Plaza food hall returns with Lula’s, Guy’s, J. Rieger and more KC foodie favorites inside

A hotel food hall — just up the hill from a main artery of the Country Club Plaza — is planning a restaurant rally this week; reopening its shared culinary experience with some of the Kansas City food scene’s biggest local brands and a food hall rarity: full-service.

Eric Willey, founder of Plaza Provisions, inside the Cascade Hotel in March 2025; photo by Joyce Smith

Under new management, a new name, and a focus on food innovators serving American cuisine, Plaza Provisions is set to open select operations Aug. 25 within the Cascade Hotel. (The space previously was home to Strang Chef Collective’s food hall concept, which closed in December after just a year.)

Cascade has now brought operations in-house, hiring Eric Willey, founder and general manager of Plaza Provisions, to relaunch the business alongside strong local brands with built-in followers: Lula’s Southern Cookhouse, Guy’s Deli & Pizza, Hawg Jaw Que & Brew, Messenger Coffee Co., and J. Rieger & Co. distillery.

“I’m excited to see it all come together, communal dining, full-service in a food hall,” said Willey, who also serves as director of outlets for Cascade Hotel and Aloft in the Plaza district, and has worked on the concept for several months. 

Plaza Provisions at the Cascade Hotel at 4620 Wornall Road; photo by Joyce Smith

Revived for a second course

Strang Chef Collective debuted in November 2023 within the newly built Cascade Hotel at 4620 Wornall Road.

The food hall’s outside operators spotlighted international cuisines: Latin American, Italian, Southeast Asian, and German. But it closed just over a year later, blaming a lack of foot traffic from the Plaza and the hotel. (The entertainment district currently has more than 50 empty spaces as it awaits redevelopment from new owners.)

Collaborators in Plaza Provisions see its potential to break industry trends.

Andy Rieger, J. Rieger & Co.

“The whole entire food hall market is broken,” said Andy Rieger, co-founder of J. Rieger & Co. distillery in the East Bottoms. “They put time and effort into the brands to build them and they become so well known that they move away to open their own brick-and-mortar.”

“(Plaza Provisions) is the inverse of that,” he continued. “What do we have locally that fits the quality? Good brands that draw people in to come check it out. Then you have to execute once they are there. That’s how I feel about the distillery.”

The concept allows restaurants to add another location without the typical build-out costs — all while increasing brand awareness in a different part of the metro.

Partners like J. Rieger don’t pay rent, but Cascade will take a portion of sales. The hotel also hired the 20 bartenders, servers, and food runners for Plaza Provisions, as well as more dishwashers in its kitchen to keep up with demand; vendors will staff behind their counters.

Opening Aug. 25

• Lula’s Southern Traditions — By Lula’s Southern Cookhouse, a lunch, brunch and dinner concept that opened in the Crossroads as a pop-up in late 2021 and then as a full-service restaurant in 2022.

Its food hall kitchen, called Lula’s Southern Traditions, will feature such customer favorites as southern fried chicken with smashed potatoes and gumbo gravy, Cajun chicken biscuits, steak and eggs, blackened Delta catfish, N’Awlins BBQ shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, peel-and-eat shrimp, muffaletta deviled eggs, Vidalia onion bisque, gumbo, banana pudding and strawberry pretzel pie.

Partner Bradley Gilmore grew up in a small town in North Carolina and named the restaurant after his Granny. His wife, Brittany, is a partner in the venture.

“They gave us a good deal,” Gilmore said. “It’s a win-win for everyone — us, the customers, the guests.”

Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans from Lula’s Southern Cookhouse; courtesy photo

• Guy’s Deli & Pizza — The Gilmores also will oversee Guy’s kitchen. The menu will include build-your-own or specialty pizzas, meatball subs, club sandwiches, jumbo hot dogs, brats, Italian salads, and appetizers such as wings, garlic knots, fried cheese sticks and Guy’s branded chips. (Guy’s Snacks started in 1938 as a makeshift peanut roaster in the back of a Kansas City storeroom.) It has locations in Westport and Kansas City’s new airport terminal, but the Plaza Provisions location will offer new pasta dishes including baked spaghetti, and chicken alfredo.

“I love the idea of full-service because we have young kids,” said Bradley, emphasizing Willey’s plans for convenience throughout the space. “We also like to order multiple appetizers, but at a true restaurant food hall that is hard to do because you have to go to every counter to order.”

