New spots for First Friday: Rockhill Grille, Brown & Loe, Evolve Juicery

In between art gallery openings and street festivities, First Friday visitors can fuel up at three new eateries:

The Rockhill Grille

Zach Marten and Bret Springs, partners in Kansas City’s Back Napkin Restaurant Group, came on as consultants for Crossroads venue The Cashew a year ago.

They liked the four-story building’s location in the growing district and the “unbelievable views of downtown” from the upper floors at 2000 Grand Blvd.

“We also saw the market wanting a little bit more upscale place for both lunch and dinner,” Marten said.

So they purchased the restaurant and bar and signed a lease for the 20,000-square-foot space in February. They kept the third floor open for private events, but the first two floors have been renovated for The Rockhill Grille.

The upscale American grill offers such items as fresh-shucked oysters with lemon jam and mignonette sauce, crab cakes with lemon butter, house-made tater tots with jalapeño cheese, seared trout, duck confit, tuna poke, baby kale salad, blackened cauliflower, and filet mignon. The menu is similar to their RND Corner Grille in Lawrence. The partners also have restaurants in Westport and the Country Club Plaza.

It is open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday and closed Sunday. “Social hour” specials are offered from 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays.

The Rockhill Grille is named after William Rockhill Nelson, co-founder of The Star in 1880.

Evolve Juicery

Locally owned Evolve Juicery & Paleo Kitchen also has joined the Crossroads lineup with a new shop at 322 Southwest Blvd., Suite 100.

Partners Caleb and Jason Fechter opened their first Evolve in Lenexa in 2013. They’ve since opened shops in Wichita; Omaha, Neb.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Lowell, Ark.

The shops offer a variety of gluten-free and dairy-free items with grass-fed beef, all-natural chicken, organic produce in its cold-pressed juices, free-range or cage-free eggs, mostly organic produce for its salads, fresh-caught fish and no processed sugars. Wheatgrass and herbs are grown on-site in their Urban Cultivator.

To-go items also include trail mix, Paleo balls, and entrees such as Adobo chicken salad, and sweet and spicy bacon-wrapped chicken thighs with mango sriracha dipping sauce.

Brown & Loe

Nearly 13 years after opening his namesake Harry’s Country Club in the River Market, Harry Murphy has opened another restaurant and bar less than two blocks away — this one with his daughter.

Kate McGlaughlin also serves as general manager of the new Brown & Loe Restaurant at 429 Walnut St. It takes its name from a restored neon sign on the side of the building. The original Brown & Loe was a produce distributor on the second floor, above a bank, and vintage photos of the offices are displayed in the restaurant.

The menu includes ricotta and spinach dumplings, blue corn trout, buttermilk chicken sandwiches, dry-aged pork chops, grilled short ribs, and oysters on the half shell.

It also offers brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, including shrimp and grits, pistachio granola, sweet potato waffles, and cheese and tomato quiche.

Brown & Loe seats nearly 50 people on the patio and 92 inside, including 20 people at its 40-foot bar and six in a repurposed bank vault.

This story was originally published September 1, 2016 at 5:45 PM with the headline "New spots for First Friday: Rockhill Grille, Brown & Loe, Evolve Juicery."