Here Are the ten Restaurants Ushering in KC’s Subsequent Culinary Chapter 

If you wanted proof that Kansas City’s meals scene retains leveling up, this yr’s finest new eating places ship it. The lineup ranges from two outstanding Lebanese arrivals to recent visions of Japanese eating, plus a Japanese-leaning sourdough bakery that already has a cult following. Even the town’s new star-backed steakhouse, regardless of just a few rising pains, is delivering a national-level expertise with an area aptitude. Strict costume code be damned, you’ll be able to put on your Chiefs jersey on recreation days whereas indulging on a Wagyu beef steak. Together, they inform the story of a metropolis consuming larger, bolder and higher than ever.

HOW WE MADE THIS LIST

For this listing of Kansas City’s finest new eating places, we paid our personal approach and didn’t announce ourselves. Advertisers weren’t favored.

Restaurants of each sort had been thought-about. We picked eating places that provide an distinctive eating expertise and enrich the town’s cultural panorama.

No. 1 ANJIN

1708 Oak St., KCMO. anjinkc.com. 

Anjin is open Thursday–Sunday from 5:30–1 am and Monday from 5:30 pm–midnight.

Anjin is the Momofuku of Kansas City.

In the early aughts, a tiny NYC ramen store referred to as Momofuku rewired the eating world when chef and proprietor David Chang threw out the white-tablecloth expectations and served the meals he and his cooks ate when the doorways closed: unpretentious, deep and boldly flavored noodle bowls that, at the moment, hit tougher than something “elevated” on the scene. The business shifted and cooks started cooking for themselves, not for a legendary goal diner.

Anjin, the 20-seat restaurant owned and operated by Nick and Leslie Goellner, of the Antler Room, and Drew Little, was bred of comparable intention. The Crossroads izakaya, modeled after the informal sake and consuming pubs in Japan, doesn’t cater to everybody. And maybe due to that, it’s why we’re dubbing it Kansas City’s Best New Restaurant.

As you sit at Anjin’s U-shaped bar, you’ll be able to see the whole lot however the elements of the walk-in fridge. The line of cooks towards the again work practically elbow-to-elbow, targeted with a peaceful sense of urgency. One younger prepare dinner followers the makeshift yakitori grill whereas seasoned sous chef Sam Edelson teaches one other the method of frying thick slices of pork collar to perfection. Meanwhile, the entrance of the home employees dance round them whereas asking in the event you’d choose a lighter, extra fragrant sake or if perhaps you’d be open to it with a mild punch of umami. There aren’t any partitions between these cooking, these taking orders and also you, the diner and voyeur. They dance whilst you feast on fatty bits of rooster tails and cabbage salads scattered with fried tazukuri anchovies—and perhaps goat stew, in the event you’re fortunate sufficient to catch the particular.

There’s a bit extra juicy consolation to Anjin’s menu than beforehand discovered on the extremely refined Antler Room. Chef Nick’s dedication to pleasant and spectacular textures remains to be seen—in, as an example, the beet salad with seaweed spiced walnuts, persimmons, watermelon radish and toasted rice. Overall, there’s an exquisite kind of scrumptious depth to every Anjin dish. Nick’s strategy is intentional. He’ll fortunately let you know how the tonkatsu sandwich traces again to Japan’s Meiji Restoration within the late nineteenth century, and presumably to Prussian army affect. It’s the sort of cross-cultural mash-up, he says, that makes good sense for an izakaya rooted within the Midwest. He’s simply as animated when describing the kakiage, a tempura-fried tumble of greens and black tiger prawns impressed by Japan’s knack for making fried meals that someway by no means feels heavy. Dipped within the vivid, gentle tentsuyu sauce with cherry blossoms, herb oil and a home dashi, the entire dish sings to excessive heavens.

In Japan, izakayas are small, so it’s becoming that the Crossroads restaurant is tight, even past the kitchen and bar. There’s no room for a number stand; as a substitute, Leslie stands proper by the door to greet you instantly once you stroll in. As you throw again bubbly Japanese beers and skewered rooster hearts, you end up not distanced from those that work tirelessly to create your meals and eating expertise however moderately turning into a part of their dance. You’ll mingle with James Chang, of J. Chang Kitchen chili oil fame, and never have a care on this planet that the coals from the yakitori grill had been lit slightly too effectively and now there’s a smoky cloud hanging over the eating room (it’ll go in only a few minutes).

