Iola’s newest restaurant opens this week, with gourmet, locally sourced hamburgers on the menu.
Casey Hastings and his fiancé, Cheyenne Stowe, will host Neon Cactus Burger’s grand opening Saturday, after a successful “soft” launch Sunday.
“It’s a dream come true,” Stowe said.
Both have a background in the food industry.
Hastings, who lived in Iola as a child before moving to “rough and tumble” California, had worked as a restaurant general manager.
Stowe, an Arizona native, had made a living as a chef, having completed culinary school in Sacramento, Calif. (They met when she interviewed him for a job in Phoenix).
But then COVID happened, “and it just got real crazy out there with the shutdowns,” she recalled.
Coupled with the high cost of living, the couple agreed Midwest living suited their lifestyles.
Hastings, who still has a sister in Fredonia, returned to Southeast Kansas, where he took a job at Orizon Aerostructures in Chanute. Stowe followed about a year later.
“With my general manager experience and with her culinary experience, this was something we talked about. I think I just got tired of working for other people, and making other people money. I figured we could do it for ourselves.”
The couple got serious over the Christmas holiday about finding a location, when their paths crossed with Iolan John Brocker, who on top of being an Allen County commissioner is also a licensed Realtor.
He pointed Hastings and Stowe toward a vacant restaurant building at 324 W. Garfield, which most recently was home to B&B Cafe.
“He’s been amazing to work with,” Stowe said. “He’s been instrumental in our opening. He’s bent over backwards to get us going and make this possible.”
For the next three months, Hastings worked full time at Orizon, then spent evenings and weekends helping refurbish the kitchen and dining areas. Wood paneling was replaced with a fresh coat of paint in the dining area. A new stove and grill were installed in the kitchen.
“It was just Cheyenne, me and my mom doing all the cleaning,” Hastings noted.
“It’s been a lot of work,” Stowe said. “We’re excited to get it ready.”
ONE OF the peculiarities both Hastings and Stowe noted once arriving in Kansas was that, even with the state’s agricultural background — especially in rural areas — there were few dining options that stressed “farm to table.”
