WRITER: Chad Lawhorn

Downtown breakfast, lunch spot opening soon in west Lawrence; a bloody Mary with a beef jerky twist also set to arrive

Morrie Sheets, owner of the new Jimmy’s Egg restaurants in Lawrence, has a better alarm clock than I have. “When I smell bacon at 5 a.m., I know it is time to get up,” Sheets said. Sheets, who owns Jimmy’s Egg restaurants across the state, lives in an apartment above the Lawrence restaurant at 10th and Massachusetts streets in downtown. (For the record, when I smell bacon at 5 a.m., I hope the ...

Lawrence home sales off to their slowest start in years; selling prices begin to fall slightly

With all the rain, maybe you too are considering that the best home is a houseboat. (I think my household is giving it serious consideration based on the number of times I’m told to go jump in a lake.) Regardless, something has caused traditional home sales in Lawrence to take a nosedive. The local real estate market is definitely off to a slow start in 2019, based on the latest numbers from the Lawrence ...

New health care building to be constructed near west Lawrence Walmart, plus other news and notes from around town

Look for construction to begin soon on a new building near the Walmart in west Lawrence. While that area has attracted a host of new restaurants — Old Chicago, Spin Pizza and Blue Moose, among others — this project is on the other side of the street, where they must be a little more practical. A dentist’s office will be the main tenant of this new building. The Kansas City-based real estate firm Block ...

National food delivery company targets Lawrence; North Lawrence bar and unique downtown gift shop announce closures

  News and notes from around town: • It used to be if a waiter showed up at my door, it was a sign that I took way too many of the complimentary breath mints. Now, it's just evidence that another tech company looking to combine the internet and dining has chosen Lawrence as a potential hot market. A company called Waitr has chosen Lawrence and Topeka to make its Kansas debut. The Louisiana-based ...

Lawrence aviation company in growth mode after winning NASA contract

A Lawrence-based aviation firm has won a new NASA contract, and it also moved into new space that will allow it to go from just designing high-tech aviation prototypes to actually building them. DARcorporation this week was selected by NASA for continued work on a project that will test how artificial intelligence can be used to pilot unmanned aircraft in the future. DARcorporation previously had done work ...

From a stone in your pocket to a several thousand dollar gemstone, downtown shop expands for rock lovers

I have learned the hard way that there are people in my life who are not a fan of fake gold. (In my defense, it did take me $5 in quarters to get the ring out of the bubble gum machine.) But maybe you are a genuine fan of pyrite — fool’s gold — or any number of other minerals. If so, I have news of a downtown Lawrence store expanding for people just like you. Summit’s Steps Minerals has moved to 11 W. ...