Best eating in the Heartland II

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1 Cozy Inn - Salina, KS

2 Hutchinson Airport Steakhouse - Hutchinson, KS

3 Martinelli’s Little Italy – Salina, KS

4 Roma’s Italian Restaurant - Hutchinson, KS

5 Easy - McPherson, KS

Cozy Inn - Salina, KS

The hamburger originated in the late 19th to early 20th century, but its exact origins are still vigorously debated today. The Cozy Inn hamburger stand in Salina, KS was founded during the Administration of the doomed President Warren G. Harding in 1922, making it one of the oldest restaurants of its kind in America.  Regardless of the hamburger’s origins, the Cozy Inn is about 30 miles north of McPherson on I-135. I stopped by after visiting a college friend in town around 2:30pm for a late lunch. He happened to work at Cozy Inn during high school, grinding onions and building character.  

By 2:30pm, I was exceptionally hungry and ordered 12 hamburgers. Each burger is approximately the same circumference as a 12oz can of pop (or soda depending on your geography). They only serve burgers in multiples of 6 on the menu, so you must like burgers to enjoy the Cozy Inn. And enjoy them I did, eating 8 while my normally pescatarian (veggies and fish) mom devoured 4. We were both so full that we skipped dinner.  

The Cozy Inn has a large, unfinished mural on its north wall of a hamburger. The mural is unfinished because the proprietor is in a legal dispute with the federal government after the City of Salina said the Cozy Inn violated municipal sinage regulations by painting it. The Cozy Inn says the state is infringing on its First Amendment rights. According to the Salina Post, the case will go to trial in September 2025. In the meantime, support free speech by visiting the Cozy Inn. If political statements don’t move you, go to the Cozy Inn to support your stomach- these burgers are tasty.  

Hutchinson Airport Steakhouse, Hutchinson, KS

The Hutchinson Airport Steakhouse is a 30-minute drive from McPherson on K61, so please plan ahead accordingly to avoid pre-meal hanger. But the drive is worth it. The restaurant is located inside the Hutchinson Airport FBO, where we were greeted by the tail of an airplane over the entrance. Inside, expansive windows showcased the Kansas dusk slowly swallowing the tarmac outside. The restaurant featured stone walls, was notably clean, and had a large, well-stocked bar. We were seated in a booth just outside a private dining room that could accommodate over 50 guests, and by an additional, larger dining area at the back of the restaurant. This meal took place the day after the notorious annual pheasant hunt, and Dad inexplicably skipped his usual beer and opted for water instead. I ordered the 14 oz ribeye with mashed potatoes, broccoli, and a house salad. Dad had chicken with a generous Cobb salad, and Mom chose the salmon with pasta. The food was excellent, and when it was time for dessert, we were too full to partake. We returned to McPherson in our vehicle, while the diner at the next table left via his airplane.

Martinelli’s Little Italy – Salina, KS

Salina is just a 30-minute drive north of McPherson along Interstate 135. Our reservation at Martinelli's Little Italy was set for 6 p.m., but by the hunger-induced silence in the car, that may have been too late. This was our second attempt to dine at Martinelli's. Our first try was the night before the Salina Marathon and the surge of runners carbo-loading resulted in wait times exceeding an hour. The restaurant enjoys an outstanding reputation in the area, and we were eagerly looking forward to our visit. Salina's downtown has undergone significant revitalization in recent years and was bustling with activity on this Friday evening. Martinelli's is located directly across the street from Watson's Theater. Inside, its large windows overlook Santa Fe Street, while red checkered tablecloths adorn each table. Bread and olive oil were served shortly after we sat down and it was so good (or we were so hungry) that we ended up ordering another loaf. We were advised to try the Martinelli's chopped salad before our meals. A lively debate ensued over whether to order the half size or the family size. Ultimately, we opted for the family size, which turned out to be the right choice. I’m not exaggerating when I say this might have been the best salad I’ve ever had.   

