{"id":205426,"date":"2026-03-15T06:18:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T06:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/205426\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T06:18:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T06:18:58","slug":"district-800-to-open-in-kansas-city-on-southwest-blvd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/205426\/","title":{"rendered":"District 800 to open in Kansas City on Southwest Blvd"},"content":{"rendered":"

A well-known Kansas City building will soon be home to a high-end restaurant \u2014 courtesy of a former Houston\u2019s<\/a> chef.<\/p>\n

The restaurant, called District 800, is opening at 800 Southwest Blvd. in June. The space was previously home to beloved Mexican restaurant La Fonda El Taquito<\/a> for 37 years.<\/p>\n

\"La La Fonda El Taquito at 800 SW. Blvd. seen in 2024 in Kansas City. The Mexican restaurant closed earlier this year after nearly four decades in business. Emily Curiel ecuriel@kcstar.com <\/p>\n

Executive chef Steve Pemberton, who crafted dishes at Houston\u2019s on the Plaza for 15 years, will be serving upscale plates like wagyu beef carpaccio ($36), pappardelle short rib ragu ($32) and crispy Atlantic salmon ($38).<\/p>\n

The restaurant is inspired by owner Shannon Moore\u2019s travels. He\u2019s the president of sales at Shaman Botanicals, the manufacturer for CBD American Shaman<\/a>, and has spent much of his time in Miami. There, he\u2019s visited higher-end places like Papi Steak, which advertises quality dishes and bold, Miami energy.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s aiming to bring a similarly classy but vibrant option to the metro\u2019s food scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more upbeat,\u201d Moore said. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna have DJs playing music, not loud \u2026 It\u2019s gonna be very, very elegant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"District District 800 is opening in the former La Fonda El Taquito space. District 800 <\/p>\n

One of the elements he\u2019s most excited about: a tableside Parmesan wheel pasta.<\/p>\n

District 800\u2019s classic Cacio e Pepe will be served inside a 24-month aged Parmesan wheel with toasted black peppercorns and Pecorino Romano ($28).<\/p>\n

A few months after the opening of District 800<\/a>, a small, reservation-only cocktail bar will open upstairs. Moore is still working out the details on that, but he hopes to open that portion in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe service is gonna be over the top,\u201d Moore said. \u201cIt\u2019s gonna be kind of a show. A lot of presentation involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

District 800 will offer weekend brunch and tableside cocktails, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moore is taking on a massive project, turning the longtime Mexican restaurant into a swanky spot. But he\u2019s hopeful Kansas Citians will be pleased with the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll look like a completely different building,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

American restaurant Houston\u2019s had a space on the Plaza for 30 years until it closed in 2017.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Kansas City Star<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Jenna Thompson<\/a><\/p>\n

The Kansas City Star<\/p>\n

Jenna Thompson covers retail news for The Kansas City Star. A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, she previously reported for the Lincoln Journal Star and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she studied journalism and English.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A well-known Kansas City building will soon be home to a high-end restaurant \u2014 courtesy of a former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[80826,56,58,57,16598,5804,34504,67],"class_list":["post-205426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-district-800","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-kansas-city","tag-new","tag-open","tag-restaurant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}