Leawood city officials and long-time customers of the Hereford House in Leawood are “heartbroken” over the news that the restaurant is closing.
On Thursday, the iconic Kansas City steakhouse announced it will will close its longtime Leawood location, 5001 Town Center Dr., amid “financial strains” created by continued legal fallout from an ex-kitchen worker’s alleged food contamination.
Saturday, Aug. 3, will be its final day of service, the company said. Its three other metro locations, including one other one in Johnson County in Shawnee, will remain open.
While city officials and some residents did their best to support the location after the alleged food contamination came to light earlier this year, they are now sad that those efforts weren’t enough to save it.
“We are just absolutely heartbroken for them,” Stephanie Meyer, president of the Leawood Chamber of Commerce, said. “Of course, nobody wants to see this happen, especially to a place like Hereford House, which has really been such an incredible community institution here in Leawood for so many decades.”
A beloved Kansas City favorite since the 1950s, Hereford House expanded into Leawood in November 1996.
It is now owned by Mary Holland, a member of the Leawood Chamber of Commerce, who acquired the restaurants in 2012 with her business partner Camellia Hill.
Since opening in Leawood, the restaurant has been a hub for celebrations, parties and work gatherings, including weekly Rotary Club meetings.
“I’ve celebrated many birthdays and other celebratory events there,” Meyer said. “Hereford House has been such a community touch point for us, that we are definitely grieving that loss.”
Longtime diners reflect
Since she was young, Alison Boteler, a cookbook author and blogger, has been going to the Hereford House. She remembers the family-style salads with her family and its Midwest cuisine that she yearned to eat when her family moved to New York.
“All I did was long for the food that I grew up on. And I would close my eyes and I would think about going to lunch at the Hereford House,” she said. “It was such a big day in my life when I moved back here, and I could actually do that again. And now I can’t and it’s just sad.”
Dining at the location for what he said will be his last time on Thursday, Christopher Mills said he’s heartbroken by the news.
“I know we’ve got a lot of options here, but this is hometown stuff. We bring family here from out of state because we want to show them that this is us,” he said. “A lot of these places that come through are national chains. This is Kansas City and Kansas. Losing it really rips the heart out of this area.”
Many employees of the staff at the location were there for decades, Leawood City Councilmember Lisa Harrison said.
“There are a lot of employees that work there that have worked there for 10 and 15 years,” she said. “(That) says a lot about how they are treated, if they stick around because they could certainly go elsewhere if they had wanted to.”
A weekly customer for the restaurant’s lunches, Boteler said she appreciated that the employees were friendly and gave the location personality.
“They were so nice and so accommodating,” she said. “They always knew what table you liked to sit in. I felt like I got the kind of service you just don’t get at very many places anymore.”
In its statement announcing its closure Thursday, the company said it will work with employees who still want to work for Hereford House to find a job at one of the other locations or “with our friends in the restaurant community” around Kansas City.
A suspect faces charges for contaminating food
The restaurant is facing at least 10 civil lawsuits in Johnson County District Court filed by patrons who say they became sick after eating at the restaurant this past April.
The lawsuits stem from alleged incidents in April involving ex-kitchen worker Jace Hanson, who investigators say purposefully contaminated food at the Leawood restaurant and shared videos of himself doing so online.
A previously released criminal affidavit says Hanson admitted to contaminating the food on multiple occasions in early April, with the last known act occurring on April 23. Investigators say the tampering involved Hanson urinating and rubbing his genitals on food before it was served.
Hanson faces more than 20 felony counts related to his alleged food contamination acts in addition to 10 charges of child exploitation for allegedly possessing child sexual abuse materials.
“I just hate that the bad acts of one person … potentially has had this ripple effect. It’s just the worst kind of ripple effect,” Harrison said. “It just makes me sad and mad at the same time. I wish that person could be held accountable for all the lives that have been really disrupted in a negative way.”
What’s next
Hanson remains in custody at the Johnson County Adult Detention Center in New Century on $500,000 bond. His next court date is scheduled for Sept. 24.
It remains to be seen what will happen to the Hereford House building in Leawood, near West 119th Street and Roe Avenue, in the vicinity of other restaurants like Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que and Plate Italiano Moderno.
Harrison, for one, doesn’t expect it to be vacant for long.
“(It’s at) affectionately what we refer to as ‘The Golden Intersection of Leawood,'” she said. “I don’t think that is going to be an issue at all filling that space. I am just sad for the people (that work there).”
Frequent customers and businesses that celebrated at the location will also be looking for new places to hold gatherings, which might be difficult.
“There’s not a lot of private dining rooms, smaller event spaces in our area,” Harrison said. “They really did meet a need for groups of 25 to 45, that weren’t more than 200 people. This was kind of the sweet spot.”
For Boteler, she said she wishes the other locations well, but her days of going to Hereford House are likely over.
“I could drive to Shawnee or go to Independence, but I’m just not likely to do that,” she said. “My tromping ground is between Brookside, Prairie Village and Leawood. That’s pretty much what I do.”
She added: “There’s so many things changing in the area. Hereford House was such a gem because it had survived and was still there. You know, I’d hoped it would stay there for another 50 years. I’m just really heartbroken.”
This story was originally published by the Johnson County Post.