Everything is available in three portion sizes: quarter, half, and family. The quarter size serves one to two people, the half serves three to four, and the family size is designed to feed an entire family. In my opinion, the half size offers the best value for your money and provides enough for leftovers the next day. Additionally, if you’re a growing boy, I’d definitely recommend going with the half size. For the main course, we all chose pasta. I ordered Martinelli's Pasta, featuring shell noodles tossed in Alfredo sauce with chicken. Mom opted for pasta with shrimp, while Dad went with pasta and chicken. I opted for the half size, leaving me with leftovers to take home, while my parents each chose the quarter size. Too full for dessert, we settled the check. I highly recommend Martinelli's Little Italy—it won't disappoint. Although I don't plan to run a race tomorrow, we certainly succeeded in carbo-loading.

Roma’s Italian Restaurant - Hutchinson, KS

We continued our tour of central Kansas’s Italian offerings (after a successful trip to Martinelli’s in Salina) with a trip to Roma’s Italian Restaurant in Hutchinson, Kansas. Hutchinson is a 30-minute trip on K-61 southwest from McPherson, and our westward journey pointed into a beautiful, fiery sunset. Roma’s is adjacent to the Hutchinson train station, which is on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief line. According to their website one can “take in the grandeur of the American West on an adventure between Chicago and Los Angeles” on the Southwest Chief. To enjoy that grandeur however, eastbound journeys depart at 1:18am and a westbound trip begins at 2:55am, so don’t ditch your frequent flier program just yet.  

Inside, Roma’s offer’s a cozy, upscale setting, with beautiful red brick walls. We had salads and a fantastic spinage artichoke dip appetizer for starters. Perhaps deterred by my past public criticism, nobody ordered seafood for their entree. I ordered my go to spaghetti with meat sauce while my dad ordered a chicken pasta dish with white sauce. Mom also ordered spaghetti with meat sauce, but asked to alter the sauce and to substitute penne noodles for spaghetti noodles. When I informed her this was, in fact, not spaghetti with meat sauce, she was unperturbed. The dishes were excellent, and after tasting my mom’s dish and comparing it to my own, ostensibly equivalent item, I can confirm they were entirely different dishes. I don’t know what this off-menu creation was, but it was tasty.  

Our waiter had some kind of accent and we spent most of the meal debating where she was from. My mom embarrassingly asked her at the end of the meal, and my guess of “Moldova” turned out to be wildly off the mark when she turned out to be Italian. After an additional embarrassing session of showing her a lookalike Italian’s Instagram account (“you look just like her!”), it was time to leave. However, not yet satisfied with my full public humiliation, dad asked for a photograph near a neat (but not that neat) fake, painted portal into a vineyard storage tunnel. I highly recommend Roma’s Italian Restaurant in Hutchinson, Kansas, it’s well worth the trip there.

Easy - McPherson, KS

To set the proper ambiance for this review, go to your preferred music streaming platform and play 1975 rock-n-roll hit “Magic Man” by Heart. Now that the mood is set, I will tell you about the best steak you can buy in McPherson. Easy is located on Main Street in McPherson, just south of Ace Hardware. The ambience of Easy is similar to PJs Bar and Grill in Little River, but more extreme in every regard. The floor, walls, and ceiling look original, circa early-1900s. The place was full, and the dress code ranged from Carhartt to Patagonia. The patrons at the bar were on a first name basis with the bartender. The soundtrack was a continuous stream of late-1970s rock ballads. Easy is like Cheers in real life, if Cheers was set in central Kansas instead of in Boston.

Our waitress seemed to have responsibility for the entire place, but somehow kept chaos at bay and calmly managed the place in the manner of an orchestra conductor. But in this case, the orchestra is a teaming mass of hungry denizens of McPherson. I ordered the Ribeye, medium, while Dad had the KC Strip, and Mom, not fully grasping that this was a steak place, got chicken. My sister was dining with us, back for winter break from school on the east coast, and got the buffet, another non-carnivorous option. We all got salads from the do it yourself salad bar, which offered a surprisingly large number of possible ingredients. Those used to the variety of the Whole Foods salad bar will not be disappointed.

Our meals came after a surprisingly short wait (based on the crowd size I had hunkered down for a long wait). As I alluded to earlier, my dish was the best steak I’ve had in McPherson. I don’t like to compare Ad Astra’s restaurants, it’s like having a favorite child, but this steak gives all other central Kansas contenders a run for their money. Easy serves its steaks every Friday evening and has a buffet several other nights a week. There is a life size cardboard cutout of President Donald Trump at one end of the bar, but these steaks are so good that Democrats and Republicans alike will enjoy dinner at Easy.

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