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Cities that Sizzle

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan, 2001

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2006 population forecast: 1.66 million

Disposable Income: $39.06 billion, +10.53%

Household Income: $63,429, +8.45%

Per-capita Income: $24,344, +8.40%

Eating-and-dunking place sales (1999): $1.81 billion

No. of foodservlce & drinking places (1997): 2,805

Foodservlce & drinking place payroll (1997): $519.4 million

No. of foodservice & drinking place employees (1997): 57,822

No. of residents per foodservlce & drinking place (1997): 535

Hourly minimum wage: $5.15

Employers' tip-credit allowance: $3.02

State and local sales tax: 9.1%

Annual economic Impact of travel and tourism: $1.5 billion

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Local unemployment rate: 2.1%

Sources: U.S. Dept. of Commerce; U.S. Census Bureau; Editor & Publisher Market Guide; NRN Research.

Kansas City Mo

Paul King

Caught in the middle of an unofficial range war, restaurateurs set their 'sites' on best investment targets

For the past couple of decades, Kansas City really has been a tale of two cities, or rather a tale of two environments.

Urban sprawl aided by a lack of natural boundaries in this flat, Midwestern farmland has created a working area and a living area that now would cover the state of Connecticut.

Although Kansas City proper has succeeded in holding on to a number of large employers, such as Hallmark Cards and AMC Theaters, suburban areas like Overland Park, Johnson City and Olathe in Kansas and Independence and Lee's Summit in Missouri have siphoned off people looking to spread their domestic wings.

Now the city that straddles the Missouri-Kansas border is trying to revitalize itself by renovating some of the older but historic sections of the city and by building affordable housing to entice people to move back inside the city limits.

Meanwhile, major companies such as Sprint, which recently opened a corporate campus in Overland Park, and Harley-Davidson have set up shop in the suburbs, where lease and land rates are less expensive. In effect, they are giving people a reason not to migrate back to the city.

Restaurateurs are caught in the middle of the unofficial range war, as they attempt to guess which environment will give them the best return on their investment. So far the city seems to be winning the battle for restaurateurs, at least those in the higher end of the menu and price spectrum.

"Where we are located, near the [Country Club] Plaza, there have been a number of major openings for the past couple of years," says Steve Cole, owner of Cafe Allegro, the top-rated restaurant in the city, according to Zagat "Ruth's Chris [and] P.F. Chang's have opened here, and the Capital Grille is set to open in a couple of months."

Of course, Cole, who is also the incoming president of the Missouri Restaurant Association, isn't worried about competition.

"Yes, there are more restaurants taking pieces out of the pie," he notes. "But in my opinion the more restaurants and the better quality of restaurants, the better it will be for everybody. Down the road we want Kansas City to be recognized as a great restaurant town.

Food & Beverage Industry

Cities that Sizzle

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan, 2001

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