A James Beard-nominated chef returns to small-town dining in this Kansas City suburb

Jonathan Justus returns to Smithville this weekend.

The local chef — a 2016 James Beard Award semifinalist who ran the much-loved Justus Drugstore in downtown Smithville from 2007 to 2018 — isn’t back with his own spot, though.

He’s instead consulting for a new restaurant, Gizmos Tavern , that’s softly opening in the former Humphrey’s Bar & Grill at 111 N. Bridge St.

Justus designed the menu and is helping get the kitchen up and running. His wife and business partner, Camille Eklof, will serve as general manager of the restaurant.

“I wish what’s happening in Smithville right now was happening 10 years ago when we had our place,” Justus said, citing new additions in the Northland city’s downtown like the cocktail bar Grassroots Garden Lounge , the gourmet hot dog joint Snack Daddy’s , and 110 Smithville , a mixed-use project with 85 apartment units planned.

“We’d hoped when we opened (Justus Drugstore) that other people would ride our coattails a bit and invest in the area,” Justus said. “But nobody was really up to it back then. Now, suddenly, there are some really cool projects happening in Smithville.”

At Gizmos, Justus is working for owner Dustin Racen, who previously opened the Tank Room , a music venue that operated in Kansas City’s Crossroads from 2014 to 2017. Racen now lives at the Lake of the Ozarks, where he owns a pair of restaurants (Lake House 13, The Cuddy Cabin) and runs a boat rental business.

Racen described Gizmos as “upscale, gastropub-type food.”

“It’s also definitely kind of a nod to (Justus Drugstore),” Racen said. “Jonathan was really well-known for making everything from scratch, down to the vinegar and vermouth. This is not that exactly — it’s a bar, too — but he’s still doing quite a lot from scratch, with a lot of quality ingredients.”

On the menu: bacon-wrapped chicken livers, calamari served with a Thai slaw, a cioppino, and a chicken fricassee (roasted chicken over a mushroom cream broth and rice, served with a sauteed vegetable). The beef is sourced from Hertzog Meat Co. in Butler; the pork is from Paradise Locker Meats in Trimble.

“A lot of the dishes, I’m trying to lighten them up a little bit with dynamic vegetables,” Justus said.

For bar snacks, there’s cheese curds, pretzel bites with queso dipping sauce, and nachos served with slow-cooked pork, three kinds of Mexican cheese, salsa fresca, fresh black olives, scallions, sour cream and fried jalapeno rings.

Racen said they’re holding soft openings with a limited menu starting Wednesday and will ease into full service over the next week or two. He wanted to be open to serve customers during Festi-Ville , which is being held in downtown Smithville this weekend. Eventually, kitchen hours at Gizmos will be seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., with longer hours possible at the bar.

After closing his South Plaza restaurant Black Dirt in 2019, Justus announced plans in 2022 to reopen a new version of Justus Drugstore in Hyde Park. But that project, on which he’s teamed up with an investor, is currently stalled out, he said.

“We’ve been working on it forever, and it’s more than two-thirds of the way done, but I don’t know where it’s headed,” Justus said. “I think we’re waiting for interest rates to go back down. I’m hopeful we can get it started back up soon.”

In the meantime, he’s enjoying being back in the kitchen at Racen’s joint.

“Dustin’s a really good guy, treats his people well, and I think on this project he’s in a nice spot where he’s ahead of the curve but not too far ahead of the curve,” Justus said. “We’ve been throwing around some ideas for new projects we might work on together as well — stuff that’s maybe a little more tailored to my skill set. So, I’m excited. We’ll see.”