A ‘nice neighborhood sports bar’ opens in Lenexa

Lenexa now has two Saints Pub + Patio operations.

Parent company, Riley Drive Entertainment Inc., opened its first Lenexa location on Halloween in 2008.

Now it’s opened a 5,000-square-foot restaurant in Renner89, 16804 W. 89th St., at Renner Boulevard.

Scott Anderson, a partner in Riley Drive, said the new location is just a “nice neighborhood sports bar,” focusing more on the daytime, happy hour and the evening crowd, and less of the nightlife like the other Lenexa location at 9720 Quivira Road.

There are currently Saints locations in Independence, Lenexa, and Shawnee, as well as two in Omaha and four in the Des Moines area.

In conjunction with the new Lenexa location, Riley has introduced a new menu for all the area locations. Omaha will roll out the menu later this week and the Iowa operations later this month or by early April. Some old favorites, like its queso and chips, have been tweaked. New items, including a variety of flatbread pizzas, as well as fajita flautas and veggie wraps, are already popular orders.

Anderson and partner Marc Mundt named the company Riley Drive after the street they grew up on in Iowa. They plan to keep expanding the concept in the metro and are looking at sites in Johnson County, which could have eight or more Saints Pub + Patio operations, as well as sites in the Northland.

Saints also runs a 12-passenger shuttle van service, taking customers home within a 10-mile radius of the restaurants in Johnson County and Independence.

New Gigi’s prototype for Mission

Two new area Gigi’s Cupcakes will be the first to feature the chain’s bakery prototype.

The Blue Springs shop opened in late February at 483 N.E. Coronado Drive. A location in Mission Crossing, at 6027 Metcalf Ave., in Mission, is scheduled to open in April. Both are company-owned stores.

The cupcake shop trend has been around for about two decades. While some retail analysts think the concept may soon run its course, Gigi’s chief executive officer Alan Thompson said it is still going strong and that will only continue.

“We just have a specialty product, a treat that brings happiness, and happiness is not going to go out of style,” he said.

The prototype is designed to help Gigi’s drive sales of menu items beyond just cupcakes. So digital menu boards and new refrigerated counters display its cheesecakes, as well as other new products that require refrigeration including truffles.

Elements of the new design have been introduced in three shops in other states but the two new area Gigi’s are the first to roll out all the features, including more seating than a typical Gigi’s. The two shops also will be testing new specialty coffee offerings and some breakfast items such as cinnamon rolls and muffins.

Gigi’s was founded in 2008 in Nashville, Tenn., and now has nearly 100 locations in 23 states, including one in Overland Park. It plans to open 25 additional shops this year. It opened its first international location in January in South Korea under a franchise agreement that calls for 100 units.

It also added breads to its offerings in January and in February, founder Gigi Butler was featured on CBS’s “Undercover Boss.”

This story was originally published March 17, 2015 at 1:34 PM with the headline "A ‘nice neighborhood sports bar’ opens in Lenexa."