November 21: Makers Issue by Kansas City Magazine

CU RRY GOAT AT STAN D OU T N E W JAMA ICAN R ESTAURA N T

ART YOU CAN WEAR & other LOCAL goods from

34 MAKERS in the heart of the country

P RI C E OF PR OT EST T H RE E LOCAL R ESTAU R ANTS TH AT D E F I E D COV I D SAFET Y M EAS U R ES

N O C OVE RS M AKI NG S PACE FOR O R I G I NAL JA ZZ

Someone is accidentally injured every second

Schedule online at GetInQuickERKC.com. In case of a life-threatening emergency, call 911

That’s why our ER experts stand ready 24/7 to care for you. Unexpected moments happen. When they do, you can trust that AdventHealth’s ER experts are ready to safely care for you at four locations throughout Johnson County. And, we’ve made it easy to schedule a non-life-threatening emergency room visit online so you can wait in the comfort of home and arrive at a time convenient for you.

YOUR PATH HOME BEGINS WITH MALFER & ASSOCIATES

Tomahawk Trails

Hallbrook

We believe in delivering end-to-end expert service that treats your goals as if they were our own. Your new home should be connected to your goals, your dreams and your ideal community. Our many services and offerings include: staging, robust marketing, and the exclusive Compass Concierge* program, ensure that every path leads to success.

13905 S SUMMERTREE LANE $280,000

Oak Meyer Gardens

Indian Hills

2916 W 113TH STREET $2,650,000

6855 CHERRY STREET $395,000

3838 W 64TH STREET $2,800,000

*From staging to renovation, we can leverage our exclusive Compass Concierge program to prepare your home for the market with zero upfront costs or interest. Malfer & Associates is a team of real estate agents affiliated with Compass Realty Group, a licensed real estate broker and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdrawal without notice. Photos may be virtually staged or digitally enhanced and may not reflect actual property

FEATURING ON BROADWAY ROOFTOP EVENT SPACE

913.800.1812 | MALFERKC.COM

LEG PAIN CAN BE AN EARLY WARNING. LISTEN TO IT. Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) is a silent disease that affects over 12 million Americans and can result in limb amputation and shortened life expectancy. The experts at Modern Vascular have helped thousands of patients save their limbs and lives using minimally-invasive, outpatient procedures. Early intervention is critical.

Modern Vascular of Kansas City 5320 College Blvd. Overland Park, KS 66211 Dr. Juan Carlos Correa Vascular Surgeon and Managing Physician

Determine your risk for PAD. Visit ModernVascular.com to take the PAD Quiz or call 1-866-4PADHELP Telehealth consultations available.

800.862.6670

Your Story. ® Our Focus. Member FDIC

UMB Private Wealth Management You’ve worked hard to get where you are, and your earnings reflect that. But there’s more to your story. That’s why our experienced advisors take time to get to know you – your plans, philosophies, and values. We then tailor strategies not just to meet your financial goals, but to help write your next chapter.

UMB.com/PrivateWealth Investment Management Services and Securities are: NOT FDIC-INSURED NO BANK GUARANTEE MAY LOSE VALUE

SEND THEM TO PRISON Walk the same halls as notorious prisoners, listen to the FASCINATING stories of former staff members, and unlock 168 years of history. Tour season: March – November JEFFERSON CITY, MO

lock up your gift card at

MISSOURIPENTOURS.COM

OUR MISSION

We love Kansas City like family. We know what makes it great, we know how it struggles, and we know its secrets. Through great storytelling, photography and design, we help our readers celebrate our city’s triumphs, tend to its faults and revel in the things that make it unique.

PUBLISHER

Kathy Boos kathy@kansascitymag.com EDITOR IN CHIEF

Martin Cizmar martin@kansascitymag.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Mary Henn mary@kansascitymag.com EDITORIAL INTERN

Shayla Gaulding

ART DIRECTOR

Katie Henrichs katie@kansascitymag.com SENIOR DESIGN CONSULTANT

Julie Babcock julie@kansascitymag.com DESIGN INTERNS

Natalea Bonjour

COPY EDITOR

Kelsie Schrader SALES

Melanie Bremer melanie@kansascitymag.com Angie Henshaw angie@kansascitymag.com Kyzer Ramey kyzer@kansascitymag.com WRITERS

Dawnya Bartsch, Nina Cherry, Megan Folmsbee, Lauren Fox, Natalie Torres Gallagher, Nicole Kinning, Danielle Lehman, Kayla Szymanski, Susie Whitfield PHOTOGRAPHERS & ILLUSTRATORS

Caleb Condit, Joanna Gorham, Joshua Haines, Kim Horgan, Samantha Levi, Rebecca Norden

SUBSCRIPTIONS

INQUIRIES

kansascitymag.com/subscribe or call 913-469-6700

Kansas City

Kansas City magazine is published monthly by 435 South, LLC. No part of this publication can be reprinted or reproduced without the publisher’s permission. Kansas City magazine assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Kansas City magazine adheres to American Society of Magazine Editors guidelines, which requires a clear distinction between editorial content and paid advertising or marketing messages.

OVERLAND PARK • KANSAS CITY NORTH

LOCKSANDPULLSKC.COM

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

P.O. Box 26823 Overland Park, KS 66225-6823 (913) 469-6700

kansascitymag.com

@kansascitymag @kansascitymagazine

Answers: B, B, A, C

The Facts: 1 in 8 women living in the U.S. will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. When breast cancer is detected early, the 5-year survival rate is 99%. Your biggest risk factors for developing breast cancer are simply being a woman and growing older.

Early Detection Saves Lives. You do not need an order for your screening mammogram. Schedule online, call, or walk in to one of our nine metro locations today! At Diagnostic Imaging Centers, we remain centered on you and are continuing to follow CDC Guidelines at all nine of our locations to keep you safe.

www.dic-KC.com

913-344-9989

NOVEMBER 2021

60 MAKERS

Winnebago Wonder

Electo-Eighties

Bonjour Bistro

A lakehouse gets a classic styling with exposed wood and effortless light fixtures.

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

After a 20-year hiatus, DJ Ray Velasquez is returning to local airwaves.

A European-style cafe with a French accent arrives in Midtown.

PHOTOGRAPHY OF TAYLOR TRIANO BY CALEB CONDIT AND REBECCA NORDEN

Local hand-made products we love

The Luxury Division at Compass The Luxury Division at Compass was developed to elevate the level of support, enhance the aesthetic of marketing elements, and embolden the presence of exclusive properties. Through the Luxury Division, Compass agents are granted access to an extensive suite of integrated offerings geared toward creating intricate yet impactful exposure for luxury listings within the marketplace. From the preparation, to the promotion, and the ultimate sale of a luxury property, all aspects are curated to meet the standard luxury commands. Call Brimacombe & Cohen to learn more about the Luxury Division at Compass!

