Makeover: Rooftop bar, new menu and name coming for longtime Kansas City restaurant
When Chris Ridler opened midtown’s Sol Cantina with a partner in 2006, he was a young entrepreneur working on a shoestring budget.
Now better funded, he’s teaming up with his landlord to revamp the spot in Martini Corner.
It temporarily shut down in January and is scheduled to reopen in October as Barrio Taqueria, a casual restaurant with a rooftop bar.
Barrio Taqueria, at 408 E. 31st St., will serve lunch and dinner daily, and brunch on Saturday and Sunday. It will have about 30 employees.
Menu items will include lettuce wraps, fried avocado, mini-chimis, burnt end quesadillas, tacos, wraps, bowls, salads and sandwiches including a Mexican Dip (braised pork, jack cheese, pickled jalapeno, onions and chipotle jus).
A rooftop patio will replace the former back patio. The building’s owner, Arak Partners LLC, will put up a new 2,000-square-foot building on the former patio for such tenants as medical or veterinary offices to grow the daytime traffic. Construction on the new building will start in spring 2023 for a spring 2024 opening.
Arak Partners LLC purchased the block — on 31st from Oak Street to Gillham Road — in 2018. It includes the Brick House and Cliff’s Taphouse.
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“Part of what I saw was the energy, very similar to my neighborhood in Denver, the 32nd Avenue corridor,” said Ilan Salzberg, partner in Arak. “We’re deeply invested in the growth of the east midtown region.”
Salzberg also is a partner in Kansas City’s Exact Partners, which has several redevelopment projects in midtown.
Barrio Taqueria owners, Ridler and Luke Pickett, also own the Barrio Mexican Kitchen + Bar restaurants in Brookside, Red Bridge Shopping Center and The Shops at Briarcliff, as well as Zocalo Mexican Cuisine & Tequileria on the Country Club Plaza.
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