During a trip to Kansas City earlier this year, I ended up staying downtown near the Power & Light District. I really hadn't spent much - if any - time in the restaurant and entertainment district that opened its first restaurant over a dozen years ago. One evening, I decided to walk up to the area to check out some restaurants near the Sprint Center. Just across the street from the large arena was an Irish bar that caught my eye - The Dubliner. I decided to go in and see what they had to offer for food.
When The Cordish Companies - a Baltimore-based developer - proposed a mixed-use area in downtown Kansas City, it was met with civic enthusiasm to help revitalize an area that had gone downhill in the years leading up to the turn of the 21st century. Named after the famed Kansas City Power & Light building that has stood majestically over downtown Kansas City for nearly 90 years, the Power & Light District became a $5 billion dollar project to bring restaurants, entertainment, housing and office space to a nine-square block area. The Sprint Center opened in October of 2007 and a month later the first restaurant - McFadden's Sports Saloon - opened in the new Power & Light District. The Power & Light District was soon filled with a number of national chain restaurants and entertainment venues that helped make downtown Kansas City a destination once again.
One of the first restaurants that was opened in the Power & Light District was an Irish pub that was literally in the shadow of the Sprint Center - Raglan Road. The 10,000 square foot restaurant featured two bars that were handcrafted from salvaged materials found in bars in Ireland. The parent company was from Ireland and had a Raglan Road location in Orlando. The restaurant - which cost a reported $2 million to build out - featured authentic Irish food and live Celtic music.
After a couple three years, the new-ness of the Power & Light District began to wane - especially when there were no events at the Sprint Center to continue to bring people to downtown Kansas City. Occupancy rates of condos that had been built for residents weren't as high as projected as the economy was struggling to get back to pre-2008 levels. People who worked in downtown Kansas City weren't staying downtown after work. Business fell off for many of the restaurants and venues. Raglan Road was one who felt the pinch and they tried to mix things up with adding more types of live music other than Irish bands. But it was evident that things weren't working and they soon got behind in their lease payments to The Cordish Companies.
But that was happening to a number of other places in the Power & Light District, as well. A number of restaurants and venues without major corporate financial backing were forced to file bankruptcy and shut down because they couldn't pay rent to the landlord. Raglan Road's corporate arm was sued for back rent by The Cordish Companies in the summer of 2011. But the end of August of that year, the corporation overseeing Raglan Road's operations was forced to declare bankruptcy and they closed the doors on August 31.
Seeing an opportunity, a local investment group that called themselves Downtown Irish Pub took over the space that Raglan Road had left just months before. The group reached out to KC Hopps, a local restaurant group that oversaw the operations of O'Dowd's - another Kansas City-area Irish pub - and other restaurants such as Barley's Kitchen & Tap, Blue Moose and the venerable Stroud's to help run the new restaurant. The newly renamed Dubliner opened in time for the Big 12 men's basketball tournament in March of 2012.
It was a bumpy 18 months for The Dubliner as they tried to find a niche in the market place. More condos were being built and more people were living downtown, but The Dubliner was on the virtual far-end of the new high-rises being built in downtown Kansas City. The group ended their relationship with KC Hopps (even though a couple of the investors with The Dubliner's corporate arm were still associated with KC Hopps) and brought in a new general manager to try and fix things. More Irish foods were added to the menu, the new manager marketed the place as an Irish bar with something for everything, and business began to stabilize. The Dubliner has held its own in a crowded restaurant and entertainment market in downtown Kansas City.
I found The Dubliner at the corner of E. 14th St. and Grand Blvd. across the street from the west entrance to the Sprint Center. (see map) The modern brick facade on the building gave way to a front bar area with a lot of dark wood accents. The front bar - which was dubbed the Whiskey Bar as they feature over 40 different types of Scotch and Irish whiskies - was sort of cluttered up with what appeared to be some sort of a remodel situation going on.
I made my way through the restaurant and found a larger back area that featured a long bar and a two-tiered dining room. It was a very ornate room that reminded me more of a German restaurant than an Irish one. But it was certainly the fanciest Irish pub I'd ever been in. High-top tables were in the main dining area with high-tops with banquette seats along the wall opposite the bar.
There was an outdoor patio area at The Dubliner that featured a handful of tables. The patio was next to a large courtyard that is actually known as KC Live!, the Power & Light District's main entertainment venue. It's the main hub of a number of bars that face the courtyard that hosts live concerts from national touring acts, parties, and corporate events.
I ended up going back inside and sitting at the bar. A small crowd of afterwork people had come into the place, but the place was pretty quiet. The bartender on duty, Elliott, came over to take my drink order and to drop off a food menu. I got a Harp lager that they had on tap.
Traditional Irish food at The Dubliner included bangers and mash, shepherd's pie, fish and chips, and a Tipperary stew made with lamb and root vegetables simmered in a red wine. They had a number of sandwiches and burgers on the menu, as well as a number of salad dishes and appetizers such as poutine (not very Irish, but still good) and fried artichoke hearts.
For some reason, the corned beef and cabbage sounded good to me. They also had a Guinness-braised brisket on the menu, but I went with the corned beef. It featured chunks of corned beef brisket along with chunks of cabbage and sliced root vegetables. They put a mustard sauce on the corned beef that was actually pretty good.
I didn't concentrate too much on the root veggies, but the cabbage was pretty good. It didn't have a bitter taste like you can get with some cooked cabbage, and it cut pretty easily.
However, the corned beef was sort of all over the place. Some of the chunks of meat were tender and easy to cut - others were tough and very hard to chew. I had to pull a couple pieces out of my mouth because I knew my teeth weren't going to win the fight. But the pieces that were edible were actually pretty good. It was just the ones that weren't that put a damper on the meal.
My initial reaction upon leaving The Dubliner was one of "eh!" It was all right, not bad, not great. The corned beef was just all right. Elliott's service was fine. It was a nice place with nice surroundings and decor, but I didn't get that intimate Irish pub-type vibe to the place. I sort of wish I would have gotten something other than the corned beef and cabbage - maybe the Guiness-braised beef or the Tipperary Stew. But I probably wouldn't search out The Dubliner again unless I was in the immediate area at some point and was looking for some Irish food.
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