My favorite story about John is from my wife’s perspective. My wife likes steak. Plain and simple. She also likes it prepared well done but NOT burned. I know that steak aficionados will freak out at that statement, as most restaurants and steakhouses can’t cook a well done steak. We’ve gone to them all, Capital Grill, Ruth’s Chris, Morton’s (when it was here), and many others. Every single time my wife orders a well done steak it would arrive not well done or as a charcoal briquette. If we did send it back for being undercooked it would soon return as a dried clump of scorched meat.

I remember the first time my wife ordered the filet at Starker’s as her hopes were never high in the steak department. I ordered mine as medium and she ordered her usual. The steak arrived a bit later, my wife made the first cut, and it was PERFECT. Not only was it well done, it was juicy and not a dried briquette. We were amazed. We had a wonderful dinner and vowed to return many times, which we did.

Around our third visit John had come to our table to ask us if everything was great. It was then my wife asked him how he and his chefs could prepare a well done filet perfectly every single time without burning or having to butterfly cut the steak. He had a huge smile on his face when he said, “Well I grew up on a cattle ranch and I learned to cook steaks the right way when I was very young.” It was a simple answer that spoke volumes and made us his customers for life.

We will continue to visit Starker’s, but we will have a lot of sadness that the man with the warm smile won’t be greeting us any longer. There are some great chefs in Kansas City, but none I’ve met impressed us much as John always did. He will be missed by his customers as I’m sure as well as his friends and family. I honestly wish we’d known him better as he seemed like a really great guy. RIP, John.