Table Talk | Deano’s at Deer Creek
Alec Weakver | Owner | 3150 SE 21st St. Topeka
“A phoenix rising from the ashes”: that’s how the team behind Deano’s at Deer Creek describes their breakfast-and-lunch barbecue spot, which is building its own reputation with homemade comfort food on Topeka’s SE 21st Street.
In a TK interview, Owner Alec Weaver shared the vision for his restaurant and what makes it unique.
What inspired you to open your restaurant in Topeka?
I was inspired by the opportunity to continue the legacy our family has built in the restaurant scene here. Topeka has always been a place that takes pride in its long-lived, generational restaurants, and I was inspired to carry on that tradition by opening up Deano’s. I’ve always loved the old mom-and-pop roadside diners and felt this was an opportunity to provide quality, homemade breakfast and lunch fare for this side of town. Something a little more quality than just your chain breakfast place.
What unique flavors, dishes or experiences can customers expect?
I’m most excited about our breakfast. It’s a limited, simple menu, but nearly everything is made from scratch, including our thick, fluffy biscuits, savory sausage gravy and especially our red-eye bacon, which I cure for a week in my signature brown sugar and Columbian coffee rub. After that, I smoke the cured pork bellies over hardwood, then slice it by hand before it’s cooked to order for our guests.
Our Cozy Rolls have been a surprise hit for breakfast and lunch. We started out serving them just for breakfast, but more and more people who came in for lunch were asking if we had any left over, so I decided to add them to the lunch menu, too. They’re basically a cinnamon roll made from biscuit dough, which we then top with a homemade buttercream frosting that I make fresh every morning. Between the icing and the filling (which consists of butter, sugar and baking spices) there’s about two pounds of butter in every pan, and with all that butter present they have a tendency to get real loose and sort of “cozy up” next to each other in the pan, hence the name.
We’ve also turned our attention to offering smash burgers. Our current signature burger is our Stampede Smash Burger, which is an all-beef quarter-pound patty on a brioche bun that we fry on the flat top, season with our house-made signature burger seasoning and top with pickled jalapeños, American cheese and coleslaw dressed in a creamy version of our house BBQ sauce.
How have you navigated the challenges of launching a new restaurant?
For me, the biggest challenge has been the balancing act of establishing a new identity in this building while also paying homage to the old Lonnie Q’s BBQ restaurant that used to be at our current location. I know there are those who would have liked for Deano’s to simply be Lonnie Q’s 2.0, but Deano’s is an entirely new restaurant with ties to the old. That’s why I chose a phoenix as our logo — it’s a symbol of reinvention. This is something new and as time goes on, I hope Deano’s can continue to grow in ways that make it a destination restaurant that can fly on the power of its own reputation. For me, whenever someone takes a chance on something new from our menu, it means everything. Especially when that menu item becomes their new “usual,” or they bring in their friends or coworkers to try new items on the menu. That’s what has been the most impactful. Makes me feel like I’m doing something right.
What role do you hope your restaurant will play in Topeka’s growing food scene?
I hope Deano’s can become a go-to institution. The next chapter in a family of restaurateurs.
Since the restaurant opened, what moment has captured why this venture is special to you?
I don’t think there’s any one moment that makes it a special venture. For me, it’s the day-to-day interactions with our customers — the regulars who are happy to have a familiar space to return to, and the newcomers who are trying us for the first time. It’s those everyday, one-on-one interactions that make it worth it and keep me going.
