‘Heartbreaking.’ Recently closed KC restaurant remembered for ‘magical’ 35-year legacy

For about 15 years, husband and wife Janet and Robert Bloom spent their days inside their deli on 39th and Bell streets, chatting with customers and piling sandwiches high with toppings.

Janet’s words paint an idyllic picture of d’Bronx: a line that often spilled out the doors, scores of customers waiting for Reubens while employees spun large pizza pies.

“We were busy from day one,” Janet reminisced in a recent interview. “We always had a lot of excitement.”

She thinks about those days often, although she’s been away from the business for 20 years. She still runs into former customers out and about who share their memories of d’Bronx.

What made it worth remembering — the food, the customers, the employees?

All of the above, said Janet, who called the restaurant “magical.” That’s made its recent closure all the more difficult.

“It hit us very hard,” Janet said. “We’ve just been so in shock. … It’s been heartbreaking.”

She’s driven by the Overland Park location several times since, only to find the lights off and doors locked. It’s still strange to think that after 35 years, d’Bronx is gone.

The final spot at 7070 W. 105th St. closed in late March.

The rise and fall of d’Bronx pizza

Don Foringer was d’Bronx’s last owner. Its other locations — 6846 Johnson Drive in Mission, the original Bell Street spot (“our baby,” Janet called it), and in Crown Center — closed in the last five years. Foringer could not be reached for comment.

Janet conceded that it’s a more difficult time to be in the restaurant business today — food costs are skyrocketing at alarming rates — but she said the restaurant had changed since she sold it around 2004-2006.

When the Blooms sold d’Bronx, they were overwhelmed and felt they needed help getting to the next level of business. The initial plan was to turn it into a privately owned chain and have the couple still somewhat involved, opening spots in Omaha, Des Moines and beyond.

Ultimately, the business never expanded out of state. The Blooms kept a small portion of the business but did not have any say-so in the business’s operations.

Though d’Bronx is the Blooms’ legacy, it wasn’t their first venture. Perhaps longtime Overland Park residents will remember Blooms Deli.

The deli operated out of Corporate Woods from 1981 to 1989, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. They built up a following at the Overland Park business development before Robert had the idea to open d’Bronx just a few steps into Missouri.

When d’Bronx opened in 1990, the Blooms sought to create an authentic Jewish deli with an Italian flair in the heart of the Midwest. An artist painted a New York City landscape on the side, paying homage to where Janet’s father, Lou Moses, grew up.

Moses lived above his family’s kosher bakery in the Bronx.

At the time, d’Bronx was a hot spot that catered several events. (The University of Kansas Medical Center was a major client of theirs.) Janet said they prided themselves on customer service.

“We did weddings, funerals, Bar Mitzvahs,” Janet said. “They were all our dearest friends … Our employees were all like family.”

The original location expanded twice in the first couple of years to make room for more customers. Some customers enjoyed the food so much they came by daily.

“Neither my husband nor I would ever let anything go out that wasn’t right,” she said. “Sure, things are gonna go wrong, but if you have good customer service and handle it correctly, what more could you ask for?”

In 1998, they opened the Crown Center location.

KC pizza joint was beloved, former employees says

Gail Loudner, an employee at d’Bronx on and off from about 1993 to 2013, still keeps in contact with the couple. She had various roles during her different stints at the restaurant: food runner, pizza chef and kitchen manager.

She said customers raved about the food: the latkes, knishes, corned beef and matzah ball soup.

“Those people. I never saw so many people actively waiting for hours to get food,” Loudner said. “The line on a cold January Saturday would be out the door … on a hot August day, the line would be wrapped around the corner.”

Loudner joked about crying in the cooler with other employees when it was overwhelmingly busy.

She worked with Janet’s parents, Betty and Lou, as well as Janet’s sister, Judy Dubrov. Employees were part of the family.

“People who worked there were just like me, been there for 18, 15 years,” Loudner said. “That was a chunk of my life I will never forget and will always cherish.”

Carlos Rodriguez worked for the Blooms from about 1992 to 2002. He still invites their family over to his home, and vice versa.

“I’m happy about remembering those days but at the same time sad. … It’s sad to know d’Bronx is closed,” he said.

The largest pizzas were so big (30 inches) that Rodriguez remembers having to tip the box slightly to fit through the door, which often elicited a “careful, careful,” advisory from his bosses.

Most touching, Rodriguez said, was when his son was born. The Blooms heard he was having trouble affording baby supplies, so they gave him their card to purchase a crib and other necessities.

Janet hopes customers remember d’Bronx for her family’s scratch-made recipes — “even the salad dressing was made from scratch,” she said.

Perhaps more importantly, Janet said, was the warm feel of the restaurant. She believes customers could tell — and taste — how much the employees cared about it.

“Our philosophy was that, treat everybody right, give them the best quality, and the bottom line will come,” she said. “How much do you really need?”

This story was originally published April 8, 2025 at 2:24 PM.

Jenna Thompson

The Kansas City Star

Jenna Thompson covers retail news for The Kansas City Star. A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, she previously reported for the Lincoln Journal Star and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she studied journalism and English.