New Kansas City restaurant survived pandemic. Now it’s closing and blames inflation

New Orleans natives Mark and Robin Drouin came to Kansas City after Hurricane Katrina to start a new life.

That included a food truck operation, Cajun Cabin. After a decade, they shut it down to open Southern Kitchen restaurant. They planned to open in April 2020 but the pandemic pushed the opening back to July of that year.

Now the operation, at 13135 State Line Road, will close before its lease expires at the end of March.

“We put a lot of work and investment into this,” said Mark Drouin. “We made it through the pandemic, what you would think was the worst of it, but 2022 really kind of did us in, with the inflation, gas up to $5 a gallon, people spending less money. We still have business but not enough to sustain things. We’re a mom and pop.”

It serves a “home-style Southern comfort food” menu including jambalaya, red beans and rice, shrimp and grits, grilled or fried basa, fettuccine Alfredo, po’boys, gumbo and bread pudding with butter rum sauce.

They looked into selling the restaurant, but the landlord owns most of the equipment.

This story was originally published January 13, 2023 at 2:30 PM.