Former movie, restaurant complex in Prairie Village will be home to two new eateries

A former Prairie Village restaurant and movie theater complex — dark during the start of the pandemic and then closed permanently — will get at least two new tenants.

Scratch Gourmet Express & Catering will open in a space that was formerly Standees theater.

Licensee Tyler Morrison said it will have three components: private dining events, a gourmet catering operation and gourmet express to-go.

▪ The gourmet express will be open Tuesday through Saturday, and offer two appetizers, three entrees and two desserts to-go — changing the offerings daily. Customers will place their orders online or on the phone for pickup or delivery.

▪ The grab-and-go freezer will have take-and-bake items.

▪ And there will be on-site and off-site catering.

On-site it will have wine dinners every other week — seven-courses of small plates, each paired with a wine. It will sell tickets to the events for up to 22 people. On other nights it can be booked for rehearsal dinners, and family and corporate events.

The menu includes hot hors d’oeuvres (such as mini chicken spiedini, meatballs, stuffed mushrooms and brisket bites) and cold hors d’oeuvres (such as mini smoked salmon flatbread and mango yogurt shooters).

It also will have salads, sides, and “display platters” of vegetables, cheese, antipasto or chilled shrimp.

Entrees will include such items as roasted beef tenderloin with red wine sauce, grilled Norwegian salmon, and braised beef short ribs.

Morrison has been catering events out of an Olathe commercial kitchen since December. He plans to open in Prairie Village in mid-to-late spring, taking one of the former theater spaces at 3935 W. 69th Terrace.

He currently has a holiday menu for a four-course dinner, cocktail party, happy hour or executive dinner.

He is licensing the concept from the Bilsky family, founders of Scratch Catering & Fine Foods in Southlake, Texas, in 2015.

Morrison has been friends of the family for nearly two decades. He moved to Kansas City in mid-2019 to help open the Clubhouse Experience in downtown Kansas City. His wife, Monica, is from the area and wanted to move back. They married in September and are partnering with Tyler’s parents in Wildcat Hospitality LLC, owners of Scratch Gourmet Express & Catering.

Todd Walline is Scratch’s head chef and kitchen manager. He was formerly the longtime executive chef at the Blue Hills Country Club.

Another area company plans to open a sushi and hibachi restaurant in the former C. Frogs BBQ Steak Whiskey space next door. The owners did not return phone calls.

Two other spaces in the former Standees complex are still available.

Standees opened in 2013 as a full-service restaurant and movie theater complex with three auditoriums. The founders hoped to take the concept to other markets.

This story was originally published December 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM.