This lobster roll’s journey to KC began with a chef who wasn’t satisfied wearing the short apron
May 7, 2026 | Joyce Smith, Freelance Writer
Frankie Pickle’s signature dish: the cheddar chive lobster roll, shaped like a cinnamon roll with a lobster mousse filling, lobster veloute, white cheddar bechamel and warm tarragon lobster salad; photo by Joyce Smith
It’s one of the metro’s softest restaurant openings.
Frankie Pickle’s Tackle Box Tavern & Fish House started posting on social media about a month ago with a photo of seafood gumbo and one line: “Seafood with soul that’s what we do.”
Then it rolled out a few more: “Check out these low country cups. … prepared Cajun Bloody Mary style!” and “Feeling a little crabby lately??? Frankie Pickle’s boil can fix that! First of season Virginia blue crab, lobster, crayfish, Cajun cocktail. … we will see you soon ya’ll.”
Frankie Pickle’s Tackle Box Tavern & Fish House at 3939 W. 69th Terrace in The Shops of Prairie Village, in the former Scratch Gourmet Kitchen space; photo by Joyce Smith
Owners Brandon West and Sheena Nicholls opened the upscale seafood pop-up Friday afternoon at 3939 W. 69th Terrace in The Shops of Prairie Village.
They took the former Scratch Gourmet Kitchen space (Scratch relocated to 3931 W. 69th Terrace, previously home to Story). The couple plan to offer lunch and dinner Fridays and Saturdays through July.
“I don’t have a big marketing budget,” West said. “If you build it they will come. It’s a philosophy. And have a little faith. I don’t like to get my hopes up. I don’t know what the future will be for it but I’m open to anything that makes sense.”
West opts not to share the specifics, but at age 27, he had a poor work history and was living with his parents in Plattsburg, Missouri — just northeast of the Kansas City metro — trying to get his life on track.
He read chef Jeff Henderson’s book, “Cooked: My Journey from the Streets to the Stove,” described as a true story of transformation from federal prison to executive chef in world-renowned restaurants.
While West was inspired, he couldn’t even get hired for an entry level position at Denny’s.
So he enrolled in the culinary program at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park. His former high school “lunch lady,” an alumna of the program, had become executive chef at upscale The Benton Club in St. Joseph, Missouri. She brought West on as an apprentice, and he still does an occasional event there as guest chef.
Sheena Nicholls and Brandon West, owners of Frankie Pickle’s Tackle Box Tavern & Fish House; photo by Joyce Smith
Around 2010, he joined the famed Justus Drugstore restaurant in Smithville, where everything was made from scratch to the extreme — fermenting vinegars and vegetables, curing meats, even making its sodas inhouse with a secondary fermenting process.
But chef-owner Jonathan Justus started West out in the cook shack next to the restaurant for the summer — making pork rinds, a lot of burgers, sausages and fried chicken tenders pulled from whole locally-raised chickens.
West would have to earn his way into the restaurant — from short apron (waiting and serving) to long apron (cooking) to chef’s jacket.
“Jonathan had me out here sweating it. I hated it,” said West, who never moved on from the short apron at Justus Drugstore.
Justus, who recently visited southern Missouri with West to forage for morel mushrooms and bass fish, said West needed the formality and structure of a commercial kitchen.
“It’s something a lot of people need and that’s why they end up in cooking,” Justus said. “He has a really nurturing personality at his heart. Really wants the people under him not to just succeed for him but to succeed for themselves.”
West made his catfish on grits at Justus’ home Sunday night so they could talk shop and collaborate on future events.
“I think he does really, really good food. I think his food is super solid,” Justus said. “He understands flavor profiles and how to put dishes together.”
RELATED: Justus Drugstore owners docking new seafood concept in historic Parkville
After leaving Justus Drugstore, West was a line cook for a Country Club Plaza restaurant. The pay was better, but he wasn’t challenged by the menu. He doesn’t want to say more, he said, worried that he will hurt their feelings.
