Share a story, honor veterans, and try a meal at Cafe B-29.
If owner Chaz Koeppen and her partner Matt Gann are strangers to you now, they won’t be after you find yourself at a table at Cafe B-29, located in Ozark. They’ll probably greet you faster than you can open your menu.
As you walk into the cafe, a feeling of patriotism may emerge as hundreds of veterans meet your gaze from the photographs that line the walls.
The dream of opening a cafe with vintage military decor was fueled by Chaz and Matt’s memories.
“We sat on our front porch and got to talking about our grandfathers,” Chaz says. Her grandfather was a World War II veteran, and Matt’s grandfather rode in a tank in Korea.
“Grandma had brought by a bunch of older pictures of Grandpa in a shoebox,” Matt says, “and it just kind of struck me as odd. Grandpa was a huge part of my life growing up, and you know how many people just take this old shoebox of photos and put it in the closet.”
Ever since Chaz opened the restaurant eight years ago, people have traveled from near and far to add their relatives’ pictures on the wall. Chaz has also been given military uniforms, plane replicas, and Purple Hearts. She spends her Sundays pulling out the ladder and Tetris-ing together new artifacts they’ve been given among the existing ones along the museum-like walls. The collection includes keepsakes from WWII and the Vietnam War.
As if the mementos weren’t intriguing enough—you could spend a whole day soaking up the history—the smell of the food drifting from the kitchen will get your stomach rumbling and have you heading for a table.
Chaz and Matt take great pride in curating their menu. It is packed with clever nods to US military history with items like the Normandy French Dip, the USO Hot Ham & Cheese, and The B-29 Crew’s Buffalo Chicken Sandwich.
“We decided to go old-school diner foods,” Chaz says. “We’ll cut about 16 five-gallon buckets of fresh fries a day. We hand batter our catfish. We make our slaw from scratch.”
“The Popper Burger is probably most popular,” Matt says. “My mom came up with this recipe for a popper dip, and we thought that’d be great on a burger. It took off, took us to the World Food Championships in Dallas several years back. It’s been really, really popular.”
You can smell the fan-favorite Jalapeño Popper Burger before you see it. Delivered in a basket that is draped in a red-and-white checkered liner, the half-pound burger patty lying on a bun is paired with pepper jack cheese, bacon, and jalapeño popper dip. The bacon is a perfect partner to the spicy bite of the dip, the heat flavorful without being overpowering. You’ll reach for another bite before you reach for your napkin.
The thick-cut fries are soft all the way through with just the right amount of salt and are the perfect vessel to scoop up the popper dip that escapes from the burger. The homemade ranch is a must try, with a finger-licking dill taste that will make you wish it was bottled to take home.
Cafe B-29 satisfies two missions: it offers comfort food for communities to gather around, and it provides a space where veterans are honored.
• 1751 West State Highway J, Ozark • Cafe B-29 on Facebook
This article was orginally printed in the July/August 2026 issue of Missouri Life.
