Songbird Cafe Spread its Wings on Grand to Offer Lunch and Dinner

By Kevin Collison

After a soft opening last August, the Songbird Cafe at 1529 Grand celebrated its grand opening recently, taking flight with a full lunch and supper menu targeted to health-conscious diners.

The cafe is a family affair, the creation of Chris Geil, a former Grandview special education coordinator, his wife Amy, son Wesley and a couple of longtime family friends.

Geil left education for the food world about three years ago when he purchased a restaurant he liked in Grandview called Marketplace Justice. He changed the name to Songbird and after a couple years began looking for a larger space.

“We felt we had more opportunity and more of our target audience in the Crossroads,” he said.

“We appeal to people who are health conscious…with a lot of clean and organic ingredients. A bridge between a full vegan restaurant and Panera.”

The Songbird Cafe features foods and beverages for health-conscious diners.

When Songbird first opened, its hours were limited to lunchtime. Now, the cafe is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. It also has extended hours and live music on First Fridays.

The cafe joins a burgeoning food scene along Grand between Truman Road and 16th street.

Next door, the new Kobi-Q Korean and Asian grill and bar recently opened. Across the street is Messenger Coffee, and there’s a pizza place at the corner as well as longtime sandwich shop, Suzy’s Deli.

The Songbird also is close to the newly-opened Resurrection Downtown church.

“We’re pals with the Messenger people and having Kobi-Q next door is fantastic,” Geil said. “I feel the more feet that walk through (the neighborhood) the better.”

The Songbird offers an aviary of fresh-squeezed juices including Fire Finch, a blend of apple, carrot, beet, kale and ginger; Canary, apple, pear and ginger; Partridge, pineapple, pear, apple, beat, ginger and mint, and Robin, orange, lime and mint.

It also has a big selection of smoothies, panini sandwiches, salads, small plates and desserts. The cafe describes itself as having meals for every diet including gluten free, keto, vegetarian, vegan and paleo.

The Songbird Cafe is one of several new businesses that are enlivening Grand between Truman Road and 16th Street.

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