The Un-Funky Chicken
Historically, the red-brick building at 423 Southwest Boulevard has been a man magnet. For the first third of the last century, it housed either a barber shop or a billiard hall. For one spell in 1934, it had both. By World War II, the building had become a saloon. And it stayed a saloon — Tony’s Tavern — for three decades before it became better known as the popular Tony’s on the Boulevard restaurant.
When John Sidoti and John Brooke, owners of the now-defunct Club Cabaret nightclub near 51st Street and Main, were looking for a new space to move their gay dance venue, they got a good vibe from the space at 423 Southwest Boulevard — but not from the neighbors.
“We couldn’t get a liquor license for a new nightclub unless we had a consensus from all the neighbors,” Brooke says. “And they didn’t want a nightclub. But when we changed our concept and decided to open a restaurant instead, everyone was very welcoming. It was a completely different story.”
Good-bye, Club Cabaret; hello, Opal’s Kitchen! The 2,500-square-foot homestyle restaurant opened this week serving pan-fried chicken, baked chicken, steaks and chops. All the dinners come with soup or salad, biscuits, vegetables and a spud (fried, baked or mashed), and all but three of the fourteen entrées are priced under $15.
Brooke says he was glad to get out of the nightlife business after thirteen years. Sidoti, his longtime partner, is still toying with the idea of opening another club somewhere in the city — “but on a much smaller scale than the old Cabaret.”
Opal’s is named for the late Opal Goring, the chicken-cooking grandmother of David Miller, the new restaurant’s manager. The kitchen is using her recipe for the bird and Brooke’s for the peppery cream gravy made with frying-pan drippings.
Opal’s serves lunch and dinner but isn’t staying open too late — nine on weeknights, ten on weekends. Sidoti and Brooke say they’ve grown used to “getting up early” since selling the Cabaret location to DST Systems. The Opal’s décor is muted, and so is the music: “Easy listening,” Sidoti says. Techno doesn’t jibe with fried chicken.
Several former Cabaret employees are now working at Opal’s, but not the club’s most legendary “waitress,” drag personality Flo. “She’s got too many other things going,” Brooke says.
Pass the gravy.
