February 2022: Where is Angela Green by Kansas City Magazine

A Prairie Village woman disappeared without a trace in the summer of 2019. Her husband told conflicting stories and refused to talk to the police. Now, her daughter wants answers.

WHERE IS ANGELA GREEN? by mar y henn

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FEBRUARY 2022

66 THE ART OF PAPER PRESERVATION

Thin Air

Family Fun

More to Chew On

Angela Green disappeared in 2019 without a trace. Her whereabouts are still unknown.

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

A stunning home renovation that includes a climbing wall for kids

A new restaurant on Westport Road serves fresh Taiwanese dumplings.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CALEB CONDIT AND REBECCA NORDEN

How one man has spent his life repairing and protecting aged paper

TH E B EST THIN G S IN LIFE ARE

pr i m e

OPENING FEBRUARY 8, 202 2

46 PENN CENTRE • 4622 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE • 3RD FLOOR 816.600.0630 • OCEAN - PRIME .COM

In This Issue FEBRUARY 2022

S WAY

T H E LO O P

TA S T E

Twinkle Periwinkle

COVIDating

Astounding Architecture

Venue Revival

El Torreon, originally a Jazz Age ballroom, is getting a third life.

Classic shoes in the Pantone Color of the Year

One story of how the pandemic has affected dating

Matthew Hufft talks about starting his company and KC architecture.

36 22 Water Safety

The Ogallala Aquifer is facing extreme threats.

E V E RY I S S U E

Editor’s Letter

25 Calendar 30 Backbeat 92 Scene 02.2022

O N TH E C OVE R

WHERE IS ANGELA GREEN?

A Prairie Village woman disappeared without a trace in the summer of 2019. Her husband told conflicting stories and refused to talk to the police.

Illustration by Makalah Hardy

Now, her daughter wants answers.

| FR AGILE BE AUT Y

SPECIAL SECTIONS WHERE IS ANGELA GREEN? by mar y henn

kansascitymag.com

96 Surreal Estate

49 Five Star Professionals 72 Beauty Guide

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

Magic Noodle’s robot delivers handstretched noodles.

ChewChew

All aboard the dumpling train.

Cookie Couple

Special Chocolate

Duo expands their multi-business venture with a Waldo bakery.

Christopher Elbow teams up with Clovr to create THCinfused chocolate.

SplitLevel Chic

A hand-me-down split-level house in Prairie Village gets a sleek renovation.

Robot Restaurant

89 90

Newsfeed

The latest in KC food news

’Cue Card

New BBQ in North KC rivals some of the best in the city

FROM THE EDITOR

C O N T R I B U TO R S

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

Makalah Hardy

ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR

The illustration on this month’s cover was drawn by Associate Art Director Makalah Hardy, the newest member of our staff.

Susie Whitfield WRITER

This month’s news story about the depleted Ogallala Aquifer was written by longtime contributor Susie Whitfield, who, we were unsurprised to learn, knew all about the Ogallala Aquifer even before reporting the story.

Patrick Moore WRITER

This month’s review of the new cannabis-infused bon bons from prominent local chocolatier Christopher Elbow was written by Patrick Moore, who also produces our weekly podcast.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOANNA GORHAM

rom time to time, I’ll find myself talking to someone who refers to this publication as a “lifestyle magazine.” On one hand, I get it—we do a lot of legwork to help our readers make the best use of their leisure time and budget by putting together lists of the best new restaurants, and we cover a lot of events and the arts. But that’s really only half of what we do. We’re a mission-driven city magazine and, as the statement printed in every issue says, we aim to help readers celebrate Kansas City’s triumphs, tend to its faults and revel in the things that make it unique. In our news section, The Loop, we often dive into weighty issues like the city’s murder rate or gerrymandering or immigration. We do quite a lot of stories about environmental issues—there’s one on page 22 this month. A few months ago, we became the first local publication to profile the Native American protestors outside GEHA Field. We plowed through thousands of pages of police documents to investigate a murder back in December. Still, people tend to associate us with KC’s best bars or coffee shops. There are worse reputations to have, and it’s true that we do spend a lot of time and money exploring negronis and third-wave roasters. This issue is a little different, though, because this month we took the investigative piece on a Prairie Village woman’s disappearance from our feature well and put it on our cover. Associate Editor Mary Henn spent about fifty hours interviewing family and listening to hours of recorded phone calls to compile the most comprehensive printed piece on the Angela Green case, which is as baffling as it is frustrating. It seems impossible that a woman could disappear from a suburban street without a trace in an era where we’re seemingly being surveilled at all times, and yet that’s what happened. I won’t spoil any more of it—you’ll want to read for yourself on page 56. We also have, in this issue, a profile of a world-renowned paper conservator (page 66). His personal history is harrowing, and his total dedication to a craft you might not have known existed before this has lingered with me since I read the first draft. Those are the kinds of stories we love to tell, and they’re also the kinds of local stories you’ll only find in Kansas City magazine. So, yes, we’ve got some lifestyle content—a new country jam night in Lenexa (page 25), a collaborative microcinema (page 28) and a very cool rehab of a Prairie Village split-level (page 36). But we’ve got a little more than that, too—this month and every month. If Martin Cizmar EDITOR IN CHIEF you skip to the coffee shop coverage, that’s MARTIN@KANSASCITYMAG.COM between you and your barista.

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America’s Best New Public Course. b i g c e d a r. c o m

COURTIER

IN MEMORIAM NUMBERS FROM THIS ISSUE

’27

The year El Torreon Ballroom opened, becoming the city’s hippest jazz spot and the first place in the city where Black musicians could play for white audiences. PA GE 19

’02

The year Jerry’s Bait Shop in Lenexa started hosting jam nights. They’re throwing a twenty-year reunion this month. PA GE 25

’92

The year Classic Cookie originally opened in Waldo. We caught up with the new owner. PA GE 86

S L A M DA N C E

Our story with the most engagement since our last issue— and, indeed, for all of 2021—was the war of words between Crossroads cocktail spot SoT and Patrick Mahomes’ controversial kid brother. The younger Mahomes was not treated how he expected to be treated by servers at the bar and lashed out using his verified Instagram account. “The service is absolutely terrible and the servers are so rude,” he posted, following up with responses from people who agreed. SoT posted a snarky “apology” which went viral, first being reported by Kansas City. “We are sorry that we set boundaries that you tried to ignore,” read the statement. The bar later deleted that post and shared a sincere apology. Our readers expressed universal condemnation for Jackson Mahomes. Any one of us would have difficulty adjusting to twentyone-year-old life when our closest sibling was suddenly worth a billion dollars. And it’s not going to change until PM15 throws some tough love his way. The kid will figure it out eventually. But he obviously enjoys the attention. So stop giving it to him. —Phil Kloster I follow him on Instagram for the entertainment value (while low) of situations like this. I think they roasted him pretty well. —Keila Hall Frankly, I love this. Glad someone called him out on his nonsense and sense of entitlement. —Joan Richardson Lynch

“

He’s wearing us out. KC’s not that complicated. Just be a

We were sad to learn of the passing of Gary Zancanelli Jr., the enterprising local restauranteur who founded Red Door Woodfired Grill.

BEHIND THE SCENES

good human & the city will be good to you. —Patrick Madden Patrick needs to hire a “handler” for Jackson. For the hit Patrick takes to his reputation as a good community leader because of Jackson’s juvenile antics, it would be a good investment. —Tim Hunter I’ve been to SoT several times! It’s a quiet, unique place where they serve high quality, high priced specialty cocktails. I wouldn’t categorize this as a “bar.” It’s definitely more of a “vibe” where you sit in leather seats positioned where you can easily converse in low lit areas. This is not a place you would go to party and act a fool. You wanna party?? —Tiffany Dooley

An outtake from our extended tour of the El Torreon Ballroom, which is being rehabbed by its current owners.

Kansas City

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KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

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L E A D I N G T H E C O N V E R S AT I O N I N K A N S A S C I T Y

THE GRAND TORR The owners of El Torreon, one of Kansas City’s most iconic music venues, have big plans for renovating it. BY M A R Y H E N N

KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

THE LOOP THE GRAND TORR

El Torreon Ballroom was born as a Jazz Age ballroom. In the seventies, the building became a counterculture hub as The Cowtown Ballroom. New owners have big plans to give it a new life.

WICE IN ITS LIFE-

the brick building at 31st and Gillham has been the hippest place in Kansas City. It could be again, thanks to a bold renovation plan by the building’s new owners. Glance at the building and you’ll see “El Torreon” painted on its front windows. El Torreon means “The Tower” and was the original name of this space when it opened in 1927 with two large ballrooms and its own house band led by Phil Baxter. Baxter would open and close each night with the band’s theme song, “El Torreon,” and their performances were frequently broadcast by KMBC. While El Torreon’s upper ballroom hosted jazz-era luminaries like Cab Calloway, its lower ballroom was used for galas, dinner parties and other events. Like other ballrooms around the country, it closed during the Great Depression.

TIME,

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

And like other ballrooms, it was revived by the Vietnam-era counterculture. From 1971 to 1974, the space was known as the Cowtown Ballroom, a venue mentioned alongside legendary contemporaries like the Fillmore and The Electric Factory. Era-defining acts like Van Morrison, Frank Zappa, Alice Cooper and The Eagles played there. Between its ballroom eras, it was El Torreon Skating Rink from 1937 to 1962, reflecting the national craze for roller skating. After the Cowtown Ballroom closed in 1974, El Torreon was used for art events, movie premieres and flea markets. In the early 2000s, metal, punk and ska bands performed shows there. Currently, Bridgeport Church owns the building. In 2017, they started hosting events— weddings, quinceañeras, holiday parties and corporate events. Now, Bridgeport Church is planning a multimillion-dollar renovation project to restore the upstairs ballroom into a music venue. We talked

to Chris Colvin, general manager of El Torreon, about those plans and toured the space. Prohibition tunnels in the basement One of the first things Colvin mentioned about El Torreon was what’s below it: “There are Prohibition tunnels in our basement.”

ing, so people stood there burning hot in August, just watching shows,” Colvin says. There are three layers of hardwood flooring still visible—the original flooring from the twenties, hardwood from the roller skating rink decades and a top layer of flooring from the seventies. Underneath the three layers of flooring is a thick layer of concrete.

There are two visible tunnels near the ceiling of the basement. “I’ve been in one of them,” Colvin says. “I will not go in the other one—it’s too narrow. It goes straight back about forty-eight feet, which I measured with a laser. It takes us to the edge of the building, then there’s a brick wall. I’m pretty sure that if we knocked down that brick wall we would find that the tunnel keeps going.” The wider tunnel goes straight back about eight feet to a concrete pillar and then to the left about another twelve feet, where it has been filled. “One person I took up there found a really old whiskey bottle,” Colvin says. During Prohibition, Kansas City’s railroad connections, central location, bustling music scene and all-night entertainment earned it the title “Paris of the Plains,” and El Torreon was its Moulin Rouge. Colvin tells us the basement has been visited by a team of paranormal investigators, but he doesn’t know whether they found signs of otherworldly activity. The upstairs ballroom When El Torreon Ballroom was built near the end of the Roaring Twenties, it had the largest vaulted ceiling in Kansas City. “It was also the first place in Kansas City where Black musicians could play for white audiences,” Colvin says. And while Black musicians could perform at El Torreon, they were not allowed to patronize the ballroom. However, after gigs at nightclubs and dance halls, it was common to have all-night jam sessions where musicians of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds played together after hours. Such sessions helped create the improvisational tradition of Kansas City jazz. The upstairs ballroom is said to have a one thousand-person capacity, but there are reports of over three thousand people being in the space at once. “There was never any air condition-

A Pendergast building Right after Bridgeport Church purchased El Torreon, a storm caused the roof to collapse in the northeast corner of the upstairs ballroom, crushing an entire staircase and causing major electrical problems. Luckily, the church had insured the building—something they had debated doing due to lack of funding. “Had the church not kept the building insured, it would likely no longer be standing because it would have been too expensive to fix,” Colvin says. But what really helped El Torreon survive the recent storm is its legacy as one of Kansas City’s Pendergast buildings. Pendergast-controlled companies were awarded prime building contracts in Kansas City. Ready Mixed Concrete Co. was one of those companies and also one of the first in the country to deliver concrete to the site. Ready Mixed Concrete Co. produced concrete for several construction projects during the Depression. “The more concrete Pendergast used, the more money he made,” Colvin says. “The thick layer of concrete beneath the flooring in the ballroom actually helped save it after the roof collapsed.” A new blueprint “We are hoping to open the upstairs ballroom again for live music in January 2024,” Colvin says. “We started a nonprofit to help with fundraising. But more importantly, we got the building on the historic registry, which will help cover some of the costs.” The north and west sides of the building—the street-facing sides—will remain intact, as those are the parts prioritized by preservationists. There are plans to build new apartment buildings around El Torreon in Midtown. The new streetcar extension will run down Main Street to 31st, where El Torreon is positioned on Gillham. With luck, the streetcar extension will be running around the same time El Torreon is restored to its former glory.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

T H E L O O P WAT E RWO R K S

Without water from the aquifer, all High Plains agriculture and its related businesses would become entirely unsustainable—that’s $20 billion worth of food and related products, endangering the country’s economic stability and the world’s food supply. Going dry Although irrigation is still the norm for farmers and ranchers in the region, some Kansas farmers have switched to “dryland” methods. The crops they grow, including wheat and grain sorghum, do not require irrigation. It’s not as lucrative as planting corn, but the demands on the aquifer are greatly reduced. Dryland farming techniques include leaving stubble on the ground after harvesting instead of plowing fields. This stubble reduces soil erosion, decreases evaporation and catches more blowing snow than bare ground does.

You’ve probably never heard of the Ogallala Aquifer, but you’ve eaten food thanks to it. This key piece of the Kansas economy is under severe duress. BY S U S I E W H I T F I E L D

below the asphalt of I-70, west of Colby, Kansas, lies a geological miracle: an immense cache of groundwater known as the Ogallala Aquifer. The Aquifer, one of the world’s largest, was created ten million years ago as streams flowed eastward from the Rocky Mountains. The Ogallala Aquifer is the single most important source of water in the High Plains, stretching across parts of eight states. It supplies 2.3 million people with eighty-two percent of their drinking water. Today, however, it is disappearing at an alarming rate. Once the size of Lake Huron, the aquifer has been drained for years to irrigate the semi-arid land in western Kansas, Nebraska and the Texas panhandle. One-sixth of the world’s grain is produced with water from the aquifer. “On the high plains of Kansas, the demand for water far outpaces the sustainable and renewable practices now in place,” says Mark Rude, who oversees the Southwest Kansas Groundwater Management District based in Garden City. As it stands, thirsty crops such as corn are depleting that aquifer at rates that rain and snowmelt cannot possibly offset. As a result of fourteen million acres being irrigated annually, aquifer levels have dropped precipitously. In northwest Texas, the Ogallala has nearly vanished. Replacing that water naturally would take six thousand years. A future in which the area receives less rainfall could also affect a possible replenishing. ABOUT THREE HUNDRED FEET

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

Bigger threats But even as those developments look to reduce water usage, the use of biofuels and the profits from growing corn might make the problem worse. There are plans to double the number of ethanol production facilities on the High Plains, which could drain 120 billion gallons from the aquifer every year. Moonshot from Missouri? However, Rude sees a glimmer of hope: the idea of creating a network of pipelines or open ditches that would transport floodwaters from the Mississippi River Basin to the aquifer. Those channels could even move the water across the Rocky Mountains to augment the Colorado River, where water levels are dangerously low. “Negative water value would become positive,” Rude says. It’s a serious proposal: The Senate’s Energy Committee briefly discussed this idea on November 2. Without such an extraordinary intervention, the Ogallala Aquifer will vanish. Without water to grow corn and ranch cattle, the High Plains will become even more depopulated, reverting to vast grasslands where bison graze and ecotourists visit—a place where immense vistas of sky and earth remain undisturbed by human folly.

ILLUSTRATION BY MAK ALAH HARDY

THE NEW DUST BOWL?

New rules and crops Because the depletion of the aquifer is an issue that will impact the entire country, the Department of Agriculture is studying the problem with a project it calls the Ogallala Initiative. The aim is to make the agricultural industry more sustainable by improving irrigation techniques and animal feedlot management. Conserving the aquifer has also encouraged the creation of new agricultural practices including Kansas’ first “local enhanced management area,” where there are restrictions on irrigation use. Researchers are also working to develop drought-tolerant corn.

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KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

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WHERE YOU WANT TO BE IN FEBRUARY

February

GO: Country Jam Nights are Thursdays at Jerry’s Bait Shop (13412 Santa Fe Trail Drive, Lenexa). The twenty-year reunion of Jerry’s Wednesday rock jam night is February 2. 8 pm-midnight. No cover.

