Summit Grill and Bar expands to Waldo

Andy Lock and Domhnall Molloy had worked together at McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant — Lock as regional director, Molloy as regional chef — for about a decade.

“We went up the ranks together, kind of a business partner role for all those years,” Lock said. “We had such a good relationship and worked so well together it made sense to partner together on a concept outside of McCormick & Schmick’s.”

So two years ago they took over the former Rumors Steakhouse building, at 4835 N.E. Lakewood Way in Lee’s Summit, and turned it into Summit Grill and Bar. Lock lives in Lee’s Summit, where his wife is a middle school coordinator and their two children are in high school.

The freestanding Rumors building was considered a bit off the beaten path in a market where many restaurants were in central, high traffic spots. Still, it has built a loyal following that has sales growing monthly.

“It’s become a destination restaurant for us because you are not going to trip over it,” Lock said.

For their second location, the partners picked Molloy’s Waldo neighborhood. He lives just three blocks from the new Summit Grill and Bar, with his wife and 2-year-old son. The space, at 500 W. 75th St., was formerly home to Kennedy’s Bar & Grill and then Remedy Food + Drink.

At 3,500 square feet, it is much smaller than their 10,000-square-foot Lee’s Summit restaurant. But the partners still plan to offer about 90 percent of the Lee’s Summit menu.

That includes lunch items such as its “10 Under 10” meals for under $10, including chicken fried chicken. Sandwiches include Reubens, the Ultimate Grilled Cheese (with five cheeses, braised beef and horseradish cream), and the prime rib french dip.

Entrees include the seafood mac-n-cheese with bay scallops and shrimp, pan-seared Duroc pork chops, traditional pot roast, fish and chips, and Black Angus ribeye.

Happy Hour specials run from 3 to 6 p.m. daily and include pot roast sliders, Summit Blue Bread with garlic butter and shrimp, steak “street” tacos, fried calamari and Blackened Mahi Tacos, along with $2 domestic beers, $4 by-the-glass house wines, and $5 cocktails such as a chocolate martini, white or red sangria, and Mango Mojito.

Waldo’s Summit Grill and Bar also will have brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. In a nod to Molloy’s Irish roots it will have traditional Irish breakfast items including bangers and a pint of Guinness for $2. Other brunch items include omelets, spicy cheese grits with thick-cut smoked bacon, brioche French toast, house-made biscuits with country gravy, and a vegetarian mushroom gravy.

The Summit Grill and Bar opened on Monday.

Find your ‘inner beach’ in Parkville

Mark and Lynn Gould are self-described “landlocked beach lovers” who started an online shop for like-minded folks.

They operated Barefoot Beach Bums out of their Lenexa home for two years and also occasionally took it on the road, setting up pop-up shops at festivals and shopping events around town.

But their customers kept asking for the location of their brick-and-mortar store. Now they have one.

Barefoot Beach Bums opened in late August at 5 Main St. in Parkville, helping customers find their “inner beach.”

It offers a variety of beach-themed apparel and decor — seahorse bracelets and starfish earrings, mirrors with seashell-like frames, hand-painted metal art pieces from Haiti, candles with scents such as Sea Spray and Simple Breeze, and wooden signs with such sayings as “Life’s Better on a Pontoon” or “What Happens at the Lake Stays at the Lake.”

“I’ve had people say they want to sleep in the store. And if they are from the coasts they said it feels like home,” said Lynn Gould.

Barefoot Beach Bums will have a grand opening in mid to late November.

This story was originally published October 30, 2014 at 9:52 PM with the headline "Summit Grill and Bar expands to Waldo."