East Brookside restaurant expanding to Leawood with house-made pastas, pizzas, brunch
Less than two years after opening in its new East Brookside space, locally-owned modern Italian restaurant Plate is expanding.
It is taking the former California Pizza Kitchen building, at 11655 Ash St. in Leawood’s Park Place, for a fall opening.
It will be open for lunch and dinner Monday through Friday, then brunch and dinner on Saturday and Sunday.
Owner and founder Christian Joseph started working on the deal in October 2019, but it has been delayed by the pandemic.
Joseph said he is “thrilled” to bring his concept to the development, which is being revitalized with new local tenants. Verdigris, an upscale cocktail bar, opened in May. Bamboo Penny’s, a locally owned Thai restaurant and tiki bar, plans a late March or early April opening.
Plate’s current menu includes house-made pastas, focaccia, meatball sandwiches, grilled octopus, pizza, pork chops and roast half chicken.
It built a strong following after opening in 2015, at the corner of 62nd and Oak Streets. But in 2017, the space was demolished in an early morning fire. Joseph regrouped, taking a larger first floor space at 701 E. 63rd St. for a May 2019 opening.
More than 50% off Plate’s customers are from the south Johnson County area. Joseph plans to remodel the new Leawood spot but make use of California Pizza Kitchen’s oven and expand his pizza offerings, especially for the lunch menu.
It will have about 30 to 40 employees.
The pandemic has been devastating to the restaurant industry, but Joseph said Plate is surviving by not having a lot of debt. The leadership team also took pay cuts, and Joseph said he hasn’t taken any pay to keep the restaurant going.
Along with running the East Brookside restaurant, Joseph also is working a couple of days a week as a respiratory therapist at Saint Luke’s Hospital to help out during the pandemic.
According to the Kansas City Star archives, California Pizza Kitchen was one of the first tenants to open in Park Place in late 2007, taking a 5,980-square-foot, freestanding building at the south entrance, just across 117th Street from Town Center Plaza.
It quietly closed its Leawood restaurant in October 2017.