West Lawrence restaurant undergoes major expansion; a sneak peek at new Port Fonda restaurant in downtown

A wine display at the newly expanded Six Mile Chop House.

One day after Ellen DeGeneres gave away World Series tickets to Lawrence fans who could, at the spur of the moment, don royalty costumes, I’m still mad at my wife for excommunicating me from my role of king of the household. (Technically I was never king of the household, but I was allowed to rule over one corner of the basement, until she sold my scepter at a garage sale and feigned ignorance that my bedazzled robe was dry clean only.)

Oh well, at least I can still eat like a king and even hold a king-size banquet, thanks to a new project in west Lawrence. That’s right, a west Lawrence business is betting big on steak and becoming a new venue for banquets, wedding receptions and other large events.

If you remember, I briefly reported in July that the Six Mile Chop House at Sixth and Wakarusa was undertaking a major project by expanding into the adjacent space previously occupied by Famous Dave’s BBQ. Well, chop house owner Brad Ziegler has confirmed the project is complete, and the expanded steak house opened on Monday.

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And when I say expanded, I do mean expanded. I think Lawrence is now home to one of the larger — if not largest — steakhouses in all of Kansas. Ziegler said the expansion added about 7,000 square feet to the restaurant. It increased seating capacity by about 200 diners on the main floor alone. In addition, the basement level can accommodate about 160 people for banquet events.

“We wanted more space for larger groups,” Ziegler said. “We have a lot of requests for rehearsal dinners, birthday parties, and groups of 12 to 30 that we didn’t have a place to seat them with without closing down the rest of the chop house.”

The new arrangement, in addition to the downstairs space that can host dinner, dancing and private bar service, has three smaller, private rooms that can be reserved for events.

The expansion also has allowed for a new lounge area. The lounge features leather couches, a fireplace and a large wine cooler/display that holds 240 bottles of wine.

A wine display at the newly expanded Six Mile Chop House.

A new lounge area in the expanded Six Mile Chop House.

The new lounge will be in addition to Six Mile Tavern, the existing bar and lounge that is connected to Six Mile Chop House.

As for the menu, there will be some changes, but not a lot.

“We’re still focusing on a traditional steakhouse menu, with some daily seafood items,” Ziegler said.

The restaurant serves basically three categories of beef: a selection of USDA prime-graded beef; Kansas-raised beef that has been dry-aged for six weeks; and certified Angus beef cuts. In addition the restaurant has several fish and seafood dishes such as salmon, lobster mac ‘n cheese, and bacon-wrapped scallops.

The restaurant also has a brunch and bloody Mary menu that it serves on Saturdays and Sundays.

In other news and notes from around town:

• It can’t be long now before Port Fonda, the hip Mexican and Latino-inspired restaurant, will open in downtown Lawrence. The restaurant has removed the butcher block paper from the windows at its new location at 900 New Hampshire St. (That’s the ground floor of the new Marriott hotel, if you forgot your GPS.)

Take a look at a couple of shots I took through the windows.

A look at the inside of Port Fonda in Downtown Lawrence. The building in the background actually is the 901 apartment building across the street from Port Fonda. Its reflection is showing up in the window I shot through, which makes this picture either very artistic or an advertisement for why Excedrin exists.

The company operates the original Port Fonda in Westport. I called down there but haven’t had any luck in getting an official opening date. An employee at the restaurant, though, said Nov. 1 has been mentioned as an opening date. It sounds like, though, the restaurant will have a soft opening period before it really opens to the general public. But soon, it seems.

As for the food, I’m guessing it will have a similar menu to the Westport location, which includes everything from tacos to Mexican sandwiches, to specialty soups, to more elaborate dishes that are prepared in a wood-burning oven.