From the Des Moines folks who brought us 801 Chophouse, one of the most expensive steakhouses in town, comes a more casual concept. It’s an attractive bar and grill called Pig & Finch, which opened a couple of months ago in a remade Park Place space that formerly housed Trezo Vino.
Local Pig is expanding its butcher shop business with a permanently parked food truck called Pigwich.
Port Fonda is more than a restaurant. It’s a place to introduce newcomers to Kansas City. Whether we’re talking about the KC hats by Baldwin Denim worn by the staff, local food or the mishmash crowd, it’s a mirror of some of our city’s finer qualities.
Information technology is one factor shaping a bold new restaurant world. A more casual culture and a move to less formal dining have also had a dramatic impact on diners’ overall expectations.
Two weeks after JJ’s was destroyed in an explosion and fire, more than 1,200 people gathered Tuesday night at the Uptown Theater to pay tribute to the Plaza-area restaurant and raise money for its employees.
The three restaurants — Paradise Diner, Newport Grill and a new private dinner club concept — will open in a 13,000-square-building that will be on the corner of 135th Street and Nall Avenue.
The rotation of 10 soups is listed on the Great Day Cafe’s website, with the lovable caveat that the lineup is subject to “occasional, whimsical change.” The menu also features sandwiches on Farm-to-Market bread, with half-sandwich and cup-of-soup combos offered.
To some people, JJ’s, the edge-of-the-Plaza restaurant leveled by a gas explosion Tuesday night, had the best and deepest wine list in town. To others, JJ’s was a white-tablecloth dining room for special events, power lunches, tender steaks and sumptuous seafood. JJ’s was a down-to-earth place that felt like a hideaway.
Lawrence’s The Burger Stand at the Casbah, 803 Massachusetts St., has made Zagat Survey’s new list of the nation’s top places for burgers.
Patrick Ryan’s restaurant moves from a trailer to a Westport building with its delectable Mexican food and hipster vibe intact. When Ryan debuted his refurbished 36-foot trailer in The Star’s parking lot to inaugurate Food Truck Friday in May 2011, the lines that snaked across the asphalt indicated he had an instant hit on his hands.
Zagat Survey has selected its 25 “top service restaurants” in the nation. Prairie Village’s Café Provence, in The Village shopping center at 3936 W. 69th Terrace, made the list, described as adorable, family-owned, and a hidden monument to flavor and hospitality with a crew that “makes you feel at home.”
When the renovated President Hotel reopened under the Hilton flag in 2006, its Drum Room lounge and restaurant looked pretty good, but the restaurant operation never really caught fire. Now, the dining room has been made over once more. Providence, New American Kitchen has a pleasant, all-American vibe, and the results seem much more like a hit.
The 105-year-old Caenen Castle in Shawnee screams special occasion/event space, but last summer it opened to the public as Renée Kelly’s Harvest, a farm-to-table restaurant. It will be exciting to see chef Renée Kelly’s style continue to grow and evolve over the coming months and years, but there’s no reason to wait.
The Kansas City Health Department has recognized 330 food establishments with top grades for inspections in 2012.
What’s new, hot and next? Spin Neapolitan Pizza for one. Nation’s Restaurant News has selected the Kansas City-based specialty pizza chain as one of its 50 “Breakout Brands.
The Kansas Department of Agriculture cited these operations for multiple “priority” health code violations:
As a family-operated place, Peanches, in a hilltop strip center along 39th Street in midtown, feels like the kind of quiet, slow-moving but ultimately remarkable place you’d find in the European countryside and write home about. There’s almost no other restaurant like it in Kansas City.
Bonito Michoacan in Kansas City, Kan., has expanded with a new Olathe location.
The Kansas Department of Agriculture cited these operations for six or more critical health code violations.
A new Overland Park restaurant will be inspired by the cuisine of the Traqueros, the Mexican railroad workers brought their regional recipes with them. Traqueros Fresh Mexican Grill is scheduled to open in late February in the former Foster’s Grille spot at 11831 Metcalf Ave.
Street tacos have become easy to find in Kansas City’s casual, family-owned Mexican restaurants and groceries. Cancun Fiesta Fresh, a little dive across the street from the Westport CoffeeHouse, was one of the first to offer the palm-size soft corn tortillas filled with slow-simmered fillings, and nobody does them better.
Jimmy Lynch’s second restaurant in Leawood’s Park Place is now open, and a third is coming. Lynch has taken the former Trezo Vino spot for his new Pig & Finch, an “American-style gastropub.”
The Kansas Department of Agriculture cited these operations for six or more critical health code violations. Most critical violations are corrected at the time of the inspection.
As the name implies, there’s a whole lot of fork twirling at Sugo’s Spaghetteria. The casual, family-style Italian eatery, which opened in May in an Overland Park strip mall, is the first spaghetteria in the Kansas City area for St. Louis-based restaurateur Michael Del Pietro. The streamlined yet crowd-pleasing menu based on fresh ingredients doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel.
