Sea Capitán Cocina Costera

Sea Capitán Cocina Costera is a locally owned coastal-Mexican seafood restaurant in Kansas City’s South Plaza, opened in 2025 by KC restaurateurs Todd Schulte and Cory Dannehl — the team behind Earl’s Premier and Bacaro Primo. Set in the former Blu Hwy space at 5070 Main Street, the roughly 5,000-square-foot room channels Mexico’s Pacific and Gulf shorelines (Yucatán to Baja) through ceviches, aguachiles, raw-bar oysters, fried-cod tacos, and an agave-forward bar built on tequila, mezcal, and frozen palomas.

Description

Sea Capitán Cocina Costera is an independent, locally owned coastal-Mexican seafood restaurant in the South Plaza area of Kansas City, Missouri, at 5070 Main Street. It opened in late July 2025 in the former Blu Hwy space (Blu Hwy having closed in September 2024) and is the largest restaurant its owners have operated — roughly 5,000 square feet, with a spacious kitchen, a private dining room, a 20-seat indoor bar, and an outdoor patio.¹²³

The menu leans into the flavors of Mexico’s coastlines, with inspiration drawn from the Yucatán up to the Baja Peninsula, taking a lighter, fresher approach than interior-Mexican cooking. Offerings include ceviches, aguachiles, seafood cocktails, and fresh oysters from a raw bar, alongside tacos — among them the Tacos La Paz with crispy fried cod — made with Yoli tortillas, plus dishes such as El Capitán’s Camarones al Carbón (charcoal-grilled shrimp in chili-garlic butter) and camote (sweet-potato discs with agave, queso fresco, and mole).¹² The beverage program is agave-forward, spanning tequila, mezcal, raicilla, sotol, and bacanora (developed in partnership with mezcal specialist Hugo Gonzalez), along with frozen palomas and margaritas, wine, and non-alcoholic aguas frescas. The owners have announced a membership program featuring private tequila lockers with quarterly tastings.¹² The restaurant operates seven days a week with lunch, dinner, and Sunday brunch.³

Ownership and history

Sea Capitán is owned by Todd Schulte and Cory Dannehl, the longtime business partners behind the East Coast–style oyster restaurant Earl’s Premier (2022), the Italian salumi-bar concept Bacaro Primo (2023), and the market-café Earl’s Provisions. Sea Capitán, opened in 2025, is the group’s coastal-Mexican concept and its largest space to date, making Schulte and Dannehl one of Kansas City’s most active independent restaurant groups.²⁴⁵

Schulte is the culinary and creative force of the partnership and has been a fixture of the Kansas City restaurant scene for more than two decades, having previously owned Happy Gillis Café + Hangout in Columbus Park and Genessee Royale Bistro in the West Bottoms before building the Earl’s portfolio with Dannehl.⁴

The restaurant is independently owned and operated, with no corporate parent or franchise affiliation; it is part of a locally held, owner-operated KC restaurant group.²⁴⁵

Links

• Website: https://seacapitankc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seacapitankcmo/
• Phone: (816) 929-8370

See also

• bacaro-primo
• Registry

Sources

Footnotes

1. The Pitch — “Set sail for the South Plaza’s Sea Capitán Cocina Costera” — https://www.thepitchkc.com/set-sail-for-the-south-plazas-sea-capitan-cocina-costera/ — accessed 2026-05-31 ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. IN Kansas City Magazine — “In Culinary News: Sea Capitán Cocina Costera” — https://www.inkansascity.com/eat-drink/news/in-culinary-news-sea-capitan-cocina-costera — accessed 2026-05-31 (summary via search; full page returned 403) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. KC Daily — “Sea Capitán Cocina Costera Now Open in South Plaza” — https://www.kcdaily.com/p/sea-capita-n-cocina-costera-now-open-in-south-plaza — accessed 2026-05-31 ↩ ↩²

4. Kansas City Magazine — “KC Restaurateurs Todd Schulte and Cory Dannehl Are Opening A Restaurant & A Market This Summer. Here’s What We Know.” — https://kansascitymag.com/kc-restauranteurs-todd-schulte-and-cory-dannehl-are-opening-a-restaurant-a-market-this-summer-heres-what-we-know/ — accessed 2026-05-31 ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Sea Capitán — official site — https://seacapitankc.com/ — accessed 2026-05-31 ↩ ↩²