COUNTRY COUSIN Jerry’s Bait Shop needed a new lure. The classic Lenexa dive bar, which hosts live music five nights a week on a little corner stage by the door out to Santa Fe Trail Drive, was slow on Thursdays. The owner asked Mike Shields, a long-tenured bartender/bar manager, to toss out some ideas. Maybe poker or karaoke? “I knew I didn’t want any part of a poker night or karaoke,” Shields says. “I’m not into country so much myself, though I do like some old-time Western swing music. But I looked around, and it’s weird to me that there are just no bars that have live country music.” And so Jerry’s Bait Shop launched its Coun-

try Jam Night. It’s the only one of its kind in the metro area, and Shields says he hopes it’ll “bring back a piece of the area’s heritage.” On a recent Thursday night, the bar was packed, with the band playing a lot of country crossover fare like Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road.” “I put out my feelers with a lot of the musicians that come through on jam night,” Shields says. “There was enough interest that I almost immediately knew it was going to be a success.” Rather than one band hosting the country night, with jammers joining, Shields set up a weekly rotation of three groups, including The Prospectors and Vigil Annie & Fast Times. The Country Jam is a companion to the bar’s longtime Wednesday rock jam night, which will celebrate its two-decade run with a twenty-year reunion party on February 2. That night is such an institution that the current host, Brandon Miller, started playing Jerry’s jams when he was just thirteen years old. —MARTIN CIZMAR

KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

W H AT YO U WA N T TO D O T H I S M O N T H

February

T H E B E AT C A L EN DA R

Elton John February 1, 8 pm Elton John, the prince of piano rock, has been on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour since 2018. The usual setlist has twenty-six songs—you’ll know at least half of them by heart. February 1. 8 pm. T-Mobile Center.

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson February 1–20 A world premiere, this production from Kansas City Repertory Theatre is a modern take on the characters developed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The play was written by Kate Hamill and will be directed by José Zayas. February 1-20. Times vary. Copaken Stage at 13th and Walnut in downtown KCMO.

Wale February 2, 8 pm In an era of mumble rap, Wale is perhaps the last holdover of the clubrap glory days. His September single, “Poke It Out,” borrows the hook from Q-Tip’s underrated “Vivrant Thing” and will have your head bobbing in a way no pill-popping sad boi with face tattoos ever will. February 2. 8 pm. Uptown Theater.

Indigo Hour February 4, 5 pm After taking a break for the month of January, the American Jazz Museum brings back its popular Indigo Hour in its venue, The Blue Room. The first show back will have two sets on Friday, February 4. February is Black History Month—look for more events in the Jazz District to be announced after our publication deadline. February 4. First show at 5 pm. The Blue Room at the American Jazz Museum, 1600 E 18th St., KCMO.

Eric Church February 18, 8 pm

Country superstar Eric Church tends to focus on timeless American institutions in songs like “Springsteen” and “Talladega.” He’s also picked up the cannabis advocacy mantle from Willie Nelson. February 18. 8 pm. T-Mobile Center.

The Beach Boys February 9, 7:30 pm

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY RESPECTIVE VENUES

It’s billed as the Beach Boys, but it’s Mike Love and Bruce Johnston with nary a Wilson or Jardine to be found. While Mike didn’t write the band’s most memorable songs, he remains the best-preserved performer in the group thanks to his longtime commitment to vegetarianism and meditation. February 9. 7:30 pm. Kauffman Center.

Not Quite Fatal February 1-15 A group show of seven artists whose practices include printmaking, sculpture, and drawing, Not Quite Fatal was curated by Chelsea Smith. The works address “place/displacement within the environment and the urgency of community care.” The show opened at the Charlotte Street Foundation’s new gallery (3333 Wyoming St., KCMO) in mid-January. Through February 15. Noon–5 pm Tuesday–Friday and 11 am–5 pm Saturday.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul February 16, 7 pm Part of the “Bargain Bin Film School” series at Stray Cat microcinema (see page 28), this screening of prolific and influential West German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s masterpiece tells the story of an elderly German woman’s romance with a young Moroccan migrant in post-World War II Germany. February 16. 7 pm. Stray Cat Film Center, 1662 Broadway Boulevard, KCMO.

Tyler, The Creator February 19, 7 pm

More than decade removed from launching his career as a teenage member of the L.A. hip-hop collective Odd Future, Tyler, The Creator has shed his horrorcore roots to become a reflective—dare we say emotional—artist with a Grammy award and Kylie Jenner video cameos. February 19. 7 pm. Cable Dahmer Arena.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

MICRO MOVIES Tiny, volunteer-run Stray Cat Film Center is screening stuff no other theater in town will, from eighties arthouse revivals to found footage. BY M A R T I N C I Z M A R

I T ’ S A T H U R S DAY N I G H T, and seventies electro-funk is thumping through the lobby of Stray Cat Film Center in the Crossroads. The lobby of this microcinema is styled like the Forman family den, with a Pam Grier poster on the wall and a yellow and orange floral print sofa facing a constellation of artfully arranged tube TVs. The crowd that filters in is here to see a screening of Judex, a 1962 French crime caper about a vengeful magician who plots the destruction of a scamming banker. It’s an obscure black and white movie with subtitles—not the type of thing that would be programmed even at a place like Screenland Armour. “We want to provide a space that can show films that otherwise would not get shown in Kansas City and celebrate those different forms of cinematic expression that are less populous and more unique,” says Andrew Linn, one of the eight collaborators who run Stray Cat. “When you open yourself to a new

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movie experience, so many things open up just in how you view the world.” Stray Cat is a single-screen nonprofit cinema that’s run by volunteers who not only take tickets and start the projector but also plan the programming. It opened in its current spot on Broadway, across from the Kauffman Center and next to DIY co-op venue Deep Space, in 2019. Stray Cat grew out of a project called The Cannonball Roarers Screening Collective, which was run by artists Matthew Lloyd and Jaclyn Danger, who have been showing oddball cinema in the city for nearly a decade through their Psychotronic Film Series. The project lost some momentum in March 2020 “We’ve been around for a while,” Linn says. “But for some reason, we were closed for a year—I don’t really remember why.” Stray Cat reopened in July 2021 and has hosted about twenty showings per month since.

Those mostly come in themed series like Sapphic cinema, which focuses on queer representation, and Linn’s “Bargain Bin Film School,” which focuses on the classics of world cinema, like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a 1964 French musical that was nominated for five Oscars. There’s also a 16 mm showcase that shows movies on film—the only exhibitions of actual film in KC at the moment. Some of that information is online via Facebook or Eventbrite, but the most complete information is actually on old-school printed fliers. (“I love them,” Danger says of fliers. “You used to see them everywhere for weird-ass shit, and I’d be like, ‘Hell yeah!’ But it seems like everything’s online now.”) In an age of universal availability and Netflix binge-watching, celebrating the communal experience of the cinema is part of Stray Cat’s purpose. And though the small screening space with digital projection and surround sound is nothing fancy, it’s still a much richer experience than almost any home setup. “When a film is viewed on a laptop, you are still taking in other information from wherever you’re at,” Linn says. “It’s just not as immersive.” Linn, who is a librarian by day and working to get his masters degree in library sciences at Emporia State University, has focused on showing films that otherwise would never be screened in KC, including snippets of RuPaul’s debut on New York public access TV and a recent multi-day engagement of the Iranian film The Chess Game of the Wind, which had been lost after the country’s Islamic Revolution. Chess was discovered by chance in a junk shop and restored in 2020, becoming a sensation among cinephiles around the world. Among Linn’s dream screenings is Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, which is infamous for its shocking final scene. “That’s on my shortlist, for sure,” he says. “Finding a print to do a restoration has been really difficult. But it’s a classic of arthouse cinema of that late-eighties era, with Helen Miran. It’s just leaning into that aesthetic really hard. Great film.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY K AYLA MASISAK

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CHAMPAGNE WISHES, CHROMATIC DREAMS Ça Va, the city’s most intimate jazz club BY N I N A C H E R R Y

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

a calm and inviting space in the hubbub of Old Westport, is one of the area’s most intimate jazz venues. The club is warmly lit with European, tavern-style seating that invokes intimacy and encourages camaraderie A VA ,

between patrons. Ça Va is a wine bar with a curated champagne selection. If you like bubbles, you can find a variety of sparkling wines sold by the glass or bottle here, with plenty of opportunities to splurge. The seasonally rotating food menu is limited but boasts an array of locally sourced options, including caviar service. If caviar isn’t your thing, opt for a platter of locally sourced hams or cheeses, or perhaps the French classic, a croque monsieur—or for the vegetarian, a croque forestier. But the offerings at Ça Va go beyond food and drink. It’s also quickly becoming one of my favorite spots to see live jazz in town. Every Thursday evening from 9 to 11, this Westport wine bar transforms into an intimate jazz club featuring some of the best and most innovative artists on the scene on a monthly rotation of artists-in-residence. Recent residencies include saxophonist Adam Larson, trombonist Marcus Lewis, and keyboardist Eddie Moore—all are always backed by a topnotch band. Ça Va is the only venue remaining in Westport that consistently has live jazz. On a recent visit to Ça Va, I went to listen to Eddie Moore, joined by Peter Schlamb on vibraphone and Zach Morrow on drums. Between the bar and a handful of tables, thirty people will fill up the space. Since there’s no real stage here, you may find yourself up close and personal with the live music, as I did, nestled in the back of the room. It isn’t uncommon for felGO: Thursdays low musicians in the audience to from 9-11 p.m., sit in with the band. On this eveÇa Va, 4149 Pennsylvania ning, rapper Kadesh Flow joined St., KCMO the trio for some impromptu freestyling. Ça Va is where genres, cultures and flavors collide. Nearly a century ago in the Jazz Age, most of the coolest spots in KC had live jazz, and Ça Va maintains this standard. The restaurant is part of a trend of hip jazz venues, spearheaded by Corvino Supper Club, that encourages and amplifies innovative and outside-the-box artists. Venues like these aid in propelling the local scene forward, giving artists space and a platform to both preserve and evolve this great American art form for generations to come. Reservations are highly recommended.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CALEB CONDIT AND REBECCA NORDEN

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A Prairie Village woman disappeared without a trace in the summer of 2019. Her husband told conflicting stories and refused to talk to the police. Now, her daughter wants answers.

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ONE SHELL AT A TIME...

Wonders of Wildlife is making a national impact to protect one of our ocean’s most beloved creatures, Loggerhead Sea Turtles. Through partnerships with rescue organizations, WOW will once again welcome cold-stunned turtles for weeks of rehabilitation before releasing back into the Atlantic Ocean this spring. As the midwest’s only turtle rehabilitation center, your visit to Wonders of Wildlife allows us to continue this and many other national conservation efforts. To learn more about our rescued sea turtles or to adopt an animal, visit:

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C U R AT I N G A B E A U T I F U L L I F E

Gum Old Skool Vans, $55

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You may have heard that Pantone’s Color of the Year is Veri Peri, a soft-electric blend of blue hues with violet-red undertones. It’s like lavender but bolder and bluer. The color is said to represent the recent merge of our physical and digital worlds, to be a color of emotion and creativity. Veri Peri is popular in new home decor and wall art trends. We like how the hue looks on the human body— more specifically, on feet. We found these Gum Old Skool Vans, the most classic of skate shoes, in this bold Color of the Year at the Legends Outlets. —MARY HE N N

KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

WHY I’M DONE DATING UNTIL THE PANDEMIC ENDS I don’t mind being lonely, but I hate being bored. The pandemic dating scene led me to realize that app-based dating isn’t the solution. BY E T H A N E VA N S

back in October, a good year and a half into the pandemic. During that year and a half, I had faced many of the usual pandemic-related setbacks, and I simply had more important things to worry about than figuring out what to wear for a Zoom date. However, after eventually getting hired and settled at my current job, I decided that my two-year romantic dry spell had gone on long enough. I wasn’t lonely or longing. I was just bored in my voluntary isolation. Once I had watched the entirety of my Netflix queue, I knew it was time to reactivate the apps. My first date was from Hinge. He was a third-year medical student with aspirations of becoming a cardiologist. He was six-foot-three with light, wavy hair and big eyes framed by gold wire glasses. I W E N T O N M Y F I R S T C O V I D D AT E

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When it comes to dating apps, I’ve found each is its own special study in narcissism and desperation—this is endlessly entertaining. On the other hand, putting myself on a digital platform to be scrutinized and vetted as a potential mate by hundreds of other gay men (who are notoriously judgmental) in close geographic proximity to me is, frankly, mortifying. On that first date, we hit it off. For two hours, we sipped coffee and discussed our favorite true crime cases, periods of history and medical anomalies. As the date wrapped up, we both remarked on what a great time we’d had and how we’d like to do this again. I never heard from him again. Being ghosted is nothing new. But in the post-Covid dating scene, it seems like it’s increased ten-fold. I made a meager attempt at following up with the medical student, but if there are two things I know they’re how to read the room and when to admit defeat. From my own experience with fizzled-out romances and from talking to my friends and co-workers, it seems like this has become the expected—almost desired— outcome. But why? Over these two years in relative isolation, I have become quite comfortable with my own company. That time alone was an exercise in self-sufficiency. What I have come to realize from dipping my toe back into the murky waters of dating is that I am far from the exception. In fact, there seems to be a sort of collective realization that much of this app-based dating is driven by boredom. Post-pandemic dating is a sea of dud matches and hollow conversations with a carousel of suiters not really interested in seriously navigating the new and uncharted world. People are just bored. As it turns out, so was I. There’s only so much time we can spend physically sequestered away, relying only on some digitally mediated form of communication as our sole connection to the outside world. While many of us who were already predisposed to introverted tendencies may have developed an almost Dickinsonian appreciation for being left alone, we still have had to contend with our own under-stimulation. Two years into this pandemic, people have become increasingly intolerant of the idea of doing anything that they absolutely do not want to do. Gone are the days of “Oh, come on. Just give him a chance! You might end up liking him!” Why would anyone with this newfound postCovid sense of independence settle for anything that is not exactly what we’re looking for? At what point do we admit that being single is arguably better than putting up with the potential drama, annoyance and heartache that comes with investing in another person? It’s not that I’m not open to the possibility, but I have taken this as an opportunity—and I know this may sound callous—to simply yet elegantly stop caring. If these past two years have taught me anything, it’s that desperation is the thief of genuine human connection.

ILLUSTRATION BY K AYLA MASISAK

S WAY PA N DEM IC DAT I NG

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MODERN MIDWEST Matthew Hufft’s first architectural project was designing a home for his parents in Springfield, Missouri. Now, the company he founded with his wife is responsible for some of the city’s coolest modern architecture. BY M A R Y H E N N

Matthew Hufft and his wife, Jessie, started an architecture and design company in New York City designing loft apartments. But Springfield-born Matthew saw more opportunity in his native Missouri. While Hufft began as a company doing high-end, singlefamily residential work, the company has evolved to take on larger commercial projects. Notable Hufft buildings in KC include Parlor, Corvino, the Charlotte Street Foundation and a space for students at the Kansas City Art Institute. Hufft involves not only architects and interior designers in its projects but also local artists. The company even has its own fabrication division to make things like cabinetry and furniture. We chatted with Matthew about the company, recent projects, his design approach, the pandemic and a few of his favorite spots around the city. SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO,

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACQUELINE AYALA | PHOTO ASSISTANT JAZMIN AYALA

What’s one of your favorite projects you’ve done here in Kansas City? On the residential front, I have several favorites. But of course, I love my own home because I built it for myself and my family and I get to enjoy it. We fabricated everything in it down to the desk I’m sitting in front of now. We finished the Kansas City Art Institute’s only academic building a couple of years ago. It sits in the corridor of all the amazing historic architecture of Kansas City, right next to the Nelson and Kemper. How would you describe Hufft’s aesthetic? I’ve always strived to have a real variety of our work, but I think there is probably a common kind of string throughout it all. It’s modern in thought—we don’t do highly traditional work based on design ethos of symmetry or ornament. That’s not really in our ethos. We love traditional architecture, and I think we have done some things that some modernists might consider traditional. The format that we use in our company to design something is based on three things: people, places and concept. The concept is always something that’s different with every project. We’ve designed a house that was actually inspired by a Polaroid camera. When you look at something, sometimes you look at it and you just kind of understand its beauty for what it is. It’s hard to name it.

FAVO R I T E S P OT S Café Sebastienne at the Kemper Museum “This is the best spot for a glass of wine with lunch.”

The Bloch Building at the NelsonAtkins Museum “Always a place of inspiration.”

The backyard at Grinders “You can get a great Ruben, a pint of beer and let your dog and kids play in the yard.”

How has the pandemic affected your work and approach? We’re definitely rethinking the whole idea of a home or an apartment. Pre-pandemic, an office was kind of a rare thing to put into a home. Now people need an office at home and acoustics have become pretty important for Zoom calls and virtual meetings. Another thing that has been good for our industry is just the quality of space—people really think about it now. People think more about what their space is going to be like and pay more attention to design-related dimensions and quality materials.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

S WAY HOM E

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

THE FAMILY HOME Designer Kara Kersten helps with the stylish renovation of a hand-me-down Prairie Village split-level. BY DAW N YA B A R T S C H | P H OTO G R A P H Y BY N AT E S H E E T S

H E N K R I S S I E K I E H N E D E C I D E D to move into her father’s house with her family, she looked past the swinging saloon doors, the wood paneling in the family room and the kitchen’s buckling linoleum. “It was in complete disrepair,” says Krissie. Her father hadn’t changed a thing to the sixties Prairie Village split-level in the twenty years that he lived there. Although he always kept a tidy yard and was more than willing to help his neighbors out with theirs when needed, interior home repair was not his thing. But despite the home’s condition, Krissie and her husband, Matt, decided that the location was perfect for their family. Just a few blocks away from Matt’s mom’s home and near their children’s school, the large lot and beautiful mature trees made it ideal. They decided they would be able to turn the house into the perfect mid-century home for their growing family. The Kiehnes had lived in the house for several years before actually embarking on their massive renovation project, so they knew what was working for their lifestyle and what wasn’t. However, figuring out how to turn their vision into reality was more difficult than they had imagined. As luck would have it, they met the perfect designer for their project while talking across a backyard fence. Covid had set in, and the Kiehnes were spending lots of time in the backyard of Matt’s mother’s home, getting to know her neighbor, interior designer Kara Kersten. “Our kids spent a lot of time during Covid playing in the backyard, and we spent a lot of time just talking,” says Kersten, whose namesake design firm shepherded the project from conception to completion. “We really got to know each other well. We had a happy little bubble.” As the Kiehnes and Kerstens got to know each other, they realized they had a similar design aesthetic. As Kersten was listening to the Kiehnes’ needs, she knew she could help. Kersten believes in creating a home that feels “like you when you walk in the door.” It “should tap into something deep down inside that invigorates, inspires and feels the way you want to feel,” she says. Not all of Kersten’s projects “look alike” because none of her clients are alike. “Your home should be like a work of art or your family’s ‘fingerprint,’ so to speak—only one like it in this world,” she says. For the Kiehnes, that meant a clean, modern space inside and out, punctuated with art and a curated selection of objects and mementos. The result is a very livable and clutter-free, “no-chaos” home.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

S WAY HOM E

1 EXTERIOR The Kiehnes’ wanted the home’s exterior to have a clean, modern aesthetic. They chose white vertical board and battan siding with horizontal stained cedar for the recessed front porch and back patio. The original garage doors were replaced with frosted industrial-looking glass doors, allowing light to pour into the space during the day.

