Lunch Spots in the Third District

I've been spending way too much time in Johnson County lately, at least as far as eating goes. About a year or so ago when the Viable Third movement started up I wanted to start exploring lunch spots in that area of the city. For various reasons, mostly involving a new job I have been unable to do much with the idea.

I started out blogging about downtown places precisely because of the apparent paucity of good, easy and delicious lunch options in the environs. Also I was new in town and seemed like a good way to explore what KC had to offer. Anyway, now I'm convinced that downtown has some decent options with some exploration and the solicitation of quality advice. Now I think I'll make a concerted effort to try out the third district once in a while and blog about the lunch spots there.

The third district is known primarily for a couple barbecue joints and the restaurants in the 18th and vine area. Even though the Peachtree decided to move downtown, it proved that a good restaurant can thrive in that neighborhood, despite the other well-articulated problems of the "jazz district." There are certainly other places that are well-known to those who live or work in the Third, and I want to know about them. There is a good list of restaurants on the viable third site and I've been to a few of them. What have your experiences been? Do you have favorites in the Third that are not on the list? Good or bad experiences with eating in the district?

Like any part of the city, the third district needs people from outside and inside the area to patronize its businesses in order to succeed. To me, it seems like a big reason people from Waldo or Lenexa or Leawood or KCK don't go to the Third in numbers is because they don't know what's there. I won't go into perceptions of race and crime because that varies with every individual-but it definitely plays a role.

Maybe there is not a lot to choose from, but I'll warrant that there are a handful of restaurants that warrant our continued patronage. Let's face it, Oklahoma Joe's and McCoy's won't miss a few customers if they choose to eat somewhere else once in a while.