I’m not sure it will involve coal, but it almost certainly will involve beer. While we could be talking about my stocking on Christmas morning, we’re not. Instead, we’re trying to determine the latest restaurant that will go into the former Round Corner Drug building at Eighth and Massachusetts streets.

There has been speculation the owners of Coal Vines, a pizza and wine bar that operates on the Country Club Plaza, will open a restaurant in the space at 801 Massachusetts. Well, plans indeed have been filed at Lawrence City Hall for a new restaurant to go into the space. The plans, however, don’t identify the tenant, but strong indications are that Zach Marten, a KU graduate and owner of Coal Vines, is involved in the project.

I’ve got a message into Marten, but haven’t yet heard back. But I did hear from an employee at Coal Vines in recent weeks that a Lawrence plan was in the works, but I was told it is possible the new establishment may not carry the Coal Vines name.

As for Coal Vines, if you are not familiar, its specialty is New York-style pizza that is cooked in a coal-burning oven. But it also is a big brunch spot on the plaza, serves several whole wheat pastas and, of course, a big selection of wines and beers. (I’ve always thought coal and beer go well together, which by the way, is evidently not the right conversation-starter to use with the HR person at the coal-fired power plant just outside of town.)

But the owners of Coal Vines also have branched out into other restaurant ventures in Kansas City. According to the Kansas City Star, Marten and his business partner are behind the new Westport Ale House that opened in March. That concept involves a sports bar theme, more than 50 different beers and a menu that includes items like hamburgers with fried eggs on them and apple pie that somehow involves bourbon. (There’s also a dish that involves doughnut holes and beer, but I hardly thought that was worth mentioning. That’s just called Saturday morning.)

The plans filed at City Hall don’t give a good clue to what the concept may be in Lawrence. The plans simply state the establishment will provide Lawrence with a “unique dining/drinking experience not otherwise available.”

The plans do show one feature, however, that will be interesting to watch. Architects are proposing that a new window system be installed on the ground floor of the restaurant. The plan calls for large tilt-up windows that would basically open the dining area up to the fresh air of Massachusetts Street. It also would allow for a big walk-through area between the bar and a new sidewalk seating area that is proposed for the Massachusetts Street sidewalk in front of the business.

There have been other downtown establishments that have proposed similar ideas of creating an open-air space along Massachusetts Street. The former Mexican restaurant Tapas is the one that I remember most. That plan, however, never got approval, so it will be interesting to see how city planners view this proposal. Like pretty much all downtown redevelopment, the plan must pass muster with certain historic preservation guidelines.

In other news and notes from around town:

• All right, you caught me. I’m still thinking about a hamburger with a fried egg on it. Dempsey’s Burger Pub, 623 Vermont St., long has offered that combination. Well, there’s news out of that restaurant. It is continuing to become one of Lawrence’s larger exports.

Dempsey’s owner Steve Gaudreau told me recently that Dempsey’s is set to open its third location in the region. He has signed a lease to open in the College Hill area of Wichita. The location is in the Clifton Square development of the district. It is a bit of a homecoming for Gaudreau. He grew up just blocks away from the location. Gaudreau, who is probably best known in Lawrence for being the founder of Quinton’s, opened up a Dempsey’s in Lincoln, Neb., last year.

The opening of a Dempsey’s in Wichita squares with what Gaudreau told me back then. He said he thinks the upscale burger trend is one with staying power because a whole new generation of foodies is looking for an affordable way to eat gourmet.

“The future is having a chain of Dempsey’s,” Gaudreau told me last year. “I want to go where the market takes me.”

Gaudreau tells me that he currently is looking for a location to open a Dempsey’s in Kansas City.

• Some of us have hamburgers with fried eggs on our minds, while others have thoughts of a potential $30 million police headquarters building on theirs. City officials want to hear your thoughts on the latter. They have set up a website to take comments on locations for a potential headquarters building.

Earlier this month, city commissioners said they wanted to study four locations for the headquarters building:

• About 15 acres of city-owned land in VenturePark, the new industrial park that formerly was Farmland Industries. The property is along Kansas Highway 10 on the eastern edge of the city, near the Douglas County Jail.

• About 29 acres of city-owned property at Overland and Wakarusa drives. The property is essentially behind the Walmart on Sixth Street. The site is near Free State High School and once was considered to house a city recreation center.

• About 47 acres of property on the east side of McDonald Drive, north of the school district’s administrative building. The property is near the west Lawrence interchange of the Kansas Turnpike. It’s currently listed for $3.2 million, more than double what the city has budgeted for land acquisition. But the site also is much larger than the 15 acres needed for the project. City officials have said they would look at the possibility of selling off parcels of the property to recoup some of their costs.

• Up to 50 acres of property along West 31st Street between Ousdahl Road and Louisiana Street. The property has some floodplain concerns but would be adjacent to the new South Lawrence Trafficway.

You can go to lawrenceks.org/police-facility-comment to give your opinion about the potential sites. The city will accept comments until July 1.

There may still be one wildcard to consider with the police headquarters location, however. I’m hearing some discussion about potentially expanding the facility to house Municipal Court. Currently the city pays just under $95,000 a year to lease the building at 1006 New Hampshire St. that currently houses Municipal Court.

In recent days, the city has renewed that lease with Berkeley Plaza Inc. But instead of renewing for the standard three-year term, the city renewed for only one year. That was done to give city officials flexibility in case a decision is made to incorporate Municipal Court into the police headquarters building.

The idea is getting some consideration because police officers do have to spend some time testifying in Municipal Court. Having the court as part of the headquarters may create some time savings for officers.

I don’t think the addition of Municipal Court would require a significantly larger site, but it would mean that the site would be visited by members of the public more frequently. City Manager David Corliss, though, has said in the age of smartphones and GPS, he’s not too worried about choosing a site that residents will have a hard time finding. All four under consideration seem pretty easy to find anyway.

We’ll see where the conversation leads. I expect a lot of discussion in July about how much this police headquarters building should cost and what type of tax increase should be presented to voters in November.

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