Big Country
Post-pandemic bar-hopping is sure to be wild in Westport, and that’s before a bar owner’s plans to expand the neighborhood’s crowd with a massive three-story country bar in the former Californos space. Johnny Kaw’s Outback will hold up to fifteen-hundred people, plus more on the patio, according to the Star. The Outback is set to open this summer and have pool tables, a dance floor and a mechanical bull that will be named “Bull Snyder.”
Fast Chicken
Stroud’s is returning to northeast Johnson County, with a new “express” style carryout concept in Mission. The beloved local chain famous for its pan-fried chicken closed a sit-down eatery on Shawnee Mission Parkway in late 2019, but will return sometime in the next two months with a scaled-down delivery and carryout operation with no inside seating in the Mission Mart Shopping Center. Customers are encouraged to order online in advance. Besides two and three-piece meals (served with an assortment of sides and cinnamon rolls), Stroud’s Express will have family meals to serve four or five people.
Prime Territory
Another top-tier national chain is coming to Country Club Plaza, with the arrival of Ocean Prime. The seafood-focused modern American restaurant is known for its sushi and steaks, including some show-stopping dishes like the three-level Smoking Shellfish Tower, but the 8,500 square foot KC location will be notable for also having a massive 5,500 square foot rooftop lounge, to be called Prime Social. An opening date has not yet been set.
Double Bluff
Kansas City’s newest brewery comes from… St. Joe? Well, yes, as River Bluff Brewing is coming south on I-29 to open a satellite location, River Bluff at River Market, inside the Kansas City Water Department Building on the riverfront. The spin-off location will open sometime this spring, with the owners looking to recreate the vibe of their location upriver. “It’ll be a different place, but we’re hoping to take our feel, the way we run things, the way we like our customers to feel, the way we treat our customers and we want to do it down there as well,” co-owner Edison Derr told the St. Joseph News-Press.
