All About Succotash, the Kansas City Brunch Spot with French Toast That Travis Kelce Describes as ‘Magical’

The French toast at this Kansas City snack spot is Travis Kelce approved!

Succotash is a breakfast and lunch favorite that’s been open since 2001, but has recently attracted a slew of new customers thanks to Kansas City Chiefs tight ends and Taylor Swift.

Although Swift and Kelce only sparked dating rumors in September, both drew crowds to Succotash long before that — Swift with her Eras Tour stop in July and Kelce with her team’s Super Bowl victory in February.

“I think when people come to the games, it absolutely has a positive effect,” Succotash owner Beth Barden tells PEOPLE exclusively. “The Chiefs themselves are so positive and community-minded… I’m really happy to be in the community that they are in and I think [they’re] happy to contribute to the community.”

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Succotash counter in Kansas City, Missouri.

Skyler Caruso

The weekend Swift performed at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium were “the two busiest days” in “the history of the restaurant by a large amount,” Barden says.

“I went in and honestly, I still almost can’t—” she says, crying. “It was so beautiful.”

“I walked up there and it was like walking into a movie set,” Barden continues, “People out there—the happiest, glittery, full makeup, expensive clothes, groups of people together… down the block at eight o’clock. “an hour in the morning. It was like three or four days of beautiful chaos.”

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Beth Bardem, owner of Succotash in Kasnas.

Skyler Caruso

Business wasn’t always like that for Barden, who moved to Kansas City from the Detroit area in 1998, lost her job and “took a chance” by opening her first restaurant “for the price of a used car” a little more than two decades ago.

“I had a home electric stove with a $25 plug-in and two little Walmart Presto tabletop stoves. I had nothing. I had no access, I had nothing. Everything was out of sync,” Barden says. “Literally the first day I opened, I served 21 people all day and I thought it was going to kill me.”

Since then, Barden says she’s taken a “different approach” compared to other jobs. “I was just happy to go very, very slowly and just build very, very slowly over time,” she says, adding that she also resisted opening other locations. (The only Succotash is in Longfellow Heights, Missouri.)

“I just want it to be a neighborhood hub in a community where our primary concern is that everyone who comes here feels valued and welcome,” she adds. “It encourages people to come to a part of town they might not travel to.”

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Succotash Wall Art in Kansas City.

Skyler Caruso

Succotash was featured on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives twice and Man against food. It is intended for the cast A strange eye and a Bud Light video starring Kelce. And the restaurant has a loyal local fan base, including the tight end.

“I love having him here and I love the idea that he can come here and not be bothered,” Barden says of Kelce. “He just walks in and if there’s a line there, he’s fine with people. He never wants special treatment.”

Barden recalls the time her server, Claudia, left him food during a visit to the grocery store. “She said, ‘How’s everything?'” Kelce said, ‘It’s magical,'” Barden recalls.

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Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.

Cooper Neill/Getty; Norm Hall/Getty

“You just have to be a kind, grateful person for that to be your response to a plate of French toast and eggs,” she says. “They’re good, I’ll tell you that. But it’s not like someone brought him some kind of five-star situation!”

Kelce is known to eat French toast as a “pre-game meal” before every Chiefs game.

While Barden says Swift has yet to visit Succotash, she hopes for the best for the couple: “He’s a good egg and she looks lovely and I’m incredibly happy for both of them.”

“I hope whatever it is turns out exactly the way they want,” she adds. “That’s it.”

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Source: HIS Education