A Topeka restaurant is serving entrees with a side of scares

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) -North Star Steakhouse offers steak, chicken, catfish but some guests may experience something that isn’t on the menu.

“When you operate an old restaurant as we do with the level of history that is attached to it, we also have a ghost,” said Owner, Amy Shell.

North Star Steakhouse has decades of history built into the walls.

“This will be 80 years old next May and it was started in 1942 as a supper club that had a speakeasy outback and the owner-operator of the place was named was a gentleman named Jug Robinson that was a known bootlegger who would run alcohol from Kansas City up to the North Star and he had a private club at the time,” she said.

After all of these years, Jug Robinson never left the North Star--well at least not in spirit.

“And he tends to haunt the lounge area out here he will do all sorts of fun, I call them ornery to us, mostly the staff, he does not do anything, I have not seen him do anything to patrons or guests in the restaurant but he just likes to have fun with the staff.”

Shell says she got up close and personal with Jug herself.

“I was actually sitting over here in the lounge booth one night it was late at night and I was rolling silverware, end of shift and putting my feet up a bit, and the lights behind me on the wall here, they flickered and I was like “oh hi Jug, how are we tonight” and within a minute all of the lights went out, all the lights on the wall went out and in two minutes they were back on.”

But the paranormal activity didnt stop there

“Three weeks ago I was standing behind our bar and I was washing glasses, again at the end of the night and I felt a glass fly and hit me in the back and there was no staff around and it did not make any sense it would fly off but it did and it shattered on the floor,” explained Shell.

Shell had a group come into the restaurant who detected energy in another location of the building.

“There was also a voice yelling “Get out, get out, get out” and the sidekick that came with her also shared that she had been using the bathroom once and came out and saw a woman’s figure and she described the woman and I showed her a picture, a group picture that we had from 30 years ago with a couple of woman in it and she said it was the woman here who happened to be the second owners of the restaurant, Willa.”

At the end of the day, Shell says the spirits are always welcome to the spot they helped establish.

“What we know and love about this place is that it has been such a long piece of Topeka tradition and there are families that come in that tell me, I’ve learned so much from the guests that just come in and tell me their stories,” Shell said.

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