The Wheel Inn of Sedalia - A Victim of Progress?
The Wheel Inn on Highway 50 in Sedalia is an icon. Since 1947 it has been serving up real American diner food, and, since 1948, it has been serving up the Guberburger - a hamburger dressed with melting peanut butter, lettuce, tomato, and just a touch of mayo. Read about the place here, in an article that ran in the Columbia 'zine Vox just a year ago, when the Guberburger was being featured in a movie.
MoDOT feels the need to widen the intersection where the Wheel Inn has brightened the lives of travelers and locals for generations. It seems that big trucks have trouble negotiating the turn, and there's a Walmart nearby. Big box retailing outranks Guberburgers in the priority of progress.
Where will I stop with my unborn grandchildren on our way to Lake of the Ozarks? They'll never even know what they've missed. I think they would have gotten a big kick out of a hamburger with peanut butter. My kids did. I did.
posted by Dan at 6/07/2006 07:15:00 AM
12 Comments:
What a shame. Never had the pleasure of going there. The older I get, the less I like progress, including progressive politics. I think I'm going to be a mean old woman..lol
Progress isn't always a good thing..neither is progressive politics. In both instances, gone are the institutions known since childhood or even for generations.
Wish I could have tried one of their burgers.
Oh my gosh, i can't believe they're going to tear down the place! I must admit, i was never a fan of the Guberburger, but i did spend the majority of a hot, summer afternoon there (inside in the air conditioning) on the way to the Lake, waiting for a new water pump to be installed in my car at the gas station across the street. Aah, the memories! So much for progress...
I only had one experience at the Wheel, a bad one! The snotty teenybopper waitress and the girl smoking over the grill was enough for me! I will have to say GOOD RIDDENS!!
I try and eat at the Wheel Drive In everytime I am in Sedalia. I always order a Guberburger and I enjoy the taste. Yesterday, I had a "double" Guberburger about the size of a White Castle hamburger and an "order" of 6-7 onion rings and a really bad milkshake and my bill was $9.62. I will still hungry and felt ripped off. The counter service is terrible and the wait staff is indifferent at best. In closing, R.I.P. Wheel Drive In. ---SET, Lawrence, Kansas
Unlike most of the people who left a comment on here, I actually worked there, so i know first hand what Wheel Inn is all about. If you work there, you will take a little peice of history with you when you go, i worked there for two years, and it felt like home. To the person who talked about the snotty nosed waitress, not all of them are, i had regulars, and knew them by name, and vise versa. I was very proud to work there, and it's sad that some don't appriceate it all. Well...that's what I have to say about that. Have a good one.
It sounds like it's the business owner's decision to close the place. While I do think Wal-Mart is ruining small towns across America, I don't think it's their fault. The state bought "some of" their parking spaces. It sounds like the owners COULD stay in business with a few changes but don't feel like dealing with it and are choosing to retire.
As a lifelong Sedalia resident, I too was saddened by the news of the Wheel Inn closing after eating there my whole life.
I agree that the service and food had taken a turn for the worse in recent times but still couldn't get enough of those Gubers!
Good news (I hope), one of the employees is going to re-open the restaurant in a different location about a mile south of the old one on 65 highway so lake-dwellers will still pass by it on their weekend travels.
Read the story in our local paper at http://www.sedaliademocrat.com/news/wheel_2712___article.html/inn_clark.html
KOMU tv did a story on the return of the guberburger
http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/12e4e661-c0a8-2f11-0020-004e108034b4
you will probably have to copy and paste that to your address line.
RGM
Another place, I think it's called "Ethel's Drive-in" just south of Sedalia, sold Güberburgers when I was down there in September 2007.
It's good to know Wheel Inn is re-opening. I'm sure it will be better than ever.
Okay, it's "Estes Drive In" that I went to. I think it's in the next town down. I enjoyed a nice Güberburger there.
Apparently someone re-opened the Wheel on 65 just south of 50.
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