This Town Talk column appeared in the Jan. 22, 2020, edition of the Journal-World's Crave food supplement. More from that section, including interviews with Lawrence restaurateurs, can be found here. I’m definitely not a restaurant critic, and I’ve found it is dangerous to be a food ...
For 50 years, there has been a Border Bandido on the loose in Lawrence. I can attest because it has stolen at least three notches on my belt that I’ll never get back. Of course, I’m talking about the Mexican restaurant on 23rd Street. Soon, though, it will be just a memory. The ...
People are still trying to figure out what to call this decade that just ended. It wasn’t exactly the teens, it wasn’t exactly roaring and, if you take a couple of Twitter accounts out of the equation, it wasn’t exactly dirty. While not catchy, new numbers show there certainly is one ...
The threat of online retailers certainly didn’t subside any in 2019, but Lawrence’s retail market remained pretty stable throughout the year anyway, according to a new report from the local office of commercial real estate firm Colliers International. The vacancy rate of retail spaces ...
A little bit of Canada is coming to downtown Lawrence. Actually, it sounds like a big Canadian is coming to the downtown scene. A Canadian-based pub called Moose McGuire’s has signed a deal to locate along Massachusetts Street, and the guy they call Moose is coming with it. “It was a ...
Plans have been filed to fill one of the last remaining retail lots in the Bauer Farm shopping center near Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive. But don’t look for the vacant lot across the street from Theatre Lawrence to be another entertainment or food destination. Instead, plans call for a ...
It can be lonely on a tractor. (Ask my prom date. No one was there to roll out the red carpet for us.) The folks at Tractor Supply Co. on the far east edge of Lawrence understand that lonely feeling. The store was built in 2010 near 23rd Street and O’Connell Road, and it was presumed that ...
A 40-year-old retail building will get a major overhaul as it prepares to become the headquarters for a Lawrence real estate agency that has been in town even longer. Plans have been filed for a complete renovation of the Stone Meadows Square shopping center at Sixth Street and Lawrence ...
It was a good — but not great — year for Lawrence sales tax collections, the year-end numbers from the state show. Now, the question is: Was it good enough that the City of Lawrence will give some extra funding to the community’s homeless shelter? After receiving its December sales ...
I have automotive news that involves a wrecking ball. (No, this isn’t another story of me parking in the wrong spot at a construction site.) Rather, plans have been filed by the local Honda dealership to tear down its existing showroom along south Iowa Street to make more room for more ...
I find a good grilled cheese sandwich exhilarating. (My heart gets a jolt every time I stick a knife into the toaster to pry free my culinary creation.) OK, maybe my technique is off, but an area chef is betting that my enthusiasm for grilled cheese is widespread. An existing downtown ...
The national scene came to Lawrence during the past decade — at least for a day. Does anybody still remember Jan. 22, 2015 — the day when President Barack Obama became the first sitting president in more than 100 years to visit Lawrence? It is OK if the day slipped your mind. That’s not ...
For some of us, boosting Lawrence’s music scene — especially this time of year — involves looking for our symphonic version of “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” But these days, some local music leaders are looking to make even more noise than that. I had a chance to sit down ...
In some ways, it makes sense that a business based in Columbia, Mo. is coming to Lawrence to clean our vehicles. After all, a Lawrence basketball team has been cleaning the clocks of a Columbia basketball team for decades. (Hey, if they are going to restart the basketball games, I’m going to ...
Get ready for a big renovation at Lawrence’s SuperTarget store. Work is expected to begin next month, but what’s going to change at the south Iowa Street retailer is a bit unclear. A smaller grocery department, though, appears to be a possibility, based on plans filed with Lawrence City ...
There has been talk in some circles that Lawrence is the beer capital of Kansas. Now, there is evidence that goes beyond the fact that the pile of discarded beer bottles in your garage is roughly the size of the Statehouse dome. A national website lists Lawrence as one of the 50 best beer ...
If entering the J.Lynn Bridal store in downtown Lawrence causes you to feel a bit like a hustler or a shark, don’t be alarmed (although I wouldn’t recommend writing those thoughts into the wedding vows.) The building at 731 Massachusetts St. was a pool hall for almost 30 years, after all. ...
Maybe you too have learned what a snow day during holiday baking season is good for: about 20 pounds. Doughnuts, though, weren’t on my list of treats I was making and eating, but, of course, I didn’t have the benefit of a doughnut-making robot. A new west Lawrence doughnut shop, however, ...
I can tell you from personal experience that if you get close enough to a pig, you gain greater appreciation for a bar of soap. So, maybe there is some symbolic synergy with the Bourgeois Pig’s new next-door neighbor in downtown Lawrence — a handmade soap company. Bodytruth Soap ...
New figures from the federal government show Douglas County has a significantly smaller economy than many other counties that are dominated by major universities. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released new figures Thursday that for the first time show the gross domestic product of ...