsweet tea with only a little ice, Adam asked for a diet Dr soda of some kind or the other, I wasn't really paying attention.
Angel and Adam continued browsing the menu, I already knew what I would be ordering so I took the opportunity to scroll through the social media feed on my cellular telephone, to see how popular I was that day.
The drinks were delivered in a timely manner. I took my first sip, not bad, not bad at all. Unlike the puny lagers of a company I once worked for in St. Louis. (hint: they used croaking frogs in a TV ad a few years back)
It was time to place our entree order, we had skipped the appetizer round.
Angel spoke first. "Two piece fried chicken basket, mashed potatoes, green beans and
I was dumbfounded, agog.
Angel responded with "a breast and a leg." The server casually jotted it down on her tricorder.
I have never been to a place that overtly asked for a chicken part preference. Given the choice and opportunity I would have gone for a thigh and a leg, or better, two thighs. What can I say, I'm a thigh guy, just ask anyone. Breasts do nothing for me.
Adam ordered the 'chicken fried chicken' which sounded somewhat redundant to me. His choice also came with sides, mashed potatoes and green beans or something. It turns out that 'chicken fried chicken' only means standard fried chicken slathered in white gravy. Served in the style of chicken fried STEAK, but with chicken parts as the protein rather than violently hammered beef.
It was finally my turn, I was prepared, I had it memorized. "I shall have the catfish basket please!" I politely screamed. Followed by, just for giggles, I added "And I'd like that cooked medium rare please." I laughed, Angel elbowed me, Adam looked disappointed, the server lady threw up in her mouth a little. . . good times!
They offer more than one catfish option. "All you can eat" which means what it says, for $2
I order fish or fish and chips a lot when we dine out, mostly because we don't have it a lot at home. Catfish and fries is a LOT like 'fish and chips' only a midwestern USA style. Catfish is the thigh, or dark meat, of the fish world. Earthy, a bit stronger taste than your chicken breast-like tilapia or cod.
After a not-too-long wait, the plates arrived, still sizzling. It was apparent that presentation mattered to the owners/chef/staff. The plates were clean and proper. I broke one of my three filets into smaller pieces, knowing, by experience that the crusty breading would maintain the searing heat in for quite a while. I tried the coleslaw, sweet creamy not bad at all. Angel would later say it was "almost too sweet."
The fairly thick fries were crispy but a bit too salty for my preference. If you are a long time reader you will recognize that I say this a lot. I like salt, but just not too much. In fact I rarely salt ANYTHING at the table. I knew a guy once, at that beer company in St. Louis I mentioned earlier that, before he would eat ANYTHING he would smother it with more salt. It would make me physically ill just to watch the ritual.
The hushpuppies were not bad, just not remarkable they could have added some diced onion maybe. . . .
Later, in the car, Angel offered her opinion of the chicken. "Quite good" she said, "just the right amount of seasoning in the breading, still moist on the inside." then she added a bonus comment. "Very good food for the price."
Sure enough the price of the meal was a bit less than an equivalent meal at a sports bar/restaurant like Applebee's, Outback, TGI Fridays, etc.
A consensus opinion: The portion sizes were unnecessarily large. We drove home with TWO to-go boxes. An entire filet of catfish and most of the fries in one box, the other box was shared with chicken from both Angel and Adam. Chef Robert from "Restaurant Impossible" would throw a fit seeing so much food go out the door in to-go boxes. I've seen him do it.
Look at my plate again. A pile of fries, two golf-ball sized hushpuppies and three full length filets, breaded and fried. That's a LOT of heavy, starchy food.
Even when I ordered it I knew form the menu photo that I would not be clearing that plate.
Chef Robert's suggestion was to cut back a bit on portion size, charge slightly less, but offer upgrades up front, kind of like the choices you get at fast food joints, regular or SUPER size it. A true win-win situation.
Maybe there's a reason that enormous quantities of food are served up in southern, midwestern and country themed eateries. I just don't get it.
Thoughts?
Bottom line, the food was excellent for the price. The variety of offerings was quite good, the atmosphere was just quirky enough to make it fun, the overhead music was decent, 70's -90's rock songs, mostly, but kept on relatively low volume. The staff was excellent, they made no obvious mistakes and they didn't yell across the room at each other.
Will we go back? Probably.
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