Taste restaurant is closing on Friday

• Owen Morris
• After three years, downtown Overland Park will be Taste-less.

“Our last night will be Friday,” said the hostess who answered the phone. “We’re very sad to be closing.”

Taste, the three-year-old bistro in downtown Overland Park, was opened by chef Jonathan Dallen after he took over the venue from his previous employers, the operators of the restaurant and self-proclaimed “ultra-lounge” Tonic. Dallen created a very appealing menu for Taste: a combination of sophisticated small plates and dinner entrees. When I dined at Taste earlier this month, I discovered that Dallen had turned over executive chef duties at the restaurant to Bobby Stearns.

Dallen did not return calls for this story; Dallen’s other culinary venture on this same street, a gelato store called Crave, was sold to different owners last summer and closed by the end of 2011.