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

2 MAKING ROOM One of the first orders of business inside the home was to upgrade the antiquated entry. Along with replacing the original front door with a double door, Kersten did away with the walls, transforming the main floor into one large space. Now, when stepping across the threshold, the eye scans across an expansive space, landing on a back wall of windows that showcases the backyard and sophisticated patio. To the right of the entry way is one of the Kiehnes’ first art acquisitions, a large, bright, happy painting of abstract flowers in blue hues made just for them by local artist and friend Kelly Porter. “Our art collection is small yet growing,” Krissie says. “We decided to take our time acquiring art because we want each piece to mean something.”

3 CLIMBING WALL The Kiehnes wanted their children to feel that their rooms were uniquely their own. So Kersten took advantage of what would normally be a concealed attic space above the children’s Jack and Jill bathroom and created two little hideaways, accessed via ladders in their rooms. They are quiet spaces, Kersten says, where books can be read and daydreams can be had. The secret nooks are just a few of the many spaces in the home carved specifically for family time.

4 POWDER R OOM “I like a powder room that pops,” Kersten says. “It’s one of my favorite rooms to work on.” And the Kiehnes’ does just that. With one wall covered in a grayish three-dimensional tile and the rest of the room decked out in a similarly hued grasscloth wallpaper, the room is an aesthetic surprise for anyone needing to step away from the party. Kersten’s philosophy is to always add a “little drama” to the powder room when she can. “It’s a small space, so it doesn’t overwhelm, and it’s refreshing to liven up what can otherwise be a very boring, utilitarian space.” Because the room is usually quite small, it’s an easy place to be experimental, Kersten says. “It doesn’t cost a lot to redo if it gets tiring in a few years and you want to try something new.”

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S WAY HOM E

5 TH E K ITCHEN With the remodel, the Kiehnes decided to add a little square footage to their home by pushing out the kitchen’s back wall. In the extra space, they added a dining area with a view of the backyard as well as a kitchen island that runs perpendicular to a free-standing prep counter and can comfortably seat the entire Kiehnes crew for casual snacks and homework projects. Simple cabinetry was used throughout the kitchen, allowing the space to complement the adjoining rooms rather than compete with them.

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6 MASTER BATH Done in a serene palette of cool grays and whites, the master bath and adjoining walk-in closets seamlessly blend together. A wall of dark gray and white tile was used to create a bold, abstract, striped pattern on the far wall, turning what would ordinarily be a boring white canvas into a clever accent wall. It anchors the long linear space and is the first thing the eye gravitates toward.

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PARADIS 42

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he drive from Kansas City to Ridgedale, Missouri, is about three and a half hours. The southbound route passes through a number of charming towns and past a bevy of billboards promising untold riches in the back of antique shops. Green pastures give way to an increasingly rugged terrain dotted with towering oak, pine and dogwood trees. It’s a pleasant enough jaunt down Route 86, but the real joy of the trip is the final destination. Once you’ve passed under an archway emblazoned with the words “Welcome to Paradise,” you’ll know you’re there. Big Cedar Lodge is sprawled out over 4,600 acres, the property smack dab in the middle of prime Ozark territory on the shores of Table Rock Lake. The spread of polished buildings, glittering blue lakes and landscaped foliage framed by mountains is breathtaking—and it is just the beginning.

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Cabins tucked away into the rugged landscape of the Ozark Mountains.

Perched high on the property, Falls Lodge is a grand, rustic lodge offering breathtaking views.

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GLA M PING —A N D THEY M EA N IT Even if you’ve come to Big Cedar Lodge with a specific activity in mind—worldclass golfing, perhaps, or a family vacation taking advantage of Fun Mountain—it would be easy to be overwhelmed by the countless activities and amenities the resort has to offer. Upon check-in, your concierge will outline the most crucial information: the route to your sumptuously appointed digs, the most popular attractions and restaurants, where to find the various outdoor and indoor pools, how to get to the beach and marina, how to get to the rental canoes and boats, how to access the golf courses. There are plenty of activities to cram into your vacation schedule—but first, you’ll need to unload your luggage. Big Cedar Lodge made a notable addition to its lineup of Ozark-inspired cabins, the ones that feature impressive vaulted ceilings, wood-burning fireplaces and shower-steam rooms. Minutes from the main camp, along the shores of Table Rock Lake, Camp Long Creek was introduced, with fifty-six units of nature-based accommodations: cottages, shepherd’s huts and luxury glamping tents. There are 74 units in

Enjoy your morning coffee on your private balcony overlooking the glittering blue waters of Table Rock Lake.

total now. Several units were added over the last to years due to their popularity. The cottages have all the contemporary features you’re accustomed to, like modern kitchens with high-end appliances, fine beds appointed with plush linens and jacuzzi bathtubs, as well as rustic touches like screened-in porches and s’mores kits for guests upon arrival. The huts are slender, with pretty kitchenettes (enviable farmhouse sinks included) and cozy queen beds. The glamping tents are marvels: Canvas tent walls are upheld by sturdy support beams, and they conceal king beds beneath chandeliers with full electricity to support a fridge and the essential coffee machine. Enjoy your morning coffee on your private balcony overlooking the glittering blue waters of Table Rock Lake, and when night falls make good use of that s’mores kit with your personal fire pit. Glamping means you have a private bathroom with a shower, of course, but make sure you take advantage of your outdoor tub, perfect for relaxing with a glass of wine while you gaze at the stars and listen to the hum of cicadas. Camp Long Creek is ideal for guests interested in water sports. Long Creek Marina features an outdoor pool, beach access and rentable boats and sport equipment. Catch your dinner—the fish are always biting at Table Rock Lake, particularly the bass—or treat yourself to a sunset dinner yacht cruise on the elegant Lady Liberty.

FOR GOLF A N D GLORY Golf is a beautiful game. Even without the clubs and balls, it would be beautiful: Ambling along a manicured green, blades of grass still flecked with morning dew while delicate birdsong welcomes you to the day. It would be enough to just stroll along the course, especially if that course is Payne’s Valley. Payne’s Valley is the newest addition to the list of world-class golf courses at Big Cedar Lodge. The a ninteen-hole course was built to showcase the natural beauty of the Ozarks and has the distinction of being the first public golf course in the U.S. by the legendary Tiger Woods and his firm, TGR Design. It is a spectacular family-friendly design, made for players of every skill level to enjoy the game amid the backdrop of the majestic Ozark Mountains.

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Situated on Table Rock Lake, enjoy a serene backdrop while relaxing in a luxury Glamping tent.

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Payne’s Valley, the first ever public access course designed by Tiger Woods, opened in the fall of 2020.

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The landscaped green is breathtaking. There are exposed rock outcroppings that are, of course, designed strategically for golfing, with winding streams and cascading valleys lined with trees. For a golfer, the possibilities are endless: Experienced players can challenge themselves with creative shots from the sprawling fairways. The game ends with a par-three hole designed by Johnny Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops and Big Cedar Lodge, culminating on an island green shrouded by waterfalls. Payne’s Valley is the fifth golf course at Big Cedar Lodge (named the Best New Public Golf Course in North America by Golf Digest). It joins the ranks of the Tom Fazio-designed Buffalo Ridge course (named second Best Public Course in Missouri by Golfweek, second only to Ozarks International), the Jack Nicklaus Signature-designed Top of the Rock (perched high above Table Rock Lake), the family-friend-

ly Mountain Top Course (a thirteen-hole par-three short course with stunning views) and Ozarks National (named Best New Course in North America in 2019, and Best Public Course in Missouri by Golfweek). It’s no wonder that GOLF Magazine named Big Cedar Lodge as the number one family resort in North America. Big Cedar Lodge has brought online golf accommodations to its list of offerings. Angler’s Lodge and the Golf cottages were added to take your stay the extra mile. One of the great pleasures of golfing is the setting in which you play. The courses at Big Cedar Lodge are nothing short of idyllic, and as you shoot that sun-dappled white ball across the green, do not be surprised by the feeling of serenity that sinks down to your bones. It doesn’t matter if you’ve parred the hole or not: What matters is that you’re breathing in the crisp Ozark air as the sun caresses your cheeks. That’s paradise.

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ABOVE:

Soak in the sunset from the highest elevation point in Taney County. RIGHT:

The Lost Canyon Cave and Nature Trail is the perfect appetizer before heading to Top of the Rock for dinner.

The courses at Big Cedar Lodge are nothing short of idyllic.

A CONSERVATION IST ’ S DR EA M Johnny Morris’ name is everywhere at Big Cedar Lodge. Seeing as he’s the lodge’s founder (and the man behind Bass Pro Shops), that’s no surprise. But his legacy as a conservationist deserves particular attention: In 2019, he was awarded the National Audubon Society’s Audubon Medal, one of America’s most prestigious conservation awards. Morris has spent his life working to preserve wildlife and wild places for future generations, and there is perhaps no better example of this work than Big Cedar Lodge’s expansive acreage. Between cleaning Table Rock Lake out of all its fish and setting golf records, take the time to explore the two-and-a-half-mile Lost Canyon Cave and Nature Trail. As always, Big Cedar Lodge promises convenience above all things: You’ll enjoy a close-up look at some of the Ozark’s natural plants, animals and rock formations—all from the comfort of a golf cart that you can drive yourself. Go ahead, wear flip-flops. Trick your kiddos with red buckeye, which gets its name from the white scar on the seeds, mimicking the eye of a male deer. In the spring, the buckeye’s red flowers draw hummingbirds. Black-eyed Susans grow wild here, and so does the white dome hydrangea. Flower and butterfly enthusiasts will consider this a sanctuary. Stop the cart and hop off to get a closer look at the naturally formed rock shelters jutting out from the sides of the earth: Hundreds of years ago, Native Americans and early settlers took refuge in the cool shadows of these very structures. The view hasn’t changed much since then. The sound of waterfalls slick against the limestone is soothing, enough to offset the excitement of seeing a native fox, raccoon or woodchuck.

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The Lost Canyon Cave is the centerpiece of the trail, and it is a wonderful stopping point, thanks to the convenient Bat Bar at the entrance, where fresh-squeezed strawberry lemonade (or vodka lemonade, if that’s your pleasure) is poured into a plastic cup, to be enjoyed for the rest of your journey. Big Bear Cave, on the other hand, is awe-inspiring, with toothy stalagmites extended from ceiling to floor. It is simultaneously dangerous and elegant: Extending a hand into the depths is like reaching into a bear’s mouth. There’s no risk of being bitten, though, unless you’re counting the nature bug.

The views at Big Cedar Lodge are spectacular no matter where you’re at.

A MOUNTAIN OF FUN Fun Mountain is an indoor facility built to appease the child living inside us all—as well as actual children. Here, you can get lost in a four-thousand-square-foot arcade boasting over sixty video and arcade games, both modern and vintage, tackle an interactive climbing adventure, beat the heat with an indoor golf simulator, zip around in a bumper car, dominate at laser tag and sharpen your pool skills. Given all the games—and the pirate ship suspended from the ceiling, complete with climbing ropes—you’d be forgiven for thinking Fun Mountain was designed by Peter Pan’s rambunctious lost boys. The show-stopper is, of course, Uncle Buck’s Fish Bowl. Walking into this bowling alley is like being blessed with mermaid vision. The sixteen lanes are cast in deep oceanic blues that shift like waves, and the sharks, fish and other sea creatures suspended from the ceiling move with the water. It’s enough to make you feel like you’re sending bowling balls down a dock at the bottom of the sea.

LEFT:

Grab a drink at the Bat Bar before riding through this stunning cave. BELOW:

The Buffalo Bar is your picture perfect destination for world-class cuisine in the Ozarks.

Get a bottle of pinot noir and order a wood-fired pizza or a perfectly seared filet mignon. Sunsets here are an event. As the sky darkens, the jazz band will introduce a new guest: a bagpipe player, whose rendition of “Amazing Grace” pays homage to golf’s Scottish roots and serves as a stirring salute to the setting sun. As the last note lingers in the air, a Civil War cannon is fired, the great boom echoing throughout the trees. But the cannon doesn’t have to signal the end of your night. Below the Buffalo Bar, find the End of the Trail Wine Cellar. Get yourself a glass of something—wine, of course, or take advantage of the exceptional whiskey and Scotch offerings—and explore the underground quarry. There’s a large fire pit overlooking the grounds, and in the air, nothing but peace. Speaking of peace: Everything about Cedar Creek Spa suggests that it is a sanctuary for your spirit, much like Big Cedar Lodge itself is a sanctuary of Ozark wilderness. Here, between moments of explosive joy— the satisfaction of parring a hole on Payne’s Valley’s immaculate green, the thrill of “underwater” bowling, the excitement of discovery on the Lost Canyon Cave and Nature Trail, the sublime pleasure of toasting to a heart-soaring sunset—you’ll find tranquility unlike anything else. It’ll stay there, just for you, until you return again.

DIN N ER W ITH A V IEW The views at Big Cedar Lodge are spectacular no matter where you’re at, but they are perhaps most enjoyable when you are sitting at one of the plush leather chairs on the veranda of Buffalo Bar. Here, tables look across the view of Table Rock Lake, and if you are lucky enough to book a table for dinner, you can watch the crystal-blue waters shift to reflect the glowing pinks, oranges and purples of the sky. Everyone here is in a good mood, from fellow diners to staff, and it is infectious.

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2022 KANSAS CIT Y

FIVE STAR AWARD WINNERS FIVE STAR PROFESSIONAL

These days, it takes a village to manage your financial world. Whether it is managing your assets with a wealth manager, navigating the ever-changing tax landscape, sorting out your estate and succession planning or picking the right life insurance, finding the right team can be a daunting task. In fact, many consumers have a hard time figuring out where to even begin.

PROPRIETARY RESEARCH PROCESS NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES The Five Star Professional research team surveyed homebuyers, home sellers and industry peers, and analyzed online consumer evaluations to identify professionals that excel in key attributes of customer service.

Sometimes, a few simple questions can put you off on the right path. Asking a professional what makes working with them a unique experience can help you understand how they work and if their style meshes with your own. This is a great place to start! Five Star Professional uses its own proprietary research methodology to name outstanding professionals, then works with publications such as Kansas City Magazine to spread the word about award winners. Each award candidate undergoes a thorough research process (detailed here) before being considered for the final list of award winners. For the complete list of winners, go to www.fivestarprofessional.com.

EVALUATION SCORE Using our scoring algorithm, each nominee is given an evaluation score based on surveys in our database. High scorers are named candidates.

RESEARCH DISCLOSURES In order to consider a broad population of high-quality wealth managers, award candidates are identified by one of three sources: firm nomination, peer nomination or prequalification based on industry standing. Self-nominations are not accepted. Kansas City-area award candidates were identified using internal and external research data. Candidates do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final lists of Five Star Wealth Managers. • The Five Star award is not indicative of a professional’s future performance. • Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their clients’ assets. • The inclusion of a professional on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the professional by Five Star Professional or Kansas City Magazine. • Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any professional is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected professionals will be awarded this accomplishment by Five Star Professional in the future. • Five Star Professional is not an advisory firm and the content of this article should not be considered financial advice. For more information on the Five Star Wealth Manager award program, research and selection criteria, go to fivestarprofessional.com/research. • 1,670 award candidates in the Kansas City area were considered for the Five Star Wealth Manager award. 128 (approximately 8% of the award candidates) were named 2022 Five Star Wealth Managers.

CANDIDATE SUBMISSION OF BUSINESS INFORMATION Candidates must complete either an online or over-the-phone interview.

ELIGIBILIT Y CRITERIA Candidates must be in the industry for at least five years, have a favorable regulatory history and meet minimum production thresholds.

FIVE STAR WEALTH MANAGER

DETERMINATION OF AWARD WINNERS CRITERIA

BROKER AND MANAGER REVIEW

Award candidates who satisfied 10 objective eligibility and evaluation criteria were named 2022 Five Star Wealth Managers. Eligibility Criteria – Required: 1. Credentialed as a registered investment adviser or a registered investment adviser representative. 2. Actively employed as a credentialed professional in the financial services industry for a minimum of five years. 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review. 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal firm standards. 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation Criteria – Considered: 6. One-year client retention rate. 7. Five-year client retention rate. 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered. 9. Number of client households served. 10. Education and professional designations. Regulatory Review: As defined by Five Star Professional, the wealth manager has not: been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; been convicted of a felony. Within the past 11 years the wealth manager has not: been terminated from a wealth management or financial services firm; filed for personal bankruptcy; had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them (and no more than five total pending, dismissed or denied) with any regulatory authority. Five Star Professional conducts a regulatory review of each nominated wealth manager using the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) website. Five Star Professional also uses multiple supporting processes to help ensure that a favorable regulatory and complaint history exists. Data submitted through these processes was applied per the above criteria; each wealth manager who passes the Five Star Professional regulatory review must attest that they meet the definition of favorable regulatory history based upon the criteria listed above. Five Star Professional promotes via local advertising the opportunity for consumers to confidentially submit complaints regarding a wealth manager.

