Kansas City Blog

"It made perfect sense," owner Carlo Cammisano told me. "Most of our clients were from this area. Only on Fridays and Saturdays would they come down [to Midtown] and we'd fill up. We had the opportunity to move out here to where our clients are and hopefully attract them in more along with new ones."

The Copa Room, which sits in the back of a strip mall at the corner of 87th Street and Lackman, opened on Monday and is still getting a couple of the kinks out. "Fortunately nothing serious. No big problems. It helps that my wife is here, I'm here and my mother is the chef. We all help out," Cammisano said.

In fact, Carlo's mother Kathy Fiorello and her recipes were one of the big draws (the big draw) to the Copa Room and Cammisano is quick to point out that mother is still in the back doing what she loves and the menu is still the same.

Well, almost the same. "We've added a lunch menu and couple of veal dishes we didn't have before." Nani's (Fiorello's nickname, which is Italian for grandma) lasagna is featured prominently on the menu next to Ravioli Sinatra. If a dish named after Sinatra isn't enough for you, there are Sinatra-style entertainers Wednesdays through Saturdays. In addition, on Sundays Cammisano plans to serve pan-fried chicken. "There's no good place you can get it around here," Cammisano says.

He should know, since he only lives about three minutes from the new spot.

Lenexa has few weekend spots that aren't sports bars, so it needs something a little classier and Cammisano hopes the Copa Room is that spot. It's open until 2 a.m. on the weekends with kitchen service until 10 p.m. weekdays and 11 p.m. weekends. The full new address is 14944 W. 87th Street, Lenexa, Kansas.