Kansas City restaurants adapt to survive under COVID-19. See what some of them are doing

Pre-pandemic, Ben Cascio could be found in the dining room of his Crestwood Cafe Europa, catching up with customers, offering details on ingredients used for the made-from-scratch offerings, and making sure they had a high-quality meal and service in the casual venue.

Now he is trying to recreate that experience for the still cautious consumer who wants to eat at home.

Welcome to the ever-shifting landscape of restaurants in 2020. While some chains are using this time to quietly cull unprofitable locations, other restaurants are adapting.

They’re beefing up safety measures, revamping menus to focus on items that will taste just as good at home as they would fresh out of the restaurant’s kitchen. They’re selling prepared foods to extend their peak times throughout the day— especially as some consumers make it a point to shop at off-peak hours to avoid crowds.

Clobbered by the COVID-19 crisis, the restaurant industry has lost an estimated $120 billion in sales since the onset, according to the National Restaurant Association. The majority of the 3,800 restaurant operators surveyed by the association in mid-to-late May don’t expect to turn a profit for the rest of the year — if there are no additional relief packages from the federal government.

It estimates roughly three percent of restaurants have closed but the final number will be “in the tens of thousands.”

At Cafe Europa, the dining room tables and chairs are in storage, replaced by high-end wood shelves holding specialty products such pasta, olive oil and Italian sodas.

A cooler along one wall has grab-and-go items including the restaurant’s famous lemon cake, as well as salads, quiche, tomato basil soup, chicken salad, local and imported cheese, house-made strawberry jam, red velvet cupcakes with ganache icing, and even a few produce items such as lemons. One empty shelf will soon be filled with Italian ceramics.

Cafe Europa also serves its lunch menu all day now — cooked-to-order items that will travel well such as wood-fired pizza, burgers, Reuben sandwiches with house-made corned beef and a classic Caesar salad.

Just days into the new business model, sales have exceeded expectations.

“It’s going to be a long process before people come back out to eat,” he said “My grandparents started in the grocery business 71 years ago and two years later they survived the 1951 flood. The neighborhood helped them rebuild, and I feel that’s what the neighborhood here is doing.”

‘Keep things as normal as can be’

Customers of Mission Taco Joint — in the East Crossroads and south of the Country Club Plaza — liked it for its party atmosphere.

But with social distancing guidelines in place, it has turned to a temporary fast-casual business model dubbed “Mission Taco Lite.”

Instead of full-service, customers order from a disposable menu at the bar and pay prior to sitting down. There is limited indoor seating and Plexiglas screens at the ordering area and service bar. It has a limited food and drink menu.

Hand sanitizer stations are at the front doors, bathrooms and in the dining rooms. It even has foot-operated door openers for the restrooms.

The 14 area Minsky’s Pizza Cafe & Bar locations, as well as sister restaurants Eggtc. and Osteria Il Centro, are installing antimicrobial systems, a patented system to reduce airborne and surface area contaminants. It will be a nearly $300,000 investment for the locally owned restaurant group.

The owners of Jasper’s Italian restaurant in south Kansas City plan to continue the curbside service that they introduced during the shutdown. They also have angel hair pasta and other popular menu items on the menu at sister restaurant Marco Polo Italian Market next door for easier carry-out.

Jasper’s has a new phone system to make it easier for customers to place call-in orders.

But for the first time in 65 years, the tables aren’t set. Instead servers hand out the roll-ups (silverware rolled up in a napkin) as they wait on each table.

“I just want to keep things as normal as can be,” said Jasper Mirable, co-owner. “We’re very fortunate with our clientele, and most of them don’t like change.”

New options for outside dining

The American Reserve in downtown’s Ambassador Kansas City hotel was eager to reopen.

During the shutdown it had hired a new executive chef who created a new all-day menu with such items as farfalle pasta with a meaty tomato sauce and a blueberry cobbler with candied ginger and cinnamon oat crumble.

Still, social distancing guidelines during the reopening meant the restaurant could only seat 40 people, less than half its occupancy.