Brimacombe & Cohen 913.269.1740 brimacombecohen@compass.com

Rules & Exclusions apply. Compass offers no guarantee or warranty of results. Subject to additional terms and conditions.

Compass Realty Group is a licensed real estate broker and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdrawal without notice. Photos may be virtually staged or digitally enhanced and may not reflect actual property conditions.

In This Issue NOVEMBER 2021

S WAY

T H E LO O P

Moo-ving Around

KC cows, where are they now?

TA S T E

Cowtown Denim

Local designer puts her own spin on the patterned pants trend.

Healing in Numbers

Paul Dorrell celebrates 30 years on the KC art scene.

44 24

Donut Debate

Wild Weeds

Did Covid culture wars destroy local businesses?

Kansas prairies face a bigger threat than you might expect.

Freshwater Home

Wood trusses and chandeliers make for a light and classic lakehouse.

E V E RY I S S U E

16 Editor’s Letter 31 Calendar

C U R RY G OAT AT STA N D O U T N E W JA M A I CA N R E STAU R A N T

P R I C E OF P R OTEST T H R E E LO CA L R E STAU R ANTS T HAT D E F I E D C OV I D SAF E T Y M E AS U R E S

36 Backbeat

N O COV ER S M AK I NG S PACE FOR OR I G I NAL JAZZ

11.2021

O N TH E C OVE R

MAKERS ISSUE | HERD OF COWS

ART YOU CAN WEAR & other LOCAL goods from

34 MAKERS in the heart of the country

Whitney Manney in her studio photographed by Caleb Condit and Rebecca Norden.

kansascitymag.com

96 Backstory SPECIAL SECTIONS

54 Give KC 84 Holiday Gift Guide

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

Forget jerk chicken, try this beloved Jamaican dish.

French Find

Beer Branding

’Cue Card

Super Soda

How your Enneagram number could be a therapy tool

Art Anniversary

Coco-Curry Goat

A new old-style European cafe with French cuisine

Frank Norton is the creative genius behind several iconic beers.

Lueck’s is expanding to a massive spot out south.

Draft cocktails from scratch-made soda

Newsfeed

The latest in KC food news

Private.

Gated.

E x t r a o r d i n a r y.

O ffered at $1,625,000 16403 W. Lo ch L l o yd Par kw ay, Lo c h L lo yd , M O 6 4 0 1 2 4 B e d room I 4+ B athro o m I 3 Car G arag e Star r H o m es

r e a l e s t a t e @ l o c h l l o y d. c o m | ( 8 1 6 ) 3 3 1 - 9 5 0 0 | Lo c h L l o y d. c o m

FROM THE EDITOR

C O N T R I B U TO R S

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

Danielle Lehman WRITER

Our Perfect Day stories are written by local food scene insider Danielle Lehman, who is involved in projects too numerous to list but which do include the Open Belly podcast.

Mary Henn EDITOR

New Associate Editor Mary Henn, a native Northlander who comes to Kansas City magazine after finishing her MFA at UMKC, headed up this month’s feature package.

Taylor Triano ARTIST

This month’s feature opens with a custom banner by local artist Taylor Traiano, owner of Commonwild Flag Co. Her work is seen all over Kansas City and the country, including a massive flag at Wrigley Field.

MARTIN CIZMAR ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID BABCOCK CONTRIBUTOR ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOANNA GORHAM

ntil October, I hadn’t been to a First Friday since the pandemic began. But on a perfect fall night, I went down to the Crossroads to listen to a DJ featured in this month’s magazine. DJ Ray Velasquez’s set was great—he’s an icon in the electronic music world for a reason—but that’s not what stuck with me. Rather, it was all the artistic energy pulsing along 18th Street. On one corner, a brass band was playing outside a brewery. Graffiti artists were at work. Three other DJs had set up their turntables between where I had parked and Mod Gallery. They say that behind all the barbecue smoke and chopping Chiefs fans, Kansas City is a city of artists. And on that night, it sure felt like it. This month’s feature package about thirty-four makers in the city also presents a pretty compelling case. Associate Editor Mary Henn led a team of contributors who combed the city to pick local artists and artisans who make amazing pieces, mostly by hand and mostly right here. From a laid-off advertising exec making stylish, sustainable blankets to a woman who was looking to fix her own dining room table and instead developed a brand of resin charcuterie boards that will steal the show at any holiday party, you’ll probably be surprised and impressed by just how many talented people in town are making super-cool, one-of-a-kind products. As we warm up for the holiday shopping season, we’re hoping that this package inspires our readers to dig into the scene and do some of their seasonal buying with these folks instead of on Amazon. When you keep your money in the community, it can do wonders. Making space for the arts ended up being a theme that runs throughout this issue, from a look at the dry-aged CowParade statues still grazing around town to a documentary filmmaker working to tell the story of Lincoln Prep’s resurgent football team to a jazz scene standout who’s banned standards from nights that celebrate local innovation in the genre. And, along with that featured profile of DJ Ray Velasquez, we’ve got an interview with art world leader Paul Dorrell, who’s celebrating thirty years with the Leopold Gallery. In that interview, Dorrell said something that stuck with me while working on this issue: “Nothing can compare to this time culturally—Kansas City’s greatest strength is its visual arts.” That’s a bold statement, but there’s certainly a case to be made. Here’s hoping that this month’s Makers feature will help you find your Martin Cizmar way around those arts and have an exchange EDITOR IN CHIEF MARTIN@KANSASCITYMAG.COM that makes your life a little richer.

ESCAPE TO THE GREAT OUTDOORS CAMP LONG CREEK AT BIG CEDAR LODGE

866.568.3561

| bigcedar.com

COURTIER

NUMBERS FROM THIS ISSUE

Hours Morgan Isern spends making one custom embroidery creation. PA GE 74

1884

Year the oldest building in Belton was built. PA GE 93

55,400 The normal flow, in cubic feet per second, of the Missouri River in Kansas City. On the night of the 1977 flood, that much water ran down Brush Creek. PA GE 96

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

S H O U T- O U T

BEST BBQ

Our October issue featured our list of the ten best barbecue restaurants in Kansas City right now, as selected by our team. To make the list, we visited dozens of restaurants over the past few months to flesh out our experiences at pretty much every spot in town. Our list leaned heavily into a diverse and exciting new crop of spots. We offered readers their money back if they’d already been to all ten spots on our list. That offer went unclaimed. I’m hungry now... thank you!!! I didn’t see burnt ends mentioned—one of my favorite menu items. And those fries at Joe’s are THE best!! —Cindy Weber

in your long list of accomplishments. Thanks also to Michael Crane and Christopher Meyers for changing our lives with the best BBQ in town. —Dave Thurman

I have to disagree with this assessment. Brobeck’s Barbeque puts most of these to shame. Go try it. —Mari Gronau

I tried Chef J a few weeks ago. I was amazed at how good it was. Cool to see how much love they are getting so quickly. —Jackinkc on Reddit

