The Dandy Lion Cafe, Ashland, Missouri

Also known as The Dandy Lion on Main, this is the new cafe in Ashland, Missouri. They just had their ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Southern Boone County Chamber of Commerce on Friday, April 22, with a packed house enjoying the wide-open doors, blue sky, and sunshine, which seemed very, well, Dandy-Liony. I’ve been there a few times, now, starting with the ribbon-cutting day. (My pictures are from that day.)

So what is this place, you ask? Well, it’s a new cafe on the southeast corner of Ashland’s Broadway and Main, nestled between Century Tattoo and a carwash in what clearly used to be a garage attached to the back of the tattoo parlor. To spiff up such a hole-in-the-wall place—to add a picnic patio, to replace the routine garage door with a glass one that admits sunshine, to decorate the space with living plants and colorful, boopfy furniture, to decorate the walls with fanciful art, to fill the air with the sound of laughter and the scents of coffee and freshly baked, legendary cinnamon rolls, to have the gall to fly rainbow, transgender, and BLM flags outside for all to see—well, that’s very much like the stubborn glory of a dandelion.

Indeed, Dandy Lionness is very much like Opulent Opossumness, and they have my high approbation.

(By golly, we both even seem to have a "Jar of Goodness"/gratitude thing going on!)

Here’s their official description: “Serving: specialty espresso drinks and cocktails; local beers and coffees; delicious sandwiches and soup; legendary cinnamon rolls; good vibes.” Here’s another statement from them: “A space for creation, connection, and caffienation in Ashland, MO.” And their hours? “Dandy Hours: W–F: 7 to 7; S/S: 8 to 3.” I suggest checking their Facebook or Instagram pages, or calling or texting ahead, if the weather’s dicey or if you want to make sure their hours haven’t changed. (I suspect they may be adjusting for a while.)

A core mission of Dandy Lion is to create a welcoming space open to everyone (hence the flags that fly outside their doors), and they’ve had at least one drag queen story hour (yes, a kid-friendly event), right there in downtown Ashland. (If you’re not from Missouri, you might not know what this means, but trust me, this is big, almost as big as the fact that Ashland how has a few traffic roundabouts, which in some circles is practically countercultural in itself.) They also had a drag Bingo & Brunch, with performances and bingo for adults and kids hosted by queens Amanda Lay, Karma Cassidy, and Faye King.

Another focus is on sustainability, by sourcing foods from local farmers, and on sheer deliciousness. The sandwiches are grilled in a panini press, making them hot and simultaneously gooey and crispy. Examples include the Fluffer Nutter (which is just fun to say, already), with peanut butter, marshmallow fluff, banana, and honey; the Classic Grilled Cheese (with your choice of two cheeses, plus hot pepper jelly); the Caprese Grilled Cheese (with pesto, sun-dried tomato mayo, mozzarella, and balsamic vinegar); and the Chicken Bacon Pesto (with the obvious ingredients plus the sun-dried tomato mayo, cream cheese spread, and greens). There are soups, the afore-mentioned legendary cinnamon rolls (“we were told they should come with a warning and a cigarette for afterwards”), yogurt parfaits (also highly lauded), and various brunch/breakfast dishes (such as egg, bacon, sausage, cheese combo sandwiches).

The beverages are just as much of a feature as the food, and someone there is very serious about making sure you have plenty of delicious beverage choices while you sit and talk. The coffee is from Columbia’s Fretboard Coffee and Z Best Coffee in Rocheport, and they offer a variety of lattes, espressos, and teas, plus lemonade and orange juice and a variety of milks and milk alternatives. We’ve also spied local favorite Central Dairy ice cream. And then there’s the adult beverages.

On the current menu, the alcoholic beverages are summed up with “Full Bar Available! (Let us impress you with our limited experience.)” Which I think means that, in addition to beer (Logboat and 4 Hands cans) and a basic decent selection of wines, “we’ll mix drinks for you to the best of our ability and with whatever liquors we have on hand.” Since they’re open for breakfast and brunch, they offer mimosas and bloody Marys, for sure.

There’s such an eagerness to be a part of the community. This would be a great place for your reading group, or your deconstruct-after-the-workday coven. Stop by on your commute between Jeffy C and Como. Get a bunch of cinnamon rolls, bring ’em to work, and be a hero. You get the idea. If you're not sure you agree with all the politics of this place, I hope you'll give it a try. One of the BEST things about small towns is that we're small enough to know you and know that you're a good-hearted, decent person, even if we might disagree about some things.

I think Dandy Lion on Main is very much a work in progress, but I find it infinitely more fun and interesting than a corporate behemoth with an astronomical budget, billboards on the interstate, a sleepwalking marketing department, a zillionaire CEO who only wants your money. You know, those kind of places introduced by the indefinite article (such as an Olive Garden or a McDonald’s).

No, this here is THE Dandy Lion Cafe. It’s the only one . . . and Missouri’s lucky to have it.

Maa Pies and More, Ashland, Missouri

To all my readers in Central Missouri: Here is a small restaurant that I sincerely hope you’ll try. It’s a new place, and you might not have heard of it yet. In fact, it’s the kind of place that my Columbia friends might never hear of, because this is the kind of place that locals flock to and love, and keep “mum” about, in hopes that “outsiders” don’t discover it: Maa Pies and More, in Ashland, Missouri.

Since it’s in Ashland, it’s convenient for everyone traveling between Columbia and Jefferson City. Seriously—if I were still commuting, I would consider getting up early at least one day a week, so I could pull off the highway at Ashland and sit down for a bit over coffee and B&G, before heading to the office.