But right outside was a new open-air, covered garage below the Ambassador’s new hotel tower. Now on Friday and Saturday nights, tables and chairs for 70 people have replaced the cars. A live band provides the music while customers order from the restaurant’s food and drink menus. The space is typically booked a week in advance.

“It’s almost like starting a new business. Finding out what will work for you and leveraging that,” said Eric Willey, director of food and beverage for the Ambassador. “You can roll over and let things play out or you can get after it. I’ve always been one to get after it.”

Several other restaurants also are offering new options for outside dining.

Upscale Novel restaurant in the Crossroads always had the room for outdoor seating in the front. It just never needed it.

Reopening after the two-month shutdown, owner Ryan Brazeal and Jessica Armstrong are still only allowed to fill 25 of their 78 seats to follow social distancing guidelines — not nearly enough if they want to make expenses, let alone make a profit

So they’ve landscaped the front lawn and put in tables and chairs for 17 people with room for more. They also have a new menu of dishes that are more affordable and that will travel better for take-home meals, including artichoke flatbread, grilled chicken legs and pistachio cream pie. And they have a new cocktail list featuring such drinks as Tea Thyme with lavender and berry tea — also are available for carry-out. That’s enough business to bring back seven of its former 23 employees.

“We will see how things play out,” Brazeal said. “We can’t operate indefinitely with these restraints.”

Gram & Dun’s patio overlooking Brush Creek on the Country Club Plaza has been so popular during the reopening the owner has set a time limit of two hours and asks that customers order dinner.

At, 14,000-square-feet with soaring ceilings, Gram & Dun’s sister restaurant, Stock Hill Kansas City Steakhouse, is spacious enough that it’s “easy to feel safe,” said CEO and founder Alan Gaylin.

Wings Cafe in Westport is continuing with carry-out but has opened its front patio if customers want to stick around. The owners want to convert their back parking lot to an outdoor seating area, and use the food truck as a projection screen for movies.

At the start of the shutdown, they whipped up a smoked berry herb sauce that has been so popular they are currently sold out.

“It’s an immunity boosting sauce. People were, ‘Why is a wing shop making a health sauce?’ But I really think it has kept us going,” said Eze Redwood, a partner in the family-owned restaurant, which also has a Northland location.

‘Welcome back special’

Red Bridge Barrio in south Kansas City has a “welcome back special,” an expanded happy hour — to 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays with such offerings as $2.25 street tacos and $8 burnt end quesadillas, and live music Saturday evenings. Its sister restaurant on the Plaza, Zocalo, offers happy hour from 2:30 to 6:30 Monday through Saturday and all day on Sunday.

Chains such as Dickey’s Barbecue Pit are offering free delivery when ordering online or through its app. It also is offering specials this month including a Wild Westerner sandwich for $7 on Wednesdays, and children eat free on Sundays. Fazoli’s new 5 Under $5 menu has dishes such as fettuccine and ravioli bake with breadsticks for under $5, for a limited time.

In downtown Overland Park, The Culinary Center of Kansas City plans to continue its Friday curbside diners introduced during the shutdown. Most recently it offered a Spring Wing-Ding Dinner with raspberry bourbon grilled and sliced chicken breasts.

“We do food. At the time we couldn’t have people in our kitchen. How else can we do it in a curbside world?” said Marty Palmer, spokeswoman for the Culinary Center.

Cascio with Cafe Europa said he tries to offer the same personal experience in the retail shop as he did when it was a dining room. The week of the June 15 reopening, he proudly showed off his Italian sodas and pastas, his almond cakes fresh from the kitchen. If a customer picks up one of his famed lemon cakes, he’ll ask if it is for now or later. If later, he’ll recommend putting it in the refrigerator and taking it out a couple of hours before eating so the icing won’t crack.

“As a business owner you are solving problems on a daily basis. Some issues are bigger and last longer than others but really no different,” Cascio said. “You definitely have to embrace challenges or you will find yourself in a very frustrating and overwhelming environment. It’s obviously not for everyone.”

This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Kansas City restaurants adapt to survive under COVID-19. See what some of them are doing."