Dalzell takes his culinary skills and vision back home

Nation's Restaurant News,  Jan 1, 2007  by Molly Gise

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After Rob Dalzell decided to be a chef, it was his dream to open a restaurant by the time he turned 30. When 1924 Main opened in downtown Kansas City, Mo., on Sept. 30, 2004, he had missed the mark by only nine days.

He wasn't too troubled, though, as the past few years had been pretty busy. He had not even considered a career in the culinary arts until he was in college at Central Methodist University in Fayette, Mo., where he was playing football and studying to be a history teacher. He also was working at the bistro at Les Bourgeois Winery and Vineyards in nearby Rocheport, Mo. Between bussing and waiting tables, he peppered the chef with questions about his menu and how he prepared certain items. The chef eventually quipped that Dalzell was asking more questions than the cooks were and that maybe he should consider going to culinary school.

That's exactly what Dalzell did, leaving central Missouri for the first time in his life to attend the Napa Valley Cooking School in St. Helena, Calif. After completing the program, he eagerly honed his craft at some of California wine country's best independent restaurants. He later went to work for the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he ran the school's special events and catering services. Then in 2002 came a job offer from the Turtle Bay Resort on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. The resort's new owners hired Dalzell to reopen 21 Degrees North, a fine-dining restaurant.

After two years there, with his 30th birthday not far off, he moved back to Missouri with his wife, Margarita, and opened 1924 Main, a fixed-price restaurant with a menu that changes weekly, in downtown Kansas City's Crossroads Arts District. He is now working on opening a fast-casual restaurant down the street called Souperman. The lunch-only eatery, which will serve soups, salads and sandwiches, is set to open this month.

After working in California and Hawaii, why did you settle on Kansas City to open your first restaurant?

The rent is a little bit lower, and the disposable income is a little bit higher--it was a little bit easier of a place to open as far as costs. My family is also here. It's like coming back home. My dad was researching the area, and we found this building online and called the realty company. My dad looked at the building and called and said, "This is it." My wife and I packed up our stuff and moved here. Three months later we opened [1924 Main]. We started in June and opened at the end of September.

You've been a fixed-price restaurant since you opened. Was it difficult to get diners in Kansas City on board with the idea?

We came to town as the only prix-fixe menu place. We offer three courses [at dinner] for $38. A lot of people were like, "It's not going to work. You need an a la carte menu." [However], we single out independent farms and meat producers, and with the quality of our food, our service and our atmosphere, $38 is a real steal.

We're not into sea urchins or a lot of raw ingredients. Once [customers] come in, they realize the menu is not that scary. Even though the menu switches every week, they can always come in and find something they like.

You change your menu every week?

Yes. Fifty-two weeks a year, 52 reasons to come back to the restaurant was our idea. I wanted to reinvent the restaurant not only for the guests, but also for the staff. Things can get a little monotonous, and sometimes monotony breeds mediocrity. I wanted my people to be excited to come to work every week. My servers are excited they get to eat at the restaurant four times a week and try the different dishes. I see [the enthusiasm] with my cooks here, too. As a manager, it's great to see the progress of my cooks. When you're a cook, knowledge is so valuable. The more things [your cooks] see the more knowledgeable they are and the better your restaurant is. Right now we have three cooks, all from Johnson County Community College [in Kansas].

Where do you look for inspiration when building your menu?

As with any profession, you have to be current. You have to be on the Internet and be looking at what other people are doing. You shouldn't plagiarize menus, but you look for new combinations. Education is a big part of the inspiration, as well as drawing information from other sources, whether it's your co-workers or your purveyors. If you think you're all-knowing in your trade, you limit yourself.

Downtown Kansas City is in the middle of a revitalization effort. How does that affect your business?

Being in the Crossroads, you have to market to the business community. We offer two courses for $10. The two courses come on one plate, so it's fast. All dishes come out in about seven minutes, so if you have 30 minutes [you can eat].

We have no foot traffic. [When you're] a destination restaurant, people have to travel to you. You have to offer something a little different that's not offered two blocks from their house. Kansas City has a lot of urban sprawl, but people are starting to come back to the city to be in an urban environment.