Tide is Hi
The Collective EX building in the Crossroads has had a number of tenants pass through. Built to be a collaborative space for designers, the Collective building supplies creators with materials and encouragement… and coffee. When established roaster Thou Mayest moved out of the cafe space located in the building, HITIDES Coffee owners Michele and Johnny Dawbarn saw an opportunity to start up their own coffee concept: a third wave shop with a bit of their grown-up confectionery nod. Peek at the hot chocolate menu, doughnut offerings from Donutology, ice cream bar or the unique Meshuggah bagel lineup—perfect pairings to your tropical lattes and provisions.
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Bro! Bro? Bro!
With fast-casual food chains adding more locations across the city—we’re looking at you, Torchy’s—Hawaiian Bros is following suit on a large scale. The Hawaiian plate lunch spot announced on Monday that they plan to open seven more locations across Kansas City and seven in Texas. Hawaiian Bros owners and brothers Cameron and Tyler McNie brought knowledge from their Oregon family business, Hawaiian Time, to open the first Hawaiian Bros in Belton in 2017. When we talked to them back in 2019, they had just opened their Overland Park location and said that they were committed to making their business grow and expand all across the Midwest. Now, it looks like they have succeeded in doing just that and more. Among the new locations are spots in Shawnee, Ward Parkway Plaza, Midtown KCMO, Lenexa and another spot in Overland Park.
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The Condor Has Landed
With the corona closure of TikiCat, KC lost its flagship tiki bar. A new pop-up is helping to fill the niche. Condor’s Cove comes from Diana Condori, the Cat’s former bar manager. Condor’s Cove is popping up at slower nights inside Condori’s favorite spots, including Waldo Thai and Westport Cafe. Among the drinks featured at the first few events were a Bahamian Sky Juice, the classic Zombie and the highly ’grammable Banana Dolphin. Follow @condorscove.kc on Instagram for news and tickets.
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Bao Wow
The surest sign yet that the post-pandemic food world is coming fast? An exciting new opening in a well-known space. After establishing herself at Lenexa Public Market, Taiwanese street food chef Katie Liu-Sung is moving to the former home of the shuttered Bluestem, which was one of the city’s standout restaurants a generation ago. As first reported by Feast, Chewology will close in Lenexa in June and then move to Westport, where the larger space will allow Liu-Sung to expand beyond dumplings and into a more eclectic mix of dishes pulling from Chinese, Japanese, Korean and traditional Taiwanese cuisine. Bluestem’s owners told Feast that they had planned to close Bluestem regardless of the pandemic while Liu-Sung said that taking over the storied space prompted her to briefly rethink the direction of her project. “For a moment I wondered if I should lean into fine dining, but then I took a step back and realized that wasn’t me,” she told Feast. “In the end, my place will be less fine dining and more Ugly Delicious.”
