For the last two years, Colby Garrelts -- the James Beard-nominated chef and co-owner of Westport's Bluestem restaurant -- has been talking about opening a second venue. His vision was for a completely different culinary concept from the sophisticated, upscale Bluestem. The time seemed right: Bluestem, the creation of Colby and his pastry chef wife, Megan, was running smoothly. Smoothly enough for the Garrelts to comfortably welcome a second child, Colin Gregory, born November 4.
But a different kind of baby -- an existing restaurant -- has dropped into the Garrelts' lives. A month ago, Colby and Megan officially took over the operation of the Trezo Vino restaurant in Leawood. The menu isn't yet exactly what Colby Garrelts wants it to be, but his final menu should be in place by mid-July.
"I've wanted to do some kind of new project for some time," Garrelts says, "and I was looking for investors. I met with Mark Walker, the owner of Trezo Vino. "He needed help reviving the restaurant and knew I wanted a new project. The next thing I knew, he turned the keys over to us."
Colby and Megan plan to keep the Trezo Vino name but focus more on establishing a new personality for the restaurant (which was reviewed in The Pitch three years ago, when Michael Peterson was still the executive chef -- he left the restaurant months later). "I've spent the last three weeks revamping the menu," Colby says.
Megan Garrelts is creating signature desserts for the venue. Garrelts feels that Trezo Vino needs a more identifiable personality as a vibrant dining room serving memorable Northern Italian cuisine. "I'm taking it back," he says, "to what it's supposed to be."
"My main focus," Garrelts continues, "is getting some form of program in place. Not just in the kitchen but in the training of the servers and the management of the operations."
Garrelts has moved his sous chef, John Brogan, to Trezo Vino and given Bluestem chef de cuisine Bill Espiricueta more authority in the Bluestem kitchen. Colby will remain executive chef of both restaurants.
"Trezo Vino lost some direction as to where they wanted to go with the food," Colby says. "The owner asked Megan and I to step in and help them find the right direction."
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Colby and Megan's talent are worth going back in for. They will not let you down with whatever they do put on the menu.
All the best to Colby and Megan! It seems like it was just yesterday when the hostess at Bluestem had about an 18 inch square of space to manage the incoming customers by stacking them into
a cheerleader pyramid in order for them to fit inside the front door. It's great to see hard work by genuinely cool people paying off.....now I'll have a reason other than Bo Ling's dim sum to venture south of the river....but I AM a little hurt that the
empty Thai Place building up on 45 Hwy wasn't in the running..... an egg yolk ravioli at the new digs might take away the sting....
Best of luck to the Garrelts family and an outstanding staff!
We have always had great service. It's a little out of the way from where we live, but well worth the trip for the items we love on the menu which I suspect will be removed to create a "Northern Italian" focus. The change in the menu focus at Trezo Mare is part of the reason we don't go there anymore, even though it's less than five miles from my house.
So-long Ahi Tacos and Seared Scallops, we had a good run... sniff, sniff
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