Pangea closing in 22 days

I was disappointed to hear that one of my favorite restaurants in Kansas City, Pangea Cafe & Market at 900 West 39th Street, will be closing at the end of the month. If owners Martin and Wendy Rudderforth hadn’t decided, this week, to close at the end of December, the World food bistro would have celebrated its third anniversary in February.

“The last couple of months have been awful, really,” Martin Rudderforth tells me. “Last Friday night was worse than our Tuesday night. And the winter season is always hard for us, anyway. Business really slows down.”

The Rudderforths have not been taking salaries from the restaurant for several months and realized that even if December was profitable, it was unlikely Pangea could survive an economically tight winter. “There was no way we could make ends meet,” Martin says.

“It’s very hard to do this,” he adds. “We put so much work and love into this business and had met so many loyal customers. We’re pretty devastated, actually.”

I’m sure those loyal customers will be as well. — Charles Ferruzza