KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A local restaurant is temporarily closed after the managers discovered a big surprise underneath the building; a surprise that clearly was not on the menu.
There’s a lot of talk about a giant hole below the floor of the 54th Street Grill and Bar on North Oak Trafficway and Englewood in the Creekwood Shopping Center. Managers say it’s closed for business until further notice for maintenance and renovations.
“Really, they have the best pina coladas! I love the pina coladas, but very good food, great service,” said Clarence Johnson, a regular customer who tried to have lunch at 54th Street Grill and Bar on Tuesday, but was told they’re closed this week.
“We are putting in new tile flooring, putting in a new floor in the kitchen,” said the area manager, Jeff Williams.
He said they found a plumbing issue Sunday evening and had to fix it.
“There was an odor, some other things, so we ran camera lines through the plumbing, we saw that there was a busted pipe under there so that’s we had to open the floor up,” Williams said.
FOX 4 got a tip from a viewer that there was a sinkhole beneath the restaurant, but Williams says that’s not entirely true.
“No, I wouldn’t confirm it as a sinkhole, when we opened the floor up, there was a little bit of wash out and erosion, but that’s normal from when you have a plumbing issue,” said Williams.
He says they found plumbing that’s about 30 years old which needed to be replaced.
“We’ve dug a very big hole at this point, because we’re trying to get to the main line that’s underneath the building,” said Williams. “It’s probably right now about eight feet deep and about eight feet wide.”
“I’m glad they got right to it to get it fixed,” said Johnson. “That shows me they’re concerned about us, making sure we don’t get hurt.”
Managers say they’re hoping to have everything fixed and be open for business by this weekend.