Now you can feast on filet mignon and lobster rolls while tucked inside a bank vault.
After two years in development, this former bank on a strategic intersection of downtown Parkville, is now fine-dining restaurant The Bistro at Prima Facie, as well as The Market at Prima Facie, a casual breakfast and lunch spot with a drive-thru.
Parkville residents Leon and Heather Versfeld purchased the building, at First Street and Missouri 9, in 2022, and have since spent about $3.5 million renovating the space, that includes turning an old bank vault into a dining room.
Leon is an immigration attorney who moved his office from the Country Club Plaza to the second floor of the building, above the restaurant. Heather has worked in the hospitality industry, and was a commercial and private flight attendant.
Leon originally planned for the entire building to be his office. But it was a bit too big and had a drive-thru on the north side. Heather proposed a little drive-thru coffee shop for area residents, especially parents on-the-go and the “thousands of people who pass by every day on the way to work and on the way home.”
“Leon is a visionary. He took that little seed that was planted and exploded it into a restaurant,” she says. “We prayed about it and asked the Lord to direct us. The doors just continued to open and open and open.”
They named it Prima Facie – a Latin legal term basically meaning “at first sight” or “based on first impression” – since they plan to “get it right every single time. Keep the quality high every time,” she says.
Executive chef James McBride was born and raised in Hutchinson, Kansas. He became interested in cooking while working at an Albuquerque, New Mexico, cafe. Then he joined Newport Grill in Wichita, Kansas, moving up the ranks from sous chef to chef de cuisine. He also was an executive chef for the Ambassador Hotel Wichita. He is a strong advocate of sourcing clean and using local products.
His dinner menu includes a variety of small plates, boards, salads and soups, pastas, entrees and desserts.
Entrees include trout almondine, the Bistro Steak (flat iron steak with truffle fries, basil gremolata and compound butter), filet mignon (with mascarpone whipped potato, asparagus, bordelaise sauce and tallow maitre d butter), and acorn squash gnocchi. Under pastas look for a lobster gemelli with a garlic cream sauce.
For small plates, it has items such as crab cakes, lobster rolls, steak tartare and calamari.
Other menu items include salads and soups, and desserts – currently a warm phyllo-wrapped brownie a la mode, and crème brûlée.
Many of the menu items will be changed out seasonally.
The owners hired Overland Park’s PB&J Restaurants Inc. as a consultant.
The former bank’s first floor has a main dining room with large windows looking out on First Street, a lengthy bar with views of the open kitchen, a private dining room with baby grand piano just outside for live music, and seating in the former bank vault.
The mezzanine has been turned into a private dining area with large windows overlooking the main dining room, and an outdoor patio.
Dinner hours are currently from 3 to 9 pm, Mondays through Thursdays, and 3 to 10 pm, Fridays and Saturdays. It is closed Sundays.
Happy hour is from 3 to 9 pm, Mondays through Thursdays – half-price small plates, cocktail and beer specials.
Lunch and weekend brunch will be added later this year.
The Market at Prima Facie, a casual breakfast and lunch spot, opened in mid-September on the north side of the building.
Its menu includes egg and cheddar muffins, breakfast burritos, quiche Lorraine, pastries, smoked salmon nicoise; chicken noodle soup or soup of the day (such as cream of mushroom, French onion, and a carrot curry that recently sold out fast); and sandwiches including the chicken salad (with apples and dried cranberries on a freshly-baked croissant), or roasted turkey (with apricot preserves, peppadew pepper, and brie spread on a ciabatta bun).
Sides include fries, fruit, chips, side salad and soup.
It also has coffee drinks, tea, boba, smoothies, kombucha, and “refreshers” such as a Blueberry Palmer, or blood orange basil.
If customers don’t want to dine in the bank vault, they can also order and pay at the former bank drive-thru. In nicer weather, a garage door opens up between the dining room and patio.
Hours: 7 am to 5 pm, Mondays through Saturdays. It is closed Sundays.
Since opening in mid-September, some of the most popular items have been the chicken salad, blood orange refresher, and power bowl with couscous, chickpea, corn, cucumber, tomato and citrus za’atar vinaigrette (customers can add grilled chicken or smoked salmon).
“We’ve been very busy, very busy,” says Heather Versfeld. “The planning. The hard work. Some stressful nights and days. Not one but two restaurants. But to see it all come together. Wow, surreal. Leon and I are so full of joy we can’t describe.”