Blue Springs Cafe I-70 Between I-57 & I-55. Don't Miss

Years ago while driving to Kansas City via I-57 Mary and I saw and stopped at a café called the Blue Springs Café that advertised Foot Hi Pies. We weren’t really hungry, but decided to stop for a piece of pie. Unfortunately it was a very hot and humid day which caused the meringue and the pies to be rather sticky or soggy or something. The menu and food looked great and the place was packed. We wanted to stop by on another trip but we ended up not remembering where it was. We drove both I-55 and I-57 over the years but couldn’t find it. We went to KC this past weekend via I-55 and returned via I-70 to I-57 this trip. Our mistake was not looking for this restaurant on I-70 and we saw the sign about lunch time on Memorial Day so we stopped. We learned that we have been missing some fantastic meals on our trips.

The Blue Springs Café is a do not miss stop for us from now on. We split a family style meal of fried walleye between the 2 of us with no up charge. All sides were homemade and excellent. I’m sure the walleye was frozen, but not with the cornmeal on it. I’m betting they slow thaw it. The pie crusts are made with Crisco, butter and I would guess fresh fruit or quality frozen pieces. Price for lunch was a little over $22 and included 1 entrée with hot & cold sides, which we shared, 2 huge pieces of pie, and one soft drink. A bargain at twice the cost and we only ate about half the fish and sides.

The Blue Springs Café


Entrance


We ordered from the menu. All meals are served family style with the same sides. I hope to eat my way through this menu except for the liver and gizzards, and the fried shrimp. A fellow diner, on his first visit, said the fried chicken was great. The waiter said the meat loaf is very popular.


Cold Sides-Cole Slaw, Pickled Beets, Applesauce

The beets were the best I have ever eaten. Cole Slaw was a little too tart for Mary but it was still good. The applesauce was canned, but it was good.


Entrée and Hot Sides- Fried Walleye (cornmeal crust), Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Green Beans w/country ham

Mashed potatoes had good texture with just enough of an occasional lump that cemented that fresh potato flavor. Gravy was smooth with that wonderful light chicken flavor. Hmmm. Canned green beans, but the country ham and onions were real. (Note: I love canned green beans better than fresh). Second best fried walleye I’ve ever had.


Outstanding Biscuits w/Homemade Apple/Cinnamon Butter & Whipped Spread

These biscuits would make Jim in Logan Square return. The apple butter was fantastic. Real butter would have been better, but when eating country style, sometimes that whipped margarine just hits the spot.


PIE NOTES: Wonderful flaky crust. They know what they are doing. I’m not sure fresh lard would have been better. When I commented on the whipped spread above, he said that their butter goes in the crusts with the Crisco!

My Blackberry Pie Piece


Blackberry Pie


Mary’s Peach Pie Piece


Peach Pie


Foot High Pies
Lemon, Chocolate, Coconut, & Banana Cream


Wine List


The wait staff are all young adults high school to college age and provided great fast, friendly, and casual service that deserved the 35% tip.

The only reason we didn’t order the “Foot Hi Pie” was that they were serving 2 our favorite fruit pies.

This is one restaurant that would be well worth an LTH Road Trip.



Blue Springs Café
Interstate 70
Exit 30
Highland, IL
616-654-5788
Open Daily
11:00 A.M.-9:00 P.M.
30 Miles east of St. Louis
200 Miles west of Indianapolis
276 Miles south of Chicago

Mary and I stopped at the Blue Springs Cafe last week on another trip to KC. No pictures this time but the chicken fried steak and fried chicken can be added to list of great entrees. I plan to eat my way through the menu with meatloaf being my next choice.

hey!! how cool to see a post on this. i'm from highland IL, little old town of 8000. never been to blue springs oddly enough.. though i've had a pie from there once or twice, used to hang out with the owner's daughter, and some of my high school friends worked at blue springs while in school...

Highland is a Swiss settlement most known for among not many other things being the home base of evaporated milk. Recipe in hand, the inventor of evaporated milk emigrated from Switzerland and settled in Highland where he started Pet Milk, which you'll still find on the shelves these days.

Blue Springs' claim to fame that they advertise are "foot high pies" ... which of course are mostly meringue..

http://www.foothipies.com/ is their web site, btw.... they have a sister restaurant--which I think is actually supposed to be better, called Diamond Mineral Springs. actually, they have a section there called "The Back Porch" that has the fancier fare...

Diamond Mineral Springs
1 W Pocahontas Rd.
Highland, IL 62249

the problem, though as a highway commuter is it's probably a good 20 minutes off the highway to get to the other, since the road that it's off of passes the highway without a ramp, so you have to get off by Blue Springs, go south and curve back around north to get there.

The family that owns these two restaurants owns a few other restaurants in the area... Michael's Restaurant is their namesake and probably their most well known in the area, attached to Michael's Swiss Inn. a few minutes down I-70 in Pocahontas there's the Powhatan, which is right off the highway... my mom used to work there in her teens, and once we were making onion rings and she mentioned she did that there... so now every time I pass I have to point out "that's where my mom dipped onion rings!" as if that's somehow exciting. They also own Buzzies Diner in Highland and I'm sure other places I don't know even know about...

unrelated to that family but in the same area...if you have a few extra minutes in the Highland area, the House of Plenty is a good spot for lunch, but they're more known for their pies than Blue Springs... (lunch daily, dinner on weekends only?).. they're famous for their Turtle Pie.. .(if you google House of Plenty Turtle Pie you'll find recipes of it).. it's probably a 10-15 minute ride into the center of town from that highway exit (though the highway kind of curves around and there are two exits, so if you go in on one you can go out on the other further west and not really have wasted much time)

House of Plenty
802 Ninth Street
Highland, IL
http://www.houseofplenty.net/

Stopped in for a return visit on a return trip from Kansas City. All comments I made earlier regarding sides and desserts remain the same. We shared a roast pork and dressing dinner for lunch. The dressing was good but the roast pork was roast pork. Good but nothing special. I horned in on Mary's dinner order to save a few calories and a few bucks. The pie was great as usual. I ordered blackberry but they didn't have a full piece so they filled it in with blueberry. Mary had the lemon meringue. Was able to pick up a jar of apple butter too. Best apple butter I've ever had. The meal stuffed both of us.

Definitely will return to eat my way through the menu. Next meal will be chicken and dumplings.