These 2 KC area breakfast restaurants closed abruptly in November. Soon they’ll reopen
Two locations of The Big Biscuit will reopen this month after closing temporarily in November, the company announced.
Both breakfast and lunch restaurants — at 16506 E. U.S. Highway 40 in Independence and 530 N.W. Highway 7 in Blue Springs — shuttered after Big Biscuit founder Dan Gerson died “unexpectedly” in September, according to a press release. Gerson independently owned both stores.
Reopening dates for both restaurants have yet to be announced.
In 2000, Gerson opened Big Biscuit’s first location, in Independence. Blue Springs was next in 2005.
Now the company has 27 locations, according to its website. The two that are reopening will be corporate-owned.
Gerson’s son, Luke Gerson, took over operations immediately after his father died. The sudden closures of the two locations left about 60 employees without jobs days before Thanksgiving.
“They fired our general manager and made her tell us we have no job,” employee Silvia Sarmiento told The Star at the time. “No ‘Thank you for your time,’ no clarification on how to reapply, nothing. Just because it’s common for companies to lay people off doesn’t mean (the way they did this) was right.”
Chad Offerdahl, president of Big Biscuit, said his team began “in earnest” working with the Gerson family to get the restaurants reopened. The Gerson family sold the restaurants to The Big Biscuit on Friday, Offerdahl said.
“We didn’t want to stop serving those communities,” Offerdahl said. “We have hired some of the former Gerson family employees.”
Offerdahl said the locations are still hiring and encouraged other former employees to apply.
The Big Biscuit is now headquartered in Prairie Village. Its menu offers powdered sugar-dusted waffles, scrambled egg bowls, French toast and other breakfast items.
