Guilty Pleasures: Stretch

By OWEN MORRIS

Stretch is a sculptor originally from Pennsylvania who came to Kansas City to study at the Art Institute and later decided to settle in here — specifically the Crossroads District — to build his large sculptures. He later opened Grinder’s restaurant. I asked him what he eats when no one is looking.

“Years ago, when I didn’t have a kitchen, I used to make hot dogs on nails. Hamburgers on an iron upside down in my vise. I used to cook soup and pasta in old coffee makers.

In the [Art Institute] dorms is where I really started to use interesting ways of cooking. I’d be like, that’s hot, that gets hot, what can we burn on there? We tried steaming things with steamers and vegetables and some of that really didn’t get hot enough. We turned used garbage disposals into margarita machines. There’s a lot of products you can modify and manipulate.

I’ll probably get harassed by somebody for telling how to do this but with cooking hot dogs, you start by clipping the cord of your favorite lamp.