(Wait, you don’t know what B&G is? Repeat after me, in a reverent tone: bis-cuits–an’–gra-vy. If you’ve never had it, then you need to try some this winter! As my own mom would say, “This is food that sticks to your ribs!”)




Let me tell you what Maa Pies and More isn’t: It’s not a place that is going to serve you “prosciutto-wrapped-sun-dried-tomato-cornichon-with-crème-fraîche-ciabatta,” or “seared-ahi-tuna-and-celery-root-pureé-with-a-balsamic-reduction-and-brown-butter-caper-sauce.” No, no, no!

It is also not a place for you to go if you dislike people, or if you are feeling blue and wish to stay that way.

Here is what it is: A small local “mom-and-pop” café, proudly serving you breakfast, lunch, and desserts (pies!) with care and attention to how you want it. What kind of bread do you want for your sandwich? Do you prefer it grilled? Would you like ice cream on your slice of pie? It’s how mom would treat you if she was making you a lunch—am I right?

“Mom-and-pop” is a perfect adjective for this café, which is owner-operated and owner-staffed: William Linzie, a bighearted man who loves meeting people, will greet you when you come in the door, help you find a seat, and take your order. There’s a good chance he’ll introduce you to some of the other customers. His wife, Joycelynn, who loves cooking and is too modest about her talents, is the one making most of the food (yes, and the pies!). You will probably meet both of them when you’re there. Why, it’s almost like having lunch at a friend’s house.

And by the time you leave, you will most likely be calling them your friends.




I hear that the “locals” are warming up to the place—and here we’re talking about people of all stripes. The Linzies are proud to have such a diverse clientele. As we ate there recently, he was telling me how great it feels to see so many different people enjoying his restaurant.

That Maa Pies has won the approval of many of the local “oldtimers” seems particularly enlightening for those of us who enjoy good local cafés: Some of the older fellows, I imagine, can be tough customers; these men are capable of saying, quite bluntly, “Well, this doesn’t taste very good. Not enough black pepper.” I mean, they’ll say it to their own wives! So if a café doesn’t cut it for these tough customers, they won’t come back.

But they keep coming back to Maa Pies! It’s an excellent sign.

What’s on the Menu?

There’s an online menu here, but I’ll summarize briefly. First, they’ve got breakfast—they open at 8 a.m., Tuesday through Saturday—with the above-mentioned biscuits and gravy, breakfast plates (combinations of eggs, sausage, biscuits, bacon), and breakfast sandwiches. Also (and this is no surprise, since pies are a specialty), they have quiche, yummy, yummy quiche!




The cinnamon rolls (which I haven’t yet tried) look like a breakfast unto themselves; they’re huge and covered, not just “sprinkled,” with a whole bunch of chopped pecans. (Generous is the word: just like mom, right?)

Lunches are sandwiches, hot dogs, wraps, and sides, and Tuesday through Friday, there’s a daily special. The sandwiches are not fancy, high-falutin’ concoctions of trendy ingredients. So just relax and enjoy a gool ol’ turkey sandwich, or bologna, roast beef, BLT, or polish sausage. If you’re feeling opulent, you might choose the triple decker!




The daily special is a surprise—there’s no pattern to it—it’s whatever they felt like making that day. It could be lasagna or any other kind of “blue-platey” special.

If you’re having lunch there for the first time, I encourage you to try the pulled-pork sandwich, which is one of their specialties.




Honestly, their pulled-pork sandwiches count as a Public Service. I expect soon, all the other restaurants in Ashland will be sick and tired of telling people, “Oh, the pulled-pork sandwich place? That’s Maa Pies—just go west on Broadway and look for it on the right. The place with all the cars parked around it.”

Finally, the Pies

As soon as you get there, look in the front case to see what they’ve got, because they tend to sell out! If you are wanting to get a particular pie to-go, put your dibs on it before you dine!

The fruit pies are wonderful; when we were there, we had blackberry, and it was just sweet enough to be perfect! I admire cooks who get the sugar right in a fruit pie.

They heated it up for us and served it à la mode. Oh, boy! I love me some good, homemade pie!




Here’s something else: Joycelynn will make pies for you by request—cream pies, for instance, or whatever kind of pies you want. She just needs your order 48 hours in advance. I understand they do catering of pies for events. As in, lots and lots of pies.

The pie they’re most famous for is called “apple caramel crisp with pecans.” When we were there last, it was (understandably) sold out. As with the cinnamon rolls, they’re generous with the pecans, which give the caramel-drizzled crust a wonderful texture.

If there’s something wrong with you and you’re not interested in pies, there are Bundt cakes available, plus other pastries, such as Danishes, and the cinnamon rolls.




You might be wondering about the prices—some bakeries charge big bucks for their creations—all the pies here are twelve dollars. And everything else on the menu is under ten; most is under five.

One More Thing

Remember what I said: “This is not a place for you to go if you dislike people, or if you are feeling blue and wish to stay that way.” Why do I say this? Because William and Joycelynn really want you to have a nice time at their restaurant, and they want you to feel at home. They will chat with you. William, in particular, likes getting to know his customers, and he’s a friendly and personable guy.

Again, it’s the “mom-and-pop” thing—at Maa Pies, you will be treated not just as a guest, but as a friend and neighbor—indeed, like family. So put Maa Pies on your list for breakfast and lunch, and be sure to check out the pies and pastries, too!