M&M Bakery & Deli

M&M Bakery & Deli is a weekday-morning bakery and sandwich counter at the corner of 31st Street and Woodland Avenue, opened in 1962 by Holocaust survivor Bronia Roslawowski and her husband Mendel and run since 1984 by Pat and Dorothy Williams. It still keeps the original kosher-style rule — no pork, ever — and is best known for the Hook ‘Em Up, a pepper-beef-and-turkey-ham sandwich on a house-baked onion roll that Pat Williams invented around 1994, plus glazed doughnuts, apple fritters the size of a plate, sticky buns and a fried cinnamon roll called the Hubcap. Open Tuesday–Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; it sells out.

Description

The shop is a plain storefront with a purple neon sign in the window that reads “It’s about the bread.”¹ Inside is a bakery case and a sandwich line that, by mid-morning on a weekday, is several deep with construction crews, police officers, hospital workers and neighbors; The Pitch’s advice is to come at breakfast to avoid the wait.¹ Eater’s Liz Cook put it on her list of the city’s essential restaurants: “Workers have flocked here for decades for generously stacked cold sandwiches and oversized baked goods.”²

The Hook ‘Em Up is the order. Kansas City Magazine’s 2019 version: pepper beef, turkey ham, lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, pepper jack and American cheese, mustard and Miracle Whip on a fresh house-baked onion roll, with chips, $6.50.³ The current menu lists it with turkey, ham and pastrami, hot and American cheeses, and the same dressings, from $10.⁴ Pat Williams told KCUR in 2025 that “you can’t find an ingredient that matches those two items — the pepper beef and the turkey ham. It was a match made in heaven.”⁵ The house also builds a C.E.O. — turkey ham, pastrami, turkey breast and beef salami with four cheeses and everything on a steak bun, about two and a half pounds — and a Reuben on house rye that a KCUR listener called out as the shop’s other signature.⁴¹⁵

On the bakery side: glazed doughnuts, sticky buns, snickerdoodles, brownie cupcakes, cheesecake squares, the fried cinnamon roll the shop calls a Hubcap, and apple fritters that Eater describes as “enormous, cuddly soft” and advises ordering ahead of the lunch rush.²¹⁶⁷ Everything is pork-free — turkey ham where a deli would use ham, no animal fat in the baking — which the staff explain simply: “It used to be a Jewish deli, and we just kept it the same.”³¹

Ownership and history

Bronia Kibel Roslawowski was born in Turek, Poland, to shopkeepers Bluma and Tzvi Eliezer Kibel (sources give her birth year as 1922 or 1926). After the German invasion her family was forced into the Turek ghetto and then a labor settlement; she volunteered to take her older sister’s place in a labor-camp selection, was sent to Auschwitz in 1943, escaped a truck bound for the crematorium in 1944, survived a death march to Salzwedel and was liberated by American troops in April 1945. She met Mendel Roslawowski in a displaced-persons camp, married him in 1947, and chose Kansas City because “President Truman is from Missouri. Kansas City is the heart of America.” They emigrated in 1948.⁸⁹

The couple opened M&M Bakery — M and M for Mendel and… the second M is not explained in any source found — at 1721 E. 31st Street in 1962 as a kosher doughnut shop and bakery serving what was then a Jewish neighborhood east of Union Hill.³¹ Bronia became a neighborhood figure: she is remembered for remembering every customer, for feeding people who could not pay, and for facing down a would-be armed robber with baked goods, telling him that if Hitler could not kill her, neither could he.⁸ She spent her later decades speaking to schools and community groups about the Holocaust through the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, and died in Kansas City on July 14, 2010.⁸⁹

Bronia retired in 1984 and sold the business to Dorothy Williams, a former employee, and her husband Pat Williams.⁸³ The Williamses kept the recipes, the no-pork rule and the name, and added the Hook ‘Em Up roughly a decade later.³ Their family works the line and the bakery; Pat’s line to The Pitch in 2023 was “Nobody is a stranger. I know my customers on a first-name basis.”¹ Flatland told the shop’s story in a 2019 #curiousKC video, and the Kansas City Women’s Heritage Trail includes it as a stop.⁸

The space

1721 E. 31st Street stands on the north side of 31st at Woodland, in the block the Linwood Homeowners–Ivanhoe neighborhood shares with Wendell Phillips to the north; the shop’s own directions place it “west of Sanford Brown Plaza.”⁷¹

Links

• Website: https://www.mmbakerydeli.com/
• Menu / ordering: https://www.mmbakerydeli.com/order/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MMBakeryDeli1721/
• The Pitch, “Keep it Kosher” (2023): https://www.thepitchkc.com/m-m-bakery-and-delicatessen-provides-family-service-in-the-heart-of-the-metro/
• Clio, Women’s Heritage Trail entry: https://theclio.com/entry/141836

Menu

Last verified: 2026-08-28 · Source: the shop’s own online menu at mmbakerydeli.com/order · Confidence: Medium. The online menu covers sandwiches, breakfast and packaged items but does not price the doughnut and pastry case (the site lists “Donuts” and “Dessert” as categories without items), so menu_status: partial. Prices marked ”+” are starting prices.⁴ Pastry prices from 2023: apple fritter, Hubcap cinnamon roll and pecan sticky bun $3.50 each.¹

Breakfast sandwiches (7:30–10:30 a.m.; no pork products)

• #1 Breakfast Sandwich (no meat) — Swiss or American, one egg. ($5.75+)
• #2 Breakfast Sandwich (with meat) — choice of one meat, Swiss or American, one egg. ($7.25+)

