FROM THE EDITOR
C O N T R I B U TO R S
16
KANSAS CITY DECEMBER 2021
Natalie Torres Gallagher FOOD CRITIC
This month’s cover feature on the best new restaurants in the city was shaped by Natalie Torres Gallagher, a longtime food critic at Kansas City magazine.
Shayla Gaulding EDITORIAL INTERN
Fall editorial intern Shayla Gaulding wrote the news story about the steep increase in homeschooling that’s continued even after the pandemic.
Jeremey Theron Kirby PHOTOGRAPHER
Our news story about a group of Native American activists who protest outside Arrowhead Stadium features photography from esteemed contributor Jeremey Theron Kirby.
MARTIN CIZMAR ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID BABCOCK CONTRIBUTOR ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOANNA GORHAM
B
ack in the spring, when we were still plodding through the pandemic, I got a little desperate. I was running errands outside my normal range when I spotted a Vietnamese drive-thru. You don’t have to be an organic farmer to believe that drinking boiling liquids from single-serve plastic is a bad idea, but I was hungry, and a hot bowl of pho sounded great. Foolishly, I approached that beef noodle soup just like I would a cheeseburger, pulling into a parking spot and using chopsticks to drop the tangle of noodles into the boiling broth. I, unfortunately, miscalculated the volume of liquid that the noodles would displace, scalding myself and soaking my jeans. Disgusted and in pain, I dumped the food out the window and threw the packages out at QuikTrip, where I lunched on a roller hotdog. I made a note to myself then, which turned into an editor’s letter now: Remember to never take restaurants for granted again. Returning to restaurants hasn’t stopped the minor calamities in my life— last month I locked my keys in my car while eating at the reborn Lazia (page 117). That mistake led to me chasing a sleeping possum from my garage with a garden hose while searching, in vain, for my spare house key. But, as I prepared to smash my kitchen window to break into my own house, it occurred to me that all of this wasn’t necessarily worse than doing dishes. This month’s cover feature is a celebration of our nine favorite new restaurants in town. We’re defining “new” as having opened since the start of the pandemic since we tabled this issue last year in the face of the late-fall Covid surge. It’s an impressive class, especially given the challenges of the past two years. Spots like the new Jamaican place started by a Brooklyn transplant (page 89) and a great new taqueria in the heart of Johnson County (page 111) enrich the cultural life of the city. Out in Lawrence, a Chinese-American chef who grew up making dumplings is devising his own oddball creations (page 96). Our restaurant of the year, Town Company, has already established itself as one of the best fine-dining restaurants in the city— which might be expected given that, as far as I know, Johnny Leach is the only chef in the city who presided over a Michelin-starred kitchen before moving here, to a city he gushes about (page 84). Natalie Torres Gallagher, our longtime food critic, who helped us pick the top nine, previously shared her first experience at The Town Company in these pages—she ended her meal in tears, overcome with emotion upon experiencing something she missed more than she knew. I can’t guarantee you Martin Cizmar EDITOR IN CHIEF tears of joy from these nine new restaurants, MARTIN@KANSASCITYMAG.COM but I wouldn’t be surprised either.
