Nour’s extends flavor of 39th Street’s ‘restaurant row’ to long-vacant neighborhood cafe

After a lengthy stint developing corporate dining concepts, Kansas City chef Marwan Chebaro has spent two years planning his return to public dining.

Set to open in June, Chebaro’s new Nour’s restaurant will showcase his native Lebanese cuisine and culture while helping bring the community together, he said.

The venture at 3855 Warwick Blvd., in the Park 39 complex, also serves as a memorial to his beloved late daughter, Nour.

“It is chef-driven, but we also want it to be community-driven. We are here to serve the community and be part of it,” Chebaro said. “The owners of the property are really committed to the neighborhood and building community. They’ve put in apartments, offices, a church, bringing in traffic.”

Members of the Nour’s prepare Lebanese cuisine from the new restaurant’s menu; photo by Joyce Smith

Nour’s menu will include:

• Mezze Cold: goat cheese labneh, hummus, gazpacho. 
• Mezze Hot: baked feta, Lebanese empanadas, falafel, and crispy potatoes tossed in garlic, cilantro, lemon juice and tabasco.
• Handhelds: chicken shawarma tacos and lamb pockets (cumin-harissa braised leg of lamb, escabeche and consommé).  
• Salad bowls: roasted beets on arugula with feta, Mandarin oranges, roasted chickpeas, and a za’atar-mustard dressing.
• Hot bowls: chicken Milanese — za’atar-crusted with sumac potatoes and pico de gallo.
• The Grill: open-face Lebanese bread with roasted vegetables or chopped salad; shish taouk (chicken cubes marinated in yogurt, lemon and herbs), steak kebab, shrimp and more.
• Desserts: cupcakes filled with thick cream, baklava, chocolate date cake, and milk pudding with orange blossom-mastic.

The restaurant also will feature coffee from Broadway Roasting Co., as well as morning pastries and bagels from Blackhole Bakery 

A photo of Chef Marwan Chebaro’s daughter, Nour, is posted alongside other items reflecting his culture at Nour’s; photo by Joyce Smith

Chebaro named the restaurant after his daughter, Nour, who was 29 when she died in 2018. Nour means light and radiance in Arabic. Chebaro has a small shrine to her in one corner, but patrons can bring in mementos of their loved ones — those they’ve lost or those still with them. 

What would Nour think of her namesake restaurant?

“She would be happy,” Chebaro said. “She had a heart full of light and full of love.”

Chebaro got his start as partner or owner of several popular restaurants on 39th Street’s restaurant row near State Line, including Cafe Rumi. 

Then, about a dozen years ago, he founded Culinary Innovations LLC, opening his own concepts in some of the nation’s top corporate dining facilities, including Mutual of Omaha in Nebraska, Walmart in Arkansas, and locally at Sprint and KU Med.

Corporate locations offered better hours — no weekends, no evenings. But then the pandemic sent people home to work.

Chebaro started searching for a home for a new public restaurant, Nour’s. With this venture, he stays on 39th Street — journeying further east to a spot just two blocks off the new KC Streetcar line.

The 3,800-square-foot first floor space is in mixed-use development Park 39, part of the campus formerly known as Plexpod Westport Commons (and previously Westport Middle School before a massive renovation in 2017).

Locally owned The Brain Group and Mercier Street redeveloped the former Westport High School campus across the street — less than a mile from The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Kansas City Art Institute — and now own and manage both properties that make up the broader Park 39 development.

Nour’s takes over a space previously occupied by The Sundry, which closed about two years after Plexpod’s Annex building debuted, and later Canteen, which shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“After two restaurants we were nervous. We were thinking about turning away from restaurants, perhaps a coffee shop and more office,” said Andrew Brain, co-principal of the Brain Group. “We had to get it right this time and Marwan had the combination we needed. His experience, his courage, his spirit, his food. We’re excited about the energy he is bringing to the space and the campus.”

The restaurant sits atop what is now the welcome center for Park 39.

Famed local designer John O’Brien of Hammer Out Design in Independence — along with his daughter Kaitlin O’Brien and Justin Gainan — handled the “simple remodel,” turning the restaurant into a gallery-like venue. Not trendy, just comfortable.

“Only Love” by John Prine

Pieces from O’Brien’s personal collection join the space — including a colossal Middle Eastern flat-weave rug in a rainbow of colors that hangs on the east dining room wall. Local artists also are featured, such as “Only Love” by John Prine. Chebaro is adding a few photos of his ancestors.

“In these times we are living in now, we need community spaces where people can go and eat. To me, I hope it can be a cultural space, a community draw,” O’Brien said.

Nour’s is expected to seat 45 people in the dining room, and about 100 more on the patio and at the bar. (Garage doors open to the patio in nicer weather. The bar surrounds the open kitchen.)

A portion of the bar-area and dining room at Nour’s opens to a rooftop patio; photo by Joyce Smith

It also will have a grab-and-go area, and a makers’ market featuring local and Lebanese specialty products, wine and art. A parking lot at the corner of 39th Street and Warwick Boulevard features about 100 spaces.

As part of its mission to be a community gathering spot, Nour’s plans to host farmers markets.

From 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays (starting June 3), the Amish community in Stanberry, Missouri, will set up in the parking lot. The market is likely to sell chemical-free sustainably-raised produce: tomatoes, melons, beets, sweet corn, green beans and more; along with eggs, breads, fried pies (such as strawberry rhubarb; lemon; chocolate, and blueberry) and cinnamon rolls.

Later in the summer, Gordie’s Heirlooms will offer heirloom tomatoes and melons on Saturdays. Nour’s also will source some of its ingredients from the Amish growers and Gordie’s.

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