Updates on a pair of high-profile demolitions in town; longtime restaurant on Iowa Street closes

Demolition work on the former Don's Steakhouse property was underway Friday.

The Russians are at it again. They apparently are hacking into Mother Nature in an effort to give us Siberia. (There is not unanimity on that point. Some leaders believe the pending ice storm may be the result of some guy in New Jersey leaving his freezer door open.) I can’t sort that out, but I do have some news and notes for you to ponder while you try to stay warm and safe this weekend.

• Perhaps the memories of Don’s Steakhouse can keep you warm. Soon, that is all you will have left of the once popular restaurant along Lawrence’s eastern edge. Demolition crews on Friday were tearing the building down.

For those of you have forgotten, Don’s Steakhouse was just west of 23rd and O’Connell. Crews earlier this week tore down the old Diamond Everley Roofing building that was just east of the Don’s Steakhouse building. A development group led by an executive with Diamond Everley is redeveloping the old roofing business site and the Don’s Steakhouse site into an 89-room Country Inn & Suites Hotel.

Demolition work on the former Don's Steakhouse property was underway Friday.

Crews were tearing into the backside of the restaurant building early this morning, and there probably won’t be much left of it by the end of the day. Don’s Steakhouse was open from 1962 to 2008, with founder Don Scott running it for several decades and then Lawrence businessman Gary Bartz taking over in about 1990.

In addition to the 89-room hotel, development plans for the property also call for a restaurant to build on the site. The last I heard, however, a deal had not yet been struck for a restaurant to locate on the site, and the development group was focusing on getting the hotel project completed.

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• Don’s was the second high-profile demolition to take place in Lawrence this week. The former BarbWire’s Steakhouse and Saloon building on south Iowa Street also was reduced to a pile of rubble. (It is like an angry herd of bovines got their hooves on some demolition equipment this week.)

As we reported in October, a group led by the local franchise owner of the new Slim Chickens restaurant chain purchased the property. He told me then that he likely was going to tear down the building to make way for a new Slim Chickens restaurant.

Demolition work was underway this week on the former BarbWire's Steakhouse location on south Iowa Street.

How soon that will happen, though, isn’t entirely certain. The chain is opening its first Lawrence restaurant in late January in the former KFC building near Sixth and Wakarusa. Back in October, owner Mark Killeen told me he wanted to get that restaurant open, and he also is working to open a Slim Chickens in Wichita before he turns his attention to the south Iowa Street location.

But it looks like there is every reason to expect a Slim Chickens to be on the site sooner rather than later. In addition to tearing the building down, Killeen has filed a site plan with the city for a new restaurant building to be constructed on the site.

In case you are having a hard time picturing the location, it is at 2412 Iowa St. After BarbWire’s closed several years ago, it was most recently a dance club called Wilde’s Chateau 24.

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• Now, this is just getting scary. In the time that I started writing this column this morning, I’ve since learned that Montana Mike’s Steakhouse has closed its Lawrence location. If you are scoring at home, that is three either current or former steakhouse locations that have gone by the wayside. If a bovine gets hold of a snow plow this weekend, chicken places will be the only thing left in town.

An employee at Montana Mike’s, 1015 Iowa St., confirmed that the restaurant has shut down. But he also said the company behind Montana Mike’s plans to open a new restaurant at the location this spring. Look for remodeling work to begin soon. The employee said the new restaurant would be a different concept than Montana Mike’s but he said he wasn’t authorized to speak about that. I’ll reach out to the corporate headquarters at a later time to see if I can learn more.

As for Montana Mike’s, it may not be coincidence that it has closed just a few months after Texas Roadhouse opened its chain steakhouse on south Iowa Street. But the closing does end a long run for the budget steakhouse. The employee I talked with didn’t have an exact date of when the restaurant opened in Lawrence, but it has been in town for more than 15 years, he said.

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