Strang closes doors to Plaza food hall concept, citing slow foot traffic to its diverse, chef-driven menus

Despite a bustling holiday shopping season on the Country Club Plaza, a food hall in the iconic Kansas City shopping district failed to gain a foothold, said CEO Shawn Craft, announcing the closure of another Strang Hall location less than a month after shuttering its downtown space.

Strang Chef Collective at the Cascade Hotel on the Country Club Plaza; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

Leaders behind Strang Chef Collective on the Plaza blamed the closing on an overall “slower-than-anticipated foot traffic on the Country Club Plaza and an extremely delayed opening due to hotel construction challenges.”

The food hall, at 4620 Wornall Road, opened in November 2023 inside the new Cascade Hotel after eight months of delays. The Plaza space — the third to open under the Strang name — offered four chef-driven concepts spanning 11,000 square feet.

Strang’s Plaza location boasted four dining concepts: Forage, offering a variety of “back to basics” meat and vegetables; Khai-Noy, with its Laosian-inspired Asian fusion menu; Verde, featuring fresh, flavorful Spanish fare; and Parma, a hand-crafted Italian pasta experience.

Shawn Craft, Strang Chef Collectives

“We were excited about the opportunity to expand the Strang brand to the Country Club Plaza but ultimately realized that this concept was not fit to be located inside of a hotel and had to make the difficult decision to close this location,” Craft said. “We will continue to evaluate new location opportunities for the future of Strang Hall and to invest in our Downtown Overland Park location, which the community has embraced.”

Click here to explore offerings at Strang Hall’s popular Overland Park food hall.

The company previously closed its Strang Chef Collective at lightwell in downtown Kansas City on Nov. 26, citing similar challenges, namely delays in renovation at the lightwell that postponed the space’s opening, along with “decimated downtown foot traffic” following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In November, a representative from Strang Chef Collective declined to comment to Startland News on the outlook at the Plaza location or about how the closure at lightwell would impact the brand’s overall growth strategy.

Startland News contributor Joyce Smith covered local restaurants and retail for nearly 40 years with The Kansas City Star. Click here to follower on X (formerly Twitter), here for Facebook, here for Instagram, and by following #joyceinkc on Threads.