Anjin is for the cooks, the bartenders, those that take your order and buss down your desk. Just head in on a Monday night time (corresponding to a Saturday night time for the hospitality business) and also you’ll see. Anjin is for individuals who love meals and get misplaced in its senses and spirit. To be sure you don’t take your self too significantly, there’s the smooth serve ice cream—a preferred providing in Japan, particularly of the matcha selection, and the restaurant’s solely dessert providing. Made by Nick’s sister and Antler Room’s pastry chef Natasha Goellner, it’s served at an awe-inspiring towering peak and with layers of Japanese and Costco sweet scattered about.

Anjin reminds us that the perfect eating places provide fearless cooking and the diner an opportunity to eat with utter abandon. – Tyler Shane

INSIDER TIP: When you order sake, you’ll be offered with a big tray that includes tiny ceramic or porcelain cups, and also you get to decide on your favourite to drink from for the night. However, in the event you go for beer, I like to recommend a bottle of the Orion, a lightweight rice lager from Okinawa.

No. 2 Nour’s

3855 Warwick Blvd., KCMO. nourskc.com.

Nour’s is open Tuesday–Friday from 11 am–9 pm,
Saturday from 10 am–9 pm and Sunday from 10 am–3 pm.

On thirty ninth avenue, only a few blocks east of the streetcar cease on Main, chef Marwan Chebaro opened his new restaurant, Nour’s, as an area to deliver folks collectively. Named after his daughter, Nour, who handed away in 2018, the restaurant has lofty targets. 

“We want to be part of the community,” Chebaro says. “Hospitality is very important in our culture. It’s not about the money. It’s about making people feel valued, respected and honored. We are here to serve our humanity and to take care of each other.”

Lebanese delicacies could have impressed the menu at Nour’s, however the dishes are Levantine, an Eastern Mediterranean custom that spills throughout the traces on a map. “The cuisine is wholesome,” Chebaro says. “It’s historic. It’s been there for, really, a millennium. All cultures have dishes like these that never fade. They’re not a fad that becomes popular and then goes out of style. So why reinvent the wheel when the wheel is there?” 

And the wheel is scrumptious. However previous these recipes are, the flavors are gorgeous and novel. The baked feta tastes exquisitely wealthy and crisp on the surface whereas remaining creamy sufficient on the within to pair with the crunchy house-fried za’atar chips. The roasted teardrop tomatoes and bits of mint scattered on the periphery shine.

Then there’s the mujadara. The fried onions and citrusy pickled cabbage of the rice and lentil dish function excessive factors to the dish’s deep, toasty notes. The baharat spices accent the meat kebab in distinction to the sharp citrus and vinegar of the salad served with it. These dishes are a lot extra than simply healthful. 

Nour means “light” in Arabic. As the restaurant’s web site says, “Nour’s was born from loss but lives in love.” With the assistance of native designer John O’Brien, an inside designer for a lot of of KC’s high eating places, Nour’s is colourful, intentional and considerate. Come for a cup of espresso within the morning and go away one thing on the providing desk—an altar of types that pays homage to Chebaro’s daughter—then come again for dinner with a date. 

Between gathering meals for just lately overburdened meals banks and organizing a weekly neighborhood farmer’s marketplace for subsequent spring, Chebaro is doing the work to make his area greater than a restaurant. It’s an area for neighborhood the place the unbelievable meals appears secondary. Almost. – Ryan Reed

INSIDER TIP: Do not skip the muhammara. This dark-red combination of floor roasted crimson pepper is served with fluffy heat pita and crosses the spectrum from peppery to candy to acidic. “This originated in Aleppo, Syria,” Chebaro says. “It’s roasted red peppers, walnuts, pomegranate, molasses, cinnamon, cumin and a little orange blossom water. There’s many versions of it. As a dish travels from one region to another, people adapt it to their own liking.”

No. 3 Northeast Pizza

2203 Lexington Ave., KCMO. northeastpizzakc.com.

Northeast Pizza is open Tuesday–Thursday from 3–8 pm, Friday from 3–9 pm, Saturday from 11 am–9 pm and Sunday from 11 am–8 pm.

Is there something extra ubiquitous than a pizza store? Not a lot. However, because it turned out, Pendleton Heights was missing one, and Noah Quillec, one of many three house owners of Northeast Pizza, determined to vary that. 

