First look: River House sets the menu for Rock Island Bridge
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Just a few of the menu items for River House. Photo: Courtesy of River House.
Rock Island Bridge opens Wednesday with a restaurant and walk-up window built to make food part of the draw, not an afterthought.
The big picture: Kansas City has no shortage of places with a view, and Rock Island provides just that. However, River House is betting people will come back for smoked chicken, oysters, cocktails and food designed to fit a night over the river.
Zoom in: Chefs Bradley and Brittany Gilmore, who run famous KC spots like Lula Southern Cookhouse, are leading the food and drink program on the bridge.
- The semi-enclosed, table-service restaurant is paired with Rock Island Eats, a walk-up window serving burgers, pretzels, loaded fries and drinks people can carry anywhere on the bridge.
- Bradley says they wanted that side of the menu to feel easy and familiar, built for people sitting by the water or stopping mid-bike ride.
What's inside: Bradley describes the menu as "Midwest lake house meets coastal smokehouse."
- The menu includes smoked whole chicken finished on a wood-fired grill, a mussels pot served with fries and bread, East Coast oysters, shrimp cocktail, smoked trout dip, a lobster roll, and his favorite, the Cuban sandwich.
- The drinks follow suit, with mojitos, mules, rum runners and other fruit-forward cocktails.
What they're saying: "I wanted the River House to stand on its own on Rock Island Bridge," Bradley tells Axios. "It needed to be a restaurant that Kansas Citians wanted to come to, not just walk by."
The bottom line: He plans to ring an old train bell around 5pm when the smoked chickens are ready, turning dinner into a daily ritual on the bridge.
- "You're sitting on the bridge, you gotta have the chicken," he said.