Downtown, Unchained
Most of the people I know in the restaurant business believe that most, if not all, of the new dining venues planned for the Cordish Company’s downtown entertainment neighborhood, the Power & Light District, will be national chain operations. The restaurant operations most frequently mentioned on the Baltimore-based development company’s Web site include the Hard Rock Café, the Red Star Tavern (a Chicago-based chain that already opened and closed a location in the Northland’s Shops at Boardwalk), and the Dallas-based Sambuca Jazz Café.
What the hell — because the suburbs are already saturated with chain restaurants, it’s probably time that some of the trendier national names arrived in the heart of Kansas City for a rare change. There aren’t that many corporate outposts operating north of 20th Street and south of the river right now, unless you count Denny’s, Pizza Hut and Subway.
If I had my wish, I’d bring back some long-forgotten restaurants that operated within the borders of the Power & Light District (12th Street to Truman Road, Baltimore to Grand) many, many years ago. Won’t some enterprising young restaurateur consider reviving the One Minute Lunch that stood at 210 East 12th Street back at the turn of the last century? Or the Electric Waffle Shop, which was a big hit at 1213 Baltimore back in 1927?
Other alluring-sounding restaurants that once did business within the boundaries of the P&L District were the Day & Night Restaurant and the Pennant Café, which advertised, back in 1919, that it offered “high class service” and a cabaret concert every night at 12th and Baltimore.
Around the corner, Hung Far Low was slinging chop suey, and the first local American Restaurant — no connection to the swanky joint bearing the same name in Crown Center today — was dishing up fried chicken and gravy.
In the 1940s, the biggest name in Chinese food, Kansas City-style, was on the second floor of the Parkview Drug Store at 12th and Main: King Joy Lo, where visiting movie stars would stop for chow mein and bird’s-nest soup between live appearances at the Midland Theatre.
It’s not too late to bring them all back, is it?
