The Ng family will open the doors to the new Plaza Bo Lings on June 11.
When Fat City first reported - in December of 2010 - that restaurateur Richard Ng was moving his Plaza location across Brush Creek (from the Board of Trade Building at 4800 Main to the Skelly Building at 605 West 47th Street), Ng was hoping to have the new venue completed in 2011. Last September, Richard Ng told Fat City that "things were taking a little longer than we anticipated," but predicted the restaurant would be open for Chinese New Year of 2012.
The restaurant still isn't completed, and a peek into the unfinished but expansive dining area still looks pretty raw, although work crews are in the space daily. There's a lot of work involved in creating what may be, when it's completed, the Plaza's most palatial dining room. If the Board of Trade location - which was 20 years old - looked like a somewhat shabby set piece for a road production of Flower Drum Song, the new Bo Lings will be sumptuous and shiny, boasting sleek taupe ceramic floors and bar counters that look like marble, recessed colored lights under the counters that cast theatrical rainbows on the floors, a series of private dining rooms behind a screen of dramatic lattice doors, and even part of an old Buddhist temple that has been incorporated into the interior design.
Spin Neapolitan Pizza keeps rolling. The seven-year-old local pizza chain will open its fifth area location this Monday at 9474 Renner Boulevard in Lenexa. The latest Spin will feature the same menu as the existing restaurants, with a focus on pizzas, salad and gelato.
"This is a growing area and a great match for Spin," said co-owner Edwin Brownell in a release.
The new 3,500-square-foot restaurant in the Prairie Center shops seats 100 and has an outdoor patio with seating for an additional 48 people.
Oenophiles, this one's for you. Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant will open this fall in the former 810 Zone space at 4686 Broadway on the Plaza.
Every item on the menu comes with a suggested wine pairing, and next to the dining room is a "Napa-style" wine tasting room, as well as a retail gift shop where the winery's various vintages (which you had just been drinking with dinner) are sold. This is the first location for the Illinois-based chain in Missouri or Kansas.
Chef Shanita McAfee has brought her take on Southern cuisine to Cherry Street.
The best parts of a picnic - purple potato salad, deviled eggs and lemonade - have come to 2932 Cherry Street. Magnolia's Contemporary Southern Bistro, a modern take on Southern cuisine from caterer Shanita McAfee, opened last month in the former Cafe Seed space.
Back in January, Charles Ferruzza broke the story that Magnolia was going into the empty spot on Cherry Street, and McAfee promised that this wouldn't just be standard Southern fare.
"My dishes are Southern cuisine for the Food Network generation," McAfee told Ferruzza.
Farm to Market's trail mix bread is at Dean & Deluca and the Wednesday Waldo Farmers Market.
"There's a reason that San Francisco became the sourdough capital of the world, and that's because of the climate," Farm to Market bread company founder Mark Friend says. "It's hell for us in August here."
Bread does indeed prefer a climate more temperate than KC's volatile weather provides. So in lieu of moving to San Francisco, Farm to Market is doing the next best thing. The company has asked Michel Suas of the San Francisco Baking Institute to help design the layout of its new production plant, at 100 East 20th Street, to streamline the baking process, taking into account Kansas City's temperature extremes.
The plan right now is for Farm to Market to move from its current Waldo location (216 West 73rd Street) to downtown, possibly as early as late July, before the apex of this summer.
Farm to Market makes custom pretzel sticks for Affare.
The Fat City article in this week's print edition looks back at the local restaurants and food shops that have opened in the past two months, as well as a few of the places set to open this summer.
The newest restaurant in Kansas City proper is Haus, a sausage and beer emporium with an attached beer garden that opened this past Friday in Martini Corner. But the newest restaurant has been open for only 48 hours, and that's the Rusty Horse Tavern in Parkville (which Charles Ferruzza visited on the opening night).
As for Haus, the sausages at restaurateur Chris Seferyn's place come from chef Alex Pope's butcher shop, Local Pig. The fries are hand-cut, and the beer list (half of which resides on the bar's 20 taps) is predominantly Belgian, German and Austrian. Haus is open 3 p.m. - 1:30 a.m. Monday - Friday and 11 a.m. - 1:30 a.m. Saturday. Anybody had a chance to go to either of the uber new restaurants? A listing of other new spots follows.
Restaurateur Kevin Heaton found this treasure in an antique shop, and the new Rusty Horse Tavern is the result.
Parkville restaurateur Kevin Heaton - best known for his Stone Canyon Pizza operation on the riverfront hamlet's main drag - opened his newest venture, Rusty Horse Tavern, last night at 6325 Lewis Street in the Parkville Commons. The location had been formerly occupied by a less-than-memorable Mexican restaurant, Agave Mexican Grill & Cantina.
The space is clean and attractive with an appealing, semi-enclosed outdoor patio and a separate bar area for more raucous patrons. Families (and there were quite a few of them dining last night) congregate in the main dining room. Between the really loud music and the wailing of a couple of tiny infants, it was hard to conduct a conversation, but our server was chatty, so we let him do the talking.
General Manager Brian Wilson was a former partner at Blanc Burgers, but that's not the reason that the Rusty Horse Tavern menu (created by chef Lindsey Hintz) is so burger-heavy. Hey, it's a tavern!
It's about time you started training, and with Wing Busters & More coming to 1128 Oak next month, you'll have plenty of time to get in football-watching shape. The Grandview wing shop has more than 30 sauces (from mango hot to jalapeno BBQ to bourbon), bone-in and boneless wings and a menu full of burgers, fried fish and Philly steak sandwiches. Wing Busters is going to be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., serving breakfast, lunch and dessert.
Anybody been to the spot in Grandview (11902 Blue Ridge)?
You can get your snow cone fix five days a week now.
Everyone who has a trailer dreams of one day finding a home without wheels. For Lindsay Laricks, a more permanent home was just across the street. The owner of Fresher Than Fresh Snow Cones unveiled her new venture, Little Freshie (811 W. 17th St.), on the West Side last week.
Young chefs have long toiled in obscurity at the salad station, hoping that one day the fish guy doesn't show up and they get their shot. Nowadays, the future restaurateurs of Kansas City don't have to wait that long.
Witness Jeff Lefko - a Broadmoor Technical Center graduate - who is bringing Concept One, a farm-to-table pop-up restaurant, to the Dan Meiners Studio from June 18 through June 21. Lefko has partnered with fellow Broadmoor graduate Elise Landry on the planning and menu. Concept One will seat 65 people per night for a $60 three-course dinner. The Pitch caught up with Lefko and Landry via e-mail to find out about their project.
A block party in Westport and other weekend possibilities
Sama Zama serves serious snacks where a cinema once stood
Does it bother you to dine alone?
Aaron Confessori plants his Boot in Westport
Chef Charles d'Ablaing wins 2012 Golden Fork Award
Walking the aisles at Natural Grocers
Parkville's Rusty Horse Tavern is now open and serving burgers and beer
New Plaza Bo Lings opens on June 11