Cacao uproots from planned 51 Main, takes over former Kokopelli space in Overland Park
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Let’s just say there’s been a change in plans.
Four months ago, The Pitch caught up with local restaurateurs Victor Esqueda, owner of the Ixtapa restaurant, and Ivan Marquez, former owner of Frida’s Contemporary Mexican Cuisine. They had announced plans to open a new restaurant, Cacao, in one of the street-level retail spaces at 51 Main, the sleek apartment building and commercial property at the corner of 51st Street and Main.
But as Esqueda and Marquez prepared to sign their lease with developer Van Trust, they did some deeper math — and ended up with more digits after the dollar sign than they had expected.
“The more research we did,” Marquez tells me, “the more we understood just how costly the project was going to be. Just to install a hood — which needed to be ventilated in a way that wouldn’t cause problems with the apartments above our space — was going to cost $140,000. And add in the HVAC system, that would have been an additional $50,000 before we actually started the build-out. “
So Marquez and Esqueda started doing a little subtracting.
The first item to be eliminated was 51 Main. Then came certain elements of their Cacao concept, originally envisioned as a breakfast-lunch-and-dinner bistro with upscale dishes. Then came Missouri.
Marquez and Esqueda have signed a lease on the former Kokopelli Mexican Grill location, at 5200 West 95th Street in Overland Park. And the far-from-the-Plaza location means what the partners agree is a more accessible menu.
“Yes, we’ll have some Tex-Mex dishes,” Marquez says. “We want everyone to find something they like on our menu.”
Also off the agenda now: Esqueda’s 25-year-old nephew, Cristobal Matiella. The graduate of the Culinary Institute of Mexico, previously announced as Cacao’s executive chef, isn’t coming to OP.
The new restaurant — scheduled to open early in 2016 — will still be called Cacao.
