At last, two more Gus’s fried chicken restaurants heading to the Kansas City metro

Area franchisees for Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken are expanding in the metro.

Steve and Julie Zanone have been working on a Lee’s Summit lease “forever,” they said, and it was finalized earlier this month.

They plan a fall opening in the former Ted’s Cafe Escondido building at 636 N.E. Missouri 291. Ted’s Cafe Escondido left the market in mid-2019.

But that’s not all. The Zanones also closed on a property at 8017 to 8019 E. 171st St. in Belton and will put up a free-standing building there for a new Gus’s in spring 2023. A current building on the spot will be demolished.

Along with fried chicken, Gus’s has a variety of sides including baked beans, potato salad, fried okra, coleslaw, macaroni and cheese, whole jalapenos and greens, along with pies and floats for dessert.

The locations have about 35 employees.

Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken came to the area market more than six years ago with a Kansas City, Kansas, restaurant and said it could open one more in the metro.

An Overland Park location, at 7935 W. 151st. St., opened in mid-2021, and the Zanones hoped to have the Lee’s Summit location open in early 2022 and another Missouri location for 2023.

“These have both been a long time coming. We’re glad to be ‘on the other side’ of all the negotiating and such,” Julie Zanone said. “We like that we are across the State Line and Lee’s Summit was kind of our target, but then when the purchase opportunity came up in Belton we got on both of those.”

In other Lee’s Summit chicken updates:

Kansas City’s Stroud’s pan-fried chicken had operated a Lee’s Summit express operation on a short-term lease but closed in mid-2021. It is still looking for a Lee’s Summit site for a full-service restaurant and express operation.

The area’s first Chicken Salad Chick also was scheduled to open in Lee’s Summit this year. But earlier this month, a spokeswoman said in a statement, “Due to unforeseen circumstances, the brand has had to delay this restaurant location and will no longer be opening in Lee’s Summit this year.”

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