District Pour House closed its Kansas City spot. Here’s the new restaurant moving in
A Kansas City meal prep and delivery service focusing on seasonal, nourishing meals is coming to Waldo with a new fast casual restaurant.
Hemma Hemma is taking the former District Pour House + Kitchen space at 7122 Wornall Road. It plans to open in September after a remodel.
In addition to the restaurant, it will have a prepared food section and coffee bar. It will add a downstairs event space later.
Dine-in customers will walk down a line to make their selections: breakfast burritos, quiche Lorraine cups, lunch and dinner entrees, sides, salads, soups, sandwiches, baked goods and desserts. The menu will mostly change every couple of months with some staples offered year-round.
The menu is similar to the one used for its meal prep and delivery service, just more items.
Among the current meal prep dishes: cilantro pork meatball Mexican rice bowl, garlic braised chicken thighs, lemon chicken and artichoke pasta, pan-seared salmon, and Thai steak noodle salad.
Children’s meals include barbecue chicken and corn tacos; broccoli pesto and pepperoni gnocchi bake; and mini meatball and marinara soup.
Hemma Hemma offers gluten-free, dairy-free and plant-based options.
Owner Ashley Bare was born and raised in the Kansas City area and said her early love of food and the joy of cooking came from her foodie parents — American classics from her father, vegetable-driven Asian cuisine from her Chinese mother.
She graduated from a New York City culinary school, then focused on meal prep as a private chef in New York and the Hamptons, also traveling abroad with her clients.
“I just love working seasonally. We want to eat things at the peak of their ripeness and freshness,” she said. “I prefer a simpler technique in cooking and let the ingredients shine, and I love changing people’s minds about vegetables. That’s the best.”
She said hemma means “at home” in Swedish, reflecting on her mission to create elevated meals that bring people together to “eat at our table or to take home to eat at their table.”
District Pour House announced in January that it would close its Waldo location, saying the space was too big. It has since opened as The District Pour House + Kitchen in Shawnee.
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