Locally owned Country Club Plaza restaurant closing with ‘a heavy heart’

Locally owned Hogshead Kansas City is closing on the Country Club Plaza after only two years of operations.

Executive chef Clark Grant announced the closing on Facebook with “a heavy heart.”

Reached by phone Friday, Clark said it has been a rough year — from winter storms in January to the recent loss of parking spaces to make way for Nordstrom, just a block away. He plans to close Jan. 5.

“We are not making the money we need to make,” Clark said. “I ask that people come in to support our staff these last days.”

Customers expressed their sorrow on Facebook, such as one who posted: “This place has the best pork chop in town. And great cocktails. Love love love the vibe and atmosphere. This restaurant was so cool and will be missed.”

Another customers said, “Best food on the Plaza you guys could have made it anywhere in the burbs.....”

Grant teamed up with Shawn McClenny of One Block South entertainment district in Overland Park to open Hogshead in late 2017.

They gutted the 5,500-square-foot former California Pizza Kitchen space at 4743 Pennsylvania Ave. for a “rustic contemporary decor” with open kitchen and chef’s counter seating, community tables and booths — some under a 28-foot moss wall.

The menu included braised short ribs, branzino, foie gras “Snickers” bars and other items that created a buzz, such as their version of McDonald’s McRib sandwich and cocktails containing CBD.

The Plaza has lost two other locally owned restaurants recently — The Oliver across from the Nordstrom project, and mainstay Fred P. Ott’s.

“The Plaza has changed so much in the last five years,” Clark said. “It’s still a premier dining location. It’s just not the premiere dining location. There are so many other areas now.”

Plaza officials declined to comment.