BonnerSprings.com

Bonner Springs — When most people think of good seafood, they don't think of Kansas. But a new restaurant in Bonner Springs is hoping to change that.

"This is something my mom and I always had in mind," said Cathy Brodhurst, co-owner of Bigeye's Down Home Fish Fry, 13024 Kansas Ave. Her mother, Corrine Brodhurst, is the other owner.

The restaurant, which occupies the space formerly filled by Wingbusters and before that Timbers Barbecue, offers a menu consisting mainly of seafood, with catfish as the specialty.

"We use a homemade recipe for the batter," Brodhurst said, and the fish is locally caught.

There's even a vegan sandwich, something that may be a first for Bonner Springs. The sandwich has fried okra and mushrooms in place of meatballs.

This isn't the Brodhursts' first stab at the food business. Before opening Bigeye's a month ago, they had run Wingbusters, at the same location.

"This one is more family-oriented," Brodhurst said, with different hours more suited to lunch and dinner hours for people with children.

The restaurant might just expand to a bigger location if it's successful, Brodhurst said.

The current site is a good test location, she said, because of the traffic patterns on nearby Kansas Highway 7 and on Kansas Ave. She said she wished the present store had more room for seating.

The mother and daughter are from the Virgin Islands and moved to the area "because it's similar to home, without the ocean," Brodhurst said.

On the first day of real snowfall in Bonner Springs, Brodhurst said she had experience such weather before, living on the East Coast.

"One thing that gives us a bit of a scare is tornadoes," she said.

One of the things that drew the two was the sense of community in Bonner Springs, Brodhurst said, and she wants the restaurant to contribute to it.

One example of this philosophy was in evidence on Friday morning. Regular customers Irwin and Theresa Battle, Bonner Springs, came in to repay the bill from their last visit. The store's credit-card reader had been on the blink on the Battles' previous visit, and the couple had only plastic to pay for their dinner. Brodhurst insisted the couple stay to eat and allow them to pay with an IOU.

"They went to the trouble to drive here," she explained.

"We just appreciate people like this, who make the community better," Irwin Battle said. "That's a blessing."

The Battles said their favorite item on the menu was the catfish.

"I did not like catfish before," Theresa Battle said, laughing.

As the former manager of a restaurant, Irwin Battle said he valued the cleanliness of Bigeye's, as well as the friendliness of Brodhurst and her staff.

Besides its focus on seafood, another distinction of Bigeye's is the prominent display of biblical verse citations, with a dry-erase board featuring a "Scripture for the day."

On Friday it said "Matthew 6:24."

A Bible is kept behind the counter for those curious about the actual scripture.

On the store's entrance another, well-known verse is listed: John 3:16.

"It just lets people know who we are," Brodhurst said.

At first, she said, she was skeptical, because she didn't know how customers would respond.

"But we got a good response," she said.