I’ve only been to half of the top ten. Gonna have to pick up my game. —John Stuerke Yikes! Things have changed a lot since I moved. I’ve only heard of two of these! Will have to try the others on a future visit! —Lisa Zumbrunn Medrano Harp Barbecue #1 yet again. If you haven’t tried it yet, you owe yourself a treat. Congratulations to Tyler Harp, Bob Harp, Tony Kemp and the entire Harp team for another

“

Kansas City has always been a melting pot of styles, and let’s be real, the Texas-style brisket is way better than the thin-sliced stuff that’s been prevalent here. That said, Harp and Chef J both have non-Texan menu items. Don’t think of it as “oh no, Texas is taking over” and more like “we are integrating the best of all styles while still having the mental capacity to do more than one meat.” —RSpil on Reddit

Hey, we have a podcast! It’s called Kansas City’s Only Podcast and it’s available everywhere you get podcasts.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Photographer Samantha Levi and Art Director Katie Henrichs rearrange furniture and fluff pillows on set while shooting Marissa Miller’s cow-print jeans.

Kansas City

P.O. Box 26823 Overland Park, KS 66225-6823 (913) 469-6700 EMAIL: editor@kansascitymag.com

When I got to Nigeria, I’m like, ‘This is a big version of Jamaica.’ It’s all the same, and I want to be able to bring this culture to people in Kansas City.” —TANYECH YARBROUGH, CHEF-OWNER OF WAH GWAN, TALKS ABOUT THE ROOTS OF HER RECIPES AT A STANDOUT NEW JAMAICAN RESTAURANT WITH NIGERIAN TOUCHES.

MARINER

WEALTH ADVISORS RANKE D

TOP FIVE

NATIONALLY RANKED. LOCALLY BASED. Mariner Wealth Advisors has been nationally ranked in the top five RIA Firms from 2016 - 2020 by Barron’s. While we are thrilled with this recognition, we believe the true measure of our success is helping our clients arrive at their financial destination.

Because putting clients first isn’t just our motto – it’s our mission.

Why not have a conversation with a top-ranked firm? 913-647-9700 | www.marinerwealthadvisors.com 5700 W. 112th St., Suite 200, Overland Park, KS 66211 *Barron’s awarded the 2020 #5, 2019 #4 and 2018 #3 Top RIA Firms rankings to Mariner Wealth Advisors based on data compiled for Mariner Wealth Advisors and the 2017 #2 and 2016 #1 rankings to Mariner Holdings based upon data compiled for Mariner Holdings’ registered investment adviser subsidiaries. The number of firms included in the rankings were: 20 (2016), 30 (2017), 40 (2018), 50 (2019) and 100 (2020). Barron’s publishes rankings based upon a number of criteria and the firms’ filings with the SEC were used to cross-check the data provided. The listing includes numbers of clients, employees, advisors, offices and state locations. The award is not indicative of future performance and there is no guarantee of future investment success. For additional information visit www.barrons.com. Mariner Wealth Advisors (“MWA”), is an SEC registered investment adviser with its principal place of business in the State of Kansas. Registration of an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training. MWA is in compliance with the current notice filing requirements imposed upon registered investment advisers by those states in which MWA maintains clients. MWA may only transact business in those states in which it is notice filed or qualifies for an exemption or exclusion from notice filing requirements. Any subsequent, direct communication by MWA with a prospective client shall be conducted by a representative that is either registered or qualifies for an exemption or exclusion from registration in the state where the prospective client resides. For additional information about MWA, including fees and services, please contact MWA or refer to the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website (www.adviserinfo.sec.gov). Please read the disclosure statement carefully before you invest or send money.

Sip, NOVEMBER Mingle 19 FRIDAY

Enjoy an evening shopping for high-quality, locally made goods while savoring delicious treats and drinks from our merchants.

Two One

holiday shopping events weekend at the Lenexa Public Market 8750 PENROSE LN., LENEXA, KS  LENEXAPUBLICMARKET.COM

H O L I D AY

kid makers

MARKET SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21 Celebrate and support the creative endeavors of local youth by purchasing their heartwarming, handcrafted gifts.

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

DEJA MOO As KC prepares for its next massive public arts project, we tracked down the cows of yore. BY L AU R E N F OX

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

THE LOOP DEJA MOO

As it turns out, having CowParade cows runs in the family. Batz’s mother-in-law has a Monet-themed CowParade cow at her home in Florida.

As KC steers toward the Parade of Hearts, we tracked down four legen-dairy cow statues.

E N C A S E Y ’ S C O W is always rooting for the home team. Depending on the season, the nearly lifesize heifer, in its yard south of the Plaza, switches its allegiance between the Chiefs and the Royals. The cow is not repainted every season. And it is not—as some people have supposed—two separate cows. Rather, Casey’s cow is split by side, half-Chiefs, half-Royals. Talk about milking a cow for all it’s worth. Twenty years ago, one of the city’s most notable public art projects came to town—in the form of hundreds of fiberglass bovines. Kansas City was one of the first locations worldwide to host a CowParade, and local artists, including designer Kate Spade, brought unique touches to the standing, grazing or reclining cows. Next year, a similar project will come to the city: A Parade of Hearts will appear in the Heartland. Original artwork created in the shape of the “KC heart” will be placed around Kansas City in early spring of 2022. Casey says his cow is a conversation starter and that “there’s always somebody slowing down and taking a picture” or stopping to talk. When people ask where he lives, Casey tells them there’s a cow in his yard “and they know right where it’s at,” he says.

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

Casey acquired the cow in the early 2000s from St. Teresa’s Academy, where he was working in maintenance. The cow originally had a clock design and was titled, “A Cow in Time Saves 9.” Casey says the clock motif didn’t speak much to him, so his son repainted it with the sports theme. Once, when the Chiefs blew a good game, Casey hid the cow. In its place, he put four pieces of white fourinch pipe in the ground and attached hooves to the ends, as though the cow had dropped dead. Here are the stories behind other landmark livestock. Moo Skies It was the spring of 2002 when a delivery man appeared on Tatia Batz’s front door and said, “We have a cow for you.” “I said, ‘What?’” Batz recalls. It was Moo Skies: a blue cow with white clouds who was originally stationed outside the KCK courthouse. Unbeknownst to Batz, her husband had bid on a CowParade cow in an online auction. He hadn’t realized he’d won until the cow appeared on their doorstep, and he received a call from his shocked wife. Her husband had grabbed an opportunity by the horns. Since that spring, Batz and I doher husband have kept the cow, and it now resides in their backyard. “You can usually see it as you come up Rockwell,” Batz says. But, “You’d have to be looking for it.”

