KCRag Forum

Food was consistent but the heart of the place seemed empty after Mia passed.

The Business Journal is reporting that Blue Koi is permanently closing its' 39th Street location due to staffing shortages.

Wow. Wait, closing 39th but keeping Mission Farms??

Blue Koi helped get me through the closure of my beloved Po's Dumpling Bar. Now 39th will be devoid of delicious steamed noodle treats...

rxlexi wrote: ↑Fri May 28, 2021 11:40 am

The Business Journal is reporting that Blue Koi is permanently closing its' 39th Street location due to staffing shortages.

Wow. Wait, closing 39th but keeping Mission Farms??

Blue Koi helped get me through the closure of my beloved Po's Dumpling Bar. Now 39th will be devoid of delicious steamed noodle treats...

My family is devistated.

Star is saying that the Red Dragon on 8th Street downtown has closed (confirmed by Yelp). It's been ages since I've eaten there but I remember thinking it was pretty good. Reviews seem mixed though (3.5 average on Yelp).

It wasn't good. Really fell off lately.

I can probably thank Red Dragon for a pound or two of my belly. When I worked nights at The Star 15 years ago, I would get their chicken fried rice. They would fill a large styrofoam takeout tray with what felt like a few pounds of fried rice, and I'd eat the whole thing sitting at my desk. The thought makes me a bit queasy now, but the things you can do when you're in your early 20s...

i don't have any concrete information on this but i think grad school is donezo. drove by the other day and their signage was always terrible so not 100% sure on this but i think their sign was gone. their springfield location has been active on social media for a while now whereas the KC location seems totally dead.

i'm mostly posting this in an attempt to reverse jinx. this was a really nice addition to the crossroads. it'd be a bummer if we have in fact lost it.

I figured Grad School has been done for like a year. That location is so cursed, the only thing that could make it successful is if Q39 or Hawaiian Bros went in

Can't help but wonder how big of a role covid had on closing the doors to this Prairie Village icon of 41 years. Tatsu's had some of the best dishes in the city. I wish him the best on his well deserved retirement!

https://shawneemissionpost.com/2021/06/ ... ng-123638/

I think Grad School would like to come back to KC but are focusing on getting things stabilized in Springfield first. I have no idea if they'll be back to that location or not, but they had to be making it work there, they were always pretty busy. Would suck if they're gone for good, that place was great.

mean wrote: ↑Fri Jun 04, 2021 2:11 pm I think Grad School would like to come back to KC but are focusing on getting things stabilized in Springfield first. I have no idea if they'll be back to that location or not, but they had to be making it work there, they were always pretty busy. Would suck if they're gone for good, that place was great.

I really enjoyed it but didn't make it there as much as I'd like to have done.

^ Wow.

Tatsu's was an institution in South KC and the Leawood-MH-PV suburbs. Huge 1980s scene. (And neither the décor nor menu have really changed since the 1980s). I remember many winter-break evenings during the late 1980s and early 1990s, seeing alumni and parents from high school (SME '86). This was still the period when all generations dressed in suit-and-tie for a fancy dinner. Women in full makeup, 1980s big hair, and lots of jewelry. This place served as a counterpoint to some of the other suburban standbys like Costello's Greenhouse or EBT. Tatsu's provided an alternative to driving downtown (places like The American Restaurant, Peppercorn Duck Club, Starkers, la Mediterranee, or any of the formal Plaza restaurants that opened and closed in quick succession, like Venue).

The potage de crabe au sherry is a namesake. As were the escalope de veau normande and the magret de canard. The food was always somewhat under-seasoned, but it certainly made up for that in its richness, classically sauced. The owner/ chef has been cooking for 40+ years, which is a long time for any one person. I wish him a wonderful retirement. Still, this is another vanishing link to that lost and faintly glamorous world of KC in the 80s.

herrfrank wrote: ↑Fri Jun 04, 2021 2:43 pm ^ Wow.

Tatsu's was an institution in South KC and the Leawood-MH-PV suburbs. Huge 1980s scene. (And neither the décor nor menu have really changed since the 1980s). I remember many winter-break evenings during the late 1980s and early 1990s, seeing alumni and parents from high school (SME '86). This was still the period when all generations dressed in suit-and-tie for a fancy dinner. Women in full makeup, 1980s big hair, and lots of jewelry. This place served as a counterpoint to some of the other suburban standbys like Costello's Greenhouse or EBT. Tatsu's provided an alternative to driving downtown (places like The American Restaurant, Peppercorn Duck Club, Starkers, la Mediterranee, or any of the formal Plaza restaurants that opened and closed in quick succession, like Venue).