“I’ve been living in the Northeast for about eight years now and I was like: ‘You know, that’s what we need. That’s what the world needs, what Kansas City needs,’” Quillec says.

Quillec and his companions, Max Popoff and Michael DeStefano, are a trio of service and leisure people who, for numerous causes, journeyed to New York, Chicago and San Francisco solely to return again dwelling to Kansas City. Quillec and DeStefano, who’ve each labored within the wonderful eating trenches of Michelin star eating places, began taking a look at pizza—New York-style pizza, to be precise—as a technique to deliver high-quality however very accessible meals to everybody.

“(DeStefano) was interested in this trend with people in the fine dining world getting back to a simpler food and taking away a lot of the rigmarole of the whole experience—doing a product that has those same standards but is more accessible to everyone all the time,” Quillec says. 

The pizzeria seems like each neighborhood pizza store, the place the oldsters working are artists and in bands and the act of baking pies is part of the inventive journey. It’s a kind of locations the place you’ll be able to eat a scrumptious meal with out feeling the necessity to act and look a sure approach. Whether you’re a mail provider, firefighter, a household with a gaggle of youngsters or a pair on date night time, you’re going to slot in completely. Somewhere between the countertop Igloo cooler stuffed with sweating bottles of Peroni and Sharpie-drawn paper plates displaying the particular of the day, Northeast Pizza tells you, “Have some pizza, you’re okay.”

The pizza, alternatively, is healthier than okay. Although the expectations for pizza could also be decrease than different extra elevated meals, I guarantee you a slice of Northeast pie can compete with among the finest fare on the market. Their New York-style slice has the construction and the crucial pizza foldability balanced virtually to perfection. The supreme is scorching and meaty with onions cooked crisp, simply on this aspect of burnt. The mushrooms nonetheless retain their texture, and the sausage is fennel-packed. Then there may be the jalapeno and pepperoni pizza drizzled with scorching honey. The jalapenos sing in lovely concord with the honey’s sweetness. Some may say it borders on too scorching, however like the whole lot else at Northeast Pizza, I say it’s precisely the place it must be. – Ryan Reed

INSIDER TIP: No one has ever stated you’ll be able to’t have a slice of pizza as an appetizer. You can order cheese and pepperoni by the slice or no matter taste the kitchen is likely to be experimenting with that day. Grab some associates and have some pizza earlier than your pizza.

No. 4 Oil on Linen

4420 Warwick Blvd., KCMO. oil-on-linen.com.

Oil on Linen is open on Wednesday from 10 am–3 pm, Thursday–Friday from 10 am–3 pm and 4:30 to 9 pm, and Saturday–Sunday from 10 am–3 pm.

Chef Ted Habiger has a dialog with each artist placing on an exhibition on the Kemper Museum. Then, he creates artwork himself by turning their musings right into a menu reflecting stated artwork. It may very well be a palette of untamed nettle salsa verde, perhaps bison quick ribs or quesadillas stuffed with butternut squash puree and huitlacoche (scrumptious corn fungus). The ever-changing menu of impressed dishes is then served up on the museum’s restaurant, Oil on Linen. 

Much of Oil on Linen’s menu attracts from Habiger’s love of regional cuisines in Mexico, the place he additionally owns Ánima, an open-fire gastronomy restaurant in Yucatan, and an artist residency program, Casa Ocea (and let’s not neglect Harbiger’s longstanding thirty ninth Street establishment Room 39). So whereas the closing of the Kemper’s beloved Café Sebastienne marked the tip of an period, Habiger, desperate to breathe new life into the museum restaurant, has managed to create a symbiotic relationship between meals and artwork.

Currently, fluffy bits of masa wrapped in corn husks like sweet wrappers and served with a plum-colored chokeberry jam and chili oil pay homage to artist Raven Halfmoon’s huge colonialist-subverting ceramic figures in her present exhibition, Ride or Die. Habiger continues to root into the artist’s indigenous background by that includes knobs of nutty sunchoke in nettle leek butter and a Three Sisters salad with butternut squash, hominy and heirloom beans—a standard trio of greens in Native American delicacies. There’s additionally a large 16-ounce beef ribeye with bison quick ribs and a dramatic trout whose mouth gapes at you whilst you feast on its accompanying medley of vivid greens and candy potato puree. 

