Longtime Kansas City cafe to reopen with more offerings: ‘It’s going to be amazing’

Waldo favorite The Classic Cookie & Cafe shut down in late September as partners Ellen Klem and Bob Rosson regrouped.

Now Rosson has left the restaurant, and Klem has three new partners who plan to reopen it and expand its offerings.

“It’s going to be amazing. Still the Classic Cookie, … still quaint, still locally owned. But better,” said Klem, who is partnering with Hailey Allen and Bryan Sparks, along with their friend Anthony Quirarte.

It will have an espresso bar, and will later serve morning cocktails, along with wine and beer for lunch.

The partners also hired a French pastry chef, Logan Goff, to expand the bakery offerings, including fresh bread, danishes, hand pies, baklava and seasonal items. But some perennial favorites will return.

“The two things they are not allowed to touch are the chicken salad and the cookies,” said Klem with a laugh. “We’re still working on the menu — to expand some things and simplify others. We will have our regular Benedict and a build-your-own instead of four Benedicts. And our main chef has an amazing crab cake recipe so you can get that instead of an English muffin.”

The Classic Cookie got its start on the Country Club Plaza in late 1981, selling cookies fresh from the oven, such as snickerdoodles, chocolate chocolate chips, oatmeal raisin chip, and chocolate peanut butter chip.

In 1988, the Plaza location and one downtown were sold to Mrs. Fields Cookies, and The Classic Cookie relocated to its current Waldo location later that year. Leslie Stockard owned it since 1998 before selling it to Klem and Rosson.

Since it temporarily closed, Klem said about a dozen possible owners considered taking over the spot — a yoga studio, a tax service, chicken and waffle cafe, and breakfast/seafood restaurant.

Klem, who lives next door to the cafe, said only two wanted to keep it The Classic Cookie & Cafe.

Sparks had previously been executive chef at Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar in the West Plaza before the pandemic. He has relatives in Waldo, and started going to the Classic Cookie with his parents 25 years ago.

Allen grew up in the Brookside area, and its cookies were a family tradition during the holidays. Sparks started taking her to the cafe for breakfast dates.

“We want to redefine the next generation of what Classic Cookie is,” Sparks said. “Hailey is an amazing operator on the front end so will take over the day-to-day operations in the dining room. I will be in the back cooking — the de facto executive chef — and Anthony will be the chief taste-testing officer.”

Allen and Sparks also own Beloved On the Go, a fast growing meal prep service focusing on locally sourced ingredients, that they founded in March. They will now do the meal prep and catering operations out of the Classic Cookie location at 409 W. Gregory Blvd.

They hope to start taking cookie orders this week for delivery starting in mid-December. Dec. 1 is their “extremely ambitious” reopening date for the cafe, but more likely it will be in mid-December.

Sparks is building a wraparound bench and countertops to accommodate the new bakery space and seat a few more customers.

“I’m so excited. These are all changes I was hoping to make anyway,” Klem said. “The Classic Cookie needed to be updated. Our neighborhood has changed so much in the last 10 years.”