News Briefs: Catch up on news around East, the state and the nation

East:

The Broadmoor Bistro — the restaurant located inside the Center for Academic Achievement — announced their ninth annual Culinary Homecoming Dinner which will take place on Oct. 23 at 6 p.m., hosted by Chef Pablo Muñoz, a Shawnee Mission culinary arts graduate. 

The Bistro’s Culinary Homecoming Dinner is an event hosted each year by a different guest chef who creates the menu for the evening’s dinner guests. 

At the CAA, culinary, commercial baking and restaurant management classes are offered to Shawnee Mission students. For the dinner, students volunteered to help cook for the event guests of the night.

“I’m super excited about working with a guest chef and I’m hoping to learn new things through cooking with Muñoz,” junior and CAA culinary student Alex Garcia said.

According to Garcia, the most people the Bistro has served in a night has been about 75. He expects the Bistro to fill up quickly for the Culinary Homecoming Dinner as they are now taking reservations.

Muñoz will serve as the chef mentor at the event, assisting culinary students like Garcia in preparing a three-course meal to serve to dinner guests.

“Everyone in the restaurant has been improving their skills each week,” Garcia said. “I know that our Culinary Homecoming Dinner will be even better than anything we have done before.”

The set menu of the night features a citrus salad, grilled vegetable plate, chicken with Mexican risotto, tamarind-vanilla crust lamb chop and a dessert bruschetta on baguette.

Click here to make a reservation

Local:

The Leawood Price Chopper and Prairie Village Hy-Vee have recently renovated their stores to give them a modern interior and exterior look.

The Price Chopper at 95th and Mission Rd. finished their construction in September as one of the first steps to the Ranch Mart Shopping Center complete renovation. New additions to Price Chopper include a Starbucks on the inside, a revamped deli and and a redesigned layout of their products and produce inside the store.

According to Cadence Commercial Real Estate, the company behind the design plan, Price Chopper is to remain the anchor building of the shopping center, meaning its new modern materials and architecture, fresh landscaping and updated lighting are essential for the new look.

Similar to Price Chopper, the Hy-Vee on State Line Rd. is in the midst of their own interior construction, alongside all of their Kansas locations, and are expected to finish near 2020. 

“We are excited to make this nearly $90 million investment in an area that has been a great home to Hy-Vee,” Chief Retail Officer for Hy-Vee Jeremy Gosch said on the Shelby Report.

While updates will vary for each location, general renovations include new foodservice options — like Hibachi, pizza and sushi islands, new floral departments, self-checkout lanes and the rebranding of Hy-Vee Gas locations. 

National: 

The vacation-booking website TripAdvisor stated on Oct. 3 that they are no longer selling tickets to establishments that breed, import or publicly display whales and dolphins in response to a change in recent customer demands. 

“Breeding animals to put them in captivity puts a strain on their health,” junior activist Morghan Golloher said. “I can understand why TripAdvisor wouldn’t want to sell tickets somewhere that supports the cause of harming animals.”

Even though TripAdvisor has decided not to state the establishments this policy applies to, many are speculating it is targeted to tourist destinations such as SeaWorld parks.

SeaWorld has been a target for animal rights groups due to their treatment of orcas. While SeaWorld ended their orca breeding program in 2016 to emphasize education over entertainment, they’ve continued to allow other animals, including dolphins and porpoises, to perform for visitors. 

“Regardless of TripAdvisor’s position, SeaWorld will continue to advance education and animal conservation efforts along with our millions of supporters and professional scientists from around the world,” Chris Dold, SeaWorld’s Chief Zoological Officer, said.

TripAdvisor has since stated exception to their new policy for seaside sanctuaries, which they defined must be “a natural body of coastal water” where they “must not train their animals to perform in any shows or performances for public display.”