Planter’s Cow If you’ve ever been asked to spot Dorothy in downtown Kansas City, she’s inside Planters Seed & Spice Co. It was about seven years ago that the River Market business acquired one of Kansas’ most famous characters—in cow form. Geoff Myer, manager at Planter’s, said the cow attracts a lot of attention. “In fact, some of these downtown businesses [have scavenger hunts] with their new trainees and employees and they’ll send them to find Dorothy,” Myer says. Dorothy originally belonged to friends of the owners of Planters. When they no longer wanted her, they suggested Dorothy move to the store. Now the cow, adorned in a painted-on blue gingham dress, pigtails and two sparkly red heels, sits behind the central window on display for all to appreciate. Plaza Library Cow After twenty years, the Plaza cow is right where it should be: in the children’s section of the Kansas City Public Library’s Plaza branch. April Roy, the library’s director of employee success, says she and the cow “go way back.” Roy and her coworker have both been with the library for sixteen years. The Plaza cow resided outside Commerce Bank on the Plaza for years, but when the Plaza Library had its grand reopening in 2005, Commerce Bank brought the cow over and put it in the children’s department. It’s been a treasured staple of the section since. “The cow is so popular and so beloved here that if it wasn’t their plan to leave it, I’m really glad it became their plan because this cow gets so much love,” Roy says. “Every kid that comes back here loves the cow and talks to the cow and pets the cow.” The Plaza cow gets so much love, in fact, that it becomes udderly dirty. An art restorer who once fixed the cow’s ear and gave it a cleaning said the cow was the dirtiest piece of art they had ever cleansed. The cow has been involved in many of the library’s events, and it always dresses the part. “She was dressed up like Elsa one time for a big winter festival we did,” Roy says. “Now, she’s got her mask on. She’s just really part of the culture of this library.”

WANT MORE KANSAS CITY ?

WE GOT YOU. LISTEN NOW TO OUR PODCAST

From sports to food to local events and everything in between, we cover the city’s hottest topics on our weekly Kansas City’s Only Podcast.

AVAILABLE ON APPLE PODCASTS, SPOTIFY OR WHEREVER YOU LISTEN TO YOUR PODCASTS.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

T H E L O O P C U LT U R E WA R S

THEIR HILL Three local restaurants became embroiled in the Covid culture wars—results varied. BY M A R T I N C I Z M A R

E L I S A A N D M A R J A I N B R E I T E N B A C H “hate politics.” The owners of Doughboys Donuts in Raytown wake up at 1 am to start their day so they can open before dawn stocked with Bismarks and red velvet cake doughnuts. Making doughnuts, they say, is enough to keep them busy on most days. “This doughnut business has been our life,” Marjain says. “We eat, sleep, drink this doughnut business. But everyone knows we’re conservative.” The Breitenbachs have been known to hang a political sign or two in their window, including one in August that said, “Stop importing COVID from Mexico, unmask truth.” “We wanted people to unmask the full problems plaguing the border,” says Elisa, who points to a long list of concerns. “The influx of illegal aliens is not the driving force in the Covid pandemic, but it does affect the total numbers.”

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

The sign set off a firestorm in Raytown, a blue-collar community that is diverse both racially and politically. Among those angered was Chris Meyers, owner of nearby Crane Brewing, who spoke up forcefully about the matter on social media and to local TV news crews. The battle turned personal. “Chris and I, I thought we were friends,” Elisa says. “He’s very liberal, I know, and I’m very conservative. I don’t hate liberals. I don’t hate people that are different than me.” Meyers says the couple “broke my heart.” “I used to love both of them dearly, and then slowly this behavior came to the surface,” he posted on Facebook. “These people blaming immigrants for Covid, who a year ago were blaming Chinese people using the same rhetoric that was getting Asians attacked.” Nearly two years into the pandemic, the battle in Raytown is one of many examples of a hard-working community fraying from media-driven divisiveness. In this era of extreme political polarization, small business owners have become embroiled in bitter fights. That’s especially true of restaurants, which have been hammered by lost customers, increased food prices and staffing shortages. In some cases, that tension has boiled over into symbolic stands that fuel the partisan outrage machine and leave relationships—and businesses—devastated in their wake. Here’s the story of three such fights in Kansas City. Doughboys Doughnuts The fight: Doughboys Donuts hung a sign that blamed blooming Covid numbers on immigrants crossing the southern border (no published scientific evidence supports this claim). The issue, Elisa says, isn’t about Mexicans—which is why they later edited the sign. “There are people from over one hundred and CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

A JULIAN RODROCK HOMES COMMUNITY

ENCLAVE & ESTATES $900K-$2 MILLION+ OPEN TO CUSTOM BUILDERS 9 NEW HOMES IN PROCESS

STONE CREEK $600K-$900K 6 NEW FURNISHED MODELS FINAL PHASE NOW OPEN

T H E L O O P C U LT U R E WA R S

fifty nations crossing that border,” she says. “I am fully supportive of closing the border, so I feel this is important.” The issue isn’t just academic to the Breitenbachs. The father of their two grandchildren was an undocumented Mexican immigrant, who the couple “paid thousands of dollars to help get legal.” In August, Doughboys had its busiest week ever because of the sign, then announced its closure due to an equipment failure. Elisa says it was the failure of the Coke machine. Online, Meyer, of the neighboring brewery, suggested otherwise in a detailed timeline of the events. Both Breitenbachs fell ill with Covid; Marjain being hospitalized. “I have one regret,” Elisa says. “The reason we got Covid is we went to a family function. We were celebrating two weddings. One of the younger nephews didn’t feel well but didn’t share that with any of us. Seven of us got sick. None of us called the others. People need to know to stay home if anyone feels the least bit sick and that if you do get sick tell anyone you were with. And people need to understand that when dealing with, Covid there’s all sorts of symptoms—we were just exhausted.” The aftermath: Doughboys was closed for six weeks while the Breitenbachs battled the illness and got back their strength. Today, they are reopened. They still oppose vaccines and the mask mandates but will comply with mask rules because they assume they’ll be under the microscope. “There were no masks at Chiefs games while Rae’s Cafe [see below] was being closed,” Marjain says. “They pick and choose what we can and cannot do, and it makes a difference who you are.” “We’ve got to perform and dance and do these jigs how they want,” Elisa says. Don Chilito’s Don Chilito’s is a fifty-year-old institution in Mission run by Barry Cowden, the second-generation owner. A Gadsden flag has flown from the top of the restaurant since March 2020. Cowden

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

made his opposition to the maks mandate public but never tangled with Johnson County about it. In September, Cowden announced he was retiring because the concept could use a refresh and it “needs a young guy with a lot of energy, and I don’t have that anymore.” The fight: Cowden, who takes issue with scientists who say that masks work, said he opposed the mask mandate, and the county asked him to enforce it. He declined. “They sent someone here to talk to me and ask me my position and I stated very clearly and calmly to them that it’s a violation of my rights,” he says. “And I never heard from them again.” The aftermath: Cowden says he gained customers and was sent letters and money from all over the country. In September, Cowden announced that he plans to retire to a farm west of Tonganoxie. He says he’s been approached by people who want to buy the restaurant, but he won’t sell it because it’s part of his family. “I gained customers—my opposition to mandates benefitted me,” he says. “I’m not sorry for anything I did. I’m proud of it and I would do it all again. I didn’t lose any relationships that were important to me. There were plenty of haters, but they weren’t my customers; they were the trolls.” Rae’s Cafe The fight: In Blue Springs, a restaurant named Rae’s lost a long battle with the Jackson County Health Department. Rae’s resistance to the mask order had been brewing since at least January, when the cafe’s owner, Amanda Wohletz, filmed a selfie-rant about masks and posted it to the business page. “I don’t personally believe the mask does shit, I’m gonna be honest with you—and it’s my Facebook page, so I can have my own opinion,” she says. “I don’t want to hear yours, by the way.”

