Jose Pepper’s expands in Northland to Briarcliff Village

Homegrown restaurant chain Jose Pepper's Border Grill & Cantina has opened a new Northland restaurant.

The Lenexa-based company remodeled a building in Briarcliff Village at 4125 N. Mulberry Drive and opened the new restaurant in mid-August. The Cafe at Briarcliff Village had formerly operated in the spot.

Jose Pepper's now has nine restaurants in the area. A restaurant also is scheduled to open in the Legends Outlets Kansas City in Kansas City, Kan., in mid-November. The company also has locations in Wichita and Topeka.

Menu items include soups and salads, burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas, tacos, fajitas, and chimichangas. The restaurants also offer happy hour specials from 3 to 6 pm. Sunday through Thursday.

The company closed its restaurant in Metro North Square, at 511 N.W. Barry Road, this summer after more than a decade of operations.

Westport’s Char Bar opening soon

Westport’s new Char Bar Smoked Meats & Amusements is gearing up for a mid-November opening.

Despite the ‘smoked meats’ in its moniker, the owners want it to be known a restaurant that serves a variety of menu items including great barbecue.

James Westphal and Mark Kelpe helped start the new culinary wave in Westport by opening McCoy's Public House in 1997, and later adding The Foundry and Beer Kitchen to their lineup.

For Char Bar, they added another partner, Mitch Benjamin of the Meat Mitch barbecue sauce brand. Benjamin will provide the barbecue expertise and the menu will incorporate his sauces. It will serve traditional Kansas City barbecue fare such as ribs, burnt ends, pulled pork, and house-made sausages, as well as barbecue specials.

But Char Bar also will feature southern-inspired cuisine such as fried green tomatoes, lobster deviled eggs, smoked duck gumbo, and tabasco-honey chicken, Turducken Muffuletta (with turkey, duck and chicken), and tempura-battered Lobster Po'Boy

Among the 16 different side dishes will be carrot-raisin slaw, cheesy-corn spoonbread, fried Brussels sprouts, and Burnt End Mac n' Cheese. Desserts will include a sweet potato funnel cake and it also will have a large selection of American craft beers and aged bourbons.

Next spring, Char Bar will open what it describes as Kansas City’s “largest and best beer garden,” a 7,000-square-foot outdoor entertainment area with large patio bar, picnic tables, lawn croquet course, bocce court, ping-pong, adult-size tire swings and two outdoor fire pits.

Char Bar took over 7,000 square feet of the former Beaumont Club at 4050 Pennsylvania Ave., and the owners have spent most of the year remodeling the space. It will have an upper bar area and lower dining room with an open kitchen.

The remaining 7,000 square foot space that formerly held the Beaumont Club is still available.

This story was originally published October 7, 2014 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Jose Pepper’s expands in Northland to Briarcliff Village."