Customers are swarming to KC's Restaurant like bees to honeyÜonly these bees
are not an indigenous breed.
Since its feature on the CBS news program Sunday Morning on November 26th,
the Cleveland restaurant has played host to a variety of new patrons from
around the country.  New customers have been "flying in just to have
dinner," reports KC's chef and part owner, Wally Joe.
Calling the response "pretty tremendous," Joe says customers have come or
made reservations to come from around the country.  Diners are from
locations as far flung as Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and New York.  A few more
reasonable diners from only a state or two awayÜMissouri, Texas, and
ArkansasÜhave also made a trip to the Delta just to dine at KC's.  KC's also
went international with its acceptance of reservations from Montreal.  Joe
says that while most out of state diners fly into Memphis or Cleveland, one
couple got a little off track and flew into Vicksburg.  They did, however,
report the drive up as pleasant.
And while Joe and KC's are not neophytes when it comes to publicity, this
particular attention escalates them and the twenty-seven year old restaurant
founded by Joe's parents to new heights of celebrity.
Joe has previously been featured in POV magazine, and was highlighted in
Gourmet Magazine as one of fifteen featured Southern Chefs.  He has also
appeared on the Discovery Chanel's "Great Chefs of the South" series, and
KC's has been noted with Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence for its
outstanding wine collection.
But this time, KC's was the premiere piece on a national network's new
Sunday segment.  KC's was the inaugural feature on CBS Sunday Morning's
"What's Cooking" segment.  In the weeks following the portrait of KC's,
Sunday Morning also aired "A Conversation with Julia Child" and a history
and update on the Zagat GuidesÜquite esteemed company for a locally owned
Delta restaurant.
Jim Houtrides of the CBS Sunday Morning program said he found KC's by making
"a bunch of calls to people who know more about food than I do."  One of the
people Houtrides talked to was Mildred Amico of the James Beard Foundation.
Joe and KC's host a Beard Foundation Dinner every fall, with renowned chefs
coming together in a fundraiser for the James Beard Culinary Scholarship
Fund.
After following up on a list of suggested restaurants garnered from Amico
and others, Houtrides and CBS decided that Cleveland's KC's was what they
wanted.  Houtrides had no idea if any other restaurants would even be
included in future segments of "What's Cooking."
Houtrides could not give one definitive reason why KC's was chosen above all
the other restaurants across the country that were mentioned to him.  But
the knowledgeable eloquence with which Wally Joe describes his menu provides
a clue.  "Our menu is seasonally driven," Joe explains, depending on what's
fresh and available.  Joe, a "self-taught" chef with no formal training,
says he is "inspired by the ingredients more than anything else" when
planning the menu at KC's.
Joe says that he and the staff at KC's "feel honored to be chosen" for the
CBS show.  And while they are excited by all of the response from around the
continent, it is the support of his "good, loyal customers" that keeps the
restaurant going.
This appreciation for the patrons and the well-designed menu is what will
keep KC's thriving for another twenty-seven years.