Karen Mitchell, left, and Marcy Bray plan to open the Bleu Tomato bistro in downtown De Soto early next month. The sisters say they learned to cook and entertain in their mother's kitchen. Their restaurant also will feature Mitchell's abstract oil paintings and regular shows by area artists.

De Soto ? Marcy Bray remembers overwhelming her husband the first time she prepared pasta as a newlywed.

“I made like two gallons of sauce,” she said. “He looked at it and said, ‘I can’t eat all that.’

“That’s how I’d always cooked.”

Bray and her sister, Karen Mitchell, said learning to prepare meals on such large scales was something they learned from their mother, Meredith Fevurly, while growing up in Leavenworth with five siblings. But customers who visit their Bleu Tomato bistro when it opens early next month in downtown De Soto will benefit from other lessons they learned from their mother.

“There was always something going on in the kitchen,” Bray said. “It was the heart of our house.”

“Mom taught us how to entertain,” Mitchell said.

Cooking and entertaining remained a passion even as they added other interests. Mitchell remembers writing a vow years ago on a napkin while living in Germany, swearing that she would one day own a bistro where she could apply her culinary and artistic sides.

Until about five months ago, she exercised both passions at home. She painted her abstract oils and ran her personal chef business Cook Eze out of her kitchen. That ended when the city of Lenexa disapproved of her using her home for the culinary enterprise.

With that, Mitchell began looking for commercial space to relocate her catering business. Space in Olathe, Lenexa and Shawnee was too limited and expensive. When Bray suggested that she look in De Soto, she found the former home of Doc and Bruties.

During the last four months, the sisters have remodeled the interior of the cafe at the corner of 83rd and Wea streets.

Their remodeling effort has been a family affair, Bray and Mitchell said. They pressed their husbands, Britt Bray and Mark Mitchell, into the effort, as well as other family members.

The name of the bistro, Mitchell explained, was chosen as a way to tie together the sisters’ interest in art and food. Art is another interest they inherited from their mother, they said. Bray’s artistic release is weaving.

Some of Mitchell’s abstract paintings cover the wall of the eating area, but wall space will be given to artistic shows of local and area artists.

“We’ll have meet-the-artist nights,” Bray said. “It’s my Lawrence influence. There’s wonderful support for artists in restaurants in downtown Lawrence. We understand De Soto has a lot of wonderful artists.”

Bray and Mitchell encourage artists who would like to show at the bistro to call them at (913) 583-1232.

The sisters plan to open March 5. The bistro’s hours will be from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. In addition, they will offer dinners for special occasions and are already planning to offer dinners the evening of the De Soto High School prom.

“We’ll have white table service,” Mitchell said. “We’ll have an upscale dinner that will be nice for the students.”

They are starting small, Bray and Mitchell said, with an eye to expanding depending on the bistro’s reception. That could include weekend or dinner hours.

“We have a real strong vision of what we can accomplish,” Bray said. “We always talked about doing something together. Mom always encouraged it.

“It was one of those seeds planted a long time ago that’s just finally coming out.”