Westport restaurant and bar posts on social it won’t reopen. That’s news to the landlord
HopCat — on three levels at a prime Westport corner — said it will not reopen.
Then again, maybe it will.
After the COVID-19 shutdown in March, it had to temporarily lay off its employees until it could safely reopen, according to a social media post.
Then, in a Facebook post Tuesday afternoon, HopCat said, “It is with a heavy heart that we announce after extensive negotiations with landlord, we were not able to come to an agreement and we are permanently shutting down HopCat - Kansas City.”
But landlord Drew Hood said that news “contradicts” what he believes was in an agreement signed earlier Tuesday. He declined further comment because of a confidentiality agreement.
Officials with BarFly Ventures LLC, parent-company of HopCat and its basement tiki bar, TikiCat, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Founder Mark Sellers opened the first HopCat in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He wanted a place where he would feel comfortable so he promoted local beers, put in custom artwork and his employees could dress pretty much as they liked.
But what he thought of as a “fun, one-off bar” grew to more than a dozen locations.
The Westport location had housed a Peachwave Yogurt and Starbucks. But it was structurally unsound so owners CAD Management took it down to the ground and put up a new $2.5 million, 10,000-square-foot building with a rooftop deck.
HopCat opened in the building at 401 Westport Road in February 2017.
A few months later it opened basement bar TikiCat, described as a 1960s-era Hawaiian living room.
On Tuesday, TikiCat’s Facebook page said it would not be reopening in its current location, but it hopes to find a new location.
In February, HopCat’s landlord sued for $86,995 in back rent and other charges, as well as possession of the space. The landlord said that the suit was resolved.
In mid-June, The Detroit News said HopCat parent-company, BarFly Ventures LLC, had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 4:02 PM.