For nearly 100 years, Brant’s Market provided a touch of Old-World meatcraft to central Kansas. Customers from hours away would make it a point to drive to Lucas to purchase the ring bologna, bacon, jerky and other meat products they couldn’t find anywhere else. The unassuming market earned its reputation one satisfied customer at a time, and was once called one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas Commerce.
Unfortunately, 2018 marked the end of the business. Residents of Russell County were shocked when Stephanie Svaty, the fourth-generation of the Brant family to work in the business, announced during a Chamber of Commerce meeting that Brant’s was closing. It wasn’t that Douglas Brant, proprietor for the last 25 years, wanted to retire. It wasn’t that the company was struggling financially. The decision came when state inspectors presented Brant with a list of changes he needed to make to his operations — in effect, everything he’d been doing for the last 18 years was wrong.