Sheridan’s Unforked will be opening in Crown Center

Overland Park-based Sheridan’s Unforked is coming to Crown Center.

Founder Jim Sheridan has signed a lease for the Streetcar Named Desire space. Streetcar plans to close later this month after more than 31 years in Crown Center.

Sheridan plans a major remodeling before a May/June opening.

“We’re very, very excited to be going down there. Crown Center has a lot going for it,” Sheridan said. “We think a lot of the Halls and what they are doing down there. They’ve made a serious financial investment.”

Sheridan, founder of Sheridan’s Frozen Custard, opened Unforked in mid-2011 at 7337 W. 119th St., focusing on fresh, locally sourced ingredients in menu items that are served quickly.

Items include the Thai Dye Burger (grilled marinated portobello mushroom topped with Thai sweet chile, roasted Brussels sprouts and Roma tomato on a toasted egg bun), Akaushi burgers, kale salads, specialty tacos, quesadillas, shakes and sundaes, concretes and frozen custard.

Crown Center officials confirmed the lease. The Crown Center Shops are now fully leased.

Streetcar’s owners, the three daughters of the founder, decided to shutter the restaurant and bar when their lease expired at the end of 2015. They originally planned to close on New Year’s Eve but decided to remain until a new tenant was signed.

Now Equip-bid.com is auctioning off most of the Streetcar contents online until 7:15 p.m. Jan. 26.

They include restaurant equipment such as dark red vinyl seats, green laminate tables and a microwave, but also memorabilia such as prints of Frank Sinatra and of the original Streetcar location. But not the streetcar that has served as the front facade of the restaurant since the beginning.

“It’s more work than it’s worth. It won’t be that easy to get out of there,” said Andy O’Hanlon, president and CEO of Equip-Bid.

But Crown Center officials and Streetcar’s owners said they are getting calls from people who want to buy it.

The late George Kapsemalis first put it on the front of a house at 4922 Main St., just south of the Country Club Plaza, and opened Streetcar Named Desire there with a partner in 1964.

It remained there for two decades.

The streetcar — actually part of a retired interurban car that ranged as far north as St. Joseph in its heyday — was disassembled and moved north to the first floor of the Crown Center Shops. It opened there in late 1984, fronting a large dark and clubby dining room and bar with patio seating on the side.

This story was originally published January 13, 2016 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Sheridan’s Unforked will be opening in Crown Center."