If you take MO-9 north and follow the Missouri River, you will run straight into charming, historic, downtown Parkville, Missouri. The first brick building you come to on First Street is where you’ll find Prima Facie Bistro and Market, the newest restaurant in town.
The name Prima Facie is based on a Latin legal term that means “at first sight” or “on first appearance,” and it seems only fitting given their newly remodeled building is the first thing you see.
Opening last fall in the former Bank Liberty building, Prima Facie is owned by Leon and Heather Versfeld. He is an immigration attorney who was looking for a location for his legal office closer to home, and she is a former private-airline flight attendant who turned her own healthy boxed lunches into a full-time in-flight catering business.
Together they looked for a building in Parkville for both of their businesses when they discovered that the former Bank Liberty building, complete with bank safe and drive-through window, was for sale. They purchased the building and spent the last two years giving an old building new life by renovating it into his legal office on the top floor with three separate food businesses that Heather manages on the first floor.
There’s the fine-dining restaurant, The Bistro at Prima Facie, open for dinner from 3 p.m. until 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. There’s the grab-and-go market, The Market at Prima Facie, on the north side of the building, which operates Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. On the menu are coffee, juices, smoothies, sandwiches, bowls and more, repurposing the bank’s drive-through window along with indoor and outdoor seating. Finally, there is Heather’s original in-flight catering business for private jets called Prima Facie Inflight Catering, which can be ordered via her website.
The Versfelds can be seen most nights in the dining room at Prima Facie, moving from table to table, chatting with guests. You wouldn’t guess this is their first restaurant; they’re so comfortable in the room.Â
They consulted with PB&J Restaurants Inc. to develop the menu, design the kitchen, and hire the staff. The executive chef, James McBride, came from Wichita, Kansas, to head up the Prima Facie kitchen. McBride is originally from Hutchinson, Kansas, and after spending time cooking in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he returned to Kansas and moved up the ranks at Newport Grill in Wichita, before heading up the Siena Tuscan Steakhouse inside the Ambassador Hotel in Wichita.
The Bistro at Prima Facie features soaring ceiling heights in the main dining that allows them to project vintage black-and-white movies on the wall of the restaurant—a charming touch. The dining room is awash in pleasing hues of gray and blue, with a large bar serving a list of crafted cocktails, beer, and wine. Along one wall, deep-blue channel-upholstered banquettes embrace the guests. An open kitchen can be viewed from the dining room, and a baby grand piano is tucked into a corner. There are two private dining rooms, one on the main floor and one on the mezzanine level with a full view of the bustling restaurant below. The old bank safe has been turned into a private dining room seating eight.
The dinner menu at Prima Facie leans into perfectly executed crowd favorites that are grounded in approachable flavors offering comforting and familiar “feel good food.”
The small-plates menu reads like a list of American bistro classics across the ages, including dishes like crispy calamari frito and sweet and savory ahi tuna poke. The blue lump crab cakes were recommended, and if that didn’t tempt there were deviled eggs, steak tartare, a lobster roll, meatball Pomodoro, and a whipped feta dip with pistachio and olives accompanied with crostini. They all sounded delicious, but after seeing the size of the entrée plates whizzing by my table, I considered it best to save my appetite for a couple of entrées and dessert.
First to the table was the Girasoli Ravioli, or sunflower-shaped ravioli pasta, filled with creamy ricotta cheese served eight to a plate and showered with cubes of sweet, tender butternut squash and fresh sage. Nutty brown-butter sauce, crunchy toasted pecans, and a generous sprinkle of Grana Padano cheese dressed the plate. The ravioli were as big as silver dollars with a ruffled edge but tender to the fork and perfectly cooked. This is a dish where for the best experience you should compose each bite on your fork, getting a little bit of everything, to really appreciate all the rich fall flavors coming together in the perfect bite.
Next came the Trout Almondine, a dish that originated in France and harks back to 1960s United States. At Prima Facie, it arrived as a silky pink piece of pan-roasted ruby trout cooked in beurre noisette (brown-butter sauce) and ornamented with toasted almonds and an intriguing brown-butter powder. It rested on top of plump, glistening pearl couscous and bright green haricot verts. This fish dish is a classic for a reason.
The pork chop was the last savory dish of the evening, and what a note to end on. An enormous two-inch-thick, bone-in, grilled pork chop was planked on top of a generous pool of roasted sweet potatoes, with chunks of sautéed broccoli, kohlrabi, carrots, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and kale tucked underneath, all bathed in lightly spiced warm apple-butter demi sauce. The apple butter brought a touch of sweetness that mirrored the sweet potatoes in the dish and cut the fatty richness of the pork.
For dessert, the seasonal cobbler was a must, especially made with blueberries. What came to the table straight from the oven was a small cast-iron pan filled with sweetly fragrant deep-blue bubbling berries, scattered with a fine layer of crumble topping, a dollop of fresh whipped cream, and slivers of torn, fresh basil. I was genetically built to love this humble, seasonal dessert with the mingling of basil and blueberries. It was more than enough to share with friends.
It’s hard not to come away from a meal here feeling anything less than satisfied. I can see why it’s love “at first sight” for so many at Prima Facie. I am a fan.