Southern Classics: The Kozy

The Kozy is a popular stop for Bloomsdale residents and travelers.

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2021 issue of Missouri Life magazine. In Bloomsdale, The Kozy is more than just a restaurant: it’s a gathering place. “Some of our regulars are coming in for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” says co-owner Cara Naeger, who bought The Kozy in 2013 with her brother RJ Clements and their mother Dona Welker. “We so appreciate the relationships and the community that has been built around here.” Bloomsdale is a small town of about five hundred. It’s thirty minutes northeast of Farmington, but The Kozy, 710 Highway 61, and its sister restaurant, ninety-five-year-old Dew Drop Inn—which the team bought in 2015 and is also located in Bloomsdale—serve around fourteen thousand customers a month. Diners come from all over the state for breakfast specialties like French toast stuffed with pineapples, pecans, and cream cheese or The Goat & The Egg Benedict, featuring Bloomsdale’s own Baetje Farms goat cheese, avocado, grilled tomatoes, basted egg, and hollandaise.

As for lunch and dinner, Cara says Bloomsdale is a “meat and potatoes town.” The country-fried steak is a best-seller, along with a menu of burgers and sandwiches, plus entrees including pork chops, a ribeye, and ribs. Don’t miss the Bourbon Burger, a beef, pork, and brisket patty topped with pepper jack cheese, bacon, and a bourbon barbecue sauce. The Kozy also offers housemade cocktails like the Southern Lemonade with Wild Turkey American Honey, strawberries, mint leaves, and lemons and the Cucumber-Chili Bloody Mary made with Sauza cucumber-chili tequila and a house blend of spices topped with cucumber slices, pickle spear, lime, lemon, and bleu cheese olives. “Covid turned our world upside down, going from full dine-in to complete shutdown,” Cara says. “It was devastating for us; it was terrifying for our employees. We stayed open in whatever capacity we could. We actually converted our marketplace into like a little mini grocery store. We just kept our heads down and kept working through it all to try to get through it.” Now that the dining room has reopened, Cara is excited to see everyone once again. The Kozy and Dew Drop Inn have received great support from the Bloomsdale community over the last year and a half, she says. “It’s not only the food, but the service that we provide,” she says. “We have a great staff that basically knows most every person that walks in the door. We really have that personal one-to-one relationship. “We love the support that we’ve been given throughout this time. We can’t do it without our customers. In the next couple of years, I hope that we’re even stronger than we are today.” Visit TheKozyMo.com for more information. From top, comfort food classics like the bacon cheddar burger with hand-cut fries and onion rings and the ham and cheese omelet with American fries and grilled sourdough toast find their way from the menu to tables at The Kozy.