Brokers and managers are asked to review candidates they oversee as a check and balance for the final selection. A Blue Ribbon panel of industry experts reviews the final list of candidates.

2022 AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED Less than 7% of professionals in the market are selected.

All award winners are listed in this publication. Financial Planning

James A. Guyot · Lighthouse Financial Strategies

Pete Martinez · Insight Financial Services Page 2

Brian L. Taylor · Taylor’d Financial Services Page 3

Ethel J. Davis · VZD Capital Management, LLC Page 4

Anthony Richard Moeller · Integrity Advisory

Patrick Aubry · Morgan Stanley Page 3

Greg Alan Harvey · Integrated Wealth Solutions

Ryan York Poage · Ryan Poage & Co.

Investments

William Todd Easley · Prosperity Advisors

Richard Kevan Myers · Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC

Sheila K. Davis · Morgan Stanley Page 5

Sherri Lynn Hazell · Mariner Wealth Advisors

Alisa Anne Roth · Mariner Wealth Advisors

James Curtis Knapp · Knapp Advisory Group

Joe Pribula · Wells Fargo Advisors Page 4

Kathleen Degen · Twin Financial Page 6

Christopher David Heckadon · Summit Pointe Financial Group

Mitchell Lane Smith · Buttonwood Financial Group

Frank Mall · FinanciaLife Outfitters Page 6

Domenic Rizzi · GWN Securities

David Dickens · KC Financial Advisors Page 7

Raleigh Lang · Twin Financial Page 6

Carra D. Sprague · Morgan Stanley Page 7

Rick L. Bain · Lighthouse Financial Strategies Steven T. Cox Sr. · Providence Financial Advisors, LLC Page 5 Steven T. Cox Jr. · Providence Financial Advisors, LLC Page 5

R. Brook Menees · Instrumental Advisors Page 7

Teri L. Salach · Morgan Stanley Page 5 Margo Ann Shepard · Wells Fargo Advisors Page 7 Continued on FS-8

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— WEALTH MANAGERS —

Pete Martinez President, CEO

YEAR WINNER

Left to right: Back row: Greg Keal; Lorinda Gregg; Larry Broxterman; Lisa Meyer; Front row: Kelly Stephenson; Eleven-year winner Pete Martinez; Tracy McCormick

If you’re looking for an experienced financial advisor who will listen to you and design a financial plan built around where you are today and where you want to go in retirement, we’re Insight Financial Services, and we would like to meet you. After working closely with you to establish your objectives, we place your dreams beside the reality of your assets, expenses, risk tolerance and tax situation, and we evaluate them on a practical timeline. Only then, once we know who you are, where you are and where you want to go, do we create and implement your customized financial strategy. Contact us today at 913-402-2020 to schedule a no-cost, no-obligation second opinion service (S.O.S.) review. We hope to meet you soon!

• Using a personalized, client-centric model to produce unique experiences for our clients that they would not find in other firms • Distinctive designations held by IFS staff members include Masters of Business Administration (MBA), Registered Financial Consultant (RFC®) and Behavioral Financial Advisor™ (BFA™)

7101 College Boulevard, Suite 1501 • Overland Park, KS 66210 Phone: 913-402-2020 pmartinez@ifsadvisors.com • www.ifsadvisors.com www.facebook.com/InsightFinancialServices

The Five Star award is not based on investment performance nor is it an indication of future performance. Investment advisory services offered through IFS Advisors, LLC (IFSA), an SEC registered investment adviser. Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. Once awarded, wealth managers may opt to purchase additional profile ad space or related award promotional products (including this item). The award methodology does not evaluate the quality of services provided. FIVE STAR WEALTH MANAGER AWARD WINNER The Five Star Wealth Manager award, administered by Crescendo Business Services, LLC (dba Five Star Professional), is based on 10 objective criteria. Eligibility criteria – required: 1. Credentialed as a registered investment adviser or a registered investment adviser representative; 2. Actively licensed as a registered investment adviser or as a principal of a registered investment adviser firm for a minimum of 5 years; 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by Five Star Professional, the wealth manager has not; A. Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; B. Had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or Five Star Professional’s consumer complaint process. Unfavorable feedback may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through Five Star Professional’s consumer complaint process; feedback may not be representative of any one client’s experience; C. Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; D. Filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; E. Been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; F. Been convicted of a felony); 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards; 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation criteria – considered: 6. One-year client retention rate; 7. Five-year client retention rate; 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; 9. Number of client households served; 10. Education and professional designations. Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. Award does not evaluate quality of services provided to clients. Once awarded, wealth managers may purchase additional profile ad space or promotional products. The Five Star award is not indicative of the wealth manager’s future performance. Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their client’s assets. The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by Five Star Professional or this publication. Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by Five Star Professional in the future. For more information on the Five Star award and the research/selection methodology, go to fivestarprofessional.com. 1,670 Kansas City-area wealth managers were considered for the award; 128 (8% of candidates) were named 2022 Five Star Wealth Managers. 2021: 1,678 considered, 118 winners; 2020: 1,579 considered, 115 winners; 2019: 1,574 considered, 134 winners; 2018: 1,387 considered, 119 winners; 2017: 952 considered, 212 winners; 2016: 880 considered, 216 winners; 2015: 1,572 considered, 201 winners; 2014: 785 considered, 176 winners; 2013: 766 considered, 203 winners; 2012: 676 considered, 200 winners.

F S - 2 — LEARN MORE AT FIVESTARPROFESSIONAL.COM

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— WEALTH MANAGERS —

Brian L. Taylor President, MBA, AIF®

Your Plan “Taylor’d” for You • Family owned

arantee / MAY Lose Value C, Member SIPC, a registered sert CAR# & date].

• One-on-one partnership • Individually customized financial plans

2022 winner Brian Taylor

Taylor’d Financial Services

No two individuals are alike. Their financial plans shouldn’t be either. Whether you’re envisioning your retirement or already enjoying life after work, we meet you where you are and work to position you to achieve your unique goals. We work diligently to provide individuals and families with expert service and support in the framework of a family owned business focused on lasting relationships. Clients choose us for creating personalized wealth management plans that better position them to experience financial security as they define it.

6710 W 121st Street • Overland Park, KS 66209 Phone: 833-829-5673 • Phone: 913-620-1299 brian@taylordfs.com • www.taylordfinancialservices.com

Investment Advisory Services offered through Cornerstone Securities, LLC.

FIVE STAR WEALTH MANAGER AWARD WINNER

Patrick Aubry Senior Vice President, Wealth Advisor

(60 characters) EnrichingTagline Lives with Financial Solutions • Estate planning and strategies • Quarterly monitoring

• Customized investment management

Throughout his 36 years in the financial services industry, Pat Aubry has worked with families and individuals to transfer, grow and preserve their wealth. He is focused on providing personalized investment advice and exceptional client service. By coordinating his efforts with clients’ other trusted advisors, he develops and executes a disciplined plan, incorporating personal needs, financial objectives and risk tolerance tailored to help clients achieve their investment goals. His areas of focus include investment management, financial planning, retirement income planning, estate planning strategies and wealth transfer. Pat and his assistant, Diane Lair, strive to know their clients well and build long-lasting relationships. Additionally, he is a 2020 – 2022 Five Star Wealth Manager. 11161 Overbrook Road, Suite 225 Leawood, KS 66211 Phone: 913-402-5295 • Fax: 816-817-1387 patrick.aubry@morganstanley.com

YEAR WINNER

2020 – 2022 winner Patrick Aubry, Senior Vice President, Wealth Advisor; Diane Lair, Portfolio Associate, Financial Planning Associate

Morgan Stanley and its Financial Advisors do not provide tax or legal advice. Individuals should seek advice based on their particular circumstances from an independent tax or legal advisor. ©2022 Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC. Member SIPC. CRC 3873224 10/21.

FIVE STAR WEALTH MANAGER AWARD WINNER The Five Star Wealth Manager award, administered by Crescendo Business Services, LLC (dba Five Star Professional), is based on 10 objective criteria. Eligibility criteria – required: 1. Credentialed as a registered investment adviser or a registered investment adviser representative; 2. Actively licensed as a registered investment adviser or as a principal of a registered investment adviser firm for a minimum of 5 years; 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by Five Star Professional, the wealth manager has not; A. Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; B. Had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or Five Star Professional’s consumer complaint process. Unfavorable feedback may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through Five Star Professional’s consumer complaint process; feedback may not be representative of any one client’s experience; C. Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; D. Filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; E. Been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; F. Been convicted of a felony); 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards; 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation criteria – considered: 6. One-year client retention rate; 7. Five-year client retention rate; 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; 9. Number of client households served; 10. Education and professional designations. Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. Award does not evaluate quality of services provided to clients. Once awarded, wealth managers may purchase additional profile ad space or promotional products. The Five Star award is not indicative of the wealth manager’s future performance. Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their client’s assets. The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by Five Star Professional or this publication. Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by Five Star Professional in the future. For more information on the Five Star award and the research/selection methodology, go to fivestarprofessional.com. 1,670 Kansas City-area wealth managers were considered for the award; 128 (8% of candidates) were named 2022 Five Star Wealth Managers. 2021: 1,678 considered, 118 winners; 2020: 1,579 considered, 115 winners; 2019: 1,574 considered, 134 winners; 2018: 1,387 considered, 119 winners; 2017: 952 considered, 212 winners; 2016: 880 considered, 216 winners; 2015: 1,572 considered, 201 winners; 2014: 785 considered, 176 winners; 2013: 766 considered, 203 winners; 2012: 676 considered, 200 winners.

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— WEALTH MANAGERS —

Joe Pribula CFP®, PIM Portfolio Manager, Financial Advisor

• Serving business owners, professionals, preretirees and retirees • Envision® planning for millennials, generation X and baby boomers

YEAR WINNER

Left to right: 2016 – 2022 winner Joe Pribula, CFP®, Financial Advisor, Vice President – Investment Officer; Leslie Darrington, Financial Advisor; Kim Pieper, Senior Registered Client Service Associate; Charlie Schorgl, Financial Advisor, Managing Director – Investments

7400 W 130th Street, Suite 200 • Overland Park, KS 66213 Phone: 913-901-1243 • Fax: 913-402-5150 joseph.e.pribula@wellsfargo.com

Through a long-term investment approach, Joe and his team work with clients to implement strategies for building and preserving wealth. His mission is to provide objective and timely financial advice to assist his clients in realizing their goals. Joe is involved in many civic and community organizations, including Cornerstones of Care, Young Life of Kansas City and Queen of the Holy Rosary Wea Church. He also enjoys coaching his sons’ baseball and basketball teams, gardening, house renovation projects and woodworking. Investment and Insurance Products: NOT FDIC-Insured NO Bank Guarantee MAY Lose Value Wells Fargo Advisors is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, Member SIPC, a registered broker-dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. [CAR 1021-02430].

FIVE STAR WEALTH MANAGER AWARD WINNER

Ethel J. Davis CEO, Portfolio Manager

See Yourself in the Future by Working with One Client at a Time • Empowered, disciplined and trusted to navigate your financial goals and objectives

YEAR WINNER

Left to right: Eight-year winner, Ethel J. Davis, CEO, Portfolio Manager; Nikisha L. Johnson, Executive Mentoring Candidate

VZD Capital Management, LLC 6721 W 138th Terrace, Suite 1711 • Overland Park, KS 66223 • Phone: 816-726-7066 ethel@vzdcap.com • www.vzdcap.com

Ethel J. Davis is the CEO and portfolio manager of VZD Capital Management, LLC. She is the first African American to own 100% of a registered investment advisory firm in the Midwest and one of few within the U.S. She has 29 years of investment experience from the following respected companies: American Century, Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. and Paragon Capital Management, LLC. They keep their client to portfolio manager ratio low, so each client has a direct relationship with a decision-maker. VZD Capital Management, LLC(“Advisor”) is a registered investment adviser located in Overland Park, Kansas. Ethel J. Davis, Advisor is in compliance with the current filing requirements imposed upon registered investment advisers by those states in which Advisor maintains clients. Advisor may only transact business in those states in which it is registered, or qualifies for an exemption or exclusion from registration requirements. Advisor’s web site is limited to the dissemination of general infrormation pertaining to its advisory services, together with access to additional investment-related information, publication and links. Accordingly, the publication of Advisor’s web site on the internet should not be construed by any consumer and/or prospective client as Advisor’s solicitation to eﬀect, or attempt to eﬀect transactions in securities, or the rendering of personalized investment advice for compensation, over the internet. A copy of Advisor’s current written disclosure statement discussing Advisor’s business operations, services, and fees is available from Advisor upon written request.

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— WEALTH MANAGERS —

The Plaza Group at Morgan Stanley We Listen Like a Friend and Support You as Family. • Work through daily issues and life transitions, sharing all that life throws at you • Spend less time thinking about your finances and more time living your life

Sheila K. Davis and Teri L. Salach founded The Plaza Group at Morgan Stanley in 2021, bringing together knowledge, insights and substantial experience.

YEAR WINNER

Left to right: 2017 – 2022 winner Sheila K. Davis, Financial Advisor; 2019, 2021, 2022 winner Teri L. Salach, Wealth Advisor

11161 Overbrook Road, Suite 225 • Leawood, KS 66211 Phone: 913-402-5204 • Phone: 913-402-5281 sheila.davis@morganstanley.com • teri.salach@morganstanley.com www.advisor.morganstanley.com/theplazagroupkc

They combine their talents with the resources of Morgan Stanley to create a wealth management experience that is customized for you where you will feel listened to, understood and always the most important part of their relationship. They know that as you become more successful and your financial world becomes more complex, careful planning and tailored advice become even more important to achieving your life goals. Sheila is a 2017 – 2022 Five Star Wealth Manager and Teri is a 2019, 2021 and 2022 Five Star Wealth Manager. Their goal is to simplify your financial life and make your goals your reality. ©2022 Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC. Member SIPC. CRC 3906245 11/21.

FIVE STAR WEALTH MANAGER AWARD WINNER

Steven T. Cox Sr. and Steven T. Cox Jr. Individualized, Objective, Independent • Wealth and investment management services

uarantee / MAY Lose Value LC, Member SIPC, a registered nsert CAR# & date].

• Financial planning services • Customized financial solutions

YEAR WINNER

Left to right: 2022 winner Steven T. Cox Jr., Chartered Financial Analyst®; 2017 – 2022 winner Steven T. Cox Sr., CFA, President; Mark Donaldson, CFA

6900 College Boulevard, Suite 440 • Overland Park, KS 66211 Phone: 913-323-0535 • scox@pfa-llc.com • stcoxjr@pfa-llc.com • www.pfa-llc.com

At Providence Financial Advisors, we believe it is important to maintain a balance between growing your assets and protecting your wealth. We take a long-term approach to investing, avoiding fads and market timing. To accomplish this, portfolios are designed and managed using modern portfolio theory. Once your portfolio is invested, it is continuously monitored relative to your investment objectives and goals. You are kept up to date through reports, emails, telephone calls and in-person meetings. As independent, fee-only advisors, we serve in a fiduciary to our clients. We believe being compensated only by our clients provides maximum flexibility in selecting investments that address each client’s unique situation. Please feel free to contact us for a free consultation.

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

— WEALTH MANAGERS —

Kathleen Degen and Raleigh Lang Specialized Expertise for Individuals and Businesses • Helping individuals, families and businesses achieve their financial goals for more than 30 years

arantee / MAY Lose Value C, Member SIPC, a registered sert CAR# & date].

2 YEAR

WINNER

Left to right: Two-year winners Kathleen Degen, Co-owner and Raleigh Lang, Co-owner

9237 Ward Parkway, Suite 208 • Kansas City, MO 64114 Phone: 816-333-2334 • www.twinfinancial.com

From our beginning, we planned to build a financial advisory firm large enough to offer all of the services and capabilities of the largest firms. We manage our growth in a way that allows our two founders and firm principals Kathleen Degen and Raleigh Lang, to be deeply engaged with every client from financial strategy development through implementation and providing ongoing financial guidance year after year. We remain committed to that philosophy because we believe growing and protecting your wealth is our only business. The Five Star Award is granted by Five Star Professional, an independent 3rd party marketing firm. This award is not indicative of future performance or success and stems from nominations by industry professionals in a given market area and based upon objective criteria including favorable regulatory and complaint history, reviews conducted by the firm, retention rates, and client assets administered. Katheigh Degen and Raleigh Lang are registered representatives of and offer securities, investment advisory and financial planning services through MML Investors Services, LLC. Member SIPC. Supervisory office: 1300 N Walker, Suite 200, Oklahoma City, OK 73103. Phone (405) 486-1400. Twin Financial, Inc. is not a subsidiary or affiliate of MML Investors Services, LLC, or its affiliated companies. CRN202211-274863.

FIVE STAR WEALTH MANAGER AWARD WINNER

Frank Mall Financial Advisor

Live Richly. Journey Confidently.

arantee / MAY Lose Value C, Member SIPC, a registered sert CAR# & date].

