Secret ingredients: How Kansas City’s oldest restaurants have thrived for so long

At five o’clock on a sultry summer Friday, the parking lot at Jasper’s Italian Restaurant is already filling up.

At the hostess desk, 12-year-old Mariana Knopke (granddaughter of co-owner Leonard Mirabile and only two weeks on the job) leads customers to their tables.

In the private event space, the Cellar Room, co-owner Jasper Mirable Jr., Leonard’s brother, is holding court with a well-practiced performance on the art of making fresh mozzarella. To his left, his 10-year-old grand-nephew, Leo Mirabile, finishes off customers’ caprese salads with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Leonard Mirabile is chatting with regulars just seated at their favorite No. 15 booth. A slice of lime is already on the lip of their glasses with Pellegrino chilling in an ice bucket off to the side. Leonard’s grandson, general manager Jordan Mirabile, rushes between the kitchen and dining room to check on orders.

While the restaurant industry can be volatile, with Kansas City area closings on a monthly basis, Jasper’s, founded in 1954, is one of more than 30 local restaurants that have been mainstays for five decades or longer. Many are still owned by the same families.

That familiarity is the draw — from the friendly greetings of owners or longtime staff, to the consistency of service and food, and sometimes even the decor.

“We are very lucky to get customers’ kids and their kids,” said Kerry Browne of Browne’s Irish Marketplace, which dates to 1887. “As much as the whole city changes and I love the changes, when people move away and come back, we are still here.”

The basics: food and service

There’s the Golden Ox: “Where the steak was born.” V’s Italiano Ristorante: “A nice place to fall in love.” Snead’s Bar-B-Q: “Come taste the tradition!” Tenderloin Grill: “Home of Kansas City’s Best Tender!”

They’ve survived recessions, the pandemic, changing demographics and diets, and in some cases the Depression and two World Wars. They range from tiny diners to old grease house barbecues to pricey fine dining operations.

“It always comes down to the basics: quality food and quality service,” said Bill Teel, executive director of the Greater Kansas City Restaurant Association. “The longer you are around, the more you become an institution, if you will, and a big part of the community.

Ron and Marilyn Meyer of Leawood had some of their first dates at Jasper’s, back in the early 1970s when the restaurant was in Waldo before it moved to south Kansas City. They’ve since celebrated wedding anniversaries there and still slip into their favorite booth to have meals with their now adult children.

They go in twice a month or more, ordering summer’s rigatoni con melone e prosciutto and “beautiful peach cobbler,” and fall’s pumpkin ravioli.

“Jasper and his group treat you just like family,” Marilyn Meyer said. “The service is incredible. Everything is just right on spot. If I see a dish in a magazine that’s not on the menu Jasper will make it up just for me. I don’t know of any other restaurant that treats you as well as they do.”

Jasper’s said its key to success is MITH — a Mirabile in the house. When it’s open, there’s never a time when a family member is not at the restaurant, and usually there are four or more.

At Tao Tao Chinese Restaurant in Kansas City, Kansas, regulars call out “Hi, mom” to owner Annie Der. At Torreon Mexican Restaurant in Overland Park, owner Denice Ibarra Hamilton often gets a hug as her regulars look to see if her son is behind the bar so they can shout a greeting.

One Canadian customer recently made her regular pilgrimage to Browne’s, dropping off a T-shirt and CD of Irish folk group The High Kings, a favorite of the owners’ son.

Marisha Smith of Rosedale Bar-B-Q said her place in Kansas City, Kansas, is the “Cheers of the barbecue world.”

“When you have been around this long, everybody feels at home and they have stories to tell,” Smith said. “Instead of them asking about the history of the place, they are telling you their Rosedale experience. They tell you stories about your place that maybe you don’t even know. So it was hard during COVID because we didn’t have that.”

Nurturing the customers and employees

For restaurants to succeed, they need to build strong relationships with staff, customers and vendors, said Jill Hathaway, senior business counselor at the Missouri Small Business Development Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Jess & Jim’s Steak House in south Kansas City has the Customer Wall of Fame, a wall of plaques with the names of regulars: “Faithful Customers for 30 years.” “Faithful Customers Once a Week for 22 years.”

If Cascone’s Italian Restaurant in the Northland gets a complaint, co-owner Frank Cascone said he is on it.

“I don’t take it lightly. I go right to it, and if it is broken I fix it,” he said.

Cascone said he learned quickly to hire the right people and treat them well. He admits he “stole cooks” from some of the best restaurants in town. Four cooks worked at Cascone’s for more than 40 years, still on the payroll when they died. Two have been there for more than 40 years, working the evening shift. Cascone said he “stole” another from a famous Sicilian hotel.

Jess & Jim’s has a sign at the entrance to the dining room: “Please be patient & kind to our staff choosing to be here to serve you tonight. Thanks The Van Noys.” At Paul & Jack’s Tavern in North Kansas City another sign: “We will not tolerate rudeness to the staff.”

Changing with the times

After operating for decades, some restaurants closed because of changing tastes and diets, new development and eminent domain projects, recessions, retirements and controversies.

Steve’s Villa Capri had a half dozen locations at one time. All but one closed for many reasons, said current owner Steve Scudiero: to make way for development, inflation, older customers dying off and families perceiving that it was more expensive than other pizza places so they saved it for special occasions.

More recently the pandemic took a toll. “My dream of opening a restaurant turned into a 2020 nightmare,” said the latest owner of Beethoven’s #9 in Paola, Kansas, when that restaurant closed after two decades.

Winstead’s had multiple locations and still makes many national best burger lists. But it is now down to two restaurants — east of the Country Club Plaza and in Overland Park. Popular chain operations took two of the sites — Whataburger in Blue Springs and Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers in Lenexa.

Some longtime restaurants have had to close when the next generation decided on different careers.

“As an employee you go in, do your stuff, and go home,” Scudiero said. But as an owner: “Your mind is on your own business 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

He takes a yearly vacation but misses out on Starlight Theatre on the weekends, concerts, family get-togethers, some funerals, even weddings.

“Just time off to relax, basically, because I have to be here,” he said.

The restaurants also have to change with the times. But how much is too much?

“Customers pass on, do you have what the next generation is looking for?” Hathaway said.

The Savoy at 21c is working on a menu that will pay homage to its historic offerings while being relevant to current Kansas City.

Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque’s decor keeps with its grease house image of linoleum floors and Formica-topped tables, “tradition” being the key, Hathaway said. But its owner is agonizing even over some small cosmetic changes he needs to make this winter.

Jasper’s has the ornate style it had in Waldo. But it has brought in younger generations through its involvement with charities, in Slow Food Kansas City (which focuses on local growers), and other promotions.

“Jasper does cooking shows,” Hathaway said. “His presence is ‘I’m the expert with Italian food.’ You are going to trust the experience you get there.”

Hathaway said the restaurant itself is the bread and butter, but those that offer packaged goods such as branded barbecue sauces or salad dressing not only create additional revenue but also more brand awareness, drawing new customers.

Kerry Browne says she has one of the oldest liquor licenses in Kansas City.

But she still tweaks what customers want to eat, drink, listen to or buy. Browne’s market used to have packaged beers, now it has Irish beers on tap.

Customers wanted more Irish whiskey, so Browne’s now has a whole section holding nearly 200 varieties. They also added patio seating for social distancing during the pandemic, and it is often packed during events. A recent customer, an Irish native, said he hopes Browne’s will still be there long after he’s gone.

“We are constantly changing to make it the right fit for them and for us,” Browne said. “We’re just so dang happy to still be here.”

This story was originally published August 21, 2022 at 5:00 AM.