The now-defunct Café Sebastienne specialised in breakfast and lunch and was hardly open for dinner. Oil on Linen is open most days of the week for breakfast and lunch, however dinner is barely provided Thursdays and Fridays, and that’s exactly when it is best to go. Habiger hopes diners will inundate Oil on Linen for his or her night meal, persuading the museum to broaden safety hours on different days and giving company extra alternatives to pair dinner with the uncommon probability to wander the galleries after darkish. – Tyler Shane

INSIDER TIP: During the transformation of Oil on Linen, Matthew Ritchie’s Experienced Time portray that had held on its east wall for greater than 20 years was changed by KC-based artist Kevin Townsend’s Set In Place (Mis En Place). The drawing is a efficiency that may happen over greater than 200 hours, evolving with every dot capturing the cafe’s dynamic vitality. Note how the piece adjustments every time you dine in.

No. 5 Akoya Omakase

106 W. 12th St., KCMO. akoyaomakase.com.

Akoya Omakase is open Monday–Saturday from 11 am–2 pm for lunch and 5–10 pm for dinner.

Peter Hoang doesn’t need you to know which Michelin star eating places he’s labored at. Or their star ranking. 

When I interviewed Hoang for my assessment of his restaurant in October, he maintained that he wished to keep away from name-dropping his, ahem, very notable previous. He’d moderately begin recent at his restaurant inside downtown’s Hotel Phillips, unburdened by no matter assumptions his background may invite. So you’ll simply should belief me once I say Hoang has spent 22 years working in sushi—from Chicago to Jackson Hole to NYC—at among the nation’s finest, and that his first-ever restaurant, Akoya Omakase, is one you’re going to need to go to.

Akoya has an entire eating room and a la carte menu for these on the lookout for a extra typical eating expertise, however the 10-seat sushi bar—the place Hoang and his group delicately craft layers of fish and rice or dollop gentle pink slices of Tai sea bream (the chef’s favourite) with bits of shiso leaves and kelp salt—is the place the magic actually occurs. 

Omakase interprets in Japanese to “I leave it up to you,” and at Akoya, it’s sensible to just do that. Leave it as much as Hoang and his group to serve you their finest. Opt for the chef’s alternative of sashimi, nigiri, hand-rolled temaki and miso soup. Intimidated? Don’t be. Hoang is intent that his restaurant—in contrast to most of the extra conventional edomae-style eating places he’s labored at, that are strict, solely sourcing fish from Tokyo Bay and curing them as an homage to pre-Toyko sushi practices—is supposed to be, above all, snug. So ask questions. Have your servers describe what you’re consuming, eat it and what flavors to search for. They will fortunately oblige.

As Hoang packs every ball of rice with freshly shaven wasabi, tops it with a slice of soppy pink yellowtail or fleshy sea bass and locations it immediately in entrance of me to be eaten simply seconds later, he tells me the connection between sushi bar chef and diner is intimate. This shut relationship is constructed on belief, and at Akoya, that belief hinges on the ingredient on the middle of all of it: the fish.

Hoang makes use of two non-public fish consumers from Tokyo’s well-known Toyosu Fish Market, whom he could or could not have labored with beforehand at a number of lauded institutions of the Michelin Tires selection. He sources the whole lot from fatty bluefin tuna to golden eye snapper from his trusted purveyors, saying it makes all of the distinction. 

Let the buttery slices of fish soften in your tongue and the grains of rice roll round. Pause whereas the sharp wasabi and salty five-year-aged soy sauce zap you again to actuality. Wash all of it down with a cool bottle of sake. Rinse and repeat. – Tyler Shane

INSIDER TIP: The Umi Omakase menu is a superb place to begin in the event you’re new to the omakase expertise. It consists of two units of sashimi, eight items of nigiri, one hand-rolled temaki, miso soup and dessert, which upon considered one of my visits was a pleasant chocolate crepe cake. At $85 for among the finest fish on the town, it’s a steal.

No. 6 Al Beik

3135 State Line Road, KCMO. albeik.us.

Al Beik is open every single day from 11 am–9 pm.

Follow the glowing crimson fez cap in a tucked-away buying middle off State Line in south KC and also you’ll enter Al Beik, one of many metropolis’s few Lebanese eating places. The setup feels acquainted sufficient—a small area with a handful of tables and vivid TVs flashing the menu. But what units Al Beik aside sits simply behind the walk-up counter: a charcoal grill roaring with flames, charring eggplants and half chickens to smoky perfection.

