Waldo’s 75th Street Brewery to close, allowing Summit Grill to expand, open ramen restaurant

Kansas City’s oldest brewpub will soon be shutting down to make way for a new ramen restaurant.

75th Street Brewery, which opened at 520 W. 75th St. in August 1993, plans to close on May 15.

Its next-door neighbor, Summit Grill & Bar at 500 W. 75th St., will then take the 7,000-square-foot brewery space June 1, remodel it and relocate to the space in early September. It will continue to operate at its current location until the night before the new space opens.

Then the Summit Grill & Bar owners and their culinary director will convert the space at 500 W. 75th St. into a ramen restaurant.

75th Street Brewery was Kansas City’s first brewpub, and it continued to draw lines for the first five years of operations, said Ed Nelson of KC Hopps Ltd., parent company of 75th Street Brewery.

“But over time things change,” he said. “There are hundreds of places serving great beer now. People read about new ones in other states and they want to try them. It’s not near the novelty it used to be.”

Still, the brewery has always been profitable — with gross annual income recently listed as $1.95 million — and it has won numerous brewery awards over the years.

KC Hopps had listed it for sale with the asking price of $690,000, including the furniture, fixtures and equipment. Nelson wants to concentrate on the company’s other brands and is currently considering sites in Lawrence and Manhattan for new Blue Moose Bar & Grill locations.

75th Street Brewery has about 45 employees who will be offered positions at KC Hopps Ltd.’s 14 other area restaurants.

Nelson said the brewery made more than 75 different beers in its nearly 23-year history. He plans to offer “weekly throwback features” from April 14 through closing day on May 15.

Summit’s owners, Domhnall Molloy and Andy Lock, said they needed more space for private event rooms like they have at their Lee’s Summit location, as well as a larger kitchen so they could offer the same menu items including more entrees like center-cut angus beef filet, Kansas City strip and lobster-stuffed salmon. It will not be brewing beer, so the brewery tanks will be removed.

Once they move into the 75th Street Brewery space, they will convert their current 3,300-square-foot space into a “yet to be named” ramen restaurant. For more than a year they scouted locations in such areas as Martini Corner and South Plaza, while also researching popular ramen restaurants in Chicago, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Then, two months ago, culinary director Po Wang — who will be a partner in the new ramen restaurant — rolled out a Tuesday ramen menu. It features just one $8 appetizer and one $13 ramen bowl — offerings like chicken shio (slow simmered, free-range chicken broth, confit chicken thigh, scallions and 6-minute egg), Korean double-fried chicken wings with sweet and sticky gochujang sauce, and Japanese beef tenderloin carpaccio.

“The first night we sold out, and we have made adjustments every Tuesday in the quantity and it continues to grow weekly,” Lock said. “Wait until they try the entire menu — six to eight appetizers, five to eight bowls and four to five different broths. We’re excited to expose people to the ramen concept.”

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 6:46 PM with the headline "Waldo’s 75th Street Brewery to close, allowing Summit Grill to expand, open ramen restaurant."