Fat City finally has an answer for the readers who have been bombarding me with the same question for the last couple of weeks, including today's e-mail from Chris Whitmore: "What's going on with the Snak Shack in downtown Overland Park? It's been closed for a month now. Do you know if it will be reopening?"
Yes, as it turns out. According to Robin Fish, the executive director of the Downtown Overland Park Partnership Inc., the organic burger shop at 8039 Santa Fe Drive has a new tenant, Rayna Andrew, who plans to reopen the restaurant next week. "We had hoped to be open on Monday," says Andrews, who will operate the Snak Shack with her husband, Matt Tolle. "But it looks like we'll do a soft opening on Tuesday and be officially open for business on Wednesday."
Fat City received a phone call this week from Ritchie, who was introduced to the Chapala restaurant at 5224 Truman Road after reading last month's review of the restaurant in The Pitch.
"I've eaten at Chapala several times since I first read about it and I love it," he said, "but my wife and I took some friends to the restaurant last Saturday night, and it was closed. Did the restaurant close for good?"
Yes, Fat City readers, someone -- Mike in Prairie Village -- sent an e-mail asking me where a large group of adults could take a teenager and two of her friends for a "Sweet Sixteen" dinner gathering -- this Sunday.
I can tell you that if I were desperately looking for the answer to this question, the last person I might ask would be me. I wasn't even around for my own younger sister's "Sweet Sixteen" party (and she's never forgiven me, either), and it's not like I sit around and watch the Disney Channel for creative inspiration ... or anything else.
After seeing last week's post featuring a list of church fish frys, Fat City reader Ryan in Olathe wrote us with this question:
"I'm from Omaha and there are one or two fish frys that are quite the party. Basically, you wait in line for 2-3 hours, drink beer the whole time and then eat fish (which, by that time, due to a combination of drunkenness and hunger, tastes awesome)."
A couple of nights ago, I noticed that several large windows facing Walnut Street at Thirsty's Cantina in the River Market were boarded up with plywood. If you didn't know that the restaurant and saloon wasn't closed -- and it isn't -- you might think it was.
A Fat City reader also wanted to know what was behind the boarded-up windows. "I heard they were smashed," she wrote, "by a disgruntled employee."
So just when, several Fat City readers have asked us, is the new Drunken Fish Sushi Restaurant and Lounge opening in the former Bice Bistro space in the Power & Light District?
"It's very close, just a couple of weeks away," says Allison Schiller, spokeswoman for the St. Louis-based restaurant group. (It's too early to really call the company a chain: There are three locations in St. Louis; Kansas City will be the fourth and the first outside the River City.)
Fat City reader Linda is celebrating her birthday this weekend and wrote us to ask where she could gather a group of friends together for dessert, coffee and liquor. She was thinking, maybe, of an attractive restaurant lounge with a beautiful bar and a nice assortment of desserts so that her friends could order what they wanted instead of sharing a traditional birthday cake.
I had a few ideas for a selection of different venues that might fit the bill.
One of my co-workers at The Pitch has been wary of cheesecake since childhood: "Someone offered me a piece of cheesecake when I was little and I thought, Why would anyone put cheese into a cake?"
I had the same reaction at probably the same age. But a friend of my father's owned the neighborhood delicatessen, and they both kept cajoling me to try the cheesecake. "It's made with cream cheese," my father said, "not cheddar or Swiss." I was finally persuaded to taste it when Mr. Hochman poured something even more alluring on top of the creamy white pastry -- red cherry sauce.
It was delicious!
Fat City reader Reg Robertson of Overland Park wrote to ask this: "What, in your opinion, are the three best sushi restaurants in Kansas City?"
Well, Reg, I like sushi well enough, but I'll confess that I probably lack the true passion for the dish that many of our Fat City readers have for truly glorious sushi. We'll let them weigh in here.
In the meantime, I can list a few places I like to go for a sushi fix.
Milk & Honey has the best I've had in KC. http://milkandhoneykc.com/
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