Also behind the counter is the three-year-old son of Diana Ammar and Saleem Fahda, the spouse and husband duo who personal Al Beik together with Saleem’s brother, Ahmad. The son typically rests close to the money register whereas Fahda works the entrance counter, suggesting meze platters and sandwiches for individuals who could have by no means had Lebanese meals earlier than. Ammar says her restaurant isn’t simply Mediterranean or Middle Eastern; it’s distinctly consultant of her roots in Beirut, Lebanon. The kebabs, stuffed into skinny rounds of pita—the perfect vessel for juicy marinated meats, salads of herby tabbouleh and pita chip-spiked fattoush—all pay homage to Lebanon. The crunchy house-made falafel gently delivers Ammar’s mix of cumin, coriander and different spices. There’s rice on the menu and included in a number of dishes, however well-seasoned fries accompany most of Al Beik’s meals (Ammar says Lebanese don’t eat a lot rice and that fries are extra frequent in her dwelling nation, however the rice satisfies their Persian clients).

If you’re debating on an appetizer, Fahda will counsel the meze platter with baba ganoush (do not forget that roasted eggplant talked about earlier?), hummus, wonderful crispy fried cheese rolls, or rakakat, and bitter pickled greens. For your entree, surely, order the three grilled meats served with garlic sauce, a parsley and onion medley (biwaz salad), blistered onions and tomatoes, and pita bread, all on a hefty wood chopping board. Let the not-too-sweet rice pudding spherical out the meal with its lush trace of rose water. – Tyler Shane

INSIDER TIP: When eating in, you’ll discover a wood desk lined with doodles and signatures from different diners. Ask one of many staff for a marker and go away your personal mark. Ammar and her husband didn’t have time to refurbish the desk earlier than they opened, so that they leaned into its tough attraction and invited clients to make it their very own. The custom has since caught, with the house owners even bringing in a second desk for patrons to proceed to attract on.

No. 7 Hank’s Garage & Grill

5801 Nieman Road, Shawnee, KS. hanksshawnee.com.

Hank’s is open Wednesday–Thursday from 11 am–midnight, Friday–Saturday from 11 am–1 am
and Sunday from 11 am–midnight.

Before it was Hank’s Garage and Grill, it was longtime auto store Shawnee Automotive. With its concrete flooring and vast home windows, it was the sort of place the place mechanics wiped their fingers on their denims and stored tales tucked in glove bins. Since March of final yr, nonetheless, patrons can now pull in and stomach up for a sports activities bar expertise, however one which’s extra true to Historic Downtown Shawnee. 

With sealed-in storage grime behind the bar, rafters overhead with simply the proper patina and the glow of two iconic Mobil Pegasus indicators, Eric Flanagan’s first full-service operation is laid-back, retro and proudly scrappy. Flanagan, who additionally owns the Crossroads’ King G Bar & Delicatessen and Jim’s Alley Bar, tapped chef Howard Hanna as culinary director to maneuver Hank’s past the everyday bar meals playbook. That appears to be like like a scorching canine program that features a Sonoran-style canine, a Chicago canine and a rotating “Weenie of the Week.” Hanna and chef Zac Sachs spent months engaged on their signature smashburger, debatably probably the greatest within the metropolis. But amongst these ordinary bar-and-grill-type comforts, there’s additionally do-it-yourself pastas, a blackened shrimp po’boy and the spam fries with banana ketchup (a standout from the start). It’s acquainted however chef-driven. Comforting however attention-grabbing.

If you park at one of many blue vinyl seats bolted on the bar, you’ll be able to bask in a Tajin-rimmed Michelada, a Pink Pegasus with vodka and house-made strawberry cream soda, or an area beer. Sure, downtown Shawnee has steadily been on the rise due to Hank’s neighboring James Beard-nominated bars, however Flanagan’s spot can be for the households. The children’ menu consists of fried scorching canines lower within the form of octopi. 

Beyond Hank’s wood-paneled partitions, there’s a patio formed by a brand new outbuilding and transformed transport container. Turf lends itself to video games of cornhole—or simply children working round. With its retro and classic digs, Hank’s feels prefer it’s been a Shawnee fixture for for much longer than 10 months, however Flanagan says that was the purpose all alongside.

