Normally, when I hear a food influencer describe their restaurant experience with the phrase “it’s a vibe,” I want to throw my phone into the Missouri River. But as I sit at Triune, an exciting fine-casual restaurant that recently opened in the Westside’s former Screenland Armour Theatre building, flanked between a wall collage made of torn pages from art magazines and a view of the Kauffman Center, I struggle to find a more fitting description.
Our server, a clear hospitality industry veteran, is cool, calm and collected as she leads us through the menu, answering questions and giving us recommendations. At her guidance, I order a mezcal cocktail, and she heads back to the emerald tiled bar lined with mustard-yellow leather seats. The bar stands in front of a large brick wall aged by faded patches of paint that hint at the building’s past incarnations as a theater and, before that, a cold storage warehouse. I can’t help but notice the industrial gray chairs at each table. They’re oddly comfortable, almost chic, especially for being purchased from a Payless ShoeSource warehouse sale. The atmospheric buzz is akin to the feel of a hot-spot restaurant in Chicago’s West Loop, a sort of everyone-who’s-anyone moment.
Our server returns with the drink. The smoky mezcal is pleasantly rounded out with honey, rosemary and clarified watermelon, and I must acquiesce to the obvious: For all intents and purposes, Triune is a vibe.
Owner Steven Blakley alluded to this phrase, although more eloquently so, when I interviewed him prior to Triune’s opening. His goal was to create “vibrational dining” by combining three important elements (hence, the restaurant’s name). Triune (pronounced try-oohn) means three in one, or a trinity in unity. By curating a lively atmosphere, stellar hospitality and delicious food and drink, an exceptional restaurant experience should be the result. So far, Triune excels at atmosphere and hospitality. The food remains a work in progress.
Triune is the first restaurant to open in the former Screenland Armour building bought by Denver developer Ken Wolf in 2021. His goal is to turn the building into a restaurant destination. It’s also the second brick-and-mortar to open under Blakley’s restaurant group UHungry?, the first being Sauced, an easily overlooked but fantastic burger stand tucked away in the Crossroads.
Blakley has a knack for recruiting people at the top of their game in the industry, like his Sauced co-owner Jayaun Smith, a notable local chef who has collaborated with Chiefs players to advertise game-day eats. Triune’s bar manager is Evelyn Torres-Chico, who previously worked at the Crossroads Hotel, and Whitney Coleman, the maitre’d, brings experience from the Crossroads Hotel and the former Rieger restaurant.
Triune’s chef Rodolfo Rodriguez, who cut his teeth at meat-forward establishments like Blu Hwy and The Capital Grille, has created an American fusion menu. Mainly composed of appetizers and shareables with a handful of larger entrees, it offers grilled octopus, Cubano sliders, elotes (commonly referred to as Mexican street corn), and shrimp and grits all on the same page. Right below the offering of Mediterranean-inspired meatballs sits a smashburger appetizer.
There’s nothing wrong with a menu that offers a little something for everyone, but with consistent mistakes, like lack of salt and dry meat, plaguing otherwise great dishes, it’s possible the kitchen is in over its head.
More often than not, proteins were cooked well, but their accompaniments were lacking. The parsnip puree and espresso orange demi-glace that accompanied the short ribs were disappointingly sparse. That, and the roasted duck, could have shined if they’d only had more salt. The scallops, though seared to a beautiful crisp golden brown on each side, sat on a bed of diced squash that also needed salt, and their non-uniform dicing meant some were overcooked while others were al dente.
Foods that were supposed to be crispy, like the skin on the duck and the chickpeas with the scallops, weren’t, and although the pork in the Cubano sliders was delicious, it was overshadowed by hefty, dry buns (Blakley says they’re working on standardizing the recipe).
There were some solid hits throughout the menu, though. The wine poached pear salad with goat cheese was just plain delightful, the mascarpone crab dip was gooey and satisfying, and the elotes, served as quartered charred cobs and drizzled with jalapeno crema and a chili-lime salt, were an innovative take on a trending dish. Homey dishes given an upscale twist, like the deviled eggs topped with old-fashioned cured salmon and house fries served with saffron aioli, feel like Triune is giving us what we want in a way we didn’t know we wanted.
The kofta meatballs are the menu’s standout star. Paired with whipped goat cheese and pineapple chutney, the meatballs were excellent, and the combination managed to almost mask the dry meatballs.
Call me an optimist, but even with the hit-or-miss menu, I have confidence that Blakley’s team can adjust and fine tune to get to where they need to be.
In our interview prior to Triune’s opening, I seriously wondered how Blakley was going to bring “vibrational dining” to fruition. He wants Triune to deliver a dining experience not common in KC—a fluid experience that expertly traverses the space between casual and upscale. After hanging in Triune the past month, I think I get it. There aren’t many places like it. Triune is probably most comparable to the likes of Michael Smith’s Extra Virgin in the Crossroads, maybe even The Campground in the West Bottoms. It’s cool and dedicated to its artful, stylish and sophisticated atmosphere while still prioritizing great hospitality.
Sure, there are spots like Novel and Fox and Pearl that prioritize chef-driven food while being open to the casual dining experience, but Triune manages to be different. This local, chef-driven restaurant is more than a vibe. It’s vibrant. It has the flexibility to be a stop along the way on a night out, maybe before you head to the Kauffman or a show at Grinders. Maybe you grab a drink at Bar Medici then walk to Triune for dinner. There’s excitement in the air at Triune, and once the kitchen figures out the kinks, the formula of three becoming one will be complete.
