In The News

No place like home at Shields Manor Bistro

Tucked into an 1850s house, Bistro serves elegant homestyle fare.

By LAUREN CHAPIN

The Kansas City Star

All's quiet on the western end of Main Street in downtown Platte City. The day's business is finished at the county courthouse, and all the shops and stores, save the Pool Hall, are closed.

Without neon or a garish road sign, there's not much to guide first-time customers to the doors of Shields Manor Bistro, a restaurant/home owned and operated by DeDe and Max Shields. Instead, for almost five years word of mouth has led customers to their doorstep, many traveling from Fort Leavenworth and beyond to dine in their parlor or den. The circa 1850s house is a simple, two-story white wood frame house punctuated by black shutters and a vintage tin roof. There's a pretty wrought-iron arbor, a brick courtyard with patio furniture and two urns, filled not with greenery but with corks from wine bottles. It is one of the few signs that a thriving restaurant has set down roots here.

DeDe, who describes herself as a businesswoman who loves to cook, is chef. Her husband, Max, is host, wine steward, maitre d' and pastry chef. The restaurant is open only three nights a week, and the menu is short: one appetizer, four to five entrees and three or four desserts.

The appetizer is always DeDe's blue cheese shrimp. Six 1-ounce shrimp were deftly sautéed and seasoned with a gloriously garlicky melted blue cheese sauce. Served in a salt-rimmed cobalt martini glass, the shrimp were lovely on their own, and even better dredged in the puddle of sauce that sank to the bottom of the glass.

Twice I ordered the steak au poivre, two thick filets bathing in an exquisite brandy cream sauce. All sorts of flavors and textures interacted: the sweet, tawny sauce, the husky spiciness and almost imperceptible crunch of the peppercorns, the steely flavor of the certified Angus beef.

Both times I was served chunky garlic mashed potatoes, homey ones that I swiped through the cream sauce. I ordered my poivre mild, preferring minimal heat to a blistered tongue. I was told by the waiter that Shields had to show restraint when peppering my filets; she likes the heat.

The skinny green beans, still with a bit of crunch to them, were sprinkled with flaked almonds. It was a lovely, upscale Midwestern meal, and both times I took home leftovers.

My friend ordered the pork tenderloin with raspberry-chipotle sauce. The thick, juicy slab was all pork should be: tender but not bland. The sauce, as pink as a cherry Popsicle, was sweet beneath a modest bit of heat. My friend ate every bite, including the black beans and rice spooned onto the plate.

Still, when Max came around with the dessert tray, we ordered. I tried the apple pie, made with Jonathan apples. The apples were soft and homey but baked so perfectly they held their shape. The pie was a little bit cinnamon-y, and the crust, which Max makes from scratch, was so delicate it flaked. It was a blue-ribbon pie.

On another visit my dad, a life-long Platte Countian, ordered the Platte County black bottom pie, a walnut and chocolate pie so rich it made me break a sweat. Most of the servers have been with the Shields family from the beginning, and they are genuine and comfortable working in the small rooms. But the environs may feel cramped to some, and the one bathroom is unisex. That same hominess also means that guests often linger.

The food, at once elegant but homestyle, reminds me of lovely dinner party fare, served by the most accomplished of self-taught chefs. Perhaps that is one of many reasons first-time guests become regulars and then, DeDe says, often turn into friends bearing gifts of wine, which she stores in the dormant fireplace in the parlor.

About the wine list
Like the menu, the wine list is short, and I recognized several favorite in the $30 to $50 price range, especially the Chumeia Pinot Noir and Zinfandel and the 2000 Hochar by Chateau Musar, made by Lebanese winemaker Serge G. Hochar.

During my second visit, my friend and I toasted fall with a glass of Codorniu brut Champagne, a Spanish Champagne with a yeasty note and lots of ebullience. It worked well with the shrimp, the tiny bubbles cleansing our palates of garlic and blue cheese. And then, in homage to Hochar, whom I met when he was visiting Kansas City several years ago, I ordered the Chateau Musar, made from grapes grown in the Bekaa Valley near Beirut.

Back then he had stories of harvesting grapes and making wine during wartime in the late 1980s, when his cellars served as bomb shelters. I wondered how he and the family vineyards were faring after the recent war between Israel and Hezbollah ended with a ceasefire, just before harvest was to begin.

Max decanted the wine for us during our salad course, which allowed the wine to breathe so that its flavors were enhanced. Slowly the wine opened, revealing a dusky, earthy nose. It was generous on our palates, with layers of flavors — cherry, fall spices, earth and leather. We loved this wine — its elegance, its complexity, its lingering finish. It matched this place and this food.

Silently I toasted Hochar and wished him and the region well.

shields manor bistro
121 Main St.
Platte City
(816) 858-5557

KC Magazine Article

ABOUT SHIELDS MANOR BISTRO
The Ultimate Destination for Romantic Dining

Offering guests a classic gourmet dining experience in a historic setting just 22 miles north of Kansas City, Shields Manor Bistro offers a warm, elegant ambience that is like a step back in time. Nestled behind a majestic pine tree, the restored 19th-century home brims with gleaming antiques and offers superb cuisine. Kansas Citians DeDe and Max Shields own and operate this eponymous restaurant, which is known for its pampering, white-gloved service that includes fresh red roses on each table.

And then there is the cuisine: The perfect combination of savory and tangy, the award-winning bleu cheese shrimp is a customer favorite, and the steak with cognac sauce was voted the best steak au poivre in Kansas City. Shields Manor Bistro specializes in serving romantic candlelight dinners for two and hosting private parties, corporate meetings and family get-togethers; no matter the size of the group, each meal is personally created and prepared by Chef DeDe Shields. She and her husband are proud to have provided Kansas City with the perfect dining experience, in which food and elegance are meticulously combined under one roof, since 2001.

BEHIND THE SCENES

For almost nine years, word-of-mouth has led customers from across the world to this jewel box of a restaurant. When the Shields first dreamed of their concept, they envisioned a place that would exactly translate into a home setting the attributes that are so appealing in a fine restaurant, where quality fresh seafood and hand-cut meats are the best way to serve their “house guests.”

Chef DeDe gathers fresh herbs for her dishes from the culinary garden on the premises, delighting visitors with wonderful flavors and providing them with samples to take back to their own homes. Max Shields, a retired microbiologist, serves as pastry chef extraordinaire, whipping up cakes and pies like the blue-ribbon Platte County blackbottom pie. The beautifully appointed Shields Manor Bistro is distinctive among its peers as one of those rare spaces that, regardless of the season, helps define lifetime memories. The establishment is custom-made for an incomparable romantic experience and has seen so many engagement proposals that it’s no wonder its address is “One To One” Main Street.