Such is life when you become a landmark in downtown Lee’s Summit.
As Julie talks, the picture comes clearly into focus with Joe nearby and their daughter on the front steps with her aunt.
Certainly, Joe and Julie have carved out a unique food and drink niche in a downtown that has grown from less than a dozen places to get lunch and beer to now nearly 20. When the couple “forced” themselves to move to Lee’s Summit many years ago, they started considering a restaurant concept in late 2012.
It was a dream on a napkin. Really.
“We had a quarter-life crisis,” Julie jokes. “So we started forming menus. Whenever we had a down day, we did something for our imaginary business that didn’t yet exist. In hindsight, I am kind of glad it happened that way.
The duo had been in the restaurant business for 15 years at the Lake of the Ozarks — everything from fast food to fine dining. They met when both were earning paychecks at Shady Gators.
“When I was her boss,” Joe says.
Either way, Julie cold called the empty building at 302 SW Main Street after looking at other spots in downtown Lee’s Summit.
Peeling that onion, so to speak, can be difficult when a new restaurant or pub is distinguishing itself — not only from the rest of the district but from the former tenant.
But they had a plan. And it’s working wonders.
But what is Konrad’s? Not just the place a train whistles by dozens of times a day, right?
As they toiled 24/7 in the building to open five years ago, Joe and Julie put their friends to work, counting on those bonds to help see vision of what Konrad’s would be. But even the name was vexing — ultimately coming from Joe’s grandpa, Konrad.
If Konrad’s feels like family when you’re inside having a craft beer flight, homemade pizza or the famous Bones (keeping them on the menu kind of came with the deal) — that’s by design. Julie’s sisters, Hannah and Mary, are both familiar faces at the joint. As are Keenan and Adam, both of whom worked with the couple at the lake.
“They’re really the reason we are here. They make this place their own just as much as we do,” Julie said.
And, as of July of 2016, Quinn Marie joined the crew. On this day, she’s getting in some time with her aunt. Most days, the couple is juggling an 80-hour-a-week restaurant and raising a 2-year-old.
Even in recovery, though, Julie couldn’t stop thinking about the place.
With family, friends and a downtown community of support, they’ve made that payroll every single week now for over five years.
As the trains whiz by (more than 40 a day, they’ve counted) and they comically remember the time Julie had to work in the kitchen, surely there will be five, 10 or 25 more for this place they call Konrad’s.