Savory Spice Shop opens in Brookside; Papa Keno’s Pizzeria returns to Westport

More than three years after the James Hallmark Shop shut its doors in Brookside, its former space is finally filled with not one but two tenants.

Locally owned BKS Nails opened on the east side of the space in late June.

Now Denver-based Savory Spice Shop has opened a store on the west side of the space at 6245 Brookside Blvd. The shop sells fresh-ground spices and handcrafted seasonings.

Mike and Janet Johnston opened the first Savory Spice Shop in 2004 and now have more than 30 stores.

The company offers a variety of products, including cubed crystallized ginger, peppermint vanilla bean sugar, hazelnut extract, Hibiscus flower, coarse Himalayan Pink sea salt, Wasabi powder, dill dip, Dutch cocoa powder, and salad seasonings.

Its handcrafted blends are made in small batches and shipped to stores weekly. The stores also make some blends on site. The Brookside store has its own blend, the KC Strip Steak Seasoning.

The shop plans to have a grand opening later this year.

The Brookside area — long known for its mom-and-pop operations — has lately been more welcoming to national chains such as Savory Spice Shop and Panera Bread, which opened in mid-2012.

Even a decade ago it was difficult for chains to succeed in Brookside. When Breadsmith closed in 2004, the owner said area residents told him they wanted to support mom-and-pops. Bruegger’s Bagels had trouble finding support for their planned Brookside shop in the mid-1990s after other business owners complained the shop would take up too many parking spaces.

Papa Keno’s Pizzeria reopens in Westport

Papa Keno’s Pizzeria has returned to its original Westport space several years after it closed.

The first Papa Keno’s opened in the early 1990s in Lawrence and five years later expanded to Kansas City. Some of those locations, including the one at 415 Westport Road, later closed as the owner faced legal and financial troubles.

New owners took over the Overland Park and Lawrence Papa Keno’s restaurants in early 2012 and later bought the rights to the name and concept.

Brandon Graham, David Bennett and David Hawley are partners in PKDL LLC and plan to franchise Papa Keno’s. Hawley also now owns the Lawrence restaurant, and one of his former managers there, Tyler Parker, is managing partner of the new Westport restaurant, which has been remodeled with an open kitchen.

Papa Keno’s offers New York-style thin-crust pizzas, including pizza by the slice, entree salads and specialty pizzas and sandwiches.

Papa Keno’s is looking to expand into other neighborhoods, including the River Market, Waldo and 39th Street and Rainbow Boulevard in Kansas City, Kan.

▪  In other Westport news, Dempsey’s Burger Pub is nearly finished with its remodel of the former Blanc Burgers + Bottles at 4120 Pennsylvania Ave.

Dempsey’s, based in Lawrence, hopes to open by the weekend of Sept. 25, pending final inspections. It will be the fourth restaurant for the company, in addition to ones in Lawrence, Wichita and Lincoln, Neb. It is known for its specialty burgers and craft beers.

This story was originally published September 14, 2015 at 7:55 PM with the headline "Savory Spice Shop opens in Brookside; Papa Keno’s Pizzeria returns to Westport."