A look at how the bar area of Lawrence's new Hy-vee Market Grille likely will look. Photo Courtesy: Hy-Vee

Grocery shopping may really get dangerous. What shall only be referred to as an “unfortunate Dorito incident” ( I still note there was no sign limiting how many bags a fellow could purchase, and my banker signed off on the line of credit) has pretty much barred me from doing the grocery shopping in my house. But soon I’ll be able to tag along and have a steak dinner and some adult beverages in a local grocery store while my wife takes care of the shopping.

As we’ve briefly mentioned in the past, the Hy-Vee grocery chain has been adding something called Hy-Vee Market Grilles to select stores. Several in the Kansas City area have them, and now work has begun to add one to the Hy-Vee store on Clinton Parkway.

The concept behind a Hy-Vee Market Grille is simple enough: It is a sit-down restaurant — complete with a bar — inside the grocery store. The walk-up food counters — think Chinese, Italian, sandwich stations — will remain at the Hy-Vee for people who want that type of walk-up dining service. But the Hy-Vee Grille will be for customers who want an actual waiter or waitress to serve them at a table. And, unlike at the walk-up counters, each meal ordered in the Hy-Vee Grille will be custom made. In other words, the restaurant won’t just take an entrée item out of the hot food case at the walk-up counter.

“It is going to be another place to come for a date night or another place to go and watch the big game,” said Jason Draves, store operations manager. “It is going to be a full restaurant.”

If having a sit-down restaurant in a grocery store seems a bit unusual to you, remember that a grocery may have one built-in advantage in the restaurant business: A grocery store always has a large variety of food on stock. That allows the Hy-Vee Grille to have a pretty broad menu.

I don’t have specifics on the Lawrence menu, but looking at online menus for Hy-Vee Market Grilles across the country is interesting. They feature salads, Asian dishes, pizzas, seafood, Italian dishes, sushi, and plenty of American sandwiches and other such dishes. And the menu features three different cuts of steak, a pork chop entree and even a shepherd’s pie dish.

Draves said the Lawrence location also will have a full bar. The company’s website advertises that the bars in other Hy-Vee Market Grilles stock 65 craft beers, an extensive wine list and also serve cocktails.

“They can have a Bloody Mary with their breakfast, if they want,” Draves said.

The website also touts that many of the locations have omelet stations and brunch buffets during select times.

As for the logistics of the work underway at the Clinton Parkway Hy-Vee, the grille will be located in the southwest corner of the building where the food court seating area was located. A new casual seating area will be added near where the westernmost entrance of the store is currently located. A new entrance to the store will be built, Draves said.

Draves estimated work likely will take at least three months to complete. Construction crews began work last week.

In other news and notes from around town:

• Lawrence residents should be feeling a little bit better than the state as a whole this morning, and I don’t think it has anything to do with Bloody Marys for breakfast.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis on Thursday released data that shows personal income in Kansas grew at the second slowest rate in the country. The one piece of consolation is that the figures are for 2014 — it takes the government quite awhile to compile personal income numbers — so perhaps the situation has improved since then. Regardless, 2014 was not a good year for many Kansas bank accounts.

Personal income — which is everything from paychecks to rental income to Social Security benefits and everything in between — grew by only 0.5 percent in 2014. The growth rate is adjusted to account for inflation. So, the way to read this is that after inflation, people’s incomes increased by about a half-percent in Kansas in 2014. That trailed only South Dakota, which grew at 0.4 percent.

But as I mentioned, Lawrence bucked the state trend. After inflation, Lawrence saw per capita income grow by 1.8 percent in 2014. That was tied for the top mark of any metro area in the state. Here’s a look at the other metro areas and their growth rates:

• Kansas City, Mo.-Kan: 1.8 percent

• Manhattan: 1.5 percent

• Topeka: 0.6 percent

• Wichita: 0.6 Percent

It is worth noting that every Kansas metro area posted better numbers in 2014 than in 2013. Lawrence grew by only 0.8 percent in 2013, and Wichita, Manhattan and Kansas City all posted decreases in personal income after adjusting for inflation in 2013.

Now, there is a piece of disheartening news for Lawrence. While our growth rate was better than some, the actual amount of dollars earned by Lawrence residents is still at the bottom of all metro areas in the state. I don’t generally think per capita income is the best way to measure the true earnings in Lawrence. College communities usually get dinged in the calculation because a good portion of our population are college students who aren’t really trying to earn a living yet. Here’s a look at the dollar amounts:

• Lawrence: $35,146

• Manhattan: $38,333

• Topeka: $41,734

• Kansas City: $45,613

• Wichita: $45,807

Like I said, college towns don’t fare well in this measurement, but Manhattan obviously is a major college community, and it has per capita income of 9 percent more than Lawrence’s. Here’s a look at some other university communities in the greater region.

• Lawrence: $35,146

• Ames, Iowa: $38,035

• Bloomington, Ind.: $31,784

• Columbia, Mo.: $40,949

• Greeley, Colo.: $35,266

• Iowa City: $43,096

• Waco: $34,709

It has been the case for quite some time, but fathom this: People in Columbia, Mo., generally have incomes 16 percent higher than those of us in Lawrence. You would think they would be able to buy a basketball team with all that money.

In all seriousness, figuring out why Lawrence’s per capita income is lower than several of these other college communities is an important question for the community.