Streetcar Grille & Tavern moves north
The popular Crossroads sports bar Streetcar Grille and Tavern is expanding into the Northland.
The new restaurant opened in October (8340 N. Broadway, KCMO) across from Metro North Crossing.
“We have great partners invested and continue to hire great staff and treat them like family,” says John Glenn, operating partner. “We want to be the best sports bar and grill in the area. That’s our goal.”
The Northland menu will look much like the original restaurant’s and will include specialty burgers such as the River Market burger with barbecue brisket, cheddar and crispy onion straws. Its Twisted Grilled Cheese has pepper jack, cheddar, horseradish-chive cheese, jalapeno jam and fried cheese curds. It also has salads such as a grilled salmon Greek with housemade avocado dressing, a variety of macaroni and cheese dishes, and chicken and waffles. The new location will have 22 beers on tap and two specialty J.Rieger & Co. cocktails.
As for future a Streetcar Grille expansion in the metro? “That’s always an option,” Glenn says.
Sierra Grill goes casual
The owners of Lenexa’s upscale Sierra Grill are expanding with a more casual quick-service barbecue restaurant.
Ryan and Maricris Edwards, who opened Sierra Grill in 2017, opened their new spot called Sierra BBQ (11099 Lackman Road, Lenexa) at the end of October.
Sierra BBQ doesn’t have a bar, but it does carry canned and bottled beers, as well as canned cocktails.
Customers will order at the counter, and servers will deliver their food to the table for those dining in. The restaurant has about 50 seats but is geared toward take-out and delivery. It also will offer catering.
The building that housed Aspens will soon become an Irish pub
A longtime Kansas City restaurateur is moving into the beleaguered Overland Park restaurant building that once housed Aspens Restaurant and Lounge.
Ray Dunlea plans to open his popular Conroy’s Public House in the former Aspens building (6995 W. 151st St., Overland Park) with his wife, Molly, in mid-November.
Aspen Vaughn closed her namesake restaurant more than a year ago, after a controversy surrounding herself and Patrick Mahomes’ brother, Jackson, made running the business difficult, she told KMBC9 news at the time.
“It is kind of an iconic building,” Ray says. “It’s beautiful. I’m 71 years old. It was the last thing I wanted. But I went out to see it and walked through it. Molly and I looked at each other and said, ‘We’ve got to do it.’ The community out there wants a good bar, good restaurant with an Irish theme.”
The three Conroy’s Public House restaurants—in Leawood, Overland Park and Westwood—are known for their traditional Irish fare including fish and chips, Reubens and cottage pie. The menu also includes chicken fried chicken, chicken curry, burgers, pizza, pork belly lettuce wraps, wings and fish tacos.
Earlier this year, a Yelp story on “50 states, 50 pies you need to try” featured the savory Fisherman’s pie at Conroy’s. It comes with salmon, cod and shrimp in a cream sauce and is topped with a light puff pastry.
Ray has been operating Irish restaurants and bars in the KC area for two decades, including the former The Gaf in Waldo and Brady’s Public House on Troost.
The keys to Conroy’s success? “Irish is all heart and soul, and we put heart and soul in everything we do,” Molly says.
Street tacos come to Parkville
Since Rosa Parra started managing Stone Canyon Pizza Co. in downtown Parkville six years ago, she’s had her eye on a corner building across the street.
Restaurants came and went in that spot.
“I thought Parkville deserved better,” says Parra, who lives 10 minutes from the downtown district. “We are a tight community. We all know each other.”
So when it became vacant again, she decided it was time to make her move. She signed a lease for K-Tacos & More with her husband, Guillermo Ramos, who has operated a Kansas City, Kansas, restaurant with his brother for 14 years.
The couple spent a month renovating the space in colors inspired by the Kansas City Current—a shout-out to women being in charge, Parra says.
A local artist did the murals of a large Day of the Dead skull, flowers and Alebrijes (Mexican spirit animals), including a long-tailed cat, a bright yellow armadillo and a coiled snake. Soon, the artist will add a portrait of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.
Parra has been in the restaurant business for 20 years, starting as a server, then bartender and manager. “My journey in the restaurant business has been one of the most rewarding experiences,” Parra says. “There is a beauty in it that some people don’t see.”
Teenagers who worked for her went off to college and came back to take “big jobs,” she says.
“They come back and say I taught them to be responsible,” Parra says. “Restaurant jobs teach you to have people skills, multi-tasking, how to deal with angry customers. You have to make solutions on the spot.”
Brookside’s Flying Horse Taproom closes shop
Trey and Kelsey Sabates opened Flying Horse Taproom (600 E. 63rd St., Suite 100, KCMO) in 2018. They had planned to call it Brookside Pizza and Taproom, but it was on the site of an old Mobil gas station, which had a bright-red flying horse as its logo. So they changed the name in homage to its history.
The restaurant closed temporarily in November of last year for a refresh that included new furniture and paint, new menu items and a new service model—more of a dining experience than a neighborhood bar. Chef James Landis came on board to not only run the kitchen but also host beer and wine dinners and serve as general manager. The restaurant reopened in January.
But the refresh wasn’t enough. “It has run its course,” says Trey Sabates. “We need to focus on what’s working and where we see the growth.”
So the couple will continue to focus on their Brookside Wine and Spirits business next door. They opened it in 2012 and have since expanded into a bar service company for weddings, along with corporate and special events.