“If we’ve done it right, Hank’s will feel like it’s always belonged in Shawnee,” he says. – Carmen Vajgrt

INSIDER TIP: Don’t let the truth that it’s January cease you from having fun with the outside at Hank’s. With winter enclosures and added seating, you’ll be able to nonetheless hang around, watch a recreation on one of many many TVs and have beer.

No. 8 Luca Bagel

633 E. 63rd St., #110, KCMO. lucabagel.com. 

Luca Bagel is open Tuesday–Friday from 6 am–3 pm and Saturday–Sunday from 7 am–3 pm.

Luke Salvatore is looking for the right bagel. 

 He says so on a crisp, clear fall day at Luca Bagel, the little bakery and sandwich store he runs on the jap fringe of Brookside. Salvatore says he began making bagels for the obvious motive: He wished to eat them. Specifically, he wished to relive the culinary experiences of his youth on the jap seaboard, as he used to to spend summers in southern New Jersey and Thanksgivings in New Jersey’s Bergen County.

After discovering his technique to KC and opening Providence Pizzeria Co. together with his brother, Aaron, Salvatore turned nostalgic for the style of his childhood, so he started attempting his hand at East Coast-style bagels in 2022 on the pizzeria.

“We didn’t really have the equipment we needed,” Salvatore says, “so we were using a stock pot and our pizza ovens and continually producing what I thought was an inferior bagel.”  

Eventually, geared up with a right-sized kettle and an oven with rotating decks, the brothers began promoting bagels on the Overland Park Farmers’ Market. It was a right away success; they offered out each weekend. After three seasons in OP, Salvatore determined to strive a brick-and-mortar, ending up on 63rd Street in an area previously occupied by Mattie’s Foods. Just just like the farmers market, the Brookside retailer has been successful, with—be forewarned—lengthy traces each weekend. 

That success, nonetheless, is not any shock. The man is looking for greatness. Over and over whereas describing his work, Salvatore makes use of language that one may hear from an artist or thinker. He talks in regards to the “concept of the bagel,” virtually prefer it’s a platonic supreme. He speaks of “trying to fulfill the potential for what a bagel could be.” Twice he makes use of the phrase “dream” to explain his quest for bagel excellence. The phrase “maximize” got here up twice as effectively, as in “caring enough about the bagel to maximize everything at your disposal.” 

An enormous a part of that bagel-maxing is, in fact, utilizing the very best substances. Consider Luca Bagel’s tackle the quintessential providing from any bagel store: bagel and lox with a schmear. Luca makes use of Nova lox cold-smoked salmon and slices it by hand, together with whipped Philadelphia cream cheese, heirloom tomatoes, crimson onions, thin-sliced English cucumbers and Roland Organic non-pareil capers.

Then, in fact, there may be the handrolled New Jersey-style bagel itself, which incorporates one hundred pc natural liquid barley malt within the dough. The group makes certain the dough has time to ferment to let the bagel turn into the truest, most bagel-y model of itself. 

The result’s wonderful. These will not be the flat, bready stuff you’re more likely to get from a grocery retailer bakery. Luca Bagels really feel alive. They’re plump, tall, dense and chewy with an particularly shiny, crispy crust. 

Is all that effort and expense actually vital? Maybe not. But then it wouldn’t be the perfect bagel that it might presumably be. That’s what Salvatore cares about. You can hear it when he talks about bagels. More importantly, you’ll be able to style it once you eat one. – Hampton Stevens

INSIDER TIP: Lines are lengthy at Luca, particularly on the weekends. Pop in in the course of the week for a shorter wait time.

No. 9 Sour Rabbit

7715 N.W. Prairie View Road, KCMO. @sour_rabbit_bakery.

Sour Rabbit is open Tuesday–Sunday from 7:30 am–2:30 pm.

Can a bakery be thought-about a restaurant? Truthfully, I don’t care to debate the logistics. Sour Rabbit, the Northland’s new sourdough bakery, has seating, espresso on faucet and a show case providing among the finest baked items you could find north of the river. And that’s sufficient for me.

Atsuko Hammann and her husband, Rolf, opened their hidden bakery, located off 29 Highway and N.W. Prairie View Road, in March in a mixed-use constructing housing an insurance coverage workplace and cellphone restore retailer. The bakery sells out of its almond croissants, orange zest-topped scones infused with earthy sage, streusel muffins, pink peppercorn artisan bread loaves and different pastries typically.

