Comings and Goings

Updates on Blue Plate Bar and Restaurant, downtown coffeehouses, Shae Belle and GOnection.

Broken Dishes: Blue Plate is No More

Erik Zackrison has closed Blue Plate Bar and Restaurant on Patton Avenue, which he opened last summer in the same space once occupied by his defunct high-end Agrario restaurant. He says he is folding Blue Plate’s comfort-food menu concept (casserole of the day!) into his Patton Alley Pub next door.

The contraction of Zackrison’s Patton Avenue empire (Hickok’s Steakhouse and Brewery remains open across the street) actually means an expansion for Patton Alley Pub. In late September, the wall between the pub’s main seating area and banquet room was knocked out, creating one room suitable for larger live music acts and almost tripling the pub’s capacity, Zackrison says. In addition to the mac-and-cheese and meatloaf-heavy menu, a few Agrario touches—like plants and weekend brunch (Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.)—have been moved to Patton Alley Pub, too.

All banquet business will now be held in the former Agrario and Bodega Bar spaces, says Zackrison, who owns both buildings. He says he has no immediate plans to either fill or sell the two-story space.

A Java Jolt on the Square

With vagrants loitering around its half-stagnant fountain even as consultants evoke its rebirth, Park Central Square has recently developed a reputation among Springfield’s more conservative citizens as a place that ought to be razed and replaced with an intersection.

But change is a-comin’, at least in the form of a few new businesses, most of which will be found in the Kresge, an office, loft and commercial development on the southwest corner of the square that is to include a library branch, a coffeehouse and an art gallery.

The coffeehouse, The Coffee Ethic, will likely be the first of those businesses to open its doors next month at 128 Park Central Square. Owned by entrepreneurs Jim Hamilton and Tom Billionis, The Coffee Ethic aims to capitalize on the possibility that many new customers will come downtown once there is a finished College Station located a few blocks away, a revamped Heer’s Tower across the park and a new branch of the Springfield–Greene County Library District next door. An interior doorway is to connect The Coffee Ethic to the library branch, much like Panera Bread’s doorway to the Library Station on North Kansas Expressway. Hamilton says he believes the neighborhood could support not just its mainstay café, the MudHouse, but another coffee shop, and that downtown is “really really underserved, from a coffee shop point of view.”

Additionally, another coffee shop, Rendezvous, owned by father-son combo John and Tom Fleming, was planning to open soon at 320 Park Central West, according to the Springfield Business Journal.

Downtown Boutique Closing

This technically came in after deadline, but since it’s our fashion issue we thought you should know: Shae Belle, the women’s clothier on South Campbell Avenue (a few doors north of Walnut Street), is closing. Owner Shannon Merced could not be reached for comment, but Nikki Pitt, a store employee, confirmed the news, though wouldn’t discuss reasons or a timetable.

GOnection Bambu and You

The October GOnection, our monthly social-networking event scheduled for Thursday, October 18, takes you to the Fremont Center and Bambu Vietnamese Cuisine. Owner Thuy Dam has spent most of the last year making the restaurant’s menu a little more American-friendly and adding specialties like boba tea. Come nosh on edibles, sip a tea (or something stronger) and see what GOnection is all about. GOnection begins at 5:30 and lasts until 7:30.