A new venue specializing in “sangria, tins and snacks” pairs viral tastes with inspiration from a classic culinary voice, said longtime Kansas City restaurateur Shawn McClenny, whose Crossroads “taverna” is expected to open by mid-November.
“It will be more of a Spanish cafe, very informal, no reservations,” said McClenny, describing the future Lilico’s Taverna slated for 1615 Oak St. (the former home to The Pairing: Crossroads Wine & Grocer). “My wife calls it ‘sobremesa’ — the Spanish tradition of relaxing at the table after the meal.”
Unlike his previous Johnson County venture — a 25,000-square-foot complex known as One Block South — the 3,000-square-foot Lilico’s will need just a couple of workers in the kitchen, and allow McClenny more time to unwind while still serving with creative flair.
“I was doing One Block South to become an entrepreneur and grow the business,” he said. “I’m 60, this is a passion project. I’m not going to get rich.”
That perspective comes, in part, thanks to a serious personal health scare that could have knocked the new restaurant off-course permanently.
In August 2023, McClenny was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic cancer and given six months to live. He made himself a promise: if he went into remission he would open Lilico’s.
“I’m still here and being able to own Lilico’s is one of God’s miracles,” McClenny said. “This business is what I’ve always known. It’s fun for me. My M.O. for employees is to have fun and be better than you were yesterday. If you aren’t having fun you are in the wrong place.”
Venturing to tins unknown
The concept for Lilico’s draws on celebrity chef and documentarian Anthony Bourdain’s trip to Espinaler restaurant in Spain for a 2008 episode of his “Parts Unknown” travel series. In it, Bourdain remarked that Espinaler’s tins bore no relationship to the cans of smoked oysters he’d eat stoned and desperate at two in the morning back in college.
Instead, the packed containers boasted the world’s very best seafood, Bourdain said, and “here’s what’s so mind-blowing: it only gets better in the can.” But the seaside village restaurant, north of Barcelona, also had some mind-blowing prices.
Lilico’s Taverna version will be just as tasty, McClenny said, but with more digestible Kansas City rates: $7 to $20.
What you can expect:
- Snacks. Look for such items as mixed nuts, marinated olives, and bread with olive oil.
- Traditional charcuterie boards, as well as dessert boards.
- Pinchos (also called pintxos). Skewers with prosciutto and Parmesan; apple, goat cheese and honey; tomato and garlic puree with mozzarella on Ibis Bakery bread; and more.
- Tins will include sardines in spicy olive oil; La Curiosa marinated mussels; and Casa branzino in olive oil.
- Also on the menu: caviar, cocktails such as mojitos and Cuba Libres, and mocktails.
Smiling faces to closed spaces
While earning a psychology degree from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, McClenny delivered pizzas. After graduating, he worked as a DJ in restaurants and nightclubs for a decade. When he interviewed for a job at the restaurant Bristol, someone asked him what he loved about the industry.
“I love putting smiles on customers’ faces,” McClenny replied.
When told the restaurant didn’t have customers, it had guests, that concept “changed my entire perception of the industry,” he said.
McClenny got the Bristol job and later worked at Overland Park’s upscale J. Gilbert’s Wood-Fired Steaks & Seafood.
In 1999, McClenny took over management of Raoul’s lounge — in Rosana Square at 119th Street and Metcalf Avenue in Overland Park — adding Velvet Room to the name. A year later, he purchased the supper club.
His work there was so celebrated, McClenny kept adding concepts: Fuel American Made Bar & Grill, Kanza Hall country music venue, Local Tap craft beer bar, and Red 8 Billiards — until he had a massive entertainment complex that he ultimately dubbed “One Block South.”
It drew crowds from southern Johnson County and beyond.
But the COVID-19 pandemic turned the popular gathering spot into a ghost town as social distancing practices persisted, and McClenny knew he couldn’t make overhead. The lease was up in 2021, so the space never reopened.
McClenny originally planned Lilico’s for the basement of his Hogshead restaurant on the Country Club Plaza.
He had teamed up with Chef Clark Grant to open the restaurant in the former California Pizza Kitchen space in 2017. It was a buzz-worthy venue with a moss wall, foie gras “Snickers,” Hogshead’s version of a McDonald’s McRib sandwich, and CBD cocktails.
But it shuttered just two years later.
At the time, Grant blamed winter storms that kept customers at home, and the loss of parking spaces to make way for a massive Nordstrom development. Nordstrom never opened and the Hogshead space remains dark.
Pairing family history, viral trends
Spurred on by his cancer remission, McClenny is designing the Oak Street space alongside his wife, Carolina, who is planning a decor heavily influenced by Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali.
The McClennys’ daughter, Elle, spent a year in Madrid teaching English and the family visits Spain often.
The restaurant’s name — Lilico (pronounced Lee-lee-co) — is in honor of Carolina’s late father, Orlando “Lilico” Cortes. Orlando and his wife, Manuela, were born in Spain, but lived in Cuba before a church helped them move to Kansas when Fidel Castro’s revolutionary forces took over the country.
McClenny found the right location in the Crossroads, he said, noting Lilico’s eyes the arts district’s younger clientele. (The space Oak Street space sits near Green Dirt on Oak, a local, independent restaurant featuring a menu built around cheeses made on-site and on their farm in Weston, as well as the new Anjin, described as a neighborhood Japanese-inspired restaurant.)
The taverna’s signature menu items — tins of sardines, anchovies, sea bass, scallops, tuna, mussels and more — also target a viral-hungry demographic.
“Tins are very trendy, all over TikTok with the kids just eating it up,” McClenny said. “But this will be a taverna first and foremost.”
This story was originally published by Startland News, a fellow member of the KC Media Collective.