We help outfit you: • For key financial life decisions • With objective tools and knowledge to keep you on a path toward success

10 YEAR

• Through your journey with a long-term working relationship

WINNER

Left to right: Blake King, CFP®; Ten-year winner Frank Mall; Joy Mall

6900 College Boulevard, Suite 520 • Overland Park, KS 66211 5921 NW Barry Road, Suite 200 • Kansas City, MO 64154 Phone: 816-888-5800 • www.financialifeoutfitters.com Securities offered through Triad Advisors Member FINRA/SIPC, Advisory Services offered through Financialife Outfitters, LLC. Financialife Outfitters, LLC is not affiliated with Triad Advisors. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, Certified finanCial Planner™, and the CFP® mark (with plaque design) in the U.S. FIVE STAR WEALTH MANAGER AWARD WINNER The Five Star Wealth Manager award, administered by Crescendo Business Services, LLC (dba Five Star Professional), is based on 10 objective criteria. Eligibility criteria – required: 1. Credentialed as a registered investment adviser or a registered investment adviser representative; 2. Actively licensed as a registered investment adviser or as a principal of a registered investment adviser firm for a minimum of 5 years; 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by Five Star Professional, the wealth manager has not; A. Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; B. Had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or Five Star Professional’s consumer complaint process. Unfavorable feedback may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through Five Star Professional’s consumer complaint process; feedback may not be representative of any one client’s experience; C. Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; D. Filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; E. Been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; F. Been convicted of a felony); 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards; 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation criteria – considered: 6. One-year client retention rate; 7. Five-year client retention rate; 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; 9. Number of client households served; 10. Education and professional designations. Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. Award does not evaluate quality of services provided to clients. Once awarded, wealth managers may purchase additional profile ad space or promotional products. The Five Star award is not indicative of the wealth manager’s future performance. Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their client’s assets. The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by Five Star Professional or this publication. Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by Five Star Professional in the future. For more information on the Five Star award and the research/selection methodology, go to fivestarprofessional.com. 1,670 Kansas City-area wealth managers were considered for the award; 128 (8% of candidates) were named 2022 Five Star Wealth Managers. 2021: 1,678 considered, 118 winners; 2020: 1,579 considered, 115 winners; 2019: 1,574 considered, 134 winners; 2018: 1,387 considered, 119 winners; 2017: 952 considered, 212 winners; 2016: 880 considered, 216 winners; 2015: 1,572 considered, 201 winners; 2014: 785 considered, 176 winners; 2013: 766 considered, 203 winners; 2012: 676 considered, 200 winners.

F S - 6 — LEARN MORE AT FIVESTARPROFESSIONAL.COM

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— WEALTH MANAGERS — Margo Ann Shepard

R. Brook Menees

Private Wealth Financial Advisor, CFP®, CIMA®

CFP®, Managing Partner, Financial Advisor

1900 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Suite 210 Mission Woods, KS 66205 Phone: 913-267-7140 Margo.shepard@wfa.com shepardwealthmanagementgroup.com

YEAR WINNER

Planning-Focused Wealth Management

Margo and her team help high net worth clients develop and implement strategies to support their financial goals. They help aﬃliate professionals in the areas of trust, money and liability management and estate planning strategies to provide advice as sophisticated as their clients’ needs. She is a 2012 – 2019 and 2021 – 2022 Five Star Wealth Manager. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, Certified finanCial Planner™, and the CFP® mark (with plaque design) in the U.S. Investment and Insurance Products: NOT FDIC Insured NO Bank Guarantee MAY Lose Value Wells Fargo Advisors is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, Member SIPC, a registered broker-dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. [CAR-1121-02147].

10540 Marty Street, Suite 210 Overland Park, KS 66212 Phone: 913-322-2100 BrookMenees@InstrumentalAdvisors.com www.instrumentaladvisors.com

YEAR WINNER

• Helping business owners start and manage company retirement plans such as 401(k) plans, simple IRA’s, pension plans, etc. The business owners and individuals we serve know we put them at the center of our focus every single day, and we collectively serve as their die-hard advocates in all financial matters. Isn’t this what you deserve? R. Brook Menees is a 2013 – 2022 Five Star Wealth Manager award winner. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, Certified finanCial Planner™, and the CFP® mark (with plaque design) in the U.S.

Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advice offered through V Wealth Advisors, LLC, a Registered Investment Advisor and separate entity from LPL Financial. Instrumental Advisors, Inc. is also a separate entity from LPL Financial.

FIVE STAR WEALTH MANAGER AWARD WINNER

David Dickens

Carra D. Sprague

Senior Wealth Advisor, CFA

Financial Advisor

10975 Grandview Drive, Building 27, Suite 190 Overland Park, KS 66210 Phone: 913-317-1414 ddickens@kcfinancialadvisors.com www.CoverYourAssetsKC.com

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Sound Principles • Sound Advice

CoverYourAssetsKC Weekly Podcast

David Dickens is the Senior Wealth Advisor at KC Financial Advisors. As a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) with over 35 years of investment industry experience, David and his team are motivated by helping individuals plan for and achieve success in their increasingly longer retirements. Each client’s situation is carefully analyzed, then a customized plan is created and implemented. Regular interaction with clients allows for mindful monitoring of every plan with adjustments to fit life and market changes. Ongoing risk management is always key, as is a clear understanding of what is important to each and every client. Because no two lives are the same, no two plans are the same!

11161 Overbrook Road, Suite 225 Leawood, KS 66211 Phone: 913-402-5209 carra.sprague@morganstanley.com morganstanleyfa.com/carra.sprague

YEAR WINNER

• 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 Five Star Wealth Manager

For me, retirement planning means more than providing my clients with investment advice. It means helping them maintain the financial independence they’ve worked their whole lives to achieve and striving to ensure they have the means to pursue what’s most important to them.

Investment advisory services offered by duly registered individuals through ChangePath, LLC a Registered Investment Adviser. ChangePath, LLC and KC Financial Advisors are unaffiliated entities.

FIVE STAR WEALTH MANAGER AWARD WINNER

The Five Star Wealth Manager award, administered by Crescendo Business Services, LLC (dba Five Star Professional), is based on 10 objective criteria. Eligibility criteria – required: 1. Credentialed as a registered investment adviser or a registered investment adviser representative; 2. Actively licensed as a registered investment adviser or as a principal of a registered investment adviser firm for a minimum of 5 years; 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by Five Star Professional, the wealth manager has not; A. Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; B. Had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or Five Star Professional’s consumer complaint process. Unfavorable feedback may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through Five Star Professional’s consumer complaint process; feedback may not be representative of any one client’s experience; C. Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; D. Filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; E. Been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; F. Been convicted of a felony); 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards; 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation criteria – considered: 6. One-year client retention rate; 7. Five-year client retention rate; 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; 9. Number of client households served; 10. Education and professional designations. Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. Award does not evaluate quality of services provided to clients. Once awarded, wealth managers may purchase additional profile ad space or promotional products. The Five Star award is not indicative of the wealth manager’s future performance. Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their client’s assets. The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by Five Star Professional or this publication. Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by Five Star Professional in the future. For more information on the Five Star award and the research/selection methodology, go to fivestarprofessional.com. 1,670 Kansas City-area wealth managers were considered for the award; 128 (8% of candidates) were named 2022 Five Star Wealth Managers. 2021: 1,678 considered, 118 winners; 2020: 1,579 considered, 115 winners; 2019: 1,574 considered, 134 winners; 2018: 1,387 considered, 119 winners; 2017: 952 considered, 212 winners; 2016: 880 considered, 216 winners; 2015: 1,572 considered, 201 winners; 2014: 785 considered, 176 winners; 2013: 766 considered, 203 winners; 2012: 676 considered, 200 winners.

LEARN MORE AT FIVESTARPROFESSIONAL.COM — F S - 7

A Prairie Village woman disappeared without a trace in the summer of 2019. Her husband told conflicting stories and refused to talk to the police. Now, her daughter wants answers.

WHERE IS ANGELA GREEN? by mar y henn illustration by makalah hardy

J A N U A R Y 2022 K A N S A S C I T YM A G .C O M

he last time Ellie saw her mother, Angela, was on the evening of June 19, 2019. Ellie had just returned from a two-month study abroad in Europe, where she walked the ancient cobblestone streets of Prague and posed for photos in the poppy fields of Northern Italy. Angela wanted to spend time with Ellie after she’d been away for two months—Ellie had been Angela’s whole world since the day she was born. Angela was upset that Ellie wanted to go hang out with friends. As the fight escalated, Angela gathered some of Ellie’s stuff and told her to leave. “I expected to come back home later that night, after the fight,” Ellie says. “It was super weird that my mom never reached out to me.” After her mother kicked her out, Ellie went to stay with her boyfriend and his family in Fairway, and her father Geoff texted her to say he went to stay with Brad and Marva Green, his brother and sister-in-law. Four days after the fight between Ellie and Angela, Geoff texted Ellie to tell her that her mother was getting treatment for her mental health. He had her taken away by “mental health people” in the parking lot of a store. “It was a struggle,” he texted. Several minutes later, Geoff texted Ellie and asked

PHOTOS COURTESY ELLIE GREEN

On Valentine’s Day 2020, Ellie Green drove from Lawrence to Topeka to get a copy of her mother Angela Green’s death certificate. It was a chilly, overcast day, just a few weeks before pandemic shutdowns, when Ellie pulled up to the Office of Vital Statistics, inside a five-story concrete building across from the state capitol. Based on the story she’d been told by her father, Geoff Green, Ellie expected the death to be recorded sometime the previous summer. Angela died from a stroke, Geoff said—though he’d refused to answer any questions about where and when she died and asked his daughter to keep her mother’s “death” secret from Angela’s family. Ellie typed her information into a kiosk and waited her turn. Then she waited some more. After an hour, one of the clerks came back to her with a record of her mother's marriage. There was no record of Angela’s death. “I knew something was wrong,” Ellie says. “When I found out there wasn’t a death certificate in Topeka, I knew I was in for a very long ride.” Two years later, Ellie Green is still looking for answers. With the help of her mother’s side of the family, she recorded phone calls with her father, hired private investigators, had soil samples from family property tested by a lab and sat down for interviews with Dr. Phil and podcasters. Angela's disappearance from a quiet, leafy street in Prairie Village seems implausible. It’s difficult to imagine how a woman—a wife and mother—can go missing from a suburb in Kansas without a trace, especially in our modern, digital world, where Facebook shows you ads based on conversations you have in the aisles of Target. The moments surrounding Angela’s disappearance are not only chilling but also indicative of larger societal issues and the limitations of law enforcement.

“I expected to come back home later that night, after the fight. It was super weird that my mom never reached out to me.” her not to tell Angela’s family, the Guos, about her being admitted for treatment until he “knew more about her condition.” Angela had exhibited some odd and obsessive behaviors in the past, Ellie says, but she was surprised to hear that she needed in-patient care. “I knew my mom acted kind of weird, but I didn’t know it was to the extent to where she needed to be taken away,” Ellie says. “Now, I look back and think she might have had some anxiety. She didn’t like driving on the highway. She liked things to be perfect. Sometimes she’d drop me off at school and she would be happy, then she’d pick me up and start yelling at me for something that happened five years earlier.” Ellie says that her father insisted she wait to visit her mother until her mental health improved. When Ellie asked Geoff where the hospital her mother had been taken to was, he responded vaguely, Ellie says, saying it was somewhere “down south.” Throughout the summer of 2019, Ellie continued to stay with her boyfriend and his family, under the impression that her mother was receiving treatment. Ellie and Geoff continued to communicate, and he visited Ellie, her boyfriend, and his family—they did yard work together and smoked ribs on the Fourth of July. Four weeks after the fight between Ellie and Angela, Geoff texted Ellie saying he needed to talk to her. He drove to her boyfriend’s home in Fairway to see her. Late that night, on July 16, Geoff told Ellie that her mother had died of a stroke in the hospital. He didn’t tell her which hospital. Geoff also

mentioned he did not want to have a memorial service for Angela and that he wanted to wait to tell the Guos about her death. Ellie respected her father’s wishes with the intent of letting him grieve on his own terms. “No one really questioned him,” Ellie says. “I didn’t want to ask him a ton of questions and offend him while he was grieving.”

ight months passed before Ellie called her mother’s family, the Guos, to tell them of Angela’s passing. It had been drilled into Ellie that it “wasn’t her place” to share the news with Angela’s family in New York. Angela spoke to her family only a few times a year—on holidays and Chinese New Year—so it wasn’t unusual that the Guos hadn’t heard from Angela for several months, but they were shocked and confused when Ellie called with the news. Michelle Guo, Angela’s niece, asked her cousin for a death certificate. Michelle, a corporate lawyer in New York City, was immediately suspicious—she was also close to Angela. Michelle grew up in Kansas, and Angela helped raise Michelle until her family moved away when she was ten years old. After that, Angela and her sister Catherine “grew apart,” Michelle says. “Angela basically cut off my whole family once she had Ellie,” Michelle says. “She was obsessed with Ellie, like to a point where it was unhealthy. There's just no way she would have left Ellie.”

According to Michelle, Angela was antisocial in general. Even when she went grocery shopping, Angela would make sure Ellie or Geoff went with her so that she wouldn't have to talk to anyone. Still, Catherine had tried to call Angela a few times after the summer of 2019. There was no answer. “Angie would do that sometimes,” Michelle says. “If she didn’t want to talk to someone, then she just wouldn’t pick up the phone.” The day after calling the Guos, February 14, 2020, is the day Ellie drove to Topeka to find Angela’s death certificate. The following day, February 15, Michelle called the Prairie Village Police Department to request a welfare check for Angela. When the police arrived at the Green’s home in Prairie Village, no one was there. Police began questioning the Green’s neighbors, all of whom said they hadn’t seen Angela in quite some time. While police spoke to the neighbors, Geoff pulled up in his car and told police that Angela was gone for the weekend with friends. Police returned to the home the next day, February 16. Geoff handed them the business card of a criminal defense attorney and refused to speak. He hasn’t spoken to the police since. (“No comment, thanks for calling,” was Geoff’s only response when reached by phone for this story.) Michelle has not spoken to Geoff since Angela’s disappearance. Geoff has not answered calls from Michelle or any of the Guos. “So many people are like, ‘Why didn't Ellie say something earlier?’” Michelle says. “When I told Ellie, ‘This doesn't make any sense.’ She was

like, ‘Oh, really?’ She just grew up trusting everything that her parents said. I’ll admit, it’s been frustrating. My sister doesn’t talk to Ellie anymore because she’s so frustrated by the whole thing and how Ellie handled it.” Understanding the family dynamic is important to understanding how Angela’s disappearance went unreported and unnoticed for so long, Michelle says. “I think Ellie just had a very odd childhood,” Michelle says. “Ellie’s parents were her only friends—that's why she just trusted Geoff. Ellie telling my mom about Angela’s death was like going against Geoff’s word, which was a big deal, even though it took months— but that's why there was a huge gap.” “I was upset,” Ellie says. “I asked plenty of questions. I just couldn’t get any answers. Sometimes I look back and think that I wish I had pushed him more.” Angela’s disappearance going unnoticed for eight months was likely rooted in her reclusive tendencies—but her being an immigrant may have made her more vulnerable, too. “When the police interviewed the Green’s neighbors and asked why they didn't say anything or alert the police that she was missing, they were like, ‘Oh, we just figured that she had gone back to China or something,’” says Michelle. “Angie had been in the States for over twenty years at that point. She lived in the same house her entire U.S. life, had the same neighbors and never once went back to visit in the entire twenty years. People noticed, but they just thought, ‘Oh, she went back to China,’ which makes zero sense.” Police apparently acted on the suspicions of the neighbors, too. “The police had a hard case to start with because they were eight months behind, but they spent a frustrating amount of time trying to see if Angela had gone back to China,” Michelle says. “We were just trying to explain to them that there's just no way she had gone back—she had no contact with that side of my family anymore.” “Angie was always very stubborn, and she wanted to come to the U.S. to have an American life,” Michelle adds. “She didn't want to speak Chinese anymore. She would only speak to my mom in English. My mom thought that was strange. Geoff was also very controlling. She was super dependent on him.”

fter police conducted the welfare check, Ellie called Brad and Marva, her father’s brother and his wife, to tell them what had been going on. They abruptly returned from a vacation in Florida. According to Michelle’s detailed timeline of events—which we have not been able to independently verify—Ellie said Marva told her over the phone that “an accident” might have happened and that Geoff should get a lawyer. (It’s possible an accident was involved—Brad and Marva have not spoken to police and did not respond to voicemails left by Kansas City for this story.) On February 18, Ellie went to the Prairie Village police department to file a missing person report, and police began to check mental health facilities in the area to see if Angela had ever been a patient. Police also conducted a nationwide search for Angela’s death certificate and worked with Homeland Security to check whether she had used her passport to leave the country.

