If Your Idea of Breakfast is a Power Bar, This Ain’t It
Italian, two locations, award-winning food, breakfast, brunch, coffee, owner and operated by the same family for 80+ years
If you’re a Kansas Citian then the name Cascone probably causes your stomach to demand pancakes, Italian sausage, and toasted Roma[1] bread. The Cascone family runs two Italian restaurants[2] in the metro area, but it’s Cascone’s Grill in the historic City Market area in Kansas City’s River Market neighborhood that stands as a time-tested institution.
What makes a Kansas City institution? You need history, like 80 years of Kansas Citians heading to your grill for breakfast and lunch. You need a grill top that’s been run by three generations of your family. You need a reputation as one of those “spots” everyone in town should eat at, from the unemployed to the mayor. Food blogs are full of praise for Cascone’s Grill, from new customers to reliable regulars, everyone has something good to say about the place. The Pitch Weekly[3] named Cascone’s Grill the “Best Place to Eat at a Counter” in 2002 and the “Best Power Breakfast” in 2005. Those two awards define what makes this family run eatery so great. The lone diner at the counter and the power brokers from City Hall get the same service and the same cheap and hearty[4] breakfast. “If your idea of breakfast is a jog and a power bar,” Frank Cascone told the Kansas City Star in 2010, “this ain’t it.”
The Cascone family has been making pancakes the same way since 1972 when Sam Cascone[5] got called away while mixing up custard then forgot what he was doing and used the custard in his pancake batter, which resulted in Cascone’s Grill’s light and fluffy flapjack. Cascone’s French Toast is made from Roma bread dunked in a heavy egg wash. The sesame seeds add a nice layer of flavor to this breakfast classic. The biscuits are homemade and come slathered in spicy Italian sausage[6] gravy, giving a different dimension to the staple of every breakfast joint in the Midwest. The Big Sam breakfast sandwich, served on Roma bread with a split Italian sausage, fried hash browns and cheese, will leave you short of breath from eating it too fast, not to mention the lack of room in your diaphragm from all that greasy goodness.
If you like wisecracking with the staff, flattop-grill master Frank Cascone, the third generation of his family to run the diner, can oblige. The banter flows freely between regulars, kitchen and wait staff at Cascone’s Grill. “Here, try this,” Cascone says — more like an order than a suggestion. He shoves a plate of pizza bread toward a regular perched on a stool at the end of the counter. “I made it myself. I guarantee you’ll like it.” When you’ve been around as long as Cascone’s Grill, everyone becomes family, and no customer who orders extra crispy hash browns is safe from having a bag of chips launched at them from behind the countertop and told, “Here, you want crispy hash browns, have one a these.” But that’s one of the perks of being a Kansas City institution: you get to treat everyone like family.
