Local Pig’s Alex Pope talks Cleaver & Cork, which replaces Maker’s Mark in the Power & Light District in February 2015
When the new Cleaver & Cork restaurant opens in the Power & Light District in February 2015 — it will take over the six-year-old Maker’s Mark Bourbon House & Lounge — the menu will be designed by Kansas City’s busiest butcher and restaurateur, Alex Pope.
Pope, who took over the former Bridger’s Bottle Shop in Westport in October (the name officially returns to Local Pig next week), was hired by the Cordish Companies to create a new “meat-centric” restaurant for the space at 1333 Walnut. Pope says he has hired the staff for the new venue (Maker’s Mark will remain open until New Year’s Day), including his longtime Local Pig chef Andrew Heimburger, who will be the executive chef at Cleaver & Cork.
If the name seems, well, vaguely familiar, it’s because it sounds a lot like a popular 1960s and ’70s national steakhouse chain, Cork ‘N Cleaver, that boasted modest prices and a great salad bar in its heyday. (The Phoenix-based operation once had two locations in the Kansas City area.) The P&L restaurant has no connection to that operation.
“The Cleaver & Cork will be less of a traditional steakhouse and more of a high-end gastropub,” Pope says. “There will be a lot of classic dishes, and although I’m hesitant to use the words ‘comfort foods,’ there will be dishes that will be in that category.”
The new Cleaver & Cork will be owned and operated by ECI, an affiliate of the Cordish Companies. Pope’s role as culinary director will be a contract position, giving him freedom to create a new menu to appeal, he says, to a wide demographic. “We’ll have seafood and vegetarian dishes, as well as meat dishes,” Pope says.
Pope says Cordish gave him “broad outlines” for the restaurant’s culinary concept, but that he and Heimburger have been working on the menu for two months and have at least another month to test ideas. “Andrew is creating a lot of possible options,” Pope says. “And then we’ll go back and edit the menu.”
The interior of the Maker’s Mark space, Pope says, will undergo a serious overhaul: “The bar will stay where it is, but the walls, ceiling and floor will look very different.”
Pope says steaks will still be a component of the menu, but he plans to introduce a slow-braised pork osso buco served with Anson Mills polenta and apples. Desserts, he says, will be made in-house.
“I’ll definitely be there to assure that the quality and consistency stay very high,” Pope says.
As the new name suggests, Cleaver & Cork will feature a solid wine list and dishes that will appeal to both local diners and tourists visiting the Power & Light District.
