“I was told many, many times that Melbee’s was the right concept in the wrong location,” says Boothe, who announced today that he was closing his six-year-old restaurant at the end of July. “Even one of our Mission city councilmen said that Mission’s residents were newlyweds and newly dead. They don’t want upscale cuisine. I had Stroud’s at one end and Applebee’s at the other.”

Technically the new Stroud’s is in Fairway, but Boothe’s point is that the closest neighbors to his cozy little restaurant preferred home cookin’. Meanwhile, the demographic he thought would clamor for his tasteful little boite – the homeowners who lived south of Shawnee Mission Parkway or in nearby Fairway or Westwood – weren’t coming in often enough for chef Tyler Van Slyke’s dinners.

Melbee’s regulars (upper middle-class professionals, over 35) loved the restaurant and Boothe was hoping that an upscale condo-retail development planned for the site of the old Mission Center would bring in more of that business. Weeds continue to grow on that property, though, and the discussion about building an aquarium as a regional tourist draw didn’t bode well for Melbee’s. The families that would visit the proposed aquarium, Boothe noted, are more likely to eat at Applebee’s than Melbee’s.

“This wasn’t a restaurant where customers brought children,” Boothe says. “I never had a children’s menu and I had one high chair that looks like it was never used.”

Would Boothe ever consider opening another restaurant?

“I suppose,” he sighs, “if someone came along and wanted to invest as a partner, I might consider re-opening Melbee’s somewhere else or re-opening in this location as a family-style restaurant. I’d be open to discussion.”

Boothe is finishing out the month with a wine dinner on July 15 (the $69 meal includes four courses and four different vintages) and the fund-raising “Christmas Eve in July” event on July 24. Melbee’s is only serving dinner until the final day of operation, July 31.