Chef brings Urban concept back to Troost; $25K GIFT grant boosts fight against gentrification

Chef Justin Clark’s latest venture — an eatery that blends Asian and soul food influences — aims to not only blur the boundaries between menus, but break down dividing lines within and between communities.

Justin Clark’s Urban restaurant at 3420 Troost Ave.; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News

“The goal was to create familiar items that everyone actually can relate to as Americans, but then again, we add some international flavors and some techniques in there to kind of create that fusion,” said Clark, detailing the concept behind his new Urban restaurant at 3420 Troost Ave., which incorporates Mexican and Spanish ingredients alongside dishes that likely will remind diners of the comfort of an Asian restaurant.

“We take things that are familiar and we just get really creative,” he added.

Backed by a recent $25,000 grant from Kansas City G.I.F.T., the Urban restaurant is equally intentional with its choice of location, Clark said. The Troost address — near the intersection with East Armour Boulevard — puts it on the edge of Kansas City’s east side, and directly along a literal corridor of historic racial division through the heart of the metro.

“Being part of the new development of Troost has always been a goal of mine,” said Clark, CEO of RJ Culinary Group, the organization behind Urban Food Truck, Urban Cafe and the new restaurant.

Chef Justin Clark talks with visitors outside the Urban Cafe location within Kansas City International Airport’s new terminal during a 2022 sneak preview event; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

“I’d always heard different stories about Troost, but it wasn’t until after I opened Urban Cafe (at 4101 Troost in 2017) that I heard it was a dividing line and all these different stories, like the riots, … and how certain people wouldn’t even want to be on Troost, let alone dining and shopping,” said Clark, who moved back to Kansas City in 2015 after being an on-and-off resident through the years. (The original Urban Cafe relocated to 5500 Troost before ultimately closing earlier this year in preparation for the new Urban concept.)

The chef and partners Tia Heckman — chief operating officer — and Ronald Evans — chief financial officer — see the restaurant as a seed of revitalization for the avenue, giving Troost new life from a new vision.

And, the word is getting out.

“We have more patrons coming to dine with us,” Heckman said. “And we always have a consistent flow on the weekends.” 

Happy hour foot traffic is also increasing, she added, but the Urban team is still hoping for more consistency to better know what to expect from day to day.

To that end, Urban is putting itself out there — literally — with plans in the works for a patio that the team hopes will more clearly signal to passersby that the restaurant is open and ready for diners.

The patio is a “major focus,” Heckman said, because “when you drive past our building, we’re on the lower level of the Roxford Apartments. You have to get up close and personal to be able to really notice that this is a restaurant.”

“Having the patio open, having the tables, having the umbrellas, having the privacy fence and the lighting and all the little things that kind of make great touches, it will hopefully pique more people’s interest,” she added.

Critical cash infusion

The restaurant business is a notoriously tough one: the National Restaurant Association estimates 30 percent of all restaurants close in their first year, which means any initial or early outside investment can have a huge impact on a new dining establishment.

Brandon Calloway, GIFT

Cue small business accelerator Kansas City G.I.F.T., which funds Black-owned businesses in Kansas City’s historically redlined neighborhoods. 

CFO Evans, who oversees all things financial for RJ Culinary Group and the Urban restaurant said though his team had been aware of G.I.F.T., it was a customer who pushed them to apply.

“Someone approached Justin; they came in here to eat — they had scheduled a dinner — and that’s how the conversation got started, with encouragement to apply for the G.I.F.T. grant,” Evans said.

The Urban team plans to use the grant to “relieve some of our financial stress with just keeping the doors open and keeping our refrigerator and our bar stocked up.” 

With some of the pressure from ongoing overhead relieved and with the patio eventually complete, Evans forecast that “everything else will fall in place” by allowing his team to more easily invest back into the business by “opening up the patio, getting equipment, finishing up the small things that we were planning to do in the beginning.”

Justin Clark’s Urban restaurant at 3420 Troost Ave.; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News

A cafe and a quest to restore Black equity

The need for G.I.F.T. — and businesses like Clark’s — is real, said Brandon Calloway, co-founder and CEO of the four-year-old, grant-giving organization.

“Kansas City is one of 21 cities designated by the U.S. Census as hyper-segregated … because of a geographical divide, where we have a large concentration of Black people that live in one area, and a large concentration of white people in another area, as well as the economic divide,” he explained. 

G.I.F.T. leaders and its supporters across the community have made it their mission to go right at the divide’s resulting racial wealth gap by supporting Black-owned businesses. 

“We give them grants so that they can grow and create jobs for the individuals who live in that area so that we begin to create an economic engine that has the actual ability to grow median income levels and decrease or chip away at the racial wealth gap,” Calloway said.

A rising tide of opportunity — growing businesses, increasing hiring and building wealth — lifts all boats, he emphasized, noting that as poverty declines, so too does crime in an area.

Calloway sees Urban’s new restaurant as an “anchor business” for the four corner development. 

And G.I.F.T.’s board, he added, saw not only the potential in how a grant would help the restaurant grow but the potential in having an upscale, Black-owned restaurant on Armour and Troost in an area that has seen massive development — a space that easily could have been gentrified by outsiders.

“It made sense for us to invest in that,” Calloway said. 

Beyond the $25,000 grant, G.I.F.T. plans to provide the Urban team with a year of bookkeeping and legal support, among other resources essential to ensuring a strong start for the restaurant.

Urban breakfast; photo courtesy of resto

So, what’s on that soul-Asian food menu?

Two of the most popular dishes at Urban already are taking shape: a Vietnamese-soul food mashup and a vegan option.

Click here to explore the menu at Urban.

Urban sangria; photo courtesy of resto

“I definitely love our oxtail bánh mì,” Heckman said. “I would say it’s something that anybody could really enjoy from any culture.”

But only during lunch service, she added, so diners should plan accordingly.

On the dinner side, a vegan cauliflower dish steals the show.

“It’s really popular amongst not only our vegan patrons but just in general,” Heckman said of the kung pao cauliflower. “It’s spicy and it’s just a great way to utilize an underrated vegetable. Not a lot of people really go out just to be like, ‘I just really want some cauliflower,’ but this dish is becoming famous and people request it all the time.”

As for drinks, Heckman highlighted a few of her own creations: a cognac old fashioned, for one. Second: A twist on a margarita: mezcal, guava, with a Tajin rim. 

“And, then, of course, mimosas,” she added. “Everybody loves a good mimosa for brunch.”

Urban is open daily on Troost (closed Mondays) for breakfast and lunch from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a happy hour from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Small plates and dinner service runs 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. with Sunday brunch 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.