The potage de crabe au sherry is a namesake. As were the escalope de veau normande and the maigret de canard. The food was always somewhat under-seasoned, but it certainly made up for that in its richness, classically sauced. The owner/ chef has been cooking for 40+ years, which is a long time for any one person. I wish him a wonderful retirement. Still, this is another vanishing link to that lost and faintly glamorous world of KC in the 80s.

Where was La Mediterranee? I remember the restaurant well but just cannot place it in space. Tatsu's bucked the trend in those days because oppressive Kansas liquor laws kept the better restaurants out of Johnson County and along State Line and the in the Plaza.

covid many times is now just the last straw, why stay in if you had a long successful business and ready to retire soon OR a business that wasn't that successful anyways.

La Mediterranee was on the Plaza, corner of 48th and Pennsylvania (down the street and a world away from the House of Toy). It and Jasper's were THE restaurants in the late 1970s after River Quay blew up. Then in the early 1980s, Tatsu's opened and the Hyatt opened with Skies and Peppercorn Duck Club. The American Restaurant was of course always superb dining, but it didn't hold the trendsetters once Crown Center started to age. So in the 1980s there was a bit of a gap. By the late 1980s, KC started to come into its own, in terms of foodies and restaurants, and many new options really blossomed.

But in the 1980s there was this gap between our local KC institutions for "middle market fine dining" (Italian Gardens; Stephenson's Apple Farm; Golden Ox) and upscale fine dining. Tatsu's fit into that latter group. The liquor vs. wine-only problem was eventually resolved (I think in 1987*) with liquor-by-the-drink. But it is telling how few fine dining restaurants would operate on the Kansas side until the revenue from liquor sales was assured. Tatsu always offered some inventive wine-based "cocktails," and he kept his wine prices reasonable so larger parties could buy a second bottle without feeling like spendthrifts.

*all over Kansas there were taverns selling 3.2% beer (and the law allowed 18 y.o. access). The national change to the 55 speed limit in the 1980s was accompanied by the mandatory 21-y.o. drinking laws (some sort of bipartisan trade-off), and that, plus liquor-by-the-drink, spelled the end to the 3.2 taverns. Ruthie's in Mission was where all of the high school kids would gather... such a different world.

Highlander wrote: ↑Fri Jun 04, 2021 2:51 pm

herrfrank wrote: ↑Fri Jun 04, 2021 2:43 pm ^ Wow.

Tatsu's was an institution in South KC and the Leawood-MH-PV suburbs. Huge 1980s scene. (And neither the décor nor menu have really changed since the 1980s). I remember many winter-break evenings during the late 1980s and early 1990s, seeing alumni and parents from high school (SME '86). This was still the period when all generations dressed in suit-and-tie for a fancy dinner. Women in full makeup, 1980s big hair, and lots of jewelry. This place served as a counterpoint to some of the other suburban standbys like Costello's Greenhouse or EBT. Tatsu's provided an alternative to driving downtown (places like The American Restaurant, Peppercorn Duck Club, Starkers, la Mediterranee, or any of the formal Plaza restaurants that opened and closed in quick succession, like Venue).

The potage de crabe au sherry is a namesake. As were the escalope de veau normande and the magret de canard. The food was always somewhat under-seasoned, but it certainly made up for that in its richness, classically sauced. The owner/ chef has been cooking for 40+ years, which is a long time for any one person. I wish him a wonderful retirement. Still, this is another vanishing link to that lost and faintly glamorous world of KC in the 80s.

Where was La Mediterranee? I remember the restaurant well but just cannot place it in space. Tatsu's bucked the trend in those days because oppressive Kansas liquor laws kept the better restaurants out of Johnson County and along State Line and the in the Plaza.

brewcrew1000 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 04, 2021 8:42 am I figured Grad School has been done for like a year. That location is so cursed, the only thing that could make it successful is if Q39 or Hawaiian Bros went in

I didn't even realize they had ever even finally opened.

I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else yet, but the Lutfi's on Main closed for good a couple weeks ago.

Thought big first Fridays was going to die off. Community Association just received a festival permit for the next one so maybe not

https://compasskc.kcmo.org/EnerGov_Prod ... b=moreinfo

Johnny Cs in town pavilion joins the list. They were recently still open but sign on the door now. That makes 4 in that building that closed.

Ruby jeans was the only real loss.

charisse is back open for lunch carryout only for now. menu looks similarish but downscaled a bit. some weird additions. interested in seeing how this goes.