Taco Hangover Scouts Area Locations

BY JOYCE SMITH

Riley Drive Entertainment of Lenexa — owner of such restaurants as Saints Pub + Patio and Beaver Tap Bar & Grill — is rolling out two new concepts.

▪ Taco Hangover will specialize in street tacos like the Amish Scrapple (a spiced pork meatloaf); bacon, egg and cheese; cured pork belly; spicy fried shrimp and more.

Other menu items will include steak chili, pork rinds, ’80s nine-layer bean dip, shrimp and lobster jalapeno bombs, pig wings (mini pork shank), Nashville hot spicy fried chicken, Mexican street corn, roasted broccolini, and black beans and chimichurri rice.

Its specialty margaritas — like the Perfect Cure, a margarita and Moscow mule hybrid — will feature fresh-squeezed juices.

The first Taco Hangover is scheduled to open March 8 in West Des Moines, Iowa. Riley is looking at area locations of 3,000 to 3,500 square feet in Brookside, Waldo, Westport and downtown.

“It’s not your typical bar food or your typical taco joint. I think we are taking both the food and the drink to the next level,” said Scott Anderson, partner in Riley Drive Entertainment.

▪ Another yet-to-be-named but upper-end casual dining concept by Riley will feature Latin American and South American dishes.

It will open in a new 6,000-square-foot-freestanding building at 8721 Ryckert St. in Lenexa. It will be next to the 127-room, six-story Hyatt Place Hotel & Conference Center, which is scheduled to open on April 6.

Construction on the restaurant is expected to start in April, and if all goes as planned, it would open in late November.

“It will have an open kitchen concept and a chef’s counter,” said Bradley Gilmore, who joined Riley as corporate chef in January after six years with Bread & Butter Concepts. “Well-crafted meats with lots of ethnic spices. Wood-fired rotisserie chicken, big outdoor space with an outside bar, fireplace and fire pits.”

http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/cityscape/article64622507.html