{"id":44758,"date":"2019-03-25T13:59:14","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T18:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=44758"},"modified":"2019-03-25T13:59:19","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T18:59:19","slug":"hays-finds-a-community-staple-in-professors-sandwich-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=44758","title":{"rendered":"Hays finds a community staple in Professor\u2019s Sandwich Shop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

STORY BY CORIE LYNN<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurants in Hays line Vine Street and are sprinkled through downtown, but tucked back into one neighborhood is a sandwich shop unlike any other.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Amy Jensen, the current owner of Professor\u2019s Classic Sandwich Shop, Rick and Clara Rossell first opened the shop in 1976 as Professor Pittewurst Panaceatic Inn before the Brown family took over several years later.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd then in \u201899, Kris Munsch, he\u2019s actually the industrial arts professor at Fort Hays,\u201d Jensen said, \u201che turned it into a steakhouse then where it had a full bar and that\u2019s actually who we bought it from.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Munsch described buying the restaurant as happening by accident, an accident that began the first time he and his wife went to Professor\u2019s to eat.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[The owner, Bernie Brown] came out and said hi to us and we were talking,\u201d said Munsch, \u201cI said, \u2018This is a really cool place,\u2019 and he\u2019s like, \u2018You oughta buy it.\u2019\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Munsch, who owned Sip \u2018n Spin at the time, said that his wife was against it, but he met with Brown several days later and bought it.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen we got it, closed it down, and turned it into Professor\u2019s Steakhouse,\u201d he said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as the restaurant changed hands over the course of forty years and took on new life with each owner, one thing stayed the same: the menu.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Munsch, the original menu with the recipes were passed to him when he bought it from Brown, and, though he reopened Professor\u2019s as a steakhouse, he sold the sandwiches on the lunch menu.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what everybody knew. Professor\u2019s Panaceatic Inn, that\u2019s why everybody loved it. Really it was the sandwiches and the spaghetti,\u201d he said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2003, when the Jensen family bought it from Munsch, they leased the building and grew mushrooms in the basement before opening the current incarnation of Professor\u2019s.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They, like Kris Munsch, added their own twists to the restaurant.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[I]f you open up Professor\u2019s,\u201d said Amy Jensen, \u201cyou have to have the sandwiches that were on the original Professor Pittewurst Panaceatic menu, and so we just kind of incorporated the mushrooms into different menu items themselves.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides adding their own mushrooms to the food, the family adds their own honey. According to Jensen, they sell honey lemonade rather than soda and a honey cookie comes with each meal.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe also grow a lot of our own food like tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers, things that we use in a salad, during growing time,\u201d she said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Munsch, Jensen found that customers come back to the shop because of the sandwiches.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s kind of cool now is that there\u2019s people who went to college in the seventies, their kids are in college now and they\u2019re bringing them and saying, \u2018You gotta try the Consumption Cure because it\u2019s my favorite sandwich!\u2019\u201d said Jensen.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides the food, long-time customers also return to the building, which was originally part of a train depot moved from Yocemento, Kansas, for sentimental reasons.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople got married here. People came here to dance. They have a lot of memories so I think that\u2019s what keeps people coming back,\u201d Jensen said.
Professor\u2019s Classic Sandwich Shop is located at 521 E 11th St in Hays, KS. Additional information, including the hours and menu, can be found on its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n