This Kansas City area restaurant spot has been empty 2 years. Here’s what’s moving in

Five years after opening in downtown Lee’s Summit, Smoke Brewing Co. is opening another restaurant nearby with a different concept.

Owners Lanni and Josh Edwards, and Josh’s dad, Jeff, have been working on the former Peanut spot at 219 S.E. Main St. for two years.

Now they plan to open a Mexican eatery and bar, Calaveras, there this spring.

It will focus on traditional sauces — such as mole, red or green pozole — seasonal vegetables, fresh fish, shredded chicken, tacos and plates.

Executive chef Josh Laufketter said he will cook in the French technique in which he has been trained. He had been sous-chef at the former Bluestem restaurant in Westport.

“Keeping it traditional but at an elevated scale,” Laufketter said.

The walls will have antique mirrored tiles in a herringbone pattern, and it will have more than a dozen crystal chandeliers. The back bar will serve frozen cocktails and have a garage door opening to the patio in warmer weather.

“We want to make sure that people don’t know what it was before, to say, “I can’t believe this used to be the Peanut,’” Josh Edwards said.

The 5,000-square-foot space will seat 200 people. It will have about 50 employees.

Josh owns Legacy Custom Homes in Lee’s Summit, and Jeff is a retired builder. They founded Building Smoke BBQ, a championship barbecue team, in 2009.

They opened Smoke Brewing Co., a barbecue restaurant and brewery, in 2017 at 209 S.E. Main St. in Lee’s Summit.