Joyce Smith
Contributor, FlatlandFlatland contributor Joyce Smith has covered retail and restaurants for nearly 40 years with The Kansas City Star.
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Country Club Plaza, Oak Park Mall and Independence Center face similar challenges and starkly different futures.
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Gerald Dunn is director of entertainment at the American Jazz Museum, a jazz saxophonist, radio personality and now pitmaster. Although Dunn Deal BBQ in Grandview is the "new kid on the block" in the competitive barbecue scene, there's not a lot of close options in its corner of the metro.
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New eateries continue to open on Troost between 30th to 79th Street, with offerings that include African, Jamaican, Irish, Mexican and Middle Eastern cuisines. Restaurant owners hope that the rest of the city rallies around the historic thoroughfare as a business district of its own.
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More apartments are being built in the long-established community, along with restaurants, breweries, coffee shops, a charcuterie, a piano bar, an arcade and retail shops. Waldo boosters believe the area could be entering something of a post-pandemic boom.