Another industry book once again inspired him. “Back of the House: The Secret Life of a Restaurant” focuses on high-end Craigie on Main in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and what it is like to work in a James Beard award-winning kitchen.
West wrote the restaurant a letter begging for a job — a letter for a more personal touch than an email, he said. They sent him an airline ticket to come for a visit, and later hired him as a line cook.
West had a four-year plan to become a versatile chef: Seek out and work at the best restaurants in Austin, Boston, New Orleans and Portland for a year. But he ended up staying with Craigie and its sister operations for four years because he kept learning, eventually moving up to executive sous chef.
He returned to the metro in 2017 to help Justus open Black Dirt restaurant in the South Plaza district, then joined a new Lenexa restaurant as executive chef. He also was a partner in a catering company.
During this time he met Nicholls. Their first date was takeout from Waldo Thai, then a whole bunch of picnics all over town.
He also became a partner, co-founder and chef of Lula Southern Cookhouse in the Crossroads, but left after a couple of years to focus on his new family with Nicholls and to create a restaurant concept that he could call his own.
Scratch Gourmet Kitchen recently relocated in the Prairie Village center, but its lease for its former spot 3939 W. 69th Terrace runs through July. So the company reached out to talented chefs and mixologists in the metro who might want to take the space to try out new concepts or test the market.
While Frankie Pickle’s has it for lunch and dinner Fridays and Saturdays, it will also be used for private parties, ticketed wine dinners, and for local chefs to use as a daily rental.
West has a couple of cooks, a bartender, server and floor person, and describes his pop-up as “friendly and fun, not fussy and uptight.”
Frankie Pickle’s Blue Crab Boudin Tamal (with masa from Yoli Tortilleria); photo by Joyce Smith
Under “Small Plates” it offers Bloody Mary oysters; a Blue Crab Boudin Tamal (with masa from Yoli Tortilleria); Fish Stix (with squid ink anchoïade, Kewpie mayo and capers); Peel N Eat golf shrimp; and mussel cassoulet. Salads include a Crab Caesar.
Its signature dish is the cheddar chive lobster roll, shaped like a cinnamon roll with a lobster mousse filling, lobster veloute, white cheddar bechamel and warm tarragon lobster salad. It also has gumbo pot pie, ribeye, jerk snapper, and catfish on grits with grayfish gravy.
Family Style meals: A boil with shrimp, mussels, andouille sausage, sweet corn, red potato and celery for $39 (add lobster, blue crab and/or crab legs for an extra cost); along with a fried fish platter with gulf white fish, catfish, shrimp, oysters, farm slaw (seasonal veggies), hushpullies and pickled green tomatoes for $42.
The couple will roll out lunch service Friday with a shrimp or catfish basket, boils, salads, and oysters, along with daily specials, perhaps a soft-shell crab po’boy with Cajun Kewpie mayo, charred romaine and fried green tomatoes.
Nicholls is executive chef at Lake Quivira Country Club. Her career began nearly 20 years ago in Kansas City. Then she worked in hotel kitchens in Dubai and under Michelin-starred chefs in San Francisco before returning home in 2013. She has three children including daughter, Frankie Rose, 10-months, with Brandon — and the inspiration behind the Frankie Pickle’s brand. West is a stay-at-home dad throughout the week.
Nicholls is the pastry chef for the new pop-up. For now, she has a brownie with house-made smoked vanilla ice cream and candied pecans, and a lemon tart with stewed berries, tarragon and whipped cream.
West not only hopes Frankie Pickle’s takes off, he wants to expand the brand with a barbecue concept, and maybe even another focusing on hot chicken.
He refers to another book, “The Joy of Cooking,” which he has yet to read, but says it explains the only reason he’s in the kitchen: “for the joy.”
“I feel fantastic. We want more guests,” he said. “The staff is small but focused, some of the best I have ever worked with and they believe it in. Everyone’s head is down making sure we are knocking it out of the park. I’m all about growth.”
3939, West 69th Terrace, The Shops of Prairie Village, Prairie Village, Johnson County, Kansas, 66208, United States
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