Now open: Blanc Burgers & Bottles, Leawood
By Owen Morris in News
Monday, Feb. 23 2009 @ 10:00AM
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Blanc Burgers & Bottles has officially joined the ranks of its Midtown neighbors Room 39 and Blue Koi and opened a second location in Johnson County. Like the other two, it has chosen Mission Farms in Leawood to call home.
I stopped by the new location at 10583 Mission right before it opened for its second day of business. Owner Ernesto Peralta was listening to a staff pep talk about how busy the restaurant had been the night before -- when there was still a wait for tables at 9 p.m. Looking the part of a person who just opened a restaurant -- the face tired but the body energetic -- Peralta said he was just happy to be open and serving Johnson County. "There's a lot of success in Johnson County," he said. "Seventy-five percent of our business in Westport comes from Johnson County .... We like to support local and Mission Farms only has local businesses in it. Plus I live two blocks away so it's convenient."
Fans of the Westport Blanc Burgers & Bottles who live in Johnson County won't be disappointed.
The new location has more windows allowing in lots of natural light, but
other than that, most everything is the same including the menu -- right
down to the small shopping cart of fries.
"The only thing we can't do in this location is a happy hour. Other than that everything is the same," Peralta said. Even without the happy hour, Blanc's modern bar has "hot spot" written all over it. Peralta understands this and wanted to stress that although the bar area is bigger in this location, "we're a restaurant first but we would like to see people coming in at nights and enjoying the bar."
Blanc is also hoping to grab some
midday action. Today marks the first day it is open for lunch (11 a.m. to 3 p.m.). And as the weather gets warmer, Blanc
will start putting patio tables outdoors (without the patio,
Peralta said the room fits around 70 people).
As I was taking pictures, the doors opened officially for dinner at 5 p.m. and within a minute, four groups were coming in. With the hostesses still in the employee meeting, Peralta picked up the menus and started seating guests. He was smiling and happy, but as he came back over he started rubbing his eyes. "It's been a hectic last three weeks finishing all the details but we're open now and it's worth it. All worth it."
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"The only thing we can't do in this location is a happy hour. Other than that everything is the same," Peralta said. Even without the happy hour, Blanc's modern bar has "hot spot" written all over it. Peralta understands this and wanted to stress that although the bar area is bigger in this location, "we're a restaurant first but we would like to see people coming in at nights and enjoying the bar."
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As I was taking pictures, the doors opened officially for dinner at 5 p.m. and within a minute, four groups were coming in. With the hostesses still in the employee meeting, Peralta picked up the menus and started seating guests. He was smiling and happy, but as he came back over he started rubbing his eyes. "It's been a hectic last three weeks finishing all the details but we're open now and it's worth it. All worth it."
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