Operations
Kansas City couple beating odds to keep restaurant open amid COVID, protests
Urban cafe KC owners Chef Justin Clark, and his wife, Rashaun, are operating their restaurant and food truck during uncertain times.
June 16, 2020 by Cherryh Cansler — Editor, FastCasual.com
After being closed for nearly six weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Urban Café KC began welcoming back customers last week.
And, like so many other restaurateurs, cafe owners Chef Justin Clark, and his wife, Rashaun, are now operating amid protests in response to the killing of George Floyd, a restaurateur in Louisville.
Several protests broke out just a few blocks from the Kansas City restaurant, at 5500 Troost Ave., as well as their hair salon on the same street.
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| Organic salmon with kale potato salad |
"It's just sad that it's 2020, and we still have all this racial tension," said Justin Clark, who holds a culinary arts degree from Le Cordon Bleu-North America and has been a professional chef for more than 10 years.
"We were thankful to everyone who came out for the protests because it's time for a change," Rashaun said. She admitted, however, the scene was pretty scary at first when police were there with weapons.
"It got better when they lowered their guns -— when the mayor said he wanted to take that away," Rashaun said. "Then, no one had many problems."
Luckily, Urban Café, which specializes in healthy food and offers vegan and vegetarian cuisine, didn’t suffer any damage or looting, but the husband and wife knew it could be a possibility, especially when they heard some protesters weren't there for the "right reasons." Rumors were swirling that some people had traveled from out of town for the specific purpose of looting.
"Protesting is fine; it's great, but when it turns into tearing things up…that doesn't help," Justin said.
The protests have sparked a lot of change on a national level with cities all over the nation changing police procedures, but they've also inspired regular every day people to seek out ways to support black-owned businesses. Several customers, who had not heard of Urban, for example, have visited after seeing it listed on posts with other black-owned businesses.
"We're getting a lot of advertising from a lot of people who have been posting because they want to know where the black-owned businesses are, so that’s been great," said Rashaun, who is just as grateful for their regular customers as well. While the café was closed, for example, many bought gift cards and even just dropped off money.
"We never posted anything about needing help, but the community here is just really tight," Justin said. "But we are serving real, fresh food, and people see that and our passion and want us to be here."
Speaking of healthy food
Urban cafe's initial opening caused a bit of confusion at first. Since the restaurant was owned by a black couple, Justin said many people assumed it would serve soul food or fried food.
The Clarks, however, wanted to bring something different to the area after seeing how eating a clean, healthy diet helped Justin's mom beat colon cancer.
"Basically, we just saw that natural medicine working, and with Justin being such a great chef, we knew he could create really good dishes that also looked pretty that people would want to eat," Rashaun said.
A fast casual concept was also new to Justin; he had spent his career in fine dining but knew the location for his restaurant was better suited for a more casual concept.
"It was a challenge for him to dig deeper and actually come up with a menu of something that he’d never done before but he did it," Rashaun said.
"And I think that will prepare us for the next (restaurant)," Justin said.
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| Pork Belly Sandwich |
The future
Although the café is open, COVID-19 is still a major concern.
"We just don’t have enough information about it," said Justin who requires employees to wear masks and ensures tables stay 6 feet apart.
"We are open now but just have to see how things go… see if even makes sense to stay open," Rashaun said.
Regardless, Justin has some new concepts up his sleeve that he and Rashaun intend to launch when the pandemic is in the rearview mirror. He may even expand into Arkansas where his family lives, including his dad, who is also a professional chef.
"The dream is to open more locations," Justin said. "That’s the dream."
About Cherryh Cansler
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