Red Bridge Shopping Center Announces New Tenants
By John Sharp
The revitalization of Red Bridge Shopping Center owned and operated by Lane4 Property Group is moving full steam ahead.
Recent major developments include attracting a Mexican restaurant and bar to the Center; negotiating a 20-year lease now being finalized with Mid-Continent Public Library to move its Red Bridge Branch to a larger space at the Center; and the anticipated opening next month of Caleb’s Breakfast & Lunch and a new banquet space at Blue Moose Bar & Grill.
“This has been a community driven development,” City Councilman Scott Taylor told the audience at the South Kansas City Block Party at the Center Saturday, October 13. “You said you wanted sitdown restaurants, a coffee shop and a hardware store and they (Lane4 Property Group) delivered,” Taylor said.
Brookside Barrio
Brookside Barrio, a popular locally owned Mexican restaurant and bar that opened in February 2018 at 6227 Brookside Plaza, announced at the Block Party that it will open a second location at the Center in the spring of 2019 just south of Crows Coffee at the northeast corner of the center.
Its menu at its current location includes appetizers, an array of specialty tacos and Mexican “street” tacos, classic Mexican dishes, seafood, salads, burgers and some items featuring burnt ends in a nod to Kansas City’s barbecue tradition.
Brookside Barrio features an extensive tequila list and a variety of specialty margaritas. It also offers a wide selection of Mexican and local craft beers in bottles, cans and on tap.
Its current location is open seven days a week from late morning until 11 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, until 1 a.m. Thursday-Saturday and until 10 p.m. Sunday. It offers an extended happy hour from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m.
The restaurant will occupy about 5,000 square feet of interior space and will have a 2,000 square foot patio that will extend east of the existing walkway into the present parking lot.
Its owners are Chris Ridler who grew up just blocks from the Center and Luke Pickett.
Owen Buckley, president of Lane4 Property Group, said Brookside Barrio is one of the hottest restaurant concepts in town and represents the type of restaurant his firm has wanted to attract to the Center – a locally owned restaurant with a successful operation.
Red Bridge Mid-Continent Library
As previously reported in this column, the Red Bridge Branch of the Mid-Continent Public Library (MCPL) will be moving from its current location in the Center at 11140 Locust to 453B E. Red Bridge Rd. which is the eastern half of the old bowling alley shared by Euston Hardware on the west.
Brandon Buckley, vice president of Lane4 Property Group, said in an interview at the Block Party that he anticipates signing the lease for the space in the next few weeks.
The new location contains over 14,300 square feet, more than 2,000 square feet larger than its current branch, with good visibility from Red Bridge Rd. It also still will be near the site of the approximately 30,000 square foot Wonderscope Children’s Museum of Kansas City to be built in the northwest portion of the Center facing Red Bridge Rd.
Steven Potter, MCPL director and CEO, said in an interview that the new location will have a community room with sound resistant walls for meetings and programs, two smaller collaboration rooms suitable for meetings of about three or four people, a children’s area, new more comfortable seating, upgraded computers for patrons’ use and an outdoor seating area.
“People will find it more comfortable to meet and visit as well as to read,” he said.
Potter said tenant finish of the new space should begin in January, and he hopes it will be completed during the summer of 2019. He said the branch should remain open during the work on the new location, and the branch should only be closed for about a week when the books and other items are being moved.
He said MCPL has no definite plans on what to do with its current building and the land that it’s on, but current plans are to sell the building and land after the move.
A five-year capital improvement plan launched in May for renovating or replacing all 31 of MCPL’s branches and constructing two additional new branches was made possible by voter approval in November 2016 of an increase in MCPL’s property tax levy. The levy increase also allowed MCPL to expand branch hours, enhance special services and buy more materials.
Caleb’s Breakfast & Lunch
Rebecca Huntsman, owner of Caleb’s, said in an interview at the Block Party she hopes her restaurant’s long awaited opening will occur in mid-November.
Huntsman was passing out menus with buy one, get one coupons and an online link (calebskc.com) to apply for jobs at Caleb’s in front of its location at 515 E. Red Bridge Rd. where remodeling work is still going on.
“We’re hiring for all positions,” she said.
The restaurant’s hours listed on the menu will be from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-Friday and from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The menu said it will only be closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.
The breakfast menu includes traditional breakfasts, biscuits and gravy, French toast, omelets, pancakes and waffles, and the lunch menu includes salads, sandwiches, wraps and Caleb’s house specialties – buffalo or hand-breaded chicken fingers and Texas chicken quesadillas.
Nothing on the menu is over $9.99.
These doors in the back of Blue Moose will open on November 13 to reveal the new banquet facility. Photo by Kathy Feist.
Blue Moose Bar & Grill
Chris Sutton, CEO of KC Hopps (the parent company of Blue Moose Bar & Grill, 11134 Holmes Rd.), said in an interview that the restaurant hopes to open its adjoining banquet space west of the restaurant by mid-November.
Sutton said the banquet space will seat about 80 guests and will be able to accommodate about 140 guests at receptions. Guests will be able to use a private entrance or enter through Blue Moose.
He envisions the banquet space being used for a variety of activities such as anniversary, birthday and graduation parties; award ceremonies for sports teams; business or organization meetings, lunches, dinners and events; political fundraisers; and wedding rehearsal dinners and receptions.
Sutton said the space contains a private bar and will be able to supply almost any food or beverage options clients request.
Boba Tea KC and Venue 508
In place of Silks and Poles Aerial Fitness, 508 Red Bridge Rd., are two new businesses: Boba Tea KC and Venue 508. (See accompanying story.)
Boba Tea KC sells boba, or bubble, tea which is infused with tapioca pearls, as well chai tea, hot chocolate and smoothies.
Venue 508 is an elegant event space set up for events including complete wedding packages, receptions, birthdays, sweet sixteen parties, bridal/baby showers, gender reveals, or even business luncheons to name a few.