Two more Crossroads restaurants closing: ‘The corona shutdown has finally killed us’
Tapcade — an East Crossroads bar, restaurant, arcade and one-screen movie theater called Screenland — plans to close at the end of the month, blaming the pandemic.
Since it reopened in June after the shelter-in-place order, business has been very slow.
Partner Adam Roberts said many people are working from home and area residents aren’t venturing downtown during the weekends. Tapcade also depends on birthday parties, corporate events and other large gatherings.
“That’s our bread-and-butter. But it probably isn’t going to come back until this time next year,” he said. “People don’t feel confident going out and about. So instead of building debt it is better for us to concentrate on Screenland Armour.”
In late 2013, Kansas City developer Butch Rigby bought a vacant property at 1701 McGee St., the former circulation building for The Kansas City Star. Roberts and Brent Miller opened Tapcade in Suite 200 in early 2015.
Their lease expired this spring and they have been on a month-to-month lease since then.
On the Tapcade Facebook page, the owners said: “1 Superbowl. 1 World Series. Endless memories. It’s been nearly 6 years since we opened our doors as the first arcade bar in Kansas City. Lots of things have changed since that time. The Crossroads looks dramatically different from those days.”
Fans left such comments as: “We just had our wedding after party there 6 months ago. It was a great time.” “This hurts. Can we get a little reunion of all employees together to say goodbye?”
Tapcade plans to open extended hours Wednesday through Sunday for the rest of the month to give its fans time to visit and eat their favorite meals once more.
“Before we go, we ask that you continue to visit your favorite local places and ensure the ones you love are still there at the end of this. There is a long way to go still,” they said in the post.
Meanwhile, their North Kansas City movie theater, Screenland Armour, has four indoor movie screens, and it is hosting outdoor movies in its parking lot Fridays and Saturdays. It also is renting movies for streaming and has a front patio for people who feel more comfortable eating outside.
Another East Crossroads eatery, Songbird Cafe, closed in late July after three years.
“The corona shutdown has finally killed us. We’re closed,” the owners said on their website.
Chris and Amy Geil operated Songbird Cafe for six years in Grandview before opening at 1529 Grand Blvd. in 2017.
By the end of the year they had closed the Grandview location to concentrate on the Crossroads shop. Chris Geil said it was going to be a retirement plan from his teaching position: “Work more hours for less money.”
“Most small businesses are living on the edge so we are used to that,” he said. “But after the mandatory shutdown we dropped to 25 percent of what we required to meet our budget. Expenses stayed the same — rent, utilities. We didn’t have the cash to make it happen.”
He had to let staff go during the shutdown while he continued to fill orders himself, even trying delivery services that charged him 30 percent. But he said his juices, smoothies and meals were meant to be eaten fresh, not 30 minutes or more later, and the customer had to pay a delivery fee, too.
“Our model and our values are based on people being together,” he said. “We needed people to be at work and we needed events and we needed people to be in hotel rooms to keep going.”
Amy is now working for the IRS and Chris has gone back to teaching.
“There will always be teachers and there will always be taxes,” he said.
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 1:11 PM.