City Tavern introduces new menu; Incorporates mix of steaks and chops with trademark seafood
In a town where steaks and barbeque dominate the menus of most restaurants, City Tavern has crafted a niche by offering a variety of steaks, chops, oysters and seafood.
Kansas City, MO (PRWEB) February 7, 2005 -- In a town where steaks and barbeque dominate the menus of most restaurants, City Tavern has crafted a niche by offering a variety of steaks, chops, oysters and seafood. The restaurants new menu maintains that tradition, but it also provides guests with more options when they are craving filets and strips.
Boasting a menu featuring the worlds best seafood, steaks and chops, City Tavern is nestled in a rustic building where art is now served -- in the parking lot, on the plates and amid the historic architectural features. Adorned with dark reclaimed woodwork, exposed brick walls, antique light fixtures and vintage mirrors, the restaurant looks like it could have been there for a century, though its doors opened in this new millennium. That is exactly what Dan Clothier intended when his vision was finally fulfilled.
Situated between the highly regarded Lidias and Fiorellas Jack Stack Barbeque, City Tavern represents the final element of a bustling entertainment spot Clothier imagined when he teamed with a group of investors to buy a dilapidated former railroad warehouse near the Kansas City Union Station in 1995. Today, his restaurant is part of a culinary destination that is known as the Freight House, which is the centerpiece of eclectic district lined with art galleries and refurbished 19th century buildings. In 2003 Gourmet magazine included all three Freight House restaurants in its Guide to Americas Best Restaurants, three out of just six restaurants listed in Kansas City.
More than two years after City Tavern first opened, the restaurant is brimming with a dinner crowd on a weekday night. Tables are dotted with oysters from the Pacific Northwest and North Atlantic; appetizers like tuna tartare and steamed mussels in shellfish broth; and entrees that include sea scallops with Chinese mustard glaze, Campo Lindo chicken, Alma Farms boneless pork chops with rosemary apples, and a dry aged Kansas City Strip with au poivre sauce. City Tavern has developed a following of loyal patrons who savor its selections of seafood dishes and creative preparations of duck, chicken, pork and beef entrees.
Word is spreading about City Tavern, in a favorable way, which is soothing to Clothiers ears. Just as he encountered obstacles when it appeared the Freight House could not be revitalized, Clothier was confronted with another hurdle not long after his restaurant debuted in September, 2002. The original executive chef, who had previously owned and operated a four-star restaurant in Kansas City, developed a high-end, a la carte menu for City Tavern, with price points that exceeded $50 for dinner and $25 for lunch, despite the fact that the original business plan called for check averages more in the $35 and $15 range.
We quickly learned that our customer base didnt embrace our concept," said Clothier, a real estate developer from Wichita who has a house in his hometown and an apartment in Kansas City. So we hired a new chef, by promoting our sous chef, and changed our menu to a bistro style menu better suited to the new chef and to our patrons."
With prices and cuisine that was more palatable for the restaurants customer base, City Tavern sales stabilized. The new chef, whose cuisine had also garnered four stars from the Kansas City Star food critic at a previous restaurant, immediately made his mark by simplifying dishes and broadening the menu to include shellfish, fish, lamb, duck, steaks and chops. Befitting the menus bistro style, sides and starches were added to create complete plate choices for diners and prices were lowered. Guests were pleased.
Combined with curiosity about the new menu, the ambience, which reflects Clothiers passion for historic preservation, is a major factor in luring guests back to City Tavern. The restaurants interior is enlivened with salvaged pieces of structures that stood in Kansas City years ago. The 7,500-square-foot space includes 30-foot timbered ceilings, exposed brick walls, high-arched doorways and windows, Missouri marble atop the oyster bar, restored terra cotta and handmade tiles adorning the walls, and a heart of pine floor.
Clothier saw a drastically different picture when Sterling Capital acquired the building in 1995. Built in 1887 by a railroad company, the 500 foot long and 40 foot wide Freight House was a leaky eyesore that was destined for the wrecking ball until Clothier and his team of investors bought it and initially envisioned a restaurant, retail and office center with a hotel and parking garage. When plans for that complex were dashed, a marketing study was conducted and the results determined that the Freight House would be ideal as a destination of three restaurants.
To add to the growing community of artists and art galleries in the neighborhood, now known as the Crossroads Arts District, Clothier commissioned homegrown artists to transform the Freight Houses spacious parking lot, which borders the railroad tracks, into a haven for public art -- an appropriate move for a district now known for its boutique art galleries. Even the parking lot lights are works of art -- reminiscent of train signals with patterns of incandescent lights arranged in varying degrees of animation. The Freight House is a centerpiece of the Crossroads Arts District, which is now home to more than forty art galleries located within a few blocks of the Freight House.
Clothier also enticed celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich to open her first restaurant outside of New York City. Lidias Kansas City, which serves Northern Italian cuisine, opened in October, 1998. Fiorellas Jack Stack Barbeque, owned by Jack Fiorella, debuted in October 2000, leaving space for one more location. Clothier, whose favorite dining destinations included seafood eateries in New York City and San Francisco, decided to open his own oyster bar and seafood restaurant in an atmosphere that illustrated Kansas Citys rich railroad heritage, defined by the nearby Kansas City Union Station, which was recently renovated and now houses a science center, shops and cafes. The Freight House is an instrumental part of Kansas Citys downtown renaissance, which will continue when a walkway from the Union Station to the Freight House is constructed.
What we have is more than a group of restaurants; this is a destination," said Clothier, who earned an undergraduate degree in history and a law degree from Kansas University. Its a place where pieces of old Kansas City live on, and where the new Kansas City thrives."
For more information contact:
Jeff Louderback
Quantified Marketing Group
407-474-6149 (cell)
jlouderback@quantifiedmarketing.com
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