The flavors of each Atsuko and Rolf’s dwelling nations (Atsuko from Hokkaido, Japan; Rolf from Gross-Gerau, Germany) make appearances all through Sour Rabbit’s menu. On one go to, I ordered a candy crimson bean mochi cake (a barely nutty and delightfully candy mini pie-like pastry), a Basque cheesecake made with ricotta and bitter cream and a Swedish cinnamon swirl. For probably the most half, all these pastries have one factor in frequent—their gluten-y fermentation base. 

Each flour-dusted loaf of bread comes with that dynamite texture that fueled the 2020 sourdough baking frenzy—an ultra-toasty chestnut-colored crust that envelopes a smooth pillowy inside. The substances—water, regionally milled Marion Milling flour, and time—are minimal however stuffed with depth, tang and chew. I’ve begun to even choose Hammann’s gentle and crisp bagels over the dense kinds coming to our metropolis from the East Coast. – Tyler Shane

INSIDER TIP: Check Instagram for uncommon gems like Japanese-inspired egg salad stuffed inside a sourdough croissant for an awe-inspiring sandwich.

No. 10 1587 Prime

1500 Baltimore Ave., KCMO. 1587prime.com.

1587 Prime is open Monday–Thursday from 4:30–10 pm and Friday–Sunday from 4:30–11 pm.

Whether you’re keen on the Kansas Chiefs or like to hate them, or whether or not you’re a self-proclaimed foodie or choose to maintain issues of the palate extra easy, it hardly issues. If you reside in Kansas City and even vaguely observe its cultural orbit, you’ve heard of 1587 Prime, the shiny new steakhouse backed by celebrity duo Patrick Mahomes (No. 15) and Travis Kelce (No. 87).

Located simply exterior the Loews Hotel, the two-story steakhouse made a right away and unavoidable splash. Vocalist Chanteuse Tayla Rae Groves weaves by the eating room, serenading you whilst you feast on Wagyu New York strips and linger over cocktails lit aflame within the identify of world-renowned popstar (and Kelce’s fiancee) Taylor Swift. Servers in fitted blazers hustle previous marble columns. It’s all a big-city spectacle that feels bigger than life. With the partnership of worldwide hospitality group Noble 33, 1587 Prime makes delicate nods to its celeb house owners whereas preserving old style steakhouse glamour at its core. 

The menu stays true to traditional steakhouse fare: wedge salads, oysters, black truffle compound butters and Wagyu cuts sourced from cities starting from Melba, Idaho, to Victoria, Australia. But there’s additionally the chance to make just a few theatrical selections, like choosing the martini cart or a tableside brandy-induced flambé. There’s a cheeky ketchup flight that nods to Mahomes’ notorious admittance of consuming ketchup together with his steak and the Big Yeti cocktail, a smokey riff on an quaint, honoring Kelce. In all its grandeur, desserts are stored native and sourced from beloved McClain’s bakery. 

That stated, for all its polish and promise, 1587 Prime remains to be discovering its footing. The restaurant stays wildly widespread (a lot in order that getting a seat on the bar proved unattainable on a couple of try, and reservations have been booked full for months), however that recognition at the moment appears pushed extra by curiosity, celeb and conference site visitors than by repeat-visit devotion from locals. Does 1587 Prime’s meals and repair surpass the town’s many wonderful steakhouses? At simply 4 months previous, it might be too quickly to inform, however on a few of our most up-to-date visits, it hasn’t but. Still, few eating places in Kansas City have made a louder entrance. 

Whether 1587 Prime evolves right into a date night time go-to or settles into its function as a one-time splurge stays to be seen. What’s simple is its influence: a restaurant so buzzy it made nationwide headlines in People and The Cut and so emblematic of Kansas City’s rising cultural confidence that ignoring it will really feel like an omission. Growing pains and all, 1587 Prime is a spectacle this metropolis was sure to have, the place steaks, sports activities and popular culture all collide underneath one very vivid highlight. Look at how far we’ve come, KC. – Kansas City Magazine Team

INSIDER TIP: Struggling to e book a reservation? Pop in to see in the event you can snag a spot on the bar. And thoughts the costume code: enterprise informal or dressy night, except it’s recreation day. Then that Chiefs jersey is virtually a part of the uniform.