Chef Duo Spices Up Westport With Trio Of Restaurants

By Brenna Hawley

A stroll down Westport Road includes a walk past three restaurants under the same umbrella, although that’s not immediately obvious. One restaurant serves Italian food, one focuses on French cuisine and the last is a food truck with offering that range from Mexican street fare to homemade ramen noodles.

“I think it makes it more exciting,” Chef Richard Wiles said of running the three styles of restaurants.

The three cuisines meld into one solid business plan for Wiles and his business partner Aaron Confessori, who together run Westport Cafe and Bar, The Boot and Westport Street Fare.

The two brick-and-mortar restaurants – the French-style Westport Cafe and Bar at 419 Westport Road and Italian restaurant The Boot next door at 415 Westport Road — comprise about 2,000 square feet and 110 seats. The whole operation, including the food truck Westport Street Fare, employs about 40.

“We really have one medium-sized restaurant,” Confessori said.

Confessori met Wiles while they attended the French Culinary Institute in New York. Both ended up back in Kansas City, with Confessori opening Westport Cafe and Bar in June 2010 and Wiles helping open Blanc Burger + Bottles’ Plaza location. When Confessori’s original business partner left the arrangement, Wiles jumped on board. Together, they opened Westport Street Fare in November 2011 and The Boot in February 2012.

The opportunity to open two restaurants was too good an opportunity for Confessori to pass up, especially with two spaces next door to each other in a popular late-night neighborhood and a spot for a food truck in a parking lot down the road.

“The fact that we were able to do more things here was just kind of icing on the cake,” Confessori said.

Despite being in the midst of what’s typically known as a bar scene, Confessori and Wiles are fitting right in — about 40 percent of business is alcohol, a much higher percentage than what restaurants normally sell. Patrons sometimes drift between eateries throughout the night.

“I’ve seen people have drinks at The Boot, dinner at Westport Cafe and fourth meal at the food truck at 3:45 in the morning,” Confessori said.

Late night is the bread and butter for Confessori and Wiles. When Westport Cafe and Bar opened, it served lunch. But after two years of trying to make the meal work financially, they decided to pull the plug with the help of an understanding landlord. Now, Westport Cafe and Bar and The Boot serve dinner, and Westport Street Fare is open from 9 p.m. to about 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Weekend brunch became a moneymaker for the two brick-and-mortar locations, though. Confessori said the service is challenging because it requires so much more work — diners often use many more pieces of silverware, plates and glasses than during a typical dinner. Usually, though, the restaurant is full by 10:30 or 10:45 in the morning.

“It’s an entirely new restaurant,” he said.