State of the Union (Cafe): new name, new look, new owners

Not long after the executives at Union Station decided that the four-year-old diner bearing the historic Harvey House name simply wasn’t going to work — it reportedly lost a small fortune — and they closed the venue.

Why not? Three different management teams couldn’t make a success out of the casual-dining spot in the original 96-year-old Harvey House location. It was doomed practically from the day it opened in 2006. The historic two-story dining room was shuttered last June and reconfigured as office space for the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.

“When we closed the Harvey House Diner, we immediately reopened the former Union Cafe, which had been sitting empty, with the Harvey House Diner menu,” says George Guastello, president and CEO of Union Station.” But we knew we needed to completely re-evaluate the food service at the station.”