Cast-Off Cafes
Restaurateurs Barton and Shelly Bloom had an almost immediate hit with Tomfooleries (see review) when it opened in 1992. However, their more sophisticated follow-up restaurant, Forks in the Air, lasted only twenty months after its 1995 debut in Leawood’s Hawthorne Plaza. The problem might have been with the restaurant’s location at the far east side of the shopping strip rather than with its concept. After all, the restaurant that replaced Forks in the Air, a dining room and jazz club called Trumpets, blew itself out, only to be followed by yet another themed restaurant, the comfort-food venue Cast Iron Café (11942 Roe). The new place is the first foray across the Mexican culinary border for Ed Geiselman, founder of the Jose Pepper’s mini-empire.
But rumors are flying that Geiselman is negotiating with former American Restaurant chefs Michael Smith and Debbie Gold to either let them take over Cast Iron Café for their planned 40 Sardines restaurant or work as creative consultants to help him revamp the space (which is still an operating restaurant) in a different format.
“We’re still just discussing ideas,” says Geiselman. “Nothing has been decided yet.”
Gold says she and Smith are looking at several locations for 40 Sardines. “We’re eager to open a place as soon as we can,” she says. “We’re doing different projects, but it’s kind of crazy for us now, not having an actual job.”
Pete Mackey, 29, started his new job February 1, when he became owner of the former Supreme Bean Coffee House. The baby-faced, tattooed Mackey got his degree in graphic design but has spent much of his career in the restaurant business, including a stint as assistant restaurant manager at the Park Place Hotel. He had worked part-time at the Supreme Bean, and when he discovered that owner Terry Maturo was going to sell the place, located in a cozy 110-year-old house at 1615 West 39th Street, he offered to buy the business.
Prior to its reign as Supreme Bean, the location had been home to two earlier coffee vendors, Cantata and Pi Kappa Cino. Mackey’s biggest alteration will be the name: He’s calling it Crave Café. He will also convert the formerly smoke-free upstairs rooms to a smoking section. “Eighty percent of all coffee drinkers are smokers,” he insists.
But the décor (such as it is) remains the same, and Mackey will continue to host art exhibitions by local artists.
“No one’s going to see any drastic changes here,” says Mackey, who lives nearby. “We want to make everyone happy.”
Was anyone happy that Sidney’s (the 24-hour diner at 3623 Broadway, in the former location of Chubby’s and the original Sidney’s before that) closed suddenly? I hadn’t eaten there in years but was sad to know that there was one less place to get a plate of tater tots at 3 a.m. You just never know when you’re going to get a craving.
