Summit Grill owners will turn historic Lee’s Summit building into restaurant

If things had gone differently, restaurateurs Andy Lock and Domhnall Molloy, the owners of the Summit Grill & Bar in Lee’s Summit and in Waldo, would have announced their plans to turn the 69-year-old Arnold Hall, at 123 Southeast Third Street in Lee’s Summit, into a new restaurant, 3rd Street Social — on May 24, that town’s official “Joseph Arnold Day.” 

But the deal hadn’t been finalized in May for Lock and Molloy to purchase the brick building, which Arnold, a successful Lee’s Summit businessman, had donated to the city in 1950 for use as a community center. After Arnold’s death, in 1955, Lee’s Summit put plans to renovate the structure, built as a pipe-manufacturing plant, on hold. For the next four decades, Arnold Hall, as the building was known, was rented out, with proceeds going to local community activities, including sports and summer recreation programs.

When 3rd Street Social opens next year, it will be the third restaurant in the metro for Lock and Molloy; their second, Waldo Summit Grill & Bar, which opened last fall at 500 West 75th Street, was an immediate success in a seemingly jinxed location.

There has been some kind of social organization on this location dating back to the late 19th century, when the original structure (which burned to the ground in 1941) opened as the Betterment of Ourselves Club. It was later donated to the American Legion. In 1922, on the steps of this Legion Hall, Harry Truman declared his candidacy for Eastern Judge of the Jackson County Court.

“The food at 3rd Street Social will be different from the cuisine served at the Summit Grill locations,” says Lee Page, publicist for the restaurateurs. “They’re working on creating the new menu now.”