Because Geoff’s description of what happened surrounding Angela’s disappearance had shifted more than once, Michelle advised Ellie to record phone conversations with her father. While at the police station on February 18, Ellie received a phone call from Geoff, who, during the phone call, told Ellie and police that Angela was not taken to a hospital but had actually disappeared from their family home in Prairie Village after her fight with Ellie. (The audio recording of the phone call between Ellie and Geoff at the police station can be heard on the Voices for Justice podcast, in the episode, “Angela Green Part 1.”) In that phone call, Geoff said he received a call from someone after Angela’s disappearance stating that she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Geoff also said that he received another call from someone stating Angela died of a stroke a few weeks later. But because Geoff was “busy at work,” he did not take note of the details, like which hospital Angela died at or who was calling with the information. In recorded phone calls, Geoff also said that he arranged for Angela’s cremation by phone and that an urn was delivered to his home. Geoff said he paid in cash for the service. Where were the ashes? Geoff said he later looked inside the urn and found that it was empty. When Ellie still spoke to Geoff, she and Michelle would prepare for their conversations ahead of time with a list of questions for Geoff. Michelle would transcribe the calls afterward, making annotations about things that were said. “Nothing made sense,” Michelle says. “Geoff was blatantly lying.” Geoff’s latest story, according to Ellie, is that he doesn’t know when Angela left. “He is backtracking, saying that he doesn’t know anything, but he is saying now that she is alive,” Ellie says. No matter what the circumstances,

“You can’t force anyone to talk. You can use any type of incentive that you have to get them to talk, legally, but ultimately you cannot force them to talk.” police cannot force someone to answer questions, says Jeff Lanza, a retired FBI Special Agent based in Kansas City who often gives talks on criminal justice topics to the community. “You can’t force anyone to talk,” he says. “You can use any type of incentive that you have to get them to talk, legally, but ultimately you cannot force them to talk. It puts investigators in a really tough spot when people close to the situation do not want to provide information.” Because Geoff won’t go on record with his side of the story, there’s no way of knowing for sure why he told Ellie conflicting information about her mother’s whereabouts. Did Angela run away with friends or a secret cult, inspiring Geoff to lie to Ellie to protect her feelings? Was there a tragic accident? It’s open to conjecture. In later phone calls between Ellie and Geoff (also on the Voices for Justice podcast), Geoff mentioned he might have seen Angela around their home in Prairie Village near the end of 2019. He said he suspected Angela had been in and out of the home since her disappearance. Geoff couldn’t, however, remember the exact date of when he

63 63

last saw Angela. He said Angela left one day while he was at work and never came back. If Angela did leave on her own, then she left without any of her belongings. During a search of the Green’s house, police found Angela’s purse, wallet, driver's license, keys, car and Chinese passport. She didn't have a bank account. She never used social media. She still had a flip phone, which was also left behind. Geoff later took that phone number as his own. In the phone conversations between Ellie and Geoff, Geoff said that he hadn’t seen Angela active on any of his bank accounts after her disappearance, and Ellie responded that there aren’t records of Angela starting a job anywhere. In the recordings, Geoff’s response to Ellie’s questions was frequently, “I don’t know.” At one point in their phone conversations, Geoff said to Ellie, “Be skeptical of everything, including me.”

n March 11, 2020, police searched the Green’s home in Prairie Village and a storage facility in Olathe where Geoff kept his vintage cars. The police reported that they brought cadaver dogs to both properties. In July 2020, police told Ellie they had exhausted over two hundred leads and declared the missing person case of Angela Green cold. When the Prairie Village Police Department was asked about Angela’s case, Captain Brady Sullivan said that the department is still actively investigating it. “It is classified as a missing person case; however, originally, there was conflicting information regarding her whereabouts that are concerning,” Captain Sullivan wrote in an email. “We are still gathering any facts related to this case and are investigating any new leads that surface. We appreciate any assistance from the public and urge anyone with information to contact us.” In December 2020, Ellie collected soil samples from a house Geoff had purchased for her a year earlier in a suburb of Lawrence. She gathered soil from Angela’s hostas that Geoff had moved to the property from their Prairie Village home. Ellie sent the samples to private investigators in California under the instruction of Dr. Phil, on whose show Ellie appeared. The private investigators told Ellie that two cadaver dogs each independently marked all three soil samples positive for human remains. After the investigators submitted this evidence to the Prairie Village police, they obtained a search warrant for the property in Lawrence. On December 23, 2020, police arrived at the home in Lawrence. They knocked on the door, but there was no answer. When police entered the home, they found Geoff locked in the bathroom with the radio blasting. The police said later that cadaver dogs were not brought to the Lawrence house and that officers dug around on the property by hand instead.

llie and Michelle are still searching for details regarding Angela’s whereabouts, and they want to file a wrongful death suit against Geoff so that he will finally go on record with his side of the story—the Fifth Amendment rights that protect Geoff from talking to police when facing prosecution don’t apply in civil court. A GoFundMe has been set up to raise money for lawyers and private investigators for Angela’s case. Michelle has put in around $20,000 of her own savings into the investigation of Angela’s disappearance and feels like there’s been little progress made. Recently, Ellie and Michelle have had to step back from the case due to the financial, emotional and mental stresses the case has put on them. Since she’s gone public with her questions, Ellie no longer has contact with her father. Ellie says that she’s tried to get into her childhood home in Prairie Village to get some of her belongings. “He won’t let me go back and get my stuff,” she says of Geoff. “He’s changed all the locks and everything.” Ellie came back to Kansas a couple of months ago after finishing the final exams of her last semester. Before that, she had been back in the area for Thanksgiving break. On Thanksgiving, Ellie went to her uncle Brad and aunt Marva’s house unannounced in search of answers about Angela’s whereabouts. That night, Ellie says that Marva told her that the last time she saw Angela was a week after her own dog died. Ellie says she questioned her aunt’s response, “I was thinking, ‘You can remember when your dog dies, but you can’t remember when my mom went missing?’” Ellie believes that her aunt and uncle may know the details of her mother’s disappearance. “They know,” Ellie says. “They won’t talk to me, and there’s a reason they won’t talk to me.” On that night at Brad and Marva’s, Ellie did not expect to find Geoff when she arrived. “He was there,” Ellie says. “He changed the story again. He was saying she is alive.”

“I was thinking, ‘You can remember when your dog dies, but you can’t remember when my mom went missing?’ They know. They won’t talk to me, and there’s a reason they won’t talk to me.”

Legally, it doesn’t matter that Geoff’s narrative has changed—there is no evidence that he lied directly to the police, and he has a legal right not to talk. Michelle says that the Prairie Village Police Department doesn’t have the resources that larger police departments have, which is why she and Ellie have had to push so hard to try and move Angela’s case. “The reason they were able to get a search warrant for the Lawrence property was because the private investigators from Dr. Phil instructed Ellie to go and collect soil samples from the hostas planted there,” Michelle says. When the Prairie Village Police Department was asked about why they didn’t bring cadaver dogs to the search of the Lawrence property, Michelle says, “The police said they couldn’t get the cadaver dogs. They weren't available that day. We worked so hard on the side to give the police that evidence so that they could obtain the search warrant. Then they messed it up.” When Michelle was asked again about who moved the hostas, she says, “Geoff moved the plants. My understanding is that they were used as decoration, and he thought it would be nice to have a piece of Angela there at the house.” “But Angela wouldn’t have wanted that,” Michelle says. “Ellie has always said, ‘My mom would have hated if he touched her flowers.’”

Fragile Beauty Mark Stevenson has dedicated his life to meticulously repairing and preserving aged paper. For him, it’s more than a craft.

Written by Hampton Stevens Photography by Caleb Condit & Rebecca N orde

K A N S A S C I T Y M AG . C O M D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 1

Sometimes a job is just a job. You dig ditches. You sell stocks. Sometimes, though, a job is more than just a living. Some jobs go beyond a career or even a calling. There are jobs that speak to everything you care about. They embody the essence of who you are. Jobs like that are the physical, emotional and spiritual manifestation of your deepest, most authentic self. Mark Stevenson is lucky enough to have that kind of job. He’s a paper conservator in private practice, serving fancy museums, corporations and private collectors. That means Stevenson specializes in the preservation and restoration of drawings, historical documents, maps and posters. That, though, is merely a mechanical description of his work. What Stevenson really does, at heart, is care for things that are beautiful, delicate, valuable—things that should have been treated more kindly. He does this because he is beautiful, delicate, valuable and someone who should have been treated more kindly. Stevenson is slight and lithe. He has large, kind eyes framed by a gray beard and ponytail. We talked on a brisk afternoon in his Valentine home, in a warm, inviting living room. Stacks of vinyl sat by the stereo on the hardwood floor. Walls brimmed with eclectic, indigenous art in mostly muted tones. Trina, a bright green finch, fluttered freely outside of her cage. Our conversation started with trauma. Growing up on a farm in central Indiana, Stevenson—who identifies as biracial, including Native American branches—always felt himself an outsider. “I describe it as marginalized people mixing on the margins: A whole lot of mixed people who find other mixed people and then deny their heritage,” he says, laughing ruefully. His childhood and adolescence were, in many ways, brutal. His family wasn’t poor, he says. Dad

“

I realized that we all have this compass inside of us. You set the needle on goodness and walk in that direction.

owned the local drug store and soda fountain, but Mom’s side had loads of dysfunction. He spoke of substance abuse and questions about the legitimacy of his birth—and even the unsolved murder of a great uncle. “We don't know what happened, but it still echoes in the family,” he says. He also mentioned an abusive football coach and pedophilic scout leader. “I had so much trauma by the time I hit my teen years. It was just, like, off the rails.” Art was a sanctuary. He began to draw before he could speak. As a teenager, he would huddle in his bedroom, teaching himself to copy the style of underground cartoonists like Skip Williamson and R. Crumb. Working with clay was another infatuation, and he went to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale intending to study monumental ceramics. Soon, though, Stevenson discovered the medium that would define his life. One night, he says, he stepped into an etching studio, “and it was just like, ‘Oh, my God, this is it. I love paper.” He spoke kindly, reverentially, like a man describing his oldest friend. “I mean, the colors of paper, the softness of the tones, the rustle of the sheets, it just touched me,” he says. “It was like a tuning fork.” He thought, “This is what resonates with me. This is what I love.” Even after graduation, though, his path wasn’t quite clear. Everything changed,

he says, during a camping trip to South Dakota. “I had a near-death experience, and it really directed my life.” On the prairie, southeast of the sacred Black Hills, he was struck down by the sun. “I'm an outdoorsman,” he says. “I've never had problems before nor since. But that day, I got a really bad case of sunstroke. I didn't realize how close to death I was.” When he awoke, he knew his life had changed. “I wanted to be a better person," he says. "I realized that we all have this compass inside of us. You set the needle on goodness and walk in that direction. I wanted to put myself on that path.” Stevenson got busy being born. He dedicated himself to becoming a conservator. “And so it's like, I have to start going to night school. I have to start getting volunteer work. At one point, I was going to night school, studying chemistry, volunteering one day a week at the Indiana Historical Society and working the other five days a week in the back room of an art supply store.” He thrived in academia, earning a master’s degree from Buffalo State’s well-regarded Cooperstown program. That included an internship at Harvard’s Fogg Museum, followed by a postgraduate Mellon Fellowship at the National Gallery of Art. Ultimately, he would publish extensively, establishing himself as an international authority in the field.

Stevenson found Kansas City through the Nelson-Atkins. They hired him out of the National Gallery as a conservator of graphic art. His first stint in KC only lasted a few years, though. He met a woman, a doctoral candidate, and followed her back east to Princeton. When the relationship ended, he chose the Midwest again. “Because I loved Kansas City and I continue to love Kansas City,” he says. “I was born a Kansas Citian but didn't know it until I moved here. I found my people when I came here.” He likes how the city functions as a magnet for creative kids from across the Midwest who need an escape from small, conservative prairie towns. Stevenson returned in 1995. He had an opportunity at the Spencer Museum of Art but ultimately decided to stay in private practice. He’s been on his own ever since. We went upstairs to tour his happily cluttered studios. He told me about the healing, meditative, transformative power of his job. He talked about the exacting nature of work with paper—the demand for solitude and the necessity of embracing minutia. He discussed how different substances respond to heat and moisture. With paper conservation, Stevenson says, “you don't get a lot of second chances. So you really have to be able to stay five steps ahead.” A recent project, for instance, involved a print by Henry Ferrer on 140-year-old Japanese paper. Stevenson recounted a complicated and incredibly painstaking process that I only partially understood. “When things are glued down or attached or fixed to a board, my first thing is to begin to probe the board and look at its structure,” he says. He described the nature of certain backing boards and the dangers of a break along the laminates. He told of using a scalpel and running an angled line around the perimeter of the piece, then a spatula, and moving incrementally—a sixteenth of an inch at a time—slowly prying and lifting the print away from the remainder of the board.

“

I was born a Kansas Citian but didn't know it until I moved here. I found my people when I came here.

He’ll also use Gore-Tex fabric, the kind used in camping gear, because it allows moisture to pass through as vapor but not liquid. He spoke of how adhesives made from animal skin, hoods or horns will react to certain sorts of enzymes. There’s more. Much more. But you get the idea. As the sun fell, afternoon winter light flowed softly through the living room window. We spoke of his biggest claim to fame, at least in certain circles: a cinematic tale about the time billionaire Crosby Kemper bought twenty-eight watercolors attributed to Georgia O'Keeffe. Stevenson was called on to help authenticate them. After a series of Succession-worthy twists, he came to realize the paintings were fake, printed on a kind of paper O'Keeffe would never have used. “Basically,” he laughed, “I gave Kemper the information that allowed him to get his $5.4 million back.” We finished our day discussing the project that brought him to my attention. A friend who works at the Kansas City Star told me they discovered a first edition replica of the paper in a storage bin and wanted it restored. Just curious, I asked who one would call to handle something like that, which led me to Stevenson. “It's framed, I think, double-sided,” he said of the first edition. “They want me to help them get it out and to make sure it's preserved.” It’s his job, you see. Stevenson has devoted his life to the restoration and protection of delicate, beautiful things. In doing so, he restored and protected himself.

SSPPEECCIIAALL AADDVVEERRTTIISSIINNGG SSEECCTTIIO ONN

LOOK AND FEEL YOUR BEST

B E AU T Y G U I D E In the craziness of today’s fast-paced world, carving out time for your health and wellbeing is more important than ever. We’ve gathered several local experts to share rejuvenating and reinvigorating treatments and services so that you have all the resources you need to look and feel your best. KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

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GEORGOUS AESTHETIC BAR 4505 Madison Ave., KCMO

If glowing, dewy skin is on your must-have list this year, then it’s time to experience the DiamondGlow Facial. It’s more than just a wet facial or dermabrasion; the DiamondGlow Facial delivers a next-level resurfacing treatment that deeply cleanses and rejuvenates the face by exfoliating, extracting and infusing serums into the skin. After a single treatment, you may notice radiance and improvements with fine lines, dryness and texture. All skin types can experience this treatment with no downtime. Winter months are the perfect time to treat concerns of sun damage, skin texture and hair issues with little to no downtime. Intense Pulsed Light/Broad Band Light therapy, Halo Fractional Laser and laser hair removal can address those concerns. Chemical peels and microneedling are great treatments to add in combination to laser treatments to get the results you want. Our clinic also offers body contouring, which has vastly grown in demand recently. CoolSculpting is a non-invasive, permanent fat reduction treatment with zero downtime, and it’s perfect for those hard-to-get-rid-of areas such as arms, abdomen, bra fat, flanks, thighs and more. Not ready to commit to surgery for the Brazilian Butt Lift? The BootyLift is a minimal-downtime, non-surgical procedure that helps improve volume, smoothness and symmetry.

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

The best procedures are the ones that are undetectable, which is why we believe in elevating your natural beauty with wrinklerelaxers such as Botox and Dysport and cosmetic fillers to help correct dynamic lines and wrinkles and loss of volume and support. Those things can be a bit overwhelming if you’re not sure where to start, but don’t worry, we are here to help guide you to realistic and desirable results. All consultations are complimentary, so schedule one today because you deserve to look and feel your best! Georgous Aesthetic Bar is owned by Georgia Cirese, RN, CANS, who has been active in the aesthetics industry for more than twenty years. Georgia is a nationally recognized trainer and speaker on aesthetic injectables, and she is passionate about educating industry professionals and patients.

The DiamondGlow Facial is more than just a dermabrasion or wet facial – it delivers a next-level resurfacing treatment that deeply cleans and rejuvenates the skin by exfoliating, extracting and infusing serums into the skin. G E O RG O U S A E ST H ET I C B A R georgouskc.com 816.946.8484

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CENTER FOR NUTRITION & PREVENTIVE MEDICINE P.A. 4963 W. 135th St. Leawood, KS

Most Americans have gained weight in recent months. Being overweight can rob you of joy, energy and health—and with COVID-19 added to the list of common health concerns, weight loss has never been more important. Losing weight and keeping it off is far more difficult than most people realize, and unfortunately, common weight loss attempts are ineffective. Food cravings, chronic hunger or a sluggish metabolism can make weight loss impossible. A powerful, personalized, medically based treatment plan can be the key to success. Since founding the Center for Nutrition in 1996, Dr. Rick Tague, M.D., M.P.H. & T.M., has assisted over 30,000 patients in losing over 500,000 pounds. A medical weight loss and “Optimum Health” specialist, Dr. Tague is an Alpha Omega Alpha honors graduate of Tulane University School of Medicine. He also holds a Masters Degree in Public Health from Tulane and is board certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine and the American

Board of Family Medicine. Dramatic improvements in selfesteem, energy levels, activity levels and health measures have been typical among Dr. Tague’s patients while losing 20, 40, 60, 100 pounds or more. If you need a personal treatment plan to lose weight and improve your nutrition, seek help from someone with understanding and experience. Dr. Tague’s Center for Nutrition and Preventive Medicine has medical clinics in Leawood and in Topeka. For more information, or to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation, contact the Center for Nutrition at 913-814-8222 in Leawood or 785-273-4443 in Topeka, or visit TagueNutrition.com.