Willey expects table service to increase average ticket prices. Without it, customers might be more reluctant to have to stand in line again to order more appetizers, drinks or desserts. 

Burnt ends from Hawg Jaw Que & Brew; courtesy photo

Opening next

• Hawg Jaw Que & Brew — The North Kansas City barbecue restaurant will serve its full menu at Plaza Provisions.

That includes ribs, burnt ends, pulled pork, brisket, smoked Italian sausage, smoked wings, smoked corned beef, Prime French Dip (shaved smoked Prime rib topped with Swiss on a toasted hoagie with a side of smokey Au Jus), and the Slaw Dog (all-beef hot dog topped with pulled pork and Buffalo coleslaw).

The original location opened in Riverside in 2012. The Silvio family purchased it in 2015 and relocated it to its current spot.

“There’s a need for (Hawg Jaw) on the Plaza,” said owner Nick Silvio. “Casual, more reasonably priced food. Not sit-down, high-end.”

He plans to open in late August or early September.

In the works

J. Rieger & Co. Bar by Plaza Provisions — positioned on the upper level — is expected to offer whiskey, gin, vodka, cocktails such as the Route Sixty-Spritz (with Rieger vodka, raspberry, lemon and sparkling wine), and even cocktail classes.

Plaza Provisions is handling the costs and staffing, Rieger said, noting his distillery has no financial interest in the bar.

“No contracts, just a good ol’ Kansas City handshake partnership,” he said. “We were just willing to lift our skirts so they could see how we do things.”

Plaza Provisions’ bartenders and service staff recently spent time at the East Bottoms distillery learning about the brand, its history, how it is made, as well as the best cocktail techniques.

“We’ve known Eric forever,” Rieger said. “You don’t want to lend your brand to somebody that is not going to do a good job as a caretaker.”

J. Rieger & Co. Bar by Plaza Provisions will be open from 4 p.m. to midnight Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Willey expects corporate hotel guests to book the space for happy hour and other events Sundays through Wednesdays.

The Plaza Provisions Bar features craft beer taps with rotating flavors; photo by Joyce Smith

The Plaza Provisions Bar, on the lower level at the main entrance, is set to offer well drinks for $8, craft cocktails for $10, wine-by-the-glass for $10, and 54 different wines by the bottle all under $100.

In June, the Strang coffeeshop at the front entrance was rebranded as Messenger Coffee selling its coffee drinks and its Ibis Bakery goods. Under Strang it mostly attracted hotel guests, Willey said, but now it has become a neighborhood draw. It is under a licensing agreement with Messenger.

“We get their name, their quality of training, the recipes,” Willey said. “It’s a revenue generator for us.”

Willey also saw a need for a “lively, social brunch” on the Plaza.

So Plaza Provisions will offer the LaZa Brunch Club (dropping the “p” in Plaza to reflect a new Plaza era, he said). Hours will be 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays with special brunch menus from the kitchens.

In a nod to a former Plaza favorite — Tomfooleries Restaurant & Bar — Willey will have The Big Tom Fooleries Bloody Mary Bar with a selection of 30 different ingredients, setting it up in the J. Rieger space. It also is a nod to Willey’s late father, Tom, who was a foreman during the construction of a bank building that had previously been on the site.

Messenger Coffee will offer cocktails and cocktail flights — an Espresso Martini, Coffee Margarita, and Coffee Old Fashioned.

“Sundays will feature a DJ to round out the vibe,” Willey said.

Hotel guests will also be able to order room service from any of the kitchens by scanning a QR in their rooms.

To increase the food hall’s visibility, Willey is putting the kitchen logos on the first and second floor windows this week.

Kitchen hours are set for 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays. Fifteen-minute parking spaces on Wornall are now awaiting customers and third party delivery to pick up preorders.

Momentum Signature Lounge at Plaza Provisions; photo by Joyce Smith

Willey also is overseeing the new Momentum Signature Lounge, a semi-private cocktail lounge on the 10th floor of the hotel with panoramic views of the Plaza. It’s planned to offer memberships with first dibs to book it for such big events as the Plaza lighting ceremony.

The Gilmores are creating a special menu for the Momentum lounge — mostly small plates with a few entrees — operating from Lula’s on-site kitchen. It is scheduled to open in mid-September.

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.