Specialty sandwiches

• Hook ‘Em Up — turkey, ham and pastrami on an onion roll with mustard, Miracle Whip, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, hot and American cheeses. ($10.00+)
• Reuben — corned beef on rye, sauerkraut, pickle, onion, Thousand Island, Swiss. ($10.75+)
• C.E.O. — turkey ham, pastrami, turkey breast and beef salami on a steak bun with mustard, Miracle Whip, ranch, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, jalapeños, banana peppers, black olives, Swiss, American, cheddar and pepper jack; includes small chips. ($17.00+)
• C.Y.O. One Meat — any toppings, one meat and cheese. ($8.25+) · C.Y.O. Two Meat — two meats, two cheeses, small chips. ($10.00+)
• Tuna Sandwich — your choice of ingredients. ($9.25+)
• Veggie Sandwich — mustard, mayo, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onion, black olive, jalapeños, banana peppers, American, pepper jack, cheddar, provolone and Swiss. ($8.00+)

Lunch specials (with vendor chips and can drink)

• #1 Small Sandwich ($9.50+) · #2 Large Sandwich ($10.25+) · #3 Tuna Sandwich ($10.50+)
• Kids Deal — half a small sandwich, can drink, chips. ($7.00+)

Cheesecake & brownies

• Plain Cheesecake ($1.90) · Cherry or Strawberry Cheesecake ($2.50) · Brownie without nuts ($2.25) / with nuts ($2.50)

Chips and drinks

• Chips (Classic, BBQ, Cool Ranch Doritos, Sweet Chili Doritos, Hot Fries, Kettle Jalapeño, Classic Baked, Spicy Nacho) $2.79 · Can sodas and Snapple $1.25 · Bottled juices and Gold Peak tea $2.49

Sources

Footnotes

1. Robert Miner, “Keep it Kosher: The Not-So-Secret Secret World of M & M Bakery and Delicatessen,” The Pitch, 2023-02-28. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: address and Linwood Homeowners–Ivanhoe neighborhood; owners Pat and Dorothy Williams, purchased 1984; founded 1962 by Bronia Roslawowski; no pork or animal fat, turkey ham; 2023 prices (Hook ‘Em Up $9.25, C.E.O. $16 and ~2.5 lb, Reuben $9.75, apple fritter/Hubcap/sticky bun $3.50); purple neon “It’s about the bread”; 1,200+ Google reviews; clientele; “Nobody is a stranger” quote. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. Liz Cook, “The Essential Restaurants in Kansas City,” Eater, updated 2025-03-24. Retrieved 2026-08-28 (rendered via Firecrawl) — Confirms: list inclusion; “Workers have flocked here for decades…”; Hook ‘Em Up build (pepper beef, turkey ham, hot pepper and American cheese, onion bun); “enormous, cuddly soft apple fritters”; no pork, “a holdover from its history as a Jewish deli”; address and phone. ↩ ↩²

3. Martin Cizmar, “Behold, Kansas City’s best pork-free hoagie,” Kansas City Magazine, 2019-08-02. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: established 1962 by Mendel Roslawowski and wife Bronia; originally kosher, serving a Jewish neighborhood east of Union Hill; Bronia retired 1984, sold to Dorothy and Pat Williams; Pat Williams created the Hook ‘Em Up ~25 years earlier; 2019 build and $6.50 price; “It used to be a Jewish deli, and we just kept it the same.” ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. M&M Bakery and Deli — official online menu/ordering page. Retrieved 2026-08-28 (rendered via Firecrawl) — Confirms: every item and price in the Menu section; carryout and delivery hours Tue–Fri 7:30–3; breakfast 7:30–10:30 a.m.; “Online Ordering Coming Soon!”; phone; address. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. “These are Kansas City’s best sandwiches,” KCUR Up To Date, 2025-08-16. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: owner Patrick Williams on air; “match made in heaven” quote; reported figure of roughly 2,500 Hook ‘Em Ups sold daily; listener praise for the Reuben on house rye. ↩ ↩²

6. “Kansas City’s best bakeries and pastries,” KCUR Up To Date, 2025-12-20. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: Shannon Carpenter’s recommendation: known for the Hook ‘Em Up; try the cookies, doughnuts, cinnamon rolls and brownie cupcake. ↩

7. M&M Bakery and Deli — official website, home page. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: address 1721 E 31st Street, KC MO 64109; phone (816) 924-9172; hours Tue–Fri 7:30–3, closed Mon/Sat/Sun; “Family owned bakery and deli … with NO pork products”; “Home of the Hook Em’ Up Sandwich”; Reubens, snickerdoodles, fried cinnamon rolls; menu categories Deli Sandwiches, Breakfast, Dessert, Donuts; “west of Sanford Brown Plaza at 31st and Woodland.” ↩ ↩²

8. “M&M Bakery and Delicatessen and the Legacy of Bronia Roslawowski,” Clio (Kansas City Missouri Women’s Heritage Trail entry), 2021-12-12. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: Bronia Kibel’s birth in Turek (given as 1926), ghetto, labor camps, Auschwitz 1943, escape, death march, liberation April 1945; marriage to Mendel Roslawowski 1947; “President Truman is from Missouri” quote; bakery at 1721 E 31st; 1984 sale to former employee Dorothy Williams and husband Pat; robber anecdote; MCHE speaking; death 2010-07-14; cites Flatland’s 2019 #curiousKC video and KC Magazine 2019. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

9. Charles Ferruzza, “The M&M Bakery: Bronia’s Legacy,” The Pitch, 2010-07-20. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: Bronia Kibel Roslawowski (1922–2010) operated M&M with husband Mendel at 1721 East 31st; imprisoned in several camps including Auschwitz; emigrated 1948 at 27; chose Missouri for Truman. ↩ ↩²