Kansas City restaurant closes after 2 years. But owners will open 2 more in suburbia
Taste Island Grill, which opened in 2021 at 3605 Broadway Blvd., has closed.
It was conceived by owners Cherven Desaugsate and Mehret Tesfamariam as a fast-casual sister restaurant to Mesob Restaurant & Rhum Bar, their Caribbean-Ethiopian restaurant next door, at 3601 Broadway.
“The space ended up being a little too small for what we were trying to do,” Desauguste said. “We shut down Taste on Monday but are going to open a mini mart in that space, specializing in Ethiopian, Haitian and Caribbean cooking products.”
Mesob, which opened in 2012, will stay open. In fact, Desauguste and Tesfamariam have signed leases to open two new Mesob locations.
One will be in the Northland, at 5225 N.W. 64th St. The other is in Overland Park, at 8016 Santa Fe Drive. They’ll both be full-service restaurants.
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Why two new restaurants at once?
“We feel the opportunity is there,” Desauguste said. “And we’re the only rhum bar in Kansas City, which brings people in.”
Rhum, which is popular in the French Caribbean, is made from fresh sugarcane juice, as opposed to more traditional rums, which tend to be distilled from fermented molasses.
Desauguste said he expects both new restaurants to be open before the end of the year.
