Discuss:

Overall Site plan:


Garage level


Ground level


Upper level


Residential Levels

tapas restaurant.....La Bodega? (got to get some local flair in here)

cuban....Babalu Grill (in power plant live)

i would hate it if la bodega had to move, its such a cool and funky restaurant AS IS. Maybe the owner could open a second? Nobody in KC knows what tapas are, people always think i'm trying to take them to a "topless" restaurant...lol. Having two tapas restaurants downtown would be a good thing. Everyone I've taken to the bodega has raved about tapas/spanish food for weeks afterwards

yeah I like his location too....I'm just trying to see where the local bars/restaurants will come in...every plot I look at I can see the chain bar/restaurant that Cordish has eyed by looking at other developments they have done.


I'm sure this entire plan is in flux.

I bet it's mostly chains. Sure they will throw in a few locals for some flavor, but chains will dominate. And I think that's OK in this specific district. There will be enough spill over business to encourage more local businesses around the outside of P&L. That's the typical result in many cities that have these new, contrived entertainment districts.

Totally agree

OK I'm going to go through all these and select my dream team of retailers given the guidelines of the site plan and then my best guess.

Seafood restaurant = Bristol?? (probably Landry's or something like that)
Tapas restaurant = La Bodega II
wine bar = cool no matter the name
cuban restaurant = Babalu Grill....in power plant live
upscale club = I'm excited to see this...something with low lights and background house music (probably a cigar bar that is in power plant live, Havana Club

Theme of this block = higher end restaurants

Seafood restaurant = Landry's, Joe's Crabshack or possibly even an Aquarium concept like the one in Houston and Kemah Boardwalk?
Tapas restaurant = Red Tapas Restaurant
Cuban restaurant = Babalu Grill
Upscale club = Havana Club

Please.....No Landry's or Joes........One step up from Red Lobster.....


Just curious if downtown (or at least KC's downtown) can absorb this many places to eat in such a tight space......

yes, of course, downtown is 3 square miles, and the plaza is about 1 square mile.

I used to go to Houston quite a bit on business and I really hate Landry's but Papa Deaux would be a really nice fit for KC!

Why is everyone so gung ho for Hard Rock Cafe; in London they charge 10 pounds for a hamburger...that's 18 doallars!!!! It's a cool atmosphere but way overpriced for mediocre food.[/quote]

I love their Twisted Mac & Cheese! It isn't so expensive here in the States.....plus I need to continue to build my HRC shot-glass collection (currently have 20).

Like Que said, it's really not bad here in the states. I've been to four HRCs so far and have been able to get a lunch-sized meal for about $7-8 and a dinner for about $10-15. Their food is pretty good too...at least what I've had.



Why did you have to bring that up? You're killing me here. I too love the Twisted Mac & Cheese. Very, very good.

Matt

Columbus-based Mitchell's Fish Market looks like it would be good fit for the seafood restaurant. They are owned by Cameron Mitchell restaurants and boast a number of other concepts in addition to the Mitchell's Fish Market brand. They have restaurants in Indianapolis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, including Steiner's Newport on the Levee.
http://www.cameronmitchell.com/

A description from the web site...

Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood appeal mostly to visitors who want to brag to their homefolk that they went to one. I lived in NYC for 10 years and never went to either except when my Missouri relatives visited. They wanted to go eat there and buy a t-shirt to wear back home. I never went to either place with people I knew in NYC. There is also a Harley-Davidson Cafe there, and since they are built here in KC, we might as well have one too I guess.

Perhaps Soakies will open a new place in the P&L District. KC can't get enough of their "famous" sandwiches.

fang...don't tell me you've tried one of their "famous" sandwiches???

Getting a Hard Rock Cafe in your town seems to be the way US cities say "we've arrived, we are a happening place". In that way, I hope they put one in KC Live; it would be kind of cool just across the street from the arena. Actually, I have dined at many HRC's in Europe, you can only eat Bratwurst and Schnitzel for so long in Berlin before you gotta have something else. Since I have moved to the UK, however, I just can't get past the $18 hamburgers.

From what I have heard, Planet Hollywood is about bankrupt though.

No. I haven't had a Soakies sandwich. I've just seen the sign hawking them. For some reason, I've always envisoned one to be like Roseanne's loose-meat sandwiches that she sold at the fictional Lunch Box diner on the TV show. Soaked in grease?

Wasn't Hard Rock Cafe the hip thing in the late 80s?? I didn't think they were still around. I remember everyone wearing their t-shirts or having Hard Rock Cafe pins on their jeans jackets when the New Kids On The Block were hot.....

Totally off topic, but speaking of Soakies, I did a Google search just now for them because I've never had the nerve to go inside and I'm curious what the story is. In doing so I found the following travelogue from a former employee of the TWA building returning to KC for a visit for the first time in 40 years...

[quote]MARCH 24, 2004
BACK TO KANSAS CITY--Just for fun, and old times....
For the past couple of years I’ve thought, off and on, that it would be nice to go back and see what Kansas City looked like these days. Forty years ago it seemed like I was spending half my life there. This past weekend I finally decided to do it. Now AA has lots of faults, but the ease of non-rev travel is certainly not one of them. I was able to get on the priority list before leaving home, and print out my boarding pass. Pretty cool really. The flight from PVD to ORD was routine and on time, but there was a slight mechanical out of ORD. I can’t remember for sure when the last time I was in Kansas City, but as nearly as I can put it, it must have been in early or middle of the ‘70’s. One of my first impressions, on the approach, was how built up the area around MCI has become. Last time I did any training out of there it was WAY out in the boonies. Now there are housing developments all around. I realized that this was the first time I had ever used the terminal at MCI, so that’s some idea on how long it has been. The road from MCI to downtown is now an interstate, and business establishments crowd both sides of the road all the way in to town.
I’d made reservations at the Phillips. This hotel has been completely restored in the last few years, and the lobby and rooms were a long way from the last visit. I’d been looking forward to a meal at the Italian Gardens, but, after 75 years, it had finally closed its doors at the end of January.
So that night I went to the Hereford House, and had a Kansas City strip “the steak that made Kansas City, and Herefords, famous.â€