Another Mexican restaurant chain coming to 23rd Street; Jazz opens downtown Lawrence restaurant

Courtesy: City of Lawrence

Let the fiesta continue on West 23rd Street. Another Mexican restaurant is coming to the corridor. The latest will be the national chain Qdoba Mexican Grill.

If you remember, I briefly mentioned in July that I had heard Qdoba was looking for a spot along the 23rd Street corridor. Well, the company has now made it official. The Denver-based chain has filed plans to go into the former Kwik Shop building at 1714 W. 23rd St., just a bit west of 23rd and Ousdahl. (The Qdoba at Ousdahl: There are a lot of opportunities for mispronunciations there.)

If you are not familiar with Qdoba, it is certainly one of the top five restaurant chains in America that start with the letter ‘Q.’ Beyond that, its claim to fame is that it is kind of a super-sized Chipotle. The store won’t be much bigger than a Chipotle, but the menu seems to be broader. Qdoba offers Mission-style burritos that you can eat with your hands, smothered burritos that you can eat with your hands and a garden hose, tacos, nachos, quesadillas, taco salads, kids meals and even something called Mexican Gumbo, which is very fun because it allows you to speak Spanish with a Cajun accent.

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Some of you may remember that Qdoba previously was in Lawrence (I believe it occupied the downtown spot that now houses ingredient). That set up a showdown between Qdoba and Chipotle, which has a store just down Massachusetts Street. Qdoba closed that restaurant, I believe in the mid-to-late 2000s.

As far as a timeline goes to open the new restaurant, I’m uncertain. But plans call for a significant renovation of the existing convenience store building. You can see the new facade below, and plans also call for the construction of an outdoor dining area and improvements to the parking lot.

The project keeps alive the trend of Mexican food restaurants flocking to the 23rd Street corridor. As I’ve previously mentioned, there currently are four Mexican food restaurants — Taco Bell, Taco Johns, Chipotle and Border Bandido — within two-tenths of a mile on 23rd Street. Qdoba is just down the street, and there at one point was a plan filed to convert the old Pizza Hut location on 23rd into a fast-food Mexican restaurant called Panchos. I’m not sure if that idea is still alive, or if the development group became pollo with all the competition.

I’ll let you know if I hear more about a timeline for Qdoba.


In other news and notes from around town:

• Speaking of foreign cuisine, Lawrence diners now have the option of getting some Louisiana dishes. (Louisiana: The only foreign country that uses beads as a passport.) As we previously have reported, the popular Kansas City restaurant chain Jazz: A Louisiana Kitchen signed a deal to take over the downtown Lawrence space previously occupied by Buffalo Wild Wings.

Well, the location is now open, according to a post from the restaurant on Twitter. Menu items there include a lot of seafood, shrimp dishes, po’boy sandwiches, and a category they call “Voodoo Pasta.” Plans call for the location to also feature quite a bit of live music, including jazz, blues and Dixieland performers.