Tonight will be the rowdy last hurrah for Pandolfi’s Deli

Sicilians are notoriously superstitious and Kansas City’s Columbus Park – for many decades a solidly Sicilian-American community – is a neighborhood where omens are taken very seriously. And the omens are practically overwhelming tonight: the first full Moon on a Friday the 13th in over a decade (there won’t be another until 2049) and the last day of Pandolfi’s Deli, the restaurant opened by Jake Hendershot four years ago in the former Lapetina floral shop. That’s right, the one connected to the former Lapetina Funeral Home, where mob boss Charles Binaggio – among other mob greats over the years – was set out for public viewing in a costly copper casket in 1950.

But there will be a party tonight – no last rites permitted – at 538 Campbell when Hendershot and his staff (and a few special guests, including Hendershot’s parents, his new bride Aubree, and former Pandolfi’s chef Grant Cansler) will host a farewell bashfor the restaurant beginning at 5 p.m. The Barkley Martin Ensemble starts playing at 8 p.m. and festivities are scheduled to continue until 11 p.m. Or later. 

“We’ll be selling food – we’re already sold out of a couple things – until we run out of food,” says Hendershot. “We’re selling beer, wine and mixed drinks too. We made a lot of limoncello – it’s in the freezer now.”

Hendershot made the decision to close the neighborhood lunch venue last month. He hasn’t ruled out opening another Pandolfi’s in a different location.

“We’re expecting at least 200 people,” says Hendershot. “We’ll have seating inside and outside.”

If as many friends and fans show up as Hendershot expects, the street in front of the deli could be a mob scene. Figuratively, of course.