KCRag Forum

I concur, I am often looking for a place to grab something I can walk with. Not all of us have time to sit down and order from a server.

Agreed

Downtown used to have a lot of small 'eat it and beat it' places during the Golden Years, like Lil' Jakes BBQ. Still common in older urban cities, it's part of the pedestrian sidewalk fabric (though foodie trucks have offset it a bit). KC needs to embrace that again as pedestrian traffic improves.

But the BK site in P&L is plenty large enough for a Shake Shack with a decent amount of seating. I was surprised to see that most restaurant sites in P&L were suburban sized rather than more like that BK site. It's high rent overhead during slow periods. Next time a large restaurant site dies in P&L, they should cut it in half and make 2 restaurant sites - more manageable rent for operators and more choices for patrons.

Wow, Chefburger... I used to work at one of their businesses and I'm pretty sure I heard accusations of wage/tip theft from people working there. It was years ago but iirc the accusations were that the business would take tips and pay them out weekly or biweekly in their paychecks, and people were realizing that the tip outs were coming up short. They collected tips this way at my job too, but our shit was overpriced so we didn't make much in tips, and I was young/dumb so I'm not sure I would have noticed. All I will say is that in my experience working for that group, the tips weren't being collected/allocated and the paychecks weren't being written by the investor mother.

Wasn't chef burger the place with boozy milkshakes too?

yup

Makes me remember some of the other tenants from when we started. Remember Fran's?

beautyfromashes wrote:Makes me remember some of the other tenants from when we started. Remember Fran's?

I was thinking about them just a couple of days ago. The food wasn't spectacular and it was pricey, but it was nice having a 24-hour food option other than Town Topic.

The hours were really all Fran's had going for it. The food was edible after a night of boozing.

mean wrote:The hours were really all Fran's had going for it. The food was edible after a night of boozing.

It was a modern day Nichols. Ate their once. Incredible indifference by the service staff. Watched our waiter totally ignore us while he chatted up several waitresses. Took him forever to get to us, food came out cold, never asked how anything was, waited forever for the check. He acted pissed at us for interrupting his conversations. The place had maybe 4 other occupied tables while we were there. The food was ok (albeit cold) but the service convinced me that one visit was enough.

I know I'm in the minority, but I actually like this area. I hope something better can go in than bk. Count me in on the need for "food to walk with" group. Also a 24/7 place, even with average food.

The lack of walk-up counter-type takeout restaurants was one of the biggest complaints I had when I lived downtown. I got really spoiled living in New York City, when I hardly ever cooked at home.

FangKC wrote:The lack of walk-up counter-type takeout restaurants was one of the biggest complaints I had when I lived downtown. I got really spoiled living in New York City, when I hardly ever cooked at home.

There's plenty of old space in a lot of buildings to do this today. I imagine this is something we'll see more of with more workers coming downtown.

HyVee does this model in their stores and it doesn't take a lot of space. It really depends on how much variety you offer to eat. I picture a space with a 10x10 walk in, a cleanup area, oven, grill/stovetop, a little prep counter, soda fountain and a register with under and over storage. That's only a few hundred square feet or space.

Do you think Cordish would give me cheap rent for the 14th and Walnut ‘ticket booth’ they never use? I think I could turn that into a fairly good lunch sandwich business.

Back in the day in DT KCK there was a tiny space called "Art's Seven Stool Cafe."

BK should just be a quiktrip without the gas station

flyingember wrote:

FangKC wrote:The lack of walk-up counter-type takeout restaurants was one of the biggest complaints I had when I lived downtown. I got really spoiled living in New York City, when I hardly ever cooked at home.

There's plenty of old space in a lot of buildings to do this today. I imagine this is something we'll see more of with more workers coming downtown.

HyVee does this model in their stores and it doesn't take a lot of space. It really depends on how much variety you offer to eat. I picture a space with a 10x10 walk in, a cleanup area, oven, grill/stovetop, a little prep counter, soda fountain and a register with under and over storage. That's only a few hundred square feet or space.

Does anyone know if the Fairfax Lofts/Hotel Indigo building is going to rent out the former retail spaces, or has Hotel Indigo absorbed those spaces for their use? It would be great if they were rented out again to smaller takeout places.

The Midland Office Tower also has several retail spaces at street level. I don't know if they are configured in a way to accept kitchens.

Cordish whiffs on shake shack and plaza gets it according to a Reddit post. Shame

KCPowercat wrote:Cordish whiffs on shake shack and plaza gets it according to a Reddit post. Shame

Can you share a link?

That's a shame if true, downtown really needs more fast casual like Shake Shack or Earl of Sandwich.