Re-Pete
Even in the best of circumstances, opening a new restaurant is a time-consuming, nerve-racking process. There are permits to obtain, liquor licenses to seek (a notoriously slow-moving process), zoning codes to meet, equipment to install and, in most urban locations, a required number of parking spaces to acquire or lease.
Ken Baker, the chef-owner of Pachamama’s (see review), had planned to move into his new venue in Lawrence’s business district and be open for business by now. His new estimated opening date: January.
Ray “Pete” Peterman, the chef and co-owner of the newly opened SORedux (549 Gillis), knew there would be the usual delays when he tentatively scheduled his opening a couple of months after he closed his original restaurant, the Sour Octopus (11129 North Oak Trafficway) on July 16. He thought the former drugstore building in Kansas City’s “Littly Italy” neighborhood in the historic Northeast would be up and running before October, but at least it’s open now.
Peterman and his very tall business partner, former pro basketball player Todd Jadlow (now a sports medicine representative), have turned the brick structure’s first floor into a chic 45-seat bistro that, like the Sour Octopus, will offer only prix fixe dinners — and only to customers who reserve a table. (“I will keep a couple of tables open for the occasional walk-in,” Peterman allows.) Unlike other prix fixe venues in town, such as chef Rob Dalzell’s 1924 Main (1924 Main), Peterman offers three menus each night: “Pre-Night on the Town” includes three courses priced at $28, a more elaborate meal with ten small courses is priced at $50, and a seven-course meal that he calls “more Kansas City-friendly” goes for $34.
Peterman says the $34 dinner won’t have the fancier choices, such as foie gras and squab, found on the $50 menu. “I’ll have more recognizable stuff, like a more mainstream cheese course.”
Mainstream means a double-cream brie as opposed to the more unusual fromage offered to diners who opt for the costlier prix fixe. “The cheese course might be Tete de Moine, a hard Swiss shaved into flowers, but it’s the stinkiest cheese in the world. I know chefs who won’t touch the stuff.”
Luckily, it’s a petite course. The new SORedux serves dinner Tuesdays through Sundays; Pete’s new bride, Heatherose, works the front of the house (with veteran waiter Randall Horton), and Pete’s in the tiny kitchen in the back, cooking with his 22-year-old son, Justin.
