{"id":382973,"date":"2026-10-26T16:26:30","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T16:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/382973\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T16:26:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T16:26:30","slug":"theres-a-new-queen-in-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/382973\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a New Queen in Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

I first met Kimberly Rowland a couple years ago. She was my server at Dagwood\u2019s Cafe<\/a> in KCK, and although I was there at the recommendation of chef Carlos Mortera to try the club sandwich, I couldn\u2019t help but notice Rowland\u2019s incredible warmth and congenial personality as she worked the dining room. She shot the breeze with the men at the counter just getting off their night shifts, and I was half expecting her to refer to me as \u201csugar\u201d or \u201cdarlin\u2019\u201d when she took my order\u2014that\u2019s how cheerful she was. So cheerful, in fact, I gave her a shoutout in my Instagram post about the club sandwich (which was excellent). I didn\u2019t see Rowland again until just a few months ago in a trending video that announced she was the new owner of the longtime KCK burger and shake shack, Christy\u2019s Tasty Queen<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always just been around,\u201d Rowland says. Beyond serving at Dagwood\u2019s and as a go-to fill-in at Christy\u2019s for the past several years, Rowland, who grew up in KCK\u2019s Turner neighborhood, has always been active in the community. She still lives in the neighborhood and is raising her family there. She was nervous about her reception, she says, but she credits her community involvement, like coaching her kids\u2019 sports teams and being a PTA member, to the massive support she has received in taking over the beloved KCK institution.<\/p>\n

Christy\u2019s Tasty Queen, which opened in the 1960s and was originally named Carter\u2019s Tasty Queen, has been through several owners, but for the last 43 years, Lowell and Marla Christy have helmed the spot. It\u2019s the same small joint it always has been, with a red and white exterior and a sign boasting it serves \u201cKC\u2019s Best Tenderloin.\u201d There are no seats inside\u2014just an old-school letterboard menu and a walk-up counter. Classic and comfortable neighborhood joints like these seem to speak to Rowland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe homey feel is exactly why I decided to take Christy\u2019s over,\u201d Rowland says. \u201cYou feel welcomed right when you walk in the door. If you\u2019re having a rough day, I want you to feel like family because not everybody has their family, and diners [offer that].\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Rowland has taken over, there seems to be a resurgence of excitement about the tiny humble restaurant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m blessed with how amazing [the community has] been and how much interaction I\u2019ve gotten,\u201d Rowland says. \u201cPeople come around from all over. I know the videos help.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rowland began making TikTok videos at the suggestion of her kids. That video I scrolled upon, in which Rowland is standing outside of Christy\u2019s while holding a massive pork tenderloin sandwich and announcing herself as the owner, is quick, about 40 seconds. There\u2019s no crazy editing or fancy angles, yet it has generated well over 200,000 views. Subsequent videos featuring Rowland, like one quickly introducing a new menu item, the tender bender (a massive piled-high chicken tender sandwich), continue to receive hundreds of thousands of views. Maybe viewers can sense what I felt at Dagwood\u2019s that day as I sat over my club sandwich.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take pride in what I do,\u201d Rowland says. \u201cI love being able to help people and be able to show that to my kids. I get to show them what it\u2019s like to share kindness even if you have a hard day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowland knows there might be pitchforks at her restaurant\u2019s doorstep if she were to tweak Christy\u2019s staples, like the pork tenderloin sandwich (don\u2019t worry, that will continue to be made the exact same way it has been for the past several decades), but she does plan on slowly introducing some changes. The restaurant will be launching breakfast on Saturdays and start catering. Next year, Rowland plans to start a food truck, as well as introduce Friday football nights in which the local school teams can pull up for ice cream post-game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oh yeah, and by the time you read this, the restaurant\u2019s name will have been officially changed to Kimmie\u2019s Tasty Queen. It\u2019s not a huge change, but it\u2019s one that marks the beginning of a new chapter for the beloved restaurant and for Rowland, the once-Dagwood\u2019s server who now finds herself on the other side of the counter, welcoming KCK in for a bite.<\/p>\n

Kimberly Rowland\u2019s Perfect Day in KC<\/p>\n

Rise & Dine: The kids and I are going to Dagwood\u2019s<\/a>. We\u2019re getting a
cinnamon roll, a strawberry waffle and I\u2019m personally getting the biscuits and gravy special. I\u2019ll also get the hashbrowns because they can crisp them really well without burning them.<\/p>\n

Shop Till We Drop: My daughter loves to shop. Typically, we go down to Merriam Town Center<\/a> and walk the whole strip. We\u2019ll hit up Marshalls and Ross, stop by the pet store and get some treats. She also loves T.J. Maxx, so we might go to Legends for that.<\/p>\n

Making Waves: We\u2019ll spend hours at Oceans of Fun<\/a>. If we\u2019re eating there, we obviously have to get Dippin\u2019 Dots.<\/p>\n

Dinner Date: We\u2019ll go to Chipotle. It\u2019s our kids\u2019 favorite. It\u2019s a must.<\/p>\n

Sundae Best: If we don\u2019t go to Andy\u2019s on the way home, we\u2019ll
go to Christy\u2019s<\/a>. My kids love walking into Christy\u2019s because the staff knows what ice cream they\u2019ll get. It\u2019s special for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I first met Kimberly Rowland a couple years ago. She was my server at Dagwood\u2019s Cafe in KCK,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[140027,44850,128077,130440,140028,94935,2390,140029,9,24,63,64488,140030,140031,122,124,123,1644,67061,140032,117803],"class_list":["post-382973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-headsup","tag-burger","tag-christys-tasty-queen","tag-club-sandwich","tag-dagwoods-cafe","tag-diner","tag-food-truck","tag-kck","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-perfect-day","tag-perfect-day-in-kc","tag-pork-tenderloin","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-shake","tag-shake-shack","tag-tender-bender","tag-tenderloin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}