M&M Bakery & Delicatessen
M&M Bakery & Delicatessen (1721 E. 31st St., Kansas City, Mo. 816-924-9172) was opened in 1962 by Mendel Roslawowski and his wife Bronia, a Holocaust survivor.
The doughnut shop and bakery was originally kosher, serving what was then a Jewish neighborhood east of Union Hill.
Bronia Roslawowski retired in 1984, selling M&M to Dorothy and Pat Williams. They’ve kept the no-frills bakery and deli mostly the same, the clerk says, serving fluffy glazed doughnuts and steaming sticky buns popular with cops on the beat.
But for the past quarter century, M&M has also made what is perhaps the single best sandwich in Kansas City: The Hook ’Em Up.
Pat Williams created the Hook ’Em Up sandwich, a thick pile of pepper beef, turkey, lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, pepper jack and American cheese, mustard and Miracle Whip served on a fresh house-baked onion roll. It comes with a bag of chips for $6.50.
Out of respect for the tradition, the Hook ’Em Up is still pork-free. “It used to be a Jewish deli, and we just kept it the same,” the clerk says.