ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Those looking for a good place to chow down now have a new option with Midtown Pizzeria and Pub, which recently opened at 222 N. Kansas Ave.
As owner Jeff Hall tells it, the project has been a while in the making.
“We'd started talking about this around a year ago, when the building became available. We talked to the building's original owners, Jeff and Julie Parsons, and we got an agreement together and signed and all of that, and it was July 2024 when we officially closed on the building,” Hall said. “We started the demolition and renovation work shortly after that, and it's been a somewhat slow process getting everything finalized to where we wanted it. We took the stucco off the walls to expose the original brick work, and then we had to go through the process of finding and buying equipment and figuring out where everything actually needed to go. It was in February when we had everything in the kitchen installed and ready to go and we decided to to some menu testing and recipe practice, because we do everything from scratch, including the dough and sauces. We really wanted to take a different approach to it all and avoid buying ingredients from off the shelf as much as we could, and that includes some of our toppings – we're actually buying some of our meat from Brick House BBQ & Brew, they're cooking pork belly and pulled pork for us we use on some of our pizzas, so it's a great partnership. We also have wings, and we have multiple sauce options for people. We wanted to use what we learned from Brick House and bring some of those key aspects to what we're doing here at Midtown Pizzeria and Pub.”
A desire to help continue revitalizing Liberal’s downtown area was a big factor in deciding to do the restaurant, Hall added.
“We saw an opportunity to do something with the downtown area. There are a few places, like Tortuga Brewing Company, and there's the new Sapphire Nightclub coming in, so we thought it would be a great opportunity to get in on those downtown restoration efforts and help make the downtown area something it hasn't been for several years,” Hall said. “We'd also had the idea for a while to do a pizza place, so everything ultimately ended up just working out. I have a cousin who has access to used equipment, and everything we have in our kitchen is very, very gently used, and we were able to get all of that very affordably. We've done as much work in-house as possible to give the place our own personal touch, and we're all pleased with how everything turned out.”
Overall, Hall said, there are a lot of positive feelings about the place finally being officially open.
“I absolutely love the place being open now. I recently told my wife I've been coming in for the past month early in the mornings before work and seeing everything come together, and now that it's all done, I have to admit I'll somewhat miss the process and actually working on everything since it was just so dominant in my mind for so long,” Hall said. “Now, however, is a different type of fun and we're going to be serving the community and being part of downtown. Getting stuff off the walls was pretty difficult, and then we also had to figure out how we could optimize the space we had – we've already had some people come in and tell us 'This is a LOT bigger than it looks from the outside!' We had to figure out where the kitchen would go, where the bathrooms would go, where the games would go, etc., and then figure out how to arrange the seating. Initially, it was tough looking at the space and thinking about how we could maximize every inch.”
Hall said there are multiple delicious options on the menu for patrons.
“Right now, our menu is comprised of pizza, wings, sandwiches and some appetizers. One of our appetizers is something we came up with in our kitchen at Brick House when we'd first started talking about putting together a pizza place, and it's an Italian egg roll with sausage, cheese and other fillings, and we're really proud of it,” Hall said. “We've also got a pizza called the Midtown, and it's got pulled pork, pork belly, and mangoes, and it's got a basalmic glaze – it doesn't sound like something that should work on paper, but it all comes together for a great flavor. We've got some specialty pizzas, including the Angry Pig pizza that's inspired by the Angry Pig sandwich at Brick House BBQ & Brew, which is really great.”
And as Hall tells it, there were multiple local testers to help perfect the menu, which took a lot of hard work.
“We initially had some struggles with our pizza dough and trying to get the consistency and taste exactly right, and we did have someone come in and help us with that, and we couldn't be happier with the final results,” Hall said. “We also went to some test kitchens for the sauce, and that also really helped us out because we learned some great methods and tricks to also get that right. Once we got everything fully ready to go, we knew we wanted to have everything on the menu be a little more high end, and that's also made a big difference in terms of quality. We've got great food on the menu, it's a great place to come in and just have fun watching a game or two, especially now that March Madness is going on. It's just a great atmosphere, and we want everyone who comes in to have a great time. I really like how everything ultimately turned out. I'd had an idea in my mind for a long time about how I would want such a place to look, and it turned out even better than I thought it would, so I'm really happy.”
And even though the restaurant just opened, Hall said there are currently some tentative plans for expanding the menu.
“Eventually, I would like to expand our menu and maybe include some pasta dishes. When we started Brick House BBQ & Brew, we initially only did barbecue and didn't have burgers or steaks or any of those items on the menu, and it wasn't until we really got in our groove and had those first items really perfected that we started expanding that menu,” Hall said. “Right now, we're working on getting in that kind of groove here, and once we get our current menu items perfected enough, we'll consider adding some other items for people.”
Hall said he was also very happy with the turnout to last week’s ribbon-cutting and expressed appreciation for the support shown so far.
“The support at our ribbon-cutting and grand opening was great, and I can't thank the community enough,” Hall said. “The community's been great to us through being at Brick House, and we've been getting a lot of support for this place. I had family that lived here when I was growing up, and my wife actually grew up in Liberal, so I can't be grateful enough for how Liberal has treated us with both of our places.”
