Stroud’s South

Kansas City’s most iconic fried chicken restaurant started out as a roadhouse at 85th and Troost. Its founder, Helen Stroud, called the place a “shack.” After seven decades of serving iconic pan-fried chicken, the original location closed in 2005 to make room for a city street-widening project. Longtime owner Mike Donegan has reopened in a suburban building that’s been cleverly painted and decorated to look much like the old place, and the menu is the same: juicy chicken, terrific fried chicken livers, pork chops, chicken-fried steak and all the familiar side dishes (served family-style). Customers still happily wait an hour or more for a table. There’s no other restaurant — or fried chicken — in the city quite like Stroud’s.

Thu., Sept. 11, 2008