This past week, a space once occupied by an auto shop in downtown Shawnee officially took on new life as a bar and grill but with a nod to the building’s history.
It’s been a busy first several days for Hank’s Garage & Grill, with lots of its first customers enjoying burgers and drinks throughout the week.
It was hard work turning the garage into the eatery it is now — but owner Eric Flanagan said all of that effort appears to be paying off.
“Everybody has been very receptive and very appreciative,” he said. “It’s always nice to hear because we’ve been working our tails off on this.”
The new restaurant and bar celebrated its grand opening last Thursday. So far, Flanagan said business has been booming.
Hank’s opened at 5801 Nieman Rd.
- The restaurant and bar occupies a space just north of Nieman Road and Johnson Drive.
- The redeveloped former auto shop is on the same block as a number of other bars and eateries, including the incoming tapas restaurant Gilda’s and award-winning cocktail bars Drastic Measures and Wild Child.
- Hank’s is open from 11 a.m. to midnight Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, and from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., Friday and Saturday.
Hank’s offers “elevated sports bar fare”
Since the restaurant opened, Flanagan said its various burgers and its pork tenderloin sandwich have quickly become top-selling items.
Customers can also choose from items like Chicago-style hot dogs, Cobb salads, shrimp Po’boy sandwiches and house made fettuccine pasta.
On the drinks side, Hank’s serves a variety of canned and bottled beers and seltzers, as well as craft cocktails like margaritas, Micheladas and blueberry mojitos.
When it came to creating the menu, Flanagan said the goal was upscale, yet approachable.
“There weren’t a lot of food spots, but there’s already some great cocktail bars and breweries (in downtown Shawnee),” Flanagan said. “We wanted to be creative with it, but we don’t want to be too far off center where it turns people off.”
Landing on the name “Hank’s” gave the restaurant a coincidental tie to its previous life as an auto garage.
While he didn’t know this when he chose it, Flanagan said one of the auto shop’s former owners, Hank Baumgartner, operated the garage until 1990. (At the time, it was called Fisher Automotive.)
In terms of the building itself, it now has a renovated canopy-covered patio, which customers can access through the building’s garage doors.
They’ve also added a secondary building and a storage container attached to the back of the original one that housed Shawnee Automotive.
A new greenspace was also added onto the patio, for customers to play yard games or enjoy sunny days outside.
“We want it to be a neighborhood bar,” Flanagan said.
Hank’s Garage is Flanagan’s first Johnson County venture
Though Hank’s is Flanagan’s first bar on the Kansas side of the state line, it’s not his first in the wider Kansas City metro.
He also owns Kansas, City Missouri-based bar and deli King G’s, as well as Jim’s Alley Bar next door in Kansas City’s Crossroads district.
General manager Eric Simbeck is also operating Hank’s Garage’s bar, while chefs Howard Hanna and Zach Sachs handle the food.
Flanagan said the idea for Hank’s Garage came to him while spending time in downtown Shawnee with his wife after a date at cocktail bar Wild Child. They noticed that the former auto garage was undergoing redevelopment, and inspiration struck.
“We walked along the whole perimeter of the property and started thinking about what it could be,” he said. “Being in downtown Shawnee with all of these great food and beverage places around it was very appealing.”
While Hank’s Garage is not Flanagan’s first bar, he said he aimed to bring something new to his portfolio and to the Shawnee community.
“We don’t like to just do what everybody else is doing,” he said. “Whether it’s the bar program, the food program, or the aesthetics that I design for a place like this — the creative aspect is my favorite part of this.”
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