Friday, Jul. 01, 2011
Raymore gets its wish
Print
E-Mail
AIM
Reprint
By Allen Edmonds, The Democrat Missourian
For years, Raymore city leaders have heard the same tired refrain.
“When are we going to get an Italian restaurant?” And for years, those same leaders have chased every lead.
A few years back, it seemed a slam dunk. Perazelli’s Italian Ristorante was working with the developer of The Legends, a still-to-be developed strip center on the north side of M-58 Highway at Mott Drive. The popular Greenwood institution would open a second location to pair with Culver’s in the new center. But deals sometimes fall through, as this one did.
Patience paid off, however.
Instead of a second location, Perazelli’s and the city of Raymore announced this week that the Phelps family would move their flagship restaurant to Raymore after all, to a presently vacant location just waiting for a tenant.
Perazelli’s will fill out the Raymore Market Center, home to Price Chopper and House of Heavilin, as well as other smaller tenants and it will happen soon.
The Greenwood location will remain open through July 3 before closing to prepare for the move to the Raymore Market Center. A mid-November opening, before the Thanksgiving holiday, is targeted in the three currently open units between Taste of China and House of Heavilin, just down from Price Chopper on the north side of M-58 Highway.
After 10 years of running an Italian catering and bakery business, the Phelpses opened Perazelli’s in Greenwood in 2006. They now operate Perazelli’s, Petit Four Catering and another restaurant, Ciao! Bella Ristorante. Ciao! Bella, located in downtown Lee’s Summit, will remain open during the transition of the Perazelli’s restaurant.
Dan and Lynn Phelps, along with their children, own and operate the restaurants. Their daughter, Laurie, is the business office manager.
Eric, their son, will be transitioning to become the chef at the Raymore location after serving as chef at Ciao! Bella. Their daughter, Christi, who bakes all the restaurants desserts, is also beginning to develop recipes so they can bake and offer homemade bread at the new location.
Laurie Phelps described coming to Raymore as a natural and exciting move for Perazelli’s.
“Because it’s a growing community and there are a lot of people out there and, frankly, there are no Italian restaurants, we decided it would be a good fit. A lot of our customer base comes from Raymore so it seemed logical.”
Perazelli’s is a full-service, sit-down restaurant that specializes in southern Italian food. The all made from-scratch cooking features sauces made in-house and utilizes fresh produce grown locally, when possible. Laurie Phelps said that the food has a little spice to it, and most is “traditional stuff, as well as some different stuff that people may not know as Italian.”
The new location will offer a 50-person capacity conference room that will include Wi-Fi Internet access and a projector screen for business meetings.
Perazelli’s will bring 10 to 15 new jobs to the city.
“We’re also going to try to do a lot with the community and because Raymore is so much about the community, we really want to be involved whenever, and as much, as possible. Whatever is going on locally we always want to be involved, like charity events and any other events,” Laurie Phelps said. For more information on Perazelli’s, visit its website at www.perazellis.com.
The city of Raymore’s Communications Department contributed to this story.
