When Jo Marie Scaglia was growing up in Kansas City, her mom would cook up a veritable feast every Sunday at 3 p.m., setting out dishes of delicious, straightforward food for the taking. “Everyone was invited — family, friends, neighbors, whoever,” Scaglia recalls. “Even after I moved out my friends would still be showing up at the house Sunday afternoons.”

After leaving home, Scaglia went on to follow in her forebears’ footsteps to become a restaurateur, launching the first of her popular The Mixx restaurants in 2005. But as that concept, which focuses on salads, grew, an idea for a different kind of restaurant started percolating — one that would recapture the spirit of conviviality that marked those Sunday dinners growing up.