Travis Kelce-approved Kansas City restaurant opening bakery, coffee shop
Frequent diners at Rye KC on the Plaza and in Leawood know no meal is complete without sampling the restaurant’s signature pies or cinnamon rolls.
Travis Kelce included. The owners say he’s a fan of the restaurant and his now-fianceé Taylor Swift had a ladies’ night there almost two years ago — complete with Rye’s famous sweets.
But soon those beloved baked goods will have their own space.
Megan Garrelts, who owns Rye with husband Colby Garrelts, is opening Cornflower Baked Goods at 10555 Mission Road in Leawood.
The part-bakery, part-coffee shop will be next to the Mission Farms location of Rye. It aims to launch early next year, around February.
While the two concepts will be neighbors, they won’t share a space. Cornflower will be its own entity, serving many of the beloved treats fans of the restaurants love.
Megan isn’t quite ready to reveal the menu, but she promised to mix old with the new.
“I’m excited about some new menu items, some new desserts I’m working on,” Megan said. “Some savory breakfast items.”
Plus, the space will have a coffee bar made with Onyx coffee beans. The spot will also serve as the home base for the pies Rye serves in its restaurant, so customers will get an up-close look at the baking process behind the famous desserts.
Some pie flavors Rye currently serves: Dutch apple, pumpkin, banana cream and chocolate cream. The restaurant offers pie classes for those who want to learn how to craft the treats themselves.
Cornflower will be more of a grab-and-go concept than a sit-down space. It’ll have six to eight seats at the counter, with a few outside tables when the weather permits it.
“It’ll be an easy place to walk in, grab a snack, a pastry or a savory item and a beverage,” she said.
The name is a nod to a flower in Megan’s wedding bouquet — a symbol of where she and Colby started, and where they are now.
“We’re kind of looking at things that grow,” she said. “It’s always been a theme of our restaurant group.”
Megan and Colby started their journey with Bluestem, a fine-dining restaurant in Westport that opened about 25 years ago and closed in 2020.
They opened Americana restaurant Rye in late 2012, then launched the Plaza location five years later.
Megan hopes their newest concept will be a hit in the Mission Farms neighborhood.
“It’s intended to be a great place to grab coffee and some pastries for the day,” she said.
The shopping center is also home to Enjoy Pure Food + Drink, Paros Estiatorio and more. The Lemon Cake Bakery, Cafe Europa’s successor, has a Mission Farms spot at 10683 Mission Road.
Cafe Europa closed more than two years ago and reopened its bakery-centric space months later, serving its famous lemon cake and other treats.