Poco’s tops the list of first-quarter 2015 restaurant openings and closings

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Several familiar restaurant names were among the closings over the first quarter of 2015, including Saigon 39, the family-operated Vietnamese restaurant that had been a mainstay of the 39th Street “Restaurant Row” for more than 23 years.

Two Johnson County Japanese restaurants — Sushi Gin Japanese Cuisine, at 9559 Nall, and Kaiyo Authentic Japanese Restaurant, at 4308 West 119th Street — were also shuttered.

The family members who have been running Poco’s Mexican Cuisine, at 3063 Southwest Boulevard, since the death of chef Lorenza “Poco” Guiterrez in 2012 told The Pitch this month that they were moving out of that location (which received a makeover from celebrity chef Robert Irvine in 2012 on the TV series Restaurant Impossible) to “downsize” into a much smaller building — to be used primarily for carryout and catering — at 240 East Linwood, the site of numerous failed restaurants.

Another popular Mexican restaurant, Cancun Fiesta Fresh in the heart of Westport, will move out of its pistachio-colored building, at 4019 Pennsylvania, to the location of the now-closed Huddle House, several blocks east, at 3959 Broadway. Not too far away from Cancun Fiesta Fresh, the Middle Eastern-style bakery and deli Bread for All Bakery & Tandoori Cafe closed after three years.

Another local bakery in midtown, Ellen Hume’s Metuka, the Pastry House, at 1640 West 39th Street, closed and was quickly replaced by An Beard Zebley’s Yum: A Boutique Bakery, which is open only Thursday through Sunday.

In the Northland, an iconic burger shack, LC’s Hamburgers, finally reopened last week after being closed for nine months following a June 5, 2014, fire. Other positive openings: the new Spin Pizza in Crown Center, Il Lazzarone pizzeria in the River Market, the reopening of Sosa’s 39th Street Diner (in the old Nichol’s Lunch location, at 3906 Waddell) after that venue had been shuttered for seven months. The Cleaver & Cork restaurant, with a menu by Local Pig owner Alex Pope, opened at the end of February in the Power & Light District. Pope, who is now running his own full-service restaurant in the former Bridger’s Bottle Shop location, was finally able to return his Local Pig sign to the front of that building, at 510 Westport Road, after a five-month delay.