In August, Wohletz hung a sign on the door stating that she would not enforce the county’s mask order. When given a small fine, Wohletz took the matter to the court of public opinion by appearing on television news. An outpouring of support from conservatives followed, with the restaurant drawing a line around the block. The county got a court order to shutter the restaurant. Wohletz took the matter to court. A GoFundMe was started to pay her legal fees. The page was removed by the site. The county prevailed in court. Wohletz re-opened as a private club with a $1 membership fee. The club had its own, single rule: Patrons were not allowed to wear a mask. The county had the club shut down again and then won in court again. The aftermath: Wohletz ignored an email and a phone call requesting comment. When reached by Facebook, she offered a critique of the grammar in this reporter’s message but refused further comment. In a Facebook post on what would have been the restaurant’s four-year anniversary, Wohletz wrote it “completely breaks my heart not to be open… because of a mask. “I made this decision and do take responsibility, but this has completely gone too far,” she wrote, using the broken heart and crying emojis.

ZIWI. Find Your Peak. ®

Whether you’re out in nature watching the sunrise together, or kayaking across the water, everyone is chasing a peak. And the wonderful thing is, no two peaks are the same. Fuel your pet’s next adventure with ZIWI® Peak, combining the best raw nutrition with the convenience of dry foods. So, what are you waiting for? ®

ZIWI. Find Your Peak.

D I S C O V E R M O R E AT Z I W I P E T S .C O M

THE LOOP PRAIRIE BLIGHTS

Kansas prairies are facing an unexpected threat: rival species of bluestem grass. BY S H AY L A G AU L D I N G

I F YO U L O O K O U T T H E W I N D O W while driving through the rolling expanses of the Flint Hills, you’ll see some of the best views Kansas has to offer—rolling hills full of native grasses and wildflowers that give the area its unique beauty. However, that beauty could soon be lost because of a subtle, unexpected and serious threat: Old World bluestem, an invasive species of grass that forms monocultures by overtaking the native species in a prairie. Yellow and Caucasian bluestems—the types of Old World bluestem now growing in Kansas— have been found in every county in the state, says Scott Marsh, the state’s invasive weeds specialist. Yellow and Caucasian bluestems look very similar to native bluestem grasses, making identification nearly impossible until the reddish-purple or white flowers of the invasive grasses emerge. “It’s quite an extensive problem,” Marsh says. “They’re both highly invasive species. They tend to take over large areas of prairie.” That takeover isn’t just about grass. The invasive grasses also support fewer insects, which leads to fewer songbirds and pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, that play a vital role in crop production. In addition to wreaking havoc on other crops, the grasses face little danger from animals such as cattle, who prefer to eat the native grasses, clearing up more space for the bluestems to grow. If allowed to continue spreading, the invasive grass could be disastrous for the bio-

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

“

We have a lot of work to do to try and control this species and hopefully eradicate them going forward.”

diversity of Kansas prairies and the livelihood of Kansas ranchers. “They are pretty much left to further expand and take over areas of forage that are palatable and reduce the value of pastures and prairies throughout the state,” Marsh says. Kansas was already home to various bluestem grasses long before the new bluestems—which are native to Eurasia, Africa and Australia—were introduced to the Plains. Old World bluestems were introduced to the United States in the early 1900s with the intention of helping control erosion on roadsides. Today, the grass is spreading over much of the Central and Southern Great Plains and into the Southwest, especially in areas where livestock are being raised, turning the native grasslands into large yellow patches of monocultures. “It spreads by seed mostly,” Marsh says. “In areas where the grass is mowed and baled for hay and then sold to other areas, seed can be transported with the plant.” Part of the reason the invasive grass was brought to the United States is also what makes it extremely hard to eradicate. The bluestems grow very well and quickly, and they can mostly withstand drought, cold, fire and substantial grazing. The Old World grasses can also chemically alter the soil they grow in, making it uninhabitable for native species. “The control options are fairly limited at this time,” Marsh says. Mowing and burning alone are not enough to keep the bluestems at bay, so the Department of Agriculture recommends those methods in conjunction with glyphosate and imazapyr herbicides, which may impact all species in an area, including non-target native species. “We have a lot of work to do to try and control this species and hopefully eradicate them going forward,” Marsh says. “Anyone not staying on top of the issue will just cause the problem to continue. All landowners need to be very aware of what is growing on their land and take what action is necessary to keep these under control.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIM HORGAN

THE NEW BLUE

YOU HAVE A BUSY SCHEDULE.

gorgeous cabin on table rock lake

YOU SHOULDN’ T HAVE TO WORK AROUND OURS.

Last Chance Summer!

2 BOAT

5 DOCKS WITH

2022 BENNINGTON

LAUNCHES

88 BOAT SLIPS

TRI-TOONS AVAILABLE

16 PERSON SALTWATER HOT TUB

SALTWATER POOL WITH KID’S WATER SLIDE AND PLAY PAD

FREE KAYAKS & PEDAL BOATS

LOCATIONS PRAIRIE VILL AGE 3975 WEST 83RD STREET PRAIRIE VILL AGE, KS LEAWOOD 13420 ROE AVENUE LEAWOOD, KS OVERL AND PARK 7575 WEST 150TH STREET OVERL AND PARK, KS OVERL AND PARK WEST 135TH STREET OL ATHE, KS

TIDECLEANERS.COM

PROUDLY

USING

OFF DRY CLEANING BOOK NOW at www.indianpoint.com | 417-739-3777

KC435MAG DISCLAIMER: OFFER VALID ONLY WHEN COUPON IS PRESENTED AT DROP-OFF. COUPON CAN ONLY BE FOR SERVICES SOLD AT PARTICIPATING TIDE CLEANERS LOCATIONS. IT CANNOT BE REDEEMED FOR ANY PRODUCT SOLD AT ANY OTHER RETAIL STORE. NOT VALID ON LAUNDRY, LEATHER, HOUSEHOLD ITEMS, WEDDING DRESSES OR ALTERATIONS. CANNOT BE USED WITH ANY OTHER DISCOUNT OR PROMOTION. ONE DISCOUNT PER HOUSEHOLD. OFFER VALID FOR ONE-TIME USE THROUGH 12/31/21.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

Christmastime In Hermann

t’s no secret there’s holiday magic in Hermann—Missouri’s “Most Beautiful Town.” The charming village and merry activities create a picturesque Christmastime experience you’re sure to cherish. Join us this winter for family-friendly concerts and activities. Shop for unique hand-made gifts and foods in the many boutiques, antique shops, and traditional German-style markets. Linger over a relaxed meal and local wine, beer, or spirits. Walk the quiet streets to enjoy the many murals and display windows under the twinkling lights. No matter what you do, there’s just something special about Christmastime in Hermann. After all, it’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Scan the QR code to start planning your holiday getaway at VisitHermann.com or call 573-789-0771

Plan your holiday getaway at VisitHermann.com

Supplies are limited Hurry! !*

Plus...

