Barry Trails scores a new player with Draft Pick Grill & Cantina

The Draft Pick Grill & Cantina — described as a “sports bar with a south of the border kick” — opened recently in the Northland’s Barry Trails Shopping Center.

New owners took over the former Escape Eatery & Drinkery space at 240 N.E. Barry Road and completely remodeled the spot. It now has about a dozen TVs, comfy sofas and chairs in front of a gas fireplace, and a community table. There also are two private dining areas and the former game room is now a dining room.

Pablo Acebedo, who moved here from Spain in 2003 on a tennis scholarship, is the general manager. His wife, Sarah Acebedo, owns the business but they both have other full-time jobs.

The menu includes chicken tenders, shrimp enchiladas, fajitas, build-your-own burritos, entree salads, burgers, turkey wraps, house-made tenderloins, and sandwiches.

It has karaoke on Thursday and live music once a month with the next one scheduled for Dec. 20.

MeMa’s moves to bigger location on Walnut

More than five years after opening in the Power & Light District, MeMa’s Old-Fashioned Bakery & Kitchen was ready to expand.

It recently relocated to the former Yummo Yogurt + Smoothies spot at 1360 Walnut St., increasing its dining area from a dozen to about 45 seats. It also is now more centrally located in the district and closer to the Sprint Center.

MeMa’s bakes everything from scratch — including cakes, cookies, cinnamon rolls, apple and cherry strudel, povitica and fudge brownies.

It also serves breakfast from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and offers daily lunch specials that tend to sell out quickly, including Monday’s chili, Tuesday’s meatloaf dinner, and Wednesday’s wings. Other menu items include panini, croissant sandwiches, Italian meatball subs, soup, and salads.

MeMa’s got its start in the early 1990s as a way for founder Loraine Waldeck to help pay for her children’s private-school tuition. At first she concentrated on selling strudel and cinnamon rolls to wholesale accounts, working out of the basement of her Kansas City, Kan., home, and naming the business after her children’s nickname for her mother — Mema. She brought on Mema, also known as Marion Hoffman, to help out.

The goods were so popular that Waldeck moved to a commercial space in 1995. Then customers started knocking on her door, so the bakery was turned into a retail outlet.

In 2006, Waldeck moved the operation to the Legends Outlets Kansas City in Kansas City, Kan. But she recently relocated that operation to Wyandotte Plaza, a longtime Kansas City, Kan., shopping center that is being redeveloped.

Quick bite

A new locally owned breakfast/lunch restaurant will open in south Kansas City.

Steak & Eggs is taking a 6,875-square-foot restaurant space at 1130 W. 103rd St. in Watts Mill and plans to open later this month.

The space was long home to Waid’s restaurant before Ariana Restaurant took over for less than a year. Ariana closed in November.

Steak & Eggs will serve such items as pancakes topped with strawberries, caramel apple toast, a variety of omelets including Mexicana, baked potato and create-your-own, and a variety of Eggs Benedict, as well as skillet scramblers, breakfast platters, wraps, burgers, entree salads, and sandwiches like sirloin steak philly and fried cod.

This story was originally published December 5, 2014 at 4:27 PM.