Krokstrom’s Klubb & Market to take over the Broadway Kansas City space in November

October 20, 2015

Natalie Gallagher,

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In September, we announced the closing of Broadway Kansas City — formerly Broadway Jazz Club — and the tentative plans for the space (local pianist Max Groove was purportedly interested in reinventing the venue as a night club). Originally, owners Jim and Margaret Pollock — along with general manager and booker John Scott (also the owner and operator of the Green Lady Lounge) — had planned to keep the club open for another two to three months, or at least until a buyer had been secured.

That day has come sooner than anticipated. At the end of the week, the sale to new owners Josh Rogers and chef Katee McLean (formerly of Ya Ya’s Euro Bistro, Paradise Diner and Newport Grille) will be final, and they’ll take over the space November 1. There are only a few shows left on the Broadway Kansas City calendar.

“New Jazz Order will be tonight, and Mark Lowrey’s got a show on Friday,” Scott tells me. “New Jazz Order will be on the following Tuesday, and that’s it.”

Clint Ashlock’s New Jazz Order — the big band rehearsal that had been the resident Tuesday night act at Harling’s Upstairs Bar, until it relocated to Broadway Kansas City in July — will move once more. The new home for the band, Scott says, will tentatively be the downstairs Orion Room at the Green Lady Lounge on Wednesdays from 7 — 9 p.m. KCUR’s acclaimed live jazz variety show, 12th Street Jump, has two more shows this year, both of which will also be moving to the Orion Room.
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“I think, at this appoint, it’s the best outcome for Jim and Maggie [Pollock],” Scott says. “They’re not rich people, but they’re compassionate, and they kept their heads real clear and sober and made the best of a bad situation.”

When Rogers and McLean take over the venue next month, they will begin transforming it into Krokstrom’s Klubb & Market, a Scandinavian restaurant that draws on McLean’s Swedish heritage (Krokstrom is a family name). Rogers, her longtime boyfriend, will be the FOH manager. The two hope to open Krokstrom’s Klub & Market to the public by February.

“Our plan is, the first of the year, to do friends and family stuff — probably a New Year’s dinner — and do a grand opening at the end of January or early February,” Rogers says. “It’s a quick turnaround, and the only reason I think it’s going to work is because we’re not going to have to put a lot of work into the space — we’re buying a lot of the equipment that’s there. Most of the work we’re going to do is cosmetic — most of it’s painting and redecorating and putting in a good shine. There’s not much actual construction — the space just needs a makeover to fit the concept a little better.”

McLean has already put her polish on Krokstrom’s extensive menu, which lives in all its Scandinavian glory on the restaurant’s website. There’s quite a range: various charcuterie boards, smørrebrøds (traditional open-faced sandwiches), salads, soups, small plates (I’m eying the mushroom strudel with akvavit cream and glögg gastrique) and large plates (including Swedish meatballs that will probably outdo Ikea).

Rogers, whose experience includes marketing and FOH management positions at Green Dirt Farms, Port Fonda, Corner Restaurant and Parisi Artisan Coffee, adds that the bar will emphasize craft cocktails. There will also be a wide selection of Aquavit — a gin-like spirit native to Scandinavia. Rogers plans to offer house-made Aquavit as well.

“‘Klubb’ is a Swedish word for a gathering place,” he tells me. “It’s meant to be that place where you can come and hang out and have some drinks with friends. The market part of it is maybe not when we open, but eventually, we do want to sell some niche goods and maybe the pickled stuff we’ll make.

“But really, it’ll be the first truly Scandinavian restaurant in the city,” he continues. “The idea is to make everything rustic, but to do things in ways that make it updated and approachable. Instead of just doing pickled herring, we’re doing a pickled herring cake — like a crab cake — and bringing those traditional flavors back in original ways.”

When I asked Rogers if he was at all concerned about the difficulties previous tenants of the 3601 Broadway location have faced, he answered that he and McLean had considered the history carefully.

“I think they [the previous tenants] weren’t the right type of thing,” he says. “None of them were a destination-type of space. It was a sports bar for a long time, and there’s a million sports bars in Kansas City to pick from, and then it was a jazz club — and even though Kansas City is a jazz town, there are so many other places with established reputations.”

He goes on: “In talking with the landlord, Greg Patterson, they’re really trying to put different things in [the strip] to liven it back up. There’s a ramen shop going in next door [in the former FooDoo space], and iPho Tower is doing really well, and Hamburger Mary’s just moved across the street. We’re trying to get in on the ground floor of that and make Krokstrom’s a destination spot in the city. That’s our hope, anyway.”

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