FREE admission 20% off programs SPECIA 10% off at the NEW Museum Store Special Exhibitions NOW...through JAN 8, 2022! Support amazing work

Renew or Join today!

www.JCPRD.com/Museum Museum

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

XHIBIT

Courtesy Bob Greenspan Photography

t e G

k c i e t r s ! e e r f a

Museum

JCPRD.COM/MUSEUM

ABELARDO MORELL COURTESY OF THE NELSON-ATKINS MUSEUM OF ART

WHERE YOU WANT TO BE IN NOVEMBER

November

GO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak St., KCMO. Free. Through April 25, 2022.

FILM AT 11

We live in the golden age of photographic manipulation—you’d be hard-pressed to click two links online without coming across an image that’s “shopped” to amuse, inform or misinform. So perhaps it’s natural that high-end illusory imagery gets the gallery treatment at the Nelson-Atkins with Art of Illusion: Photography and Perceptual Play. The show was curated by April Watson, who culled fifty photographs from the museum’s permanent collection, including some recent acquisitions that have never before been on view. The exhibition opened in late October and runs through April 25 of next year. Most of the photos were taken within the past fifty years, and some are combined with painting, drawing or sculpture. (There are no Spongebob

memes.) Other photos were manipulated with the controls of the camera to create oddities in space, scale or distance. Most of the pieces were created using the lens and film, without darkroom trickery or Photoshop. “It is great fun to view these works up close, to try to figure out how these photographs were made and decipher what the artists are trying to convey about photography and its relationship to physical reality,” says Watson. “Many of these photographers have a wry and witty sense of humor.” Among the pieces is Cuban-born American photographer Abelardo Morell’s disorienting and dreamlike Camera Obscura Image of Manhattan View Looking South in Large Room. For the photo, captured in 1996, Morell made a room into an old-timey camera obscura, covering the windows with dark plastic and poking a small hole to make an aperture that projected a reverse image of the outdoors on the opposite wall.”

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

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

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

X Ambassadors November 8, 8 pm The X Ambassadors broke into the alternative rock scene with their double-platinum hit “Unsteady” and have since proved their versatility with a repertoire full of tranquil ballads and energetic anthems. The band’s album, A Beautiful Liar wraps their idiosyncratic beats into a distorted child’s audiobook, making for a darker but diverting experience. The Truman, 601 E. Truman Road, KCMO. $25–$50, thetrumankc.com

October 23–December 31

Have you ever wanted to be immersed in your favorite painting? Experience art like never before in Van Gogh Alive, presented by the Starlight Theatre and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The multi-sensory experience involves sound, moving images, lights and fragrances to help you step into the world of Van Gogh. Starlight Theatre, 4600 Starlight Road, KCMO. $30–$60, kcstarlight.com

Snapshots October 29–April 3 Technological advances at the time of the first World War allowed aspiring photographers to own personal cameras. With them came photographs that chronicled the devastation of war. Snapshots features over three hundred images and reproduced albums, many never seen by the public, showing the Great War from new and intimate perspectives. The National WWI Museum and Memorial, Wylie Gallery, 2 Memorial Drive, KCMO. $10.

November 9–12

Van Gogh Alive

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

Day of the Dead KCK November 6 The celebration, held annually to remember and welcome the souls of loved ones who have died, returns to Central Avenue in KCK, one of the most vibrant Latin neighborhoods in the city. Look for face painting, art in Bethany Park, altars and offerings, live music, food and a parade with floats, custom cars and dance performances, all celebrating Mexican history and culture. 1120 Central Ave., KCK. Free, dayofthedeadweekend.com.

Get a head start on holiday shopping with Brookside’s annual Holiday Season Opener. This is a free, family-friendly weekend event with outdoor music, pop-up events and giveaways. You can roam the historic district sipping hot chocolate and gazing at holiday window displays. Brookside Area Shopping District, 63rd Street and Wornall Road, KCMO.

Festival of Lights November 11– December 30 Who wouldn’t want to usher in the holidays by wandering through the glow and twinkle of thousands of lights? Take a stroll though Powell Gardens’ captivating and colorful display, comprising nearly twenty miles of lights

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY RESPECTIVE VENUES

2021 Brookside Holiday Season Opener

strung across the garden’s bountiful trees and architecture. While you’re there, you can also visit Santa and stay warm with a cup of their hot chocolate or Louisburg cider. Powell Gardens, 1609 N.W. U.S. Highway 50, Kingsville, MO. Prices vary. powellgardens.org.

has a loyal cult following for his catalog of janglepop chronicling life in the dusty outposts of the Southwest. The tequila will flow like water at ths one. Knuckleheads, 2715 Rochester St., KCMO. $17.50.

Plaza Lighting November 25, 6 pm

Lyric Opera of Kansas City Presents Lyric Opera Goes to Hollywood in Concert November 13–14 Movies would be nothing without the dramatic scores that accompany them, entrancing us in the story and the melody. The Lyric Opera of Kansas City returns to the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts with Lyric

The traditional lighting of the lights strung around Country Club Plaza draws a crowd. A celebrity typically does the honors, but details were not available as of press time. Country Club Plaza. Free.

A Christmas Carol November 19–December 26

This theatrical rendition of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has delighted audiences for over forty years. The entire family can enjoy the tale of Scrooge’s journey through Christmas Past, Present and Future and get lost in the music and magic of this holiday classic. Spencer Theatre, 4949 Cherry St., KCMO. Prices vary, kcrep.org

Opera Goes to Hollywood. The concert will feature music from Pretty Woman, Fatal Attraction, Someone to Watch Over Me, A Room with a View and Up. Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, 1601 Broadway Blvd., KCMO. $53–$93, kauffmancenter.org.

Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers November 17, 8 pm The Sonoran Jimmy Buffet, former Refreshments frontman Roger Clyne

Wizard Fest November 30, 7:30 pm Want to extend the fun of Halloween into November? RecordBar is hosting a magical night with wizard-themed costumes and cocktails, like Firewhisky and Butterbeer. Wizard Fest will feature a Triwizard Tournament with trivia, quidditch and a scavenger hunt. You’ll be able to get your groove on with a live DJ and dance party at this event too. RecordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd., KCMO. $15–$50.

Dan + Shay November 14, 7 pm

Pop duo Dan + Shay are touring in support of their new album Good Things, featuring the single, “Good Things,” an auto-tuned piano ballad about lost love. The act, which performs for mostly country music audiences, will bring their satin-smooth pop to the T-Mobile Center. T-Mobile Center, 1407 Grand Blvd., KCMO. $39–$79, t-mobilecenter.com.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

T H E B E AT T IGER BE AT

need some help on this one.’” Handy knew that Wiggins, who recently won an Emmy Award for his documentary Land of Opportunity, is serious about his work. “It still took a couple of weeks for Nick to get on board,” says Handy.

A new documentary shows a Kansas City high school’s football success is about more than the scoreboard. BY M A R Y H E N N

IN ONE OF THE MOST MEMORABLE

from Heart of the City, a new documentary about Lincoln Preparatory Academy becoming a high school football powerhouse, coach William Lowe takes a break from game-planning for a state championship to deal with something more urgent. “Why’d your mom call me today about you messing around with guns?” he asks a player. “Didn’t you just have a cousin who got killed?” Kansas City-born filmmaker Nicholas Wiggins’ latest project follows the school’s fast-rising football team through a year where the city faced record-breaking rates of gun violence. Gun violence is just one issue addressed—displacement, equity and race are also at the core. With a century and a half of tradition and notable alumni, Lincoln Prep is one of the city’s most storied schools. Before desegregation in 1954, Lincoln Prep was the only school for miles to provide high school education to Black students. Now, it’s making history again with its athletic SCENES

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

triumph and, at the same time, undergoing a major demographic shift. We talked to Wiggins, his co-director Jacob Handy, and Coach Lowe of Lincoln Prep about the documentary project. Here’s what to know about the film, which is now streaming online (kansascitypbs.org) and seeking funding for more segments. It started with a two-year turnaround. “In 2017, we were three and seven, record-wise,” Coach Lowe says. “In 2018, we were six and four. Then, in 2019, we were eleven and one. That’s when Nick and Jacob came aboard for the documentary.” Handy first pitched Heart of the City to Wiggins after hearing about Coach Lowe’s success. “I was told four young men were given Division I scholarships,” Handy says. “Four students going D1 at an inner-city school—that’s just not heard of. So that was a story. I knew Nick had the media game in the bag, and I was like, ‘Nick, come on, man. I

The goal is not to have the answers, but to kickstart the conversation. “At the end of the day, everyone wants a nice coffee shop on their street or a park that they can walk their kids to,” Wiggins says. “Everybody wants gentrification. The thing people don’t want is displacement.” Near the end of our conversation, Wiggins asked: “If the neighborhood is being beautified, who is it being beautified for?” It’s similar to the question Coach Lowe implied as we first started talking: Who are the students of Lincoln Prep playing for? “Students will believe what they’re told, and if they constantly hear that they need to go to the suburbs or private schools to be good athletically, that’s what they tend to believe,” Coach Lowe says. “We wanted to build up hype around here, in our neighborhood, you know, to show that we could be good.”

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY NICO GILES MEDIA

FRIDAY NIGHT LIMELIGHT

There’s more to the story than what goes down on the field. In part, Heart of the City centers on high school football players who choose to play at their neighborhood school despite being highly recruited to play at suburban and private schools, but what’s happening at Lincoln Prep runs deeper than that. The school is a microcosm of the larger issue of “Black talent being recruited to white spaces,” Wiggins says. “What’s happening at Lincoln Prep is really timely because of the conversations Kansas City is having about what it is as a city. The more that we can get people discussing Lincoln Prep, the more that we can start to peel back a one hundred and fifty-year-old history.” Wiggins and Handy spotlight alumni and community voices about the history and current status of Lincoln Prep, too. Those conversations aren’t always easy, but as Handy notes, “There’s no way to tell the story without talking about things like gentrification, not when you can look around and see what’s happening behind the school and other high schools in the area.”

COME AND

Clown AROUND

Clown around with us while learning at our Edventure summer camps and connect with the great outdoors! Check out all of our upcoming camps at: WWW.WONDERSOFWILDLIFE.ORG/CAMPS KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

B AC K B E AT M A K I NG A L A N E

NOMAD NO MORE Entering a new chapter of his career, pianist and composer Eddie Moore focuses on enriching the local jazz community. BY N I N A C H E R R Y

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

GO: ProdoLAB with Ryan Lee, Charlotte Street Foundation, 3333 Wyoming St., KCMO. Thursday, December 23. 7pm.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JASON PIGGIE

I N C E E D D I E M O O R E A R R I V E D in Kansas City in 2010, he has been a trailblazer on the jazz fusion scene and beyond. His original music draws heavily from hip-hop with live sampling and looping, as well as soul and rock, all while remaining deeply rooted in the improvisatory nature and tradition of jazz. His 2013 debut album as a bandleader, The Freedom of Expression by Eddie Moore & The Outer Circle, gained momentum and was awarded a solid review from Downbeat Magazine. In August, in conjunction with Charlotte Street Foundation, Moore launched a one-of-a-kind multimedia performance series: ProdoLAB. The series brings together creatives of all types, combining improvised music and visual art. As a longtime and avid advocate for original jazz music on the local scene, Moore formerly hosted a weekly jam session called Fresh2Def at Tank Room (now the Black Dolphin) and recordBar for improvisers of all genres. But there was one stipulation to the jam session: There were to be no covers and no jazz standards—original music only. Moore brought in countless R&B and hip-hop artists to headline throughout the jam session’s five-year run, giving artists a platform for their original music and young improvisers an opportunity to broaden their skills and vocabulary. But now, like many, Moore is entering a new chapter of his career after reemerging from the pandemic. While he remains an active performer, he is focusing his energies on elevating Kansas City’s creative community, primarily through education and curation. “I don’t want to be a nomad forever,” Moore says. “I’m just as interested in enriching the area around me as I am in touring.” Moore has become an integral member of the Charlotte Street Foundation, curating the monthly ProdoLAB series. Every fourth Thursday of the month, ProdoLAB brings an electronic music producer, soloist, and visual artist together to collaborate on an hour-long, immersive performance in the Charlotte Street Foundation’s new, state-ofthe-art black box theater. As a longtime educator, Moore joined the faculty at KU this semester, teaching jazz combos and a history of hip-hop course. Now Moore has a wider platform to encourage and uplift young jazz musicians to write and perform their original music. “I’m trying to make a lane for original and differentthinking improvised music,” Moore says.