Weight loss can make life better in many ways. Self-esteem, heart, lungs, joints, mood, blood pressure, cholesterol, sexual health and our life-saving immune system can suffer when weight increases. Learn more about your options at one of our free consultations. C E N T E R FO R NUTRITION & PREVENTIVE M E D I C I N E P. A . 913.814.8222 taguenutrition.com

KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

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SUNLIGHTEN DAY SPA Healthy, glowing skin can help you feel radiant and confident, and it’s one of the many benefits of consistent infrared sauna use. Sunlighten Day Spa offers infrared sauna sessions that can help reduce wrinkles and crow’s feet while improving overall skin tone, softness, smoothness, elasticity and firmness. What a wonderful way to restore, refresh and rejuvenate your skin. A Sunlighten® sauna is a place to heal, to reflect, to invest in you. Surround your body with soothing infrared therapy that penetrates the body at the cellular level, leaving you feeling light and revitalized.

Visit Sunlighten Day Spa at sunlightendayspa.com for more information and to book an appointment today!

S U N L I G H T E N DAY S PA .CO M

Sunlighten Day Spa 7373 W. 107th St., Overland Park, KS 913.754.2023

60-minute couples relaxation massage, 30-minute Sunlighten Purifiying Treatment, plus a glass of champagne each.

$225

*Book and enjoy by February 28, 2022 to receive discount.

VALENTINE’S DAY GIFT CARD PROMOTION

Purchase $150 in gift cards, get an Andre’s Valentine’s chocolate gift. **while supplies last.

SUNLIGHTENDAYSPA.COM

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

913.754.2023

I-435 & METCALF

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KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

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BROW BAR BROW BAR is a unique

beauty spa nestled in Kansas City’s Brookside Shops. I started BROW BAR because I saw an opportunity to offer beauty services in a way that was not being done. So many times I had visited aesthetics studios, salons and medical “spas” that gave me what I needed but not what I truly desired. I always felt like these visits were the perfect opportunity to relax, but I never felt relaxed. I usually felt rushed and that the experience was cold and sterile. I knew I could do better, so in 2018, I started BROW BAR. From day one the focus was on quality. Quality of the experience

first and foremost, but quality of products, services, tools and everything in between as well. We offer the comforts of a high-end spa but with all of the advanced beauty treatments women are looking

for. Our mission is to make every beauty treatment, even a brow wax or botox, feel like a spa experience. We want you to leave feeling beautiful and relaxed! – Tammy Sciara, Owner

B R O W B A R KC . C O M BROW BAR 328 W. 63rd St., KCMO 816.834.9100

REFLECTIONS BODY SOLUTIONS Reflections Body Solutions offers a new treatment option for the tightening of the skin & visible reduction of wrinkles & lines. VirtueRF works by applying sterile microneedles deep into the dermis of the skin. The needles create microscopic channels that deliver radio-frequency heat energy at the desired depths to promote remodeling of the collagen and the elastin that tightens & lifts the skin. Patient Benefits from VirtueRF: • Tighter Skin • Reduced Pore Size • Improved Tone & Texture. • No Downtime VirtueRF microneedles are driven into the skin using the exclusive

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

robotic precision delivery system. The insertion of the needles is so exact that it creates no tearing or trauma to the skin. It delivers the heat under the skin precisely where it needs to go without causing burning, itching or irritation. VirtueRF treatments are spaced 5 weeks apart and a series of 3 treatments is recommended for a patient who has never had the

VirtueRF before. A maintenance treatment is recommended every 6 months. VirtueRF can treat the face, neck, chest, arms, stomach & knees. We are very excited to be able to offer this exciting technology to Reflections Body Solutions. Our consultations are complimentary & look forward to seeing you soon!

R E F L E CT I O N S B O DY S O L U T I O N S .CO M

Reflections Body Solutions 7824 W 119th St, Overland Park, KS 913.322.3433

BROW BAR

A unique beauty spa nestled in the Brookside Shops, Kansas City

816.834.0100 328 W. 63rd Street, Kansas City, MO, 64113 browbarkc.com

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DR. MEENA SINGH Harvard Trained Hair Transplant Surgeon

Doctor Meena Singh is a board-certified dermatologist and dermatologic surgeon. She attended Harvard Medical School, trained at the Mayo Clinic and completed a surgical fellowship in New York City. From there, she trained in Mohs Micrographic Surgery. Upon completing a fellowship with the International Society for Hair Restoration Surgery under world-renowned surgeon Dr. Marc Avram, Dr. Singh trained in all areas of hair transplantation techniques including strip excision, manual/motorized/ robotic follicular unit extraction, as well as transplanting into scarring alopecias. Dr. Singh also specializes in medical treatments for hair loss of all cosmetic and medical types. She is passionate about treating ethnic skin/skin of color. Dr. Singh has performed clinical trials in laser hair stimulation, as well as studies in hair transplantation for scarring and non-scarring forms of hair loss. She has performed investigative studies on skin cancer in transplant recipients, as well as tissue engineering. She has been published in multiple peer-reviewed dermatology journals, book chapters and in the New England Journal of Medicine. Additionally, she is a reviewer for the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology and the Dermatologic Surgery Journal, and her blog articles have been published in online periodicals. Dr. Singh was also featured on the cover of New York Times. Raised in Kansas City before leaving for school, she returned to the KC metro area

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

with her three daughters to serve the needs of this community in her specialized issues of hair and skincare. Hair Loss & Treatment Types There are many types of hair loss, typically broken down between scarring and nonscarring forms. Scarring hair loss is caused by inflammation around the hair follicles, which eventually heal over with “fibrosis” or scar. The goal of treatment for scarring hair loss is to stop the progression of the inflammation to allow the hair to regrow. Non-scarring hair loss usually is not permanent, but if left untreated, these forms of alopecia can eventually lead to permanent hair loss. The most recognizable types of non-scarring hair loss are male and female pattern hair loss. Non-surgical treatments for hair loss include topical treatments, oral medications, and laser devices. Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) injection treatments also act as an adjunct to the forementioned non-surgical options. Surgical treatments like hair transplantation are also used in order to restore hair on a thinning scalp. For more information or to schedule a consultation, visit kmchaircenter.com or call KMC Hair Center at (913) 631-6330.

Dr. Meena Singh is a world-renowned, Harvard trained hair transplant expert. She specializes in dermatology, dermatologic surgery (MOHS micrographic surgery) and hair loss. KMC HAIR CENTER Shawnee: 913-631-6330 Leawood: 913-451-5934 kmchaircenter.com

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EXCELLHEALTH SLEEP CENTER 10640 W 87th St., Overland Park, KS

How many hours of sleep do you need? Optimal Sleep is essential for your wellbeing. Getting the right amount for your mind and body feels great and helps you wake up rested and refreshed. Every person is different when it comes to the exact amount of sleep that’s optimal for them, but most people fall within a range, depending on their age. These guidelines can help you determine how much sleep you really need, while providing some easy ways to achieve it. Individuals 65 and older require a minimum of 5 and up to 9 hours of sleep nightly depending on their overall health and activity, while a newborn requires upto 17 hours of sleep nightly. It is good to identify your own ideal amount of sleep and work toward achieving a regular routine of bedtime habits. Both children and adults benefit from a nightly routine that allows time to wind down and settle down for sleep What happens when chronic sleep deprivation occurs? Some of the most serious potential problems associated with chronic sleep deprivation are high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, heart failure, stroke, dementia and depression. Other potential problems include obesity, ADHD, impairment in immunity and lower sex drive. Chronic sleep deprivation can even affect your appearance.

Dr. Ehtesham’s practice, Excellhealth Sleep Center, specializes in helping sleepdisorder patients with comprehensive therapy. “We provide sleep consultations in-clinic and at affiliated hospitals. We also offer sleep studies and sleep therapies. We are also offering telemedicine services, as needed.” “A good patient dialogue/history and diagnostic sleep testing are important steps in evaluating how to treat a patient’s sleep issues.” Dr. Ehtesham says. Excellhealth Sleep Center, is AASM accredited and provides a full suite of sleep services including home sleep testing, in-lab sleep testing and treatment, nocturnal oxygen testing, sleep diaries/logs sleep counseling and education. “When any patient is treated for sleep disorders, it not only improves their sleep but also improves their overall health. Their bed partner may sleep better, too.” Dr. Ehtesham says.

“When any patient is treated for sleep disorders, it not only improves their sleep but also improves their overall health.” E XC E L L H E A LT H SLEEP CENTER 913.203.4040 excellhealthsleep.com

KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CALEB CONDIT & REBECCA NORDEN

E AT I N G A N D D R I N K I N G W E L L I N K A N S A S C I T Y

NEW NOODLES

There’s a THUMP every few minutes at Magic Noodle (8013 W. 159th St., Overland Park), the south Overland Park Chinese restaurant which brought traditional hand-pulled noodles to KC last year. Magic Noodle makes lamian by hand THUMP in an open kitchen visible from the dining room. These simple noodles are a staple in China, made only from flour, salt and water—plus the laborious THUMP process you can watch, which requires the cooks to knead, twist and stretch each order. The noodles are the star of soups like the Magic Beef, which finds them sopped in a savory broth with sliced beef, a little pickled radish and some herbs. In another fresh twist, those noodles are THUMP delivered to tables by a toddler-sized robot that steers around obstacles in the room to bring your order from the kitchen. It makes for a full sensory experience, even before THUMP the bowls arrive. —MARTIN CIZM AR

KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

TA S T E R E V I E W

DUMPLING YOU SHOULD KNOW In the former Bluestem space, Katie Liu-Sung begins a new chapter for her Taiwanese kitchen, Chewology. BY N ATA L I E TO R R E S G A L L AG H E R P H OTO G R A P H Y BY C A L E B C O N D I T & R E B E C C A N O R D E N

V E R Y S U N D A Y A S A C H I L D , Katie Liu-Sung would accompany her family to a dim sum restaurant. This was tradition, whether they were living in LA, where Liu-Sung spent her first decade, or Taichung, Taiwan, where her family moved back to when she was ten. She especially loved har gow, delicate shrimp-filled dumplings that she would beg her mother to order en masse. “She would get annoyed because it was too expensive to have six or seven orders of har gow,” Liu-Sung says. “One day, she started making the har gow, and we had our own endless supply. That was the best day ever.” It was a sticking moment: “Once I realized that we can make the things we love at home, that we can recreate the things that make us happy, it was all I wanted to do.” You will not find har gow on the menu at Chewology—not yet, anyway. But there are a few other dumpling options, tried-and-true recipes Liu-Sung perfected over the three

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

years she ran her counter-service spot inside Lenexa Public Market. She left Lenexa in July 2020, and in November, she reopened at 900 Westport Road in the space vacated by Bluestem. The new location has afforded Chewology several new features: more square footage, table service, a long bar with a devoted cocktail program. Liu-Sung’s touches are more redecoration than remodel. Every other table has been plastered with a floral tablecloth, walls have been painted green, the dining room has been strung with festive twinkling red lights. It’s the food that clears out the Bluestem cobwebs. Chewology’s best-selling dumplings are filled with a punchy pork-cabbage combination seasoned with fresh ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil. There’s a beef option, too, flavored with kimchi and not short on funk. These dumplings are crimped into crescent moon-shaped presents, the same fold Liu-Sung’s father taught her. Wield your chopsticks carefully: The rose petal-soft dough is thick but delicate. If ugly dumplings are on offer, get them. Liu-Sung and her team take the reject-dumplings that are too misshapen to land a starring role on the regular dish and give them a second life as an occasional nightly special. When I had them, seam-popping beef dumplings arrived in a spicy, gory, blood-red bath of the best sauce ever—a magic combination of chili oil, black vinegar and garlic. Liu-Sung’s dumplings are usually seven to an order, guaranteeing an argument over who will have the last one. Dumplings will come with your preference of a side of rice or a ramekin of pickled vegetables. The latter is credited to Andy McCormick, last seen at The Restaurant at 1900 and the Hey Hey Club before. Liu-Sung recruited him to be her chef de cuisine. He makes a dashi with dried shiitake and kombu and uses the resulting broth in the threecup mushroom ramen. McCormick cures the leftover shiitakes in a Shaoxing wine and rice vinegar brine he has perfected. A scant few slivers of

these snackable mushrooms are nestled prettily alongside pickled cauliflower and cucumbers. Chewology’s dishes are a mashup of Liu-Sung’s experiences and McCormick’s interests, blending her family recipes and traditional preparation with his penchant for bright flavors and delicate plating. From this meeting of minds, we have dishes like the bibimbap—a thriving vegetable garden where different textures (charred green onion, pickled lotus root, the softest poached egg) buzz with flavor. Liu-Sung and McCormick’s union is perhaps the most Taiwanese thing about the restaurant. Taiwan is an island of immigrants, from the Japanese colonizers who introduced raw fish and miso in the 1890s to the Chinese migrants fleeing communism in the 1950s, bringing with them regional Sichuan, Cantonese and Shanghai dishes. Chewology’s flavors cheerfully glide between all these influences and pull inspiration from several more. “People always ask me, ‘What is Taiwanese food?’” Liu-Sung says. “But it’s a melting pot, just like America. On our menu, we have a lot of differ-

ent regions, but it’s what we eat in Taiwan and it’s part of our culture. For me, moving across continents multiple times growing up, food was always what comforted me.” At its best, lu rou fan, a bowl of stewy pork over rice, is everything comfort food should be. Liu-Sung prepares skin-on pork belly in the tradition of Taiwan’s Hakka people—a long, patient braise with soy and fivespice—and serves it with her chili and kombu-pickled pineapple and McCormick’s crunchy pickled cabbage. Here, this dish is nourishing, uncomplicated and unforgettable. Chewology distinguishes itself with small details. Liu-Sung prefers brown short grain for the extra chew, and a patient cook with lots of water keeps her rice wonderfully plump. The raw ahi and soy-drenched jammy egg in the poke bowl are excellent partners, but it’s the rice that compels you to dig your chopsticks in again and again. Beef noodle soup is often regarded as Taiwan’s national dish, and at Chewology, fork-tender slices of beef shank float in a fragrant beef broth that is rich but not too decadent. On each of my four visits, someone recommended the dan dan noodles. I liked the just-right spice that tickled the back of my throat, but it’s the mushroom ramen I’m still thinking about: McCormick’s soulful dashi surrounds a fungi forest populated with shaggy lion’s mane, coral tooth and king oyster, and the squiggly noodles are perfectly al dente. At Chewology’s bao station, the team steams marshmallowy buns throughout the day. The gua bao—golden

brown slabs of pork belly braised in a funky, citrusy ponzu—scratches an itch you didn’t even know you had. The kaarage, with bites of juicy chicken thigh coated in an airy sweet potato flour and five spice batter, is an easy contender for Kansas City’s best chicken sandwich. Not everything works, not yet. A robust Hunan-style dry rub made of cumin, coriander and Szechuan pepper was powerful enough to distract, at first, from lamb ribs that clung to the bone with a sinewy might. And the only dessert—moon cakes from Shang Tea House in Crown Center—has been put on hold indefinitely. The cocktail program has hits and misses. Flavors in the Taipei 101 (a martini with Japanese gin and bee pollen) were excellent, but the coupes are oversized for the volume, and when the drink disappears in just a few swallows, you feel a little cheated. Go for the 823, an Old Fashioned riff with sesame oil-washed Rittenhouse whiskey that is as smooth as an Ang Lee film. This spring, Liu-Sung and McCormick hope to debut Chewology’s sister concept, Stray Kat. The idea has cycled through several iterations since the two began discussing it. They duo has landed on a pop-up dinner series where they can play with more adventurous dishes. In the meantime, there is plenty to explore on Chewology’s purposeful and concise menu. Start with the dumplings, order at least one bao and then—well, it only took four visits for me to try every dish. You could probably do it in two.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

TA S T E PER FECT DAY

Bryan Sparks and his partner, Hailey Allen, are transforming an iconic Waldo establishment. BY DA N I E L L E L E H M A N

chef Bryan Sparks found himself at a crossroads. His position as executive chef at Jax Fish House was on hold indefinitely, and with ongoing restaurant closures and layoffs across the city, Sparks recognized he needed to take his future into his own hands. With his partner, Hailey Allen, he launched Beloved on the Go, a chefdriven meal delivery service that uses locally sourced ingredients. As the business grew, Sparks searched for a permanent kitchen location where he and Allen could grow the business. As fate would have it, The Classic Cookie in Waldo was up for sale. They jumped on the opportunity to take over the restaurant space to support the meal delivery business while also reopening and reinventing the cafe. AT T H E BEG I NNI NG O F THE PA NDE MIC ,

How do you plan to evolve the menu and concept at The Classic Cookie? The Classic Cookie is a small but strong mainstay in KC. It’s been around since 1992, and it’s been a humbling experience trying to refresh the space while not losing its identity. We’ve given our pastry chef, Logan Goff (formerly of Banksia) free rein to create whatever he wants. To start, we’ll be offering fresh-made danishes, hand pies, a few different types of bread (our sourdough starter is named Henrietta), baklava, small cakes, muffins and, of course, cookies. The idea behind the menu is to not overcomplicate it. Nothing fancy, nothing that involves tweezers. Just some really high-quality ingredients that we try not to fuck up. It looks like the interior of the space has changed quite a bit. What do you have in store for us? The remodel started out small, but as most remodels go, it quickly expanded into almost a full gutting of the dining room. We are aiming to be lighter, brighter and fresher while still making it feel cozy. Local art, family pictures, recipes on the wall,

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

What does this mean for your meal delivery service? Beloved will still be operating out of the kitchen during the hours The Classic Cookie is closed, and we plan on ramping up the catering portion of Beloved as well. Future collaborations might include a rotating weekend dinner pop-up in the space and potentially a liquor license for all of the mimosa drinkers. Beloved was our first baby—it was what started all of this. There’s a lot we can do with The Classic Cookie, but at the end of the day, we still have to stay within a framework that was established

over the past thirty years. We also have the “Food for All” initiative, where we partner with local nonprofits to feed as many people as we can to try to put a dent into food insecurity in our community. That’s still important to us. What’s your most popular option, and what’s your craziest flavor? The honey-dip, made with real honey, is one of our most popular doughnuts. The pineapple fritter with pina colada glaze might be the craziest.

