Waldo's Familiar Storefronts Have New Names This Fall. Here's Who Moved In

"I am not Waldo Thai," David Suwanwisute told the Kansas City Star in August, standing in the space at 8431 Wornall Road that Pam Liberda's restaurant had filled for seven years. He has opened Jade & Ember Munchery there, and that one line could stand for most of Waldo's year.

In 2026, nearly every well-known Waldo address that went dark has been taken over by someone who already had ties to the neighborhood or to Kansas City's food business. A Waldo liquor store owner and the founder of a Waldo bar. The family behind a River Market grocery. A local breakfast chain. A former co-owner of a Kansas City coffee shop. They are moving in carefully, though. Most of these businesses opened partway, with carryout first, a soft opening, or a "coming soon" page, so the full lineup is arriving a piece at a time.

Five addresses, five new tenants

Here is where things stand for readers heading out the week of October 29.

Not one of these spaces went to an outside chain that was new to the area.

The bar built by people who already run Waldo bars

The clearest example is at 75th Street. Boru served its last bowl of ramen in Waldo around six months before O'B's officially opened in the same space in mid-September, according to the Star. The new owners know the street well. Andy Doohan owns Mike's Wine and Spirits, and Eric Schmidt opened Dodson's. The bar's name honors the late Jeff O'Brien, a longtime figure in Waldo's bar business.

"We're a bar. We're in Waldo. We want to be a Waldo bar." Andy Doohan, speaking to the Kansas City Star

That plan shows up on the menu. Cocktails run $10 to $13, and the piña colada tops the list at $14. The owners point people to the strawberry lemon drop martini at $10. Darts and oversized hot dogs fill out the room. Boru left behind one thing, a lucky cat on a shelf behind the bar that still waves its paw. The Star reported hours of Tuesday through Sunday, 4 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.

O'B's is a turnover that kept everything in Waldo. A neighborhood restaurant closed, and the people who reopened the space already run businesses a few blocks away.

Coffee on 85th took the same route

Apparition Coffee followed the same pattern on 85th Street. It opened in mid-June at 328 W. 85th St., in the space Second Best Coffee used to occupy, Kansas City Magazine reported. Owner Brian Denman previously co-owned Waterbird Coffee.

Of the five changes, this was the earliest and least noticed. A coffee shop moved into a former coffee shop, run by someone who had done the job in Kansas City before. If you walk 85th Street often, you could have missed the change entirely except for the sign.

The Wornall kitchens are opening in stages

The two restaurant spaces on Wornall Road show the other half of the story. The owners are experienced, but neither restaurant opened all at once.

Jade & Ember Munchery opened quietly in August with carryout only. Its co-owners, siblings Donny and Teresa Lo, come from the family that owns Chinatown Food Market at 202 Grand Blvd. The restaurant's name comes from the market's mascot, and a jade-colored dragon mural wraps around the side of the building. Suwanwisute cooks from his family's Thai recipes and mixes in Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean dishes. The Star listed pad Thai at $15, kee mao udon at $14, Japanese poutine at $11, curried mac and cheese at $13, and bulgogi beef and orange chicken at $14 each.

On August 28, the Martin City Telegraph reported the restaurant was still doing carryout and DoorDash only. The dining room and bar were planned for later, once staffing grew and a liquor license came through. If you want to sit down with a drink, check with the restaurant before you go. Ordering ahead is the dependable option.

Up the road at 7531 Wornall, Waldo Cafe has closed and Pegah's owner Moe Sharifi has taken over the space. KSHB reported the plan on July 1, and the Star said he was aiming to open in September. The plan, as the Star described it, is a menu of more than 100 items, with breakfast staples and homemade comfort food alongside burgers, wraps, salads and fajitas, open daily from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pegah's Waldo location page still says "Coming Soon," even though the chain's general directory already lists those daily hours for Waldo. Call ahead before you plan breakfast there.

Both replacements are run by people with a track record. Neither has made a big opening announcement. So a familiar Wornall address with a new name can be partly open, or not open yet, depending on the week.

The one corner without a name yet

Fareway's new store at 7921 Ward Parkway is open Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and closed Sundays. The Martin City Telegraph described it as 11,660 square feet when it held its ribbon cutting and soft opening this summer.

On October 2, the 75-year-old McGonigle's Meat Market building next door was demolished, the Telegraph reported. A multi-tenant building of about 10,000 square feet will go up in its place. Construction had been planned for 2027, but Fareway now says it will start right away.

"We have no new tenants yet," Fareway's Elias Johnson told the Telegraph, adding that the company wants tenants that "complement the grocery store next door." The renderings are already approved. This is the only one of the five addresses where the next occupant is unknown, and the landlord has said it wants tenants that fit with the store next door.

How Waldo connects north while the storefronts fill

The street outside these businesses has mostly settled down. The city's Wornall Road project from 74th to 79th Street, including the Trolley Track Trail extension between 74th and 75th, was substantially complete and had its ribbon cutting on October 16, 2025. That puts the rebuilt section of trail a block from O'B's front door.

North of Waldo, work on the trail continues near 63rd Street in Brookside. A city update dated October 5 said concrete work between 62nd Terrace and 63rd Street was nearly finished and reopening was expected within two weeks. The city's schedule calls for resurfacing in October and finishing the trail improvements by the end of November 2026. That is a forecast, so expect some short detours if you're walking or biking toward Brookside this fall. For more on what's opening at that end of the trail, see our post on Brookside's late-summer openings. For the Waldo businesses that haven't changed, our earlier guide to everyday living in Waldo still covers them.

Before you head out

1. O'B's, 500 W. 75th St.: open Tuesday through Sunday evenings, per the Star's reported hours.
2. Apparition Coffee, 328 W. 85th St.: open since mid-June.
3. Jade & Ember Munchery, 8431 Wornall Rd.: order carryout to be safe, and ask about the dining room and bar.
4. Pegah's, 7531 Wornall Rd.: confirm it's open before you plan a breakfast there.
5. Fareway, 7921 Ward Parkway: open Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The lot next door is now an active construction site.

If you own a home near this corridor and want to know how a refilled Wornall Road affects what your home is worth, the team at Locate KC can put together a free home valuation using recent sales in Waldo.