In Memoriam: Restaurants in Heaven

You don’t need to tell me that restaurants come and go. I know all too well. Before I gave up my illustrious career as a server, I worked in six or seven Kansas City restaurants (one was such a torture chamber that I’ve completely erased the experience from my memory bank) that are now all closed and long-forgotten. Three of them are still operating as different restaurants, one is a check-cashing business, two are retail stores and one was torn down.

Some restaurants die forever, some go to culinary purgatory. That’s when some brave entrepreneur takes over a lease and either revives the business (not a good gamble, by the way) or re-invents the restaurant as something else or, in the case of Stroud’s, moves a successful concept into a seemingly-cursed space vacated by many dead concepts.

Since the beginning of 2009, Kansas City has lost a number of restaurants — new and established. Two barbecue joints, Beauchamp’s on the Rail in Lee’s Summit and Bandanna’s Barbecue in Independence, found the economy wasn’t quite hot enough. The long-running Rainforest Cafe — a tourist trap for the toddler set — didn’t survive puberty. The Saddle Ranch Chop House at Legends in Kansas City, Kansas had mechanical bulls, big dinner platters and even visits at Santa Claus at Christmas, but finally shut its doors and rode out in to the sunset.

Vivace, in the River Market, was turned into a gay bar. Bar Natasha, which served booze, food and cabaret theater, closed last fall, but will be revived as a nightclub-with-food featuring the talents of drag queen Flo. The River Market Brewery, just down the street from the former Vivace, shut down its draft spigots right before another nightclub-restaurant, Seven, ended its run.

Other casualties: Trolley’s Downtown Bar & Grill in Overland Park, the iconic Joe D’s Wine Bar in Brookside, and the Raphael Restaurant in the Raphael Hotel, which has already been reincarnated as Chaz on the Plaza. And in other reincarnation news: Accurso’s Italian Restaurant has already moved to its new location, just down the street from the old joint, and there’s a rumor that the venerable Pumpernick’s Deli may be reborn as a Cupini’s. Frondizi’s will become the new home of Cafe Trio soon. And there’s always a new restaurant ready to open in the old Macaluso’s space on 39th Street — the newest arrival will serve Schezuan fare.

You see, it’s not all bad news…