KC FAVO R I T E S Shopping Style “I’d start with a visit to ULAH for sure. Buck and Joey have an amazing eye and can help even the most fashionably inept (me) look good! They also have a candle and hand soap line, which is almost always in my house. ” Sweat Sesh “2020FIT helps keep my dad bod at bay. The coaches are amazing, the facility is top-notch. Jon, the owner, truly cares about everyone at his gym.” A Flawless Dinner “Corvino. I mean, it’s consistently perfect, which is hard to do in the best of times, let alone nowadays. Every detail, every menu item, is perfection. Michael and Christina Corvino are definitely a couple we look up to.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY NATALEA BONJOUR

SPRINKLES & GRIT

real plants everywhere and small details like USB outlets all over the place.

Moving Health Care Forward By Revolutionizing Care Today At AdventHealth, we’re using the technology of tomorrow to stay well ahead today. From a pacemaker the size of a vitamin, to cancer treatments that reduce recovery time from days to minutes, we’re elevating care in ways never before thought possible. Stay well ahead at AdventHealth.com.

TA S T E M EDICI N E

BON VOYAGE Christopher Elbow’s cannabis-infused chocolates are a nice splurge for medical marijuana patients. BY PAT R I C K M O O R E

has been making some of the city’s best chocolate bars and bonbons since 2003. In 2020, he asked the important question: “What if we put weed in them?” Elbow has partnered with Clovr to create THC-infused chocolate bars and special versions of his famous bonbons— they’re just as pretty as the bonbons that made Elbow famous, but they’ll get card-carrying Missouri medical marijuana patients high. The medicated bonbons come in a variety of flavors including salted vanilla caramel, creme brulee, citrus caramel, Italian espresso caramel and pumpkin spice. Each bonbon contains ten milligrams of THC, and they are typically sold two per box. I remember buying them in four-packs earlier in the year, but maybe that never happened and I was just high. Either way, a two-piece box will run you $16—they’re available at many local dispensaries. I tried the pumpkin spice flavor, and they were delightful. It was like an autumn gusher exploding in my mouth. I could eat a dozen more, but, sadly, my medical marijuana allotment and checking account prevent this dream from becoming a reality. If you’re a heavy edible consumer, then twenty milligrams CHRISTOPHER ELBOW

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

doesn’t do a lot. But it did provide me with a very mellow and pleasant high. They didn’t make me wanna lay down and think about every bad decision I’ve ever made, which can happen. If edibles aren’t really your bag, then start with one and wait at least an hour before eating the other in the pack. These are a little pricey for the dosage, and you can find many less expensive edibles, even in the “fine cocoa” class. These are a special treat— perhaps a Valentine’s Day gift. My mom really wants to try them. It’s Christopher Elbow’s fault my mom wants to experiment with drugs. Sadly, my mom lives in Kansas, so she’s out of luck unless she can find a less scrupulous patient to share.

TA S T E B I T E S

Pizza Tascio

NEWSFEED

WHAT’S NEW IN KANSAS CITY FOOD & DRINK Hole Story

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY RESPETIVE VENUES. BUCK TUI PHOTO BY SHAWN BRACKBILL

New Nork The Northland has new New York pizza with a pedigree thanks to Pizza Tascio (1111 Burlington St., North Kansas City). The project comes from Erik Borger, who is wellknown to Kansas City pizza geeks as the founder of Il Lazzarone, home of some of the city’s top Neapolitan pies. Borger grew up in the Hudson Valley, just north of New York City, before moving to St. Joseph, Missouri, where Borger’s father was in pharmaceuticals. “Being from New York, pizza has always been the highlight of life,” Borger says. “We could get the local pizzeria’s pizza instead of school lunch in elementary school. It was just ingrained in life. Coming out here, it was a culture shock.” Pizza Tascio pies are a return to Borger’s roots—and his chance to perfect a new style. “I never mastered New Yorkstyle, I’m going to be honest with you,” he says. You can see Borger’s pizza-nerd bonafide in the detailes like the tomatoes he’s using—California-grown San Marzanos from a farm run by Phoenix pizza king Chris Bianco. “Going into this, I just wanted to make the best New York pizza anywhere,” Borger says. “I spent a year on the crust. I went through every hydration level. I went through every different flour on the market, every different tomato on the market. Honestly, I couldn’t find anything better than the Bianco.” Also of note in the Northland: Wolfepack BBQ has opened just down the road, inside the brand new Callsign Brewing building (1340 Burlington St., North Kansas City). Read more on page 90.

Buck Starts Here The old Plowboys barbecue space in Johnson County (6737 W. 75th St., Overland Park) won’t sit empty for long. Buck Tui barbecue will be opening on 75th Street “soon,” owner Teddy Liberda announced via Instagram. Plowboys barbecue announced its closure around the start of the new year, joining Brookside Poultry as one of two high-profile closures at the end of the year. Owner Todd Johns told Kansas City that “staffing has been a big challenge” during the pandemic and that closing his third local spot (there’s also one in Nebraska) made sense in order to keep quality high. Meanwhile, Buck Tui’s opening at another location, just south of the I-435 loop, has been long delayed by what the post described as “crazy pandemic setbacks.” Buck Tui is a Thai-influenced barbecue spot that landed at number nine on our list of the ten best in the city back in October.

Mornings got a little sweeter in south Overland Park with the mid-January opening of Daylight Donuts (14852 Metcalf Ave., Overland Park). Daylight is nut-free, meaning you can buy a dozen doughnuts for the school or office where someone has an allergy. It’s also making unique, letter-shaped frosted doughnuts so you can deliver a message in delicious fried dough. There’s also a very impressive tea menu for a doughnut shop, including matcha lattes and masala.

Met Mitch The long-awaited Johnson County restaurant from Char Bar co-owner Mitch Benjamin is finally open. Meat Mitch (3620 W. 95th St., Leawood) took over a massive six thousand-squarefoot spot on the northern side of Ranchmart. Benjamin, who has promoted his projects by courting attention from Barstool Sports boss Dave Portnoy and former Royals great George Brett, told the Kansas City Star that the new spot is “the next step of the evolution of my brand.” The new restaurant already has hats, hoodies and branded Yeti tumblers for sale, along with “sixteen-hour smoked Black Angus handcarved brisket” and vegetarian smoked jackfruit.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

TA S T E ’CU E C A R D

SMOKING THAT WOLFE PACK There’s a new live-fire barbecue pit at Callsign Brewing in the Northland promising everything from potstickers to pot pie. BY M A R T I N C I Z M A R

ARED

WOLFE’S

ORIGINAL

was to call his barbecue pit Lone Wolfe. That, he quickly came to feel, would be living a lie. “I didn’t feel like it was a good fit, to be honest,” he says. “I definitely learned I cannot do this myself, and I’ve built a team around me. It’s not a small feat to try and do this. I’ve learned that if I didn’t have the support I do, there’s no way I could do this.” And so the solitary Lone Wolfe evolved into the more humble and cooperative Wolfepack, a just-launched barbecue operation at the massive new

PLAN

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

Callsign Brewing space on Burlington Street in North Kansas City. It’s a livefire pit where prime Creekstone brisket and heritage-breed pork will be cooked over oak and hickory, with no gas assist. Wolfe’s operation is in the pop-up phase now, but it will expand into a standing space soon—Wolfe is building his own thousand-gallon offset smoker from an old propane tank. Wolfe is thirty-two and a lifelong resident of Platte City, north of the airport. In his mid-twenties, he was working as a salesman for an automation company, which meant being on the road all the time. “It took a toll on me,” he says. “I had to make a decision. I figured

I’m young enough now; I’m going to chase my passion for the next three or four years.” That meant barbecue, which he’d learned about by hanging out with buddies on the competition scene and doing a little judging. He found himself adapting his sales gig to his passion by targeting clients in the barbecue belt. His conversion came from a spot you don’t hear mentioned much by fellow craft barbecue, the charcoal-grilled racks at Rendezvous in Memphis. “I was a rib guy,” he says. “I hated Kansas City brisket. It was shaved and always dry to me—I just didn’t like it growing up.” After being bit by the ’cue bug, Wolfe took a job as the pitmaster at Scott’s Kitchen near the airport, one of the region’s elite but oft-overlooked spots. He worked at Jousting Pigs, too, then moved on to help at Fox & Fire, which was at Callsign for years before moving up to Kearny early last fall. If that sounds like a lot of pitmasters swapping spaces and knowledge, it’s because that’s how Wolfe sees “the new wave” of barbecue going. “It’s almost becoming like the beer scene,” he says. “Everyone’s helping everyone else.” Callsign Brewing just moved into a massive new 33,000-square-foot space, where there will eventually be two food spots. Wolfepack will be on the sell-out model and make only what they know they can serve fresh. Presently, they’re operating as a pop-up with inside seating in the brewery. Look for a proper restaurant operation open inside the brewery sometime this summer: They’re shooting for May or June, but given delays in everything right now, it might be the Fourth of July. At Wolfepack, you can expect housemade pickles and sauce and a steady stream of innovative ’cue-based cuisine. Among the offerings planned are potstickers, pot pie and Wagyu hot dogs from KC Cattle Co. “There are twenty different ways to make a potato salad—why not have some fun?” Wolfe says. “We’re going to keep pumping out fresh stuff, and we’re going to have fun with it. We want it to be an experience every time.”

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Vestana Von Achen Ahlen · Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC

David Edward Enenbach · Enenbach & Associates Financial Consultants

Brian Nelson Kaufman · Prairie Capital Management Group

Michael George O’Neill · Mariner Wealth Advisors

Mark Sterling Allison · FCI Advisors

Dwight James Ensminger · Wells Fargo Advisors

Stewart S. Koesten · Aspyre Wealth Partners

Jeff Brendon Otto · FCI Advisors

Matthew David Starkey · Aspyre Wealth Partners

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David Gregory Pacer · Infinitas

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Matthew Ryan Thompson · Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC

Stuart Carlton Berkley · FCI Advisors Victoria Marie Bogner · McDaniel Knutson Financial Partners Jamie Sue Botts · Wells Fargo Advisors Idonna Lucile Bragg · Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC Christopher Winfield Briley · Morgan Stanley Ryan Wayne Brooke · Searcy Financial Michael Eugene Brun · Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC Brent A. Caswell · Infinitas Sandra Lynn Chism · Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. John Paul Chladek · Chladek Wealth Management Don Caldwell Clark · LPL Financial Scott Patrick Connors · LPL Financial Charles Sherwood Cooper III · Strongbox Wealth Jessica Ann Culpepper · Creative Planning Chad Michael Davis · Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC

Christopher W. Ferguson · Visionary Wealth Advisors Brett Michael Flood · LPL Financial Austin Wesley Gates · Morgan Stanley Clark Stevens Gay · Visionary Wealth Advisors Ken Arthur Gilpin · Sound Investments Bruce Wayne Glenn · Infinitas Stephanie Lyn Guerin · The Planned Approach Brian Lee Heithoff · Mariner Wealth Advisors Kevin Hennessy · Money Concepts Capital Scott R. Herz · Infinitas Kelly Jeanne Hokanson · The Planned Approach James Clay Horlacher · First Affirmative Financial Network Kyle Richard Hummer · Morgan Stanley Eric Dane Jones · Creative Planning

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Jeffrey Alan Nelson · Lincoln Financial Advisors

Steven Bradley Seiler · Wells Fargo Advisors

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When you decide to hire a wealth manager, feel confident knowing that their services will be hands-on and inclusive, fitting to your specific needs.

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, Certified finanCial Planner™ and federally registered CFP (with plaque design) in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements. The Chartered Financial Consultant® credential [ChFC®] is a financial planning designation awarded by The American College. The Five Star Wealth Manager award, administered by Crescendo Business Services, LLC (dba Five Star Professional), is based on 10 objective criteria. Eligibility criteria – required: 1. Credentialed as a registered investment adviser or a registered investment adviser representative; 2. Actively licensed as a registered investment adviser or as a principal of a registered investment adviser firm for a minimum of 5 years; 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by Five Star Professional, the wealth manager has not; A. Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; B. Had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or Five Star Professional’s consumer complaint process. Unfavorable feedback may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through Five Star Professional’s consumer complaint process; feedback may not be representative of any one client’s experience; C. Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; D. Filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; E. Been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; F. Been convicted of a felony); 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards; 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation criteria – considered: 6. One-year client retention rate; 7. Five-year client retention rate; 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; 9. Number of client households served; 10. Education and professional designations. Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. Award does not evaluate quality of services provided to clients. Once awarded, wealth managers may purchase additional profile ad space or promotional products. The Five Star award is not indicative of the wealth manager’s future performance. Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their client’s assets. The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by Five Star Professional or this publication. Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by Five Star Professional in the future. For more information on the Five Star award and the research/selection methodology, go to fivestarprofessional.com. 1,670 Kansas City-area wealth managers were considered for the award; 128 (8% of candidates) were named 2022 Five Star Wealth Managers. 2021: 1,678 considered, 118 winners; 2020: 1,579 considered, 115 winners; 2019: 1,574 considered, 134 winners; 2018: 1,387 considered, 119 winners; 2017: 952 considered, 212 winners; 2016: 880 considered, 216 winners; 2015: 1,572 considered, 201 winners; 2014: 785 considered, 176 winners; 2013: 766 considered, 203 winners; 2012: 676 considered, 200 winners.

LEARN MORE AT FIVESTARPROFESSIONAL.COM — F S - 8

T H E S C E N E T H E M O S T WA N T E D AU C T I O N

The Scene HAPPENINGS IN KANSAS CITY

Big Brothers Big Sisters KC Most Wanted Auction The Most Wanted Auction is Big Brothers Big Sisters’ largest fundraiser of the year, and this year was no exception. Annually, a class of dynamic, charitable, passionate, hard-working professionals are chosen to be honored as KC’s Most Wanted. Together, they helped raise over $1.2 million for the nonprofit. Guests enjoyed live music, entertainment, inspiring mission moments and incredible, once-in-a-lifetime, live and silent auction packages.

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

KANSASCITYMAG.COM FEBRUARY 2022

TH E S C E N E N Y E PA RT Y

NYE Party at Power & Light For more than thirteen years, NYE Live! has been the biggest and best New Year’s Eve party in Kansas City. This year, Tom’s Town Distilling Co. sponsored the festivities as partygoers celebrated the night away and toasted the city’s most anticipated countdown to midnight, complete with a Times Square ball drop. Earlier this year, the Kansas City Power & Light District announced a partnership with Tom’s Town, making them the official gin of the District. Tom’s Town will be available throughout the district at No Other Pub, Mosaic, Shark Bar, PBR Big Sky, McFadden’s, Pizza Bar, Guy’s Dive and in the KC Live! Living Room. Specialty game-day cocktails featuring Tom’s Town will be available during Chiefs watch parties all season long.

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

COMING IN MARCH, 2022

We Want to Feature Your Spring Event Kansas City’s calendar is filled with activities to help you find your fun in 2022. We want to partner with you to feature your event inside the pages of Kansas City magazine. Whether it’s a gala, festival or any other celebration, let us help you promote what you have planned and you’ll stand out amongst the variety of events this spring.

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SURREAL ESTATE T H E S TO R I E S B E H I N D K A N S A S C I T Y ’ S M O S T E Y E - C ATC H I N G B U I L D I N G S

FLOWER POWER The story behind the world’s most extravagant self-storage facility

Although no one is quite sure what the large, looming cylinder structure just off the 75th Street exit on I-35 in Lenexa is supposed to be, it can’t be missed. According to a blog post published by the Johnson County Library, brothers Harry and Melvin Eisen originally commissioned the structure for their family business, House of Fabrics. They wanted to give their new corporate headquarters “an identity.” For approximately fifty years, the structure has dominated its surrounding environment and puzzled passersby. Is it meant to be a crown or an abstract sheaf of wheat or a spool of thread? None of the above. The brothers, who had secured an industrial bond from the city of Lenexa for more than $3 million, bought the property on Lenexa Drive and went about building their headquarters. They wanted the huge structure to be practical but also a bit grand. Like a corset, the lofty circular foyer is created by large, evenly spaced cement columns that rise well above the rest of the two-story structure and bend out toward the top. Harry called the forms “flower petals” that were created for “aesthetic purposes.”

KANSAS CITY FEBRUARY 2022

Built in the late sixties, the majority of the 208,000-square-foot building is nondescript, created to consolidate the warehouses and offices for House of Fabric and its parent company, Eisen Mercantile. Abraham Eisen, a Russian immigrant, started the mercantile business as a dry goods store on Walnut Street in Kansas City. In 1939, his sons took it over, and in the 1950s they opened a sewing and fabric business. By 1968, the singular sewing shop had grown to more than a hundred franchises in twen-

ty-two states, including thirty-four storefronts in Missouri and Kansas. The business was sold to Gamble-Skogmo, Inc., and Eisen Mercantile moved out of its Lenexa location. Lee Jeans moved in, then moved out. At the moment, a self-storage company, among several other businesses, calls the locale home. Various businesses have inhabited the space over the years, but the original inlaid-tiled Eisen Mercantile logo still adorns the foyer, another statement long outlasting the business that made it. —DAWNYA BARTSC H

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS MULLINS

H E PO I NT WAS TO MA KE A STATEM EN T—A ND IT WO RKE D.

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February 2022: Where is Angela Green

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