Crossroads chef will open two spots: modern diner, natural wine bar with outdoor patio

The new City Club Apartments in the Crossroads will have two restaurants by local chef Howard Hanna.

Hanna, owner of the The Rieger in the Crossroads and Ca Va in Westport, will open a natural wine bar and modern diner on the first floor of the apartments at 1989 Main St.

Hanna signed on before the COVID-19 pandemic and planned to open in early 2021. Now he wants to wait for hopefully a post-pandemic period in spring or summer 2021.

“It’s exciting but also scary,” Hanna said. “Everything has changed. I feel it is kind of scary to do this now but also we can be on the front of what new restaurants are like post-pandemic.”

His two new operations will take a 6,000-square-foot space at the northeast corner of 20th and Main streets, across from The Rieger.

The wine bar will be in a third of the space, seat about 50 people and have a private dining room for about 15 people. It will have a hearth-style kitchen with wood burning oven and a menu of “shareables” and entrees, along with a list of rotating natural wines.

The modern diner will have a large carved bar with anchored stools as its centerpiece. It will seat 60 people inside and 50 on the first floor patio. It will open a rooftop patio later.

The names of the two eateries and other details also will be announced later.

Hanna started his restaurant career as a high school student in Manhattan, Kansas. He later also worked in restaurants in Lawrence before becoming sous chef and then a chef at Coco Bolos in Manhattan. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in New York and worked at the famed Union Square Cafe.

Locally, he had stints at 40 Sardines in Overland Park, Room 39 and the River Club. He opened The Rieger in 2010 and Ca Va champagne bar and bistro in 2014.

“The Crossroads is where I feel really at home. It’s a dining destination,” he said.

City Club Apartments will open on the site of the former Hereford House. Construction began in July 2018, and the first residents will start moving in this month.

This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 5:00 AM.