photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Plans are in the works to convert the convenience store at 2220 Harper Street into a Goodstop by Casey's convenience store.

The eastern side of Lawrence is set to get a Casey’s convenience store — without the sweet, sweet morning shame.

Plans have been filed at Lawrence City Hall that indicate the Sinclair Dino-Mart convenience store at 23rd and Harper streets will be converted to a new type of Casey’s store. The application says the location will become a “Goodstop by Casey’s” operation.

Maybe some of you are tangentially familiar with Casey’s because you’ve stopped at one to fill up your gas tank. Others of you are perhaps more familiar with Casey’s because you’ve stopped there a few hundred times to fill up your empty well of morning motivation with a few donuts and a wonderful creation known as “breakfast pizza.”

As I’ve mentioned a few times in this space, Casey’s surely is under Nobel Prize consideration for its advancement in food science by creating a pizza that replaces the tomato sauce with cheese sauce, piles scrambled eggs on top, adds sausage and bacon pieces and more cheese. Casey’s stores have a full kitchen where they make those creations and others — regular pizza, sandwiches, donuts and more — on site. That’s what is missing at a Goodstop by Casey’s — no kitchen, thus a smaller selection of food items.

So, perhaps a more marketing-friendly way to say this is that eastern Lawrence is getting a “cardiologist-approved Casey’s.”

Well, that may be a stretch too, unless the medical advice on beef jerky has changed. In other words, Goodstop locations still will have all the regular type of convenience store food.

On its website, Casey’s describes the Goodstop stores as locations that offer “quality fuel, and a variety of snacks, drinks, tobacco products and other on-the-go-essentials.” While the location won’t offer the full food offerings, it will provide some of the other benefits of Casey’s. Customers will be able to use their Casey’s rewards program points at the Goodstop location.

In reading a little bit about Goodstop locations, it sounds like Casey’s often uses the brand when it buys other convenience store brands that have stores that are too small to accommodate a Casey’s kitchen. So perhaps Casey’s has bought the Dino-Mart brand, although I haven’t seen any such announcements from Casey’s corporate office. The Iowa-based company, though, is in a growth mode. It announced last year that it plans to add at least 350 stores to its ranks by 2026. Casey’s recently completed its largest acquisition ever. Earlier this month, it completed the acquisition of the Fikes chain of convenience stores, which includes nearly 150 stores in Texas.

Casey’s now has approximately 2,900 stores, and is the third largest convenience store retailer in the U.S.. And just to prove that I’m not the only that has noticed the pizza, the company notes that it is now the fifth largest pizza chain in the U.S..

Casey’s made its big push into Lawrence a couple of years ago, but that push did not include any east side locations. Maybe this Goodstop location is a sign the company is willing to explore a project on that side of town. As for big physical changes at the 23rd and Harper location, I haven’t yet seen plans that indicate those are coming. The plan that was filed at City Hall was primarily related to changing the signs on the building.

In other news and notes from around town:

• From pizza to barbecue, work is fully underway on the downtown Lawrence building that will house Q39 barbecue.

In case you have forgotten, the popular Kansas City restaurant has struck a deal to move into a portion of the former Journal-World printing plant building near Sixth and New Hampshire streets. (Note: The Journal-World has no ownership or involvement in the project.) We’ve been reporting on the project for months, but now construction is happening in a big way at the site, consistent with Q39’s plans to open in mid 2025.

Here’s a look at the site this week.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Construction work is pictured at the new site for Q39 barbecue on Nov. 26, 2024.

As a reminder, here’s a look at what the site is planned to look like upon completion.

photo by: Herron + Partners architects/City of Lawrence

A rendering shows the proposed design for a Q39 barbecue restaurant in downtown Lawrence.

• Some of you also are wondering what’s going on with the downtown building that houses Jefferson’s restaurant. A good part of the facade of that building at 743 Massachusetts Street is covered with construction plastic.

That appears to be work on a construction project that we reported on plans for a year ago, but is now taking place. As we reported in November 2023, Jefferson’s sought City Hall approval to return the building to its original historic look.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Construction work at Jefferson’s restaurant, 743 Massachusetts Street, is shown on Nov. 25, 2024.

You may recall the building had a large expanse of metal siding covering much of its second story. Behind that siding, though, is brick dating back to the turn of the 19th century, plus second-floor windows that will be rehabilitated. The building also has a glass transom that runs the entire width of the building, just above the front door. Plans call for those glass tiles to also be restored.

Lawrence-based Paul Werner Architects filed the plans last year for the project. I’m assuming the project will stick pretty close to those plans, although it is possible the design has been tweaked some as it went through the city’s approval process. Here’s a look at those plans from last year.

photo by: Paul Werner Architects/City of Lawrence

A rendering shows a potential historic renovation project at the Jefferson’s restaurant building at 743 Massachusetts St.