Emily V. JohnsonLawrence lost a popular bake shop in March, but Kansas City got a new one.
It doesn’t seem possible that a bakery could close for being too successful, right? But that’s how Michele Kaminski, the owner of the Pink Box Bakeshop in Lawrence, explained why she was closing her bakery last month: She was working so hard that she had no life.
That was not the reason that an Overland Park sweet shop, Sugar Mama’s Bakery, closed during the same time period. But the good news — for fans of pastries, anyway — is that while two bakeries closed, a new bakery opened in midtown. A vegan bakery, no less.
So you might look back at the turbulent month of March and say it was a bittersweet time for the dining scene in the metro.
Other notable venue closings last month include a short-lived smoked-meat concept, Hayward’s Pit BBQ Express in Overland Park, Szechuan House on “Restaurant Row” on 39th Street — it’s to be replaced by a burrito joint — and a once-popular Mexican-American restaurant at 9849 Holmes that had fallen out of favor even with its regulars: Patrikio’s Restaurant.
If Patrikio’s had become a has-been, the ill-fated Domo Sushi & Grill — the second location of the Brookside Japanese restaurant — might be called a never-was. After a number of complaints from online diners, the Olathe restaurant quietly closed its doors last month.
But the Domo location didn’t stay empty long — a good sign for the state of the dining industry in the current economy — and will become a new casual dining concept serving American dishes: the 119th Street Diner is scheduled to open in May.
The March restaurant openings include:
Mud Pie Vegan Bakery and Coffee House
1615 West 39th Street
Tasty Thai
14319 Metcalf Ave. in Overland Park, the former home of Nica’s Café
Burnt End
11240 W. 135th St. in Overland Park
Never On Sunday
9932 Holmes
Neighborhood Cafe
104 S.E. Third St. in downtown Lee’s Summit
D’Bronx
6846 Johnson Drive in Mission, in the former home of Pizza Shoppe
Blue Nile Cafe
13316 Metcalf Ave. in Overland Park
Pickleman’s Gourmet Cafe
818 Massachusetts in Lawrence (in the former home of Ben and Jerry’s)
Teavana
18813 E. 39th Street South in Independence Center
Sakura Buffet (formerly Happy Star Chinese Buffet)
6743 West 75th Street
Smashburger
860-W N.W. Blue Parkway in Lee’s Summit
mid-April
Messy’s Birds and Brews
3605 Broadway
Pitch intern Emily V. Johnson helped to compile the information used in this post.
From blogs.pitch.com