PH CURRY GOAT FOOD OUR RITEN EW VODOUT ATFA STAN JAMAICAN RESTAURAN T

E LL s’ me

o illi

021

BES

Q T BB

NEX

IN TH

E ’C U T IN

02 1

LIVE JAZ

HT THE S RIGgoods T SPO

W Z NO

MAKERS ISSUE | HERD OF COWS

ST 10.2

PRICE OF PROT EST THREE LOCAL RESTAURAN TS THAT DEF IED COVID SAF ET Y MEASURES

, nd ou ygr all. f pla ar this oll o n - d to d S

ntal ze T Re ho fire rn Ma EA mp Ca ty Co 58 Ma G R er Lib PA GE ick O R E atr M n, P d 3 3 w to y a n it te d un he c ART YOU t ha ost er in CAN WEAR s’ m t cid s BBQ nsa Ka e be ESTNOW LOCAL h t 10 B & other

.2 N | TW EN TY

from

34 MAKERS in the heart of the country

YE AR

L E VE R

IDE E’ D GU DATE AYCE AN UP IN ‘K JAZZ LIVE

Q B B

ER cals A T le lo S L otab n AR YE om T Y es fr E N ori T W /11 st 9 al on

11.2021

W S A NE C HA O CRITI

Lo ST

S L AT ER |

IO GE S H veSHORTA F A eGloA ? L LFACIN w COPS WE ks ET ARE F A oRE

S ats? A L form IV S T ging FE an Q ch B B stes, g ta

gin

FA LL FA SH IO N

BBQ Chef J

You haven’t tried 10 all our top

spots… OR Y YOUR MONE BACK!

NO COVERS MAKIN G SPACE FOR ORIGIN AL JAZ Z

Get Kansas City magazine delivered to your door.

$9.95 FOR ONE YEAR

tym cityag.c as kansasci ns

m .co magom

kansascitymag.com

Use code VIP for this limited time offer

SUBSCRIBE NOW

VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT KANSASCITYMAG.COM/SUBSCRIBE 38

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAMANTHA LEVI

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

THE HOOF IS ON FIRE

Bleached denim returned to popularity way back in 2019, but one local designer is now taking the trend to a whole new level. In true Kansas City fashion, Marissa Miller, the owner of 90SIX clothing boutique, launched a line of bleached cow-print denim—a cool mix of vintage blue and the latest animal-print trend. You can find similar variations of cow-print denim in shades of beige, brown and black, but Miller’s blue denim variety is a bit of a rarity. It’s the perfect addition to your collection of printed jeans, which you’ve likely noticed expanding in recent months. You can see more of Miller’s dreamy designs on Instagram (@shop90six). Her Cow Bleached Denim retails for $55-$65 (shop90six.com) and looks great with a funky pair of cowboy boots. — MARY H ENN

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

S WAY N U M BER S TA L K

“I’m so much less interested in symptoms than what your symptoms are attempting to manage,” Shahan says. “The Enneagram number shows that exactly.” Shahan’s approach helps clients identify the motivations behind their symptoms, whether it be anger, fear or shame, and use that information to heal and grow. “I noticed [Enneagram therapy] created a lot of understanding and compassion in my own relationship,” Shahan says. “When I learned more about my wife’s number, it depersonalized a lot of things she would do so they no longer felt like an attack. Seeing it in my own life and creating positive change was further proof to me.” Shahan offers Enneagram coaching for individuals, businesses and other therapists. It’s just one of the topics he addresses in his podcast Same Time Next Week, which aims to demystify therapy. Why did you start your podcast? I found that how the media portrays therapy is hardly ever accurate. I wanted to interview people who have gone through therapy for multiple reasons and have them tell their story.

GRAMMABLE How a local therapist and podcaster is incorporating the Enneagram into his work BY S H AY L A G AU L D I N G

C A N T H E E N N E A G R A M —that

favorite tool of business consultants and executive coaches—help people in therapy? Michael Shahan of Moss and Main Therapy Group in Kansas City believes so. Shahan is a marriage and family therapist and podcaster who has turned to the personality typing tool to help people understand why they do what they do. The Enneagram is a personality roadmap of sorts. It consists of nine different ways people view the world, from their primary motivations to their primary fears. Shahan says that knowing which Enneagram number you fit into and using it as a therapy tool can help you understand yourself better than just “traditional” therapy on its own.

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

How do you teach businesses to use the Enneagram? At it’s best, the Enneagram lets us develop compassion for ourselves and for others. Many times, there’s not a problem with the business; there’s a problem with the people. The goal is to help people develop curiosity and understanding of each other. It improves work relationships so much in companies and businesses. How do you think other mental health professionals can benefit from using the Enneagram? I developed a course to teach other therapists how to use the Enneagram with their clients like I do. When I started doing this, there was nowhere else I saw therapists doing this. My experience is that the Enneagram was so helpful and such an awesome shortcut for the work we do as therapists. [The course is] a six-week program—there’s been a pastor, life coaches, a school counselor and other therapists who use it as a model for helping others grow.

HOLIDAY CHEER IS HERE Legends Outlets is making the holiday season merry and bright with festive events and gifts for everyone on your list. Find the perfect present for the fashionista, the sports fanatic, the beauty junkie, the foodie and yes, even the girl who has everything. L E G E N D S S H O P P I N G . C O M

S WAY I N T ERV I E W

Gallery owner Paul Dorrell explains why Kansas City art is at a new peak. BY S U S I E W H I T F I E L D

owner of Brookside’s Leopold Gallery, isn’t done raising hell yet. His gallery celebrated its thirty-year anniversary on the Kansas City art scene. Dorrell remembers that in the late ’80s, Kansas City considered itself a cultural backwater. Now, the art scene is highly regarded on both coasts. “Nothing can compare to this time culturally,” Dorrell says. “Kansas City’s greatest strength is its visual arts.” After he graduated from KU, Dorrell didn’t settle down quickly: “I wandered the world for ten years—worked on a fishing boat in Alaska, on a horse ranch in California.” Dorrell eventually became the assistant director in a museum of French Impressionism in Connecticut, which had a profound influence on him. When he returned to Kansas City, he wanted to represent Kansas and Missouri artists on a national level. After opening a gallery space at the Hotel Savoy, he realized how few galleries turned a profit and how often they failed. Dorrell began to approach corporations, encouraging them to embark on a cultural crusade to support regional artists. Fortunately, Henry Bloch, the University of Kansas Medical Center, the Kauffman Center, St. Luke’s and the Hunt family also wanted to keep local artists in Kansas City. PA U L D O R R E L L ,

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

Brothers Big Sisters and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Dorrell has also invested in Sumner Academy and Paseo Academy since 2006. “I found that both academies’ art departments were grossly underfunded—a lack of basic art supplies, functioning laptops, proper cameras, metal for sculptures, oil paint canvases. It was a disgrace. I realized I had to start raising money immediately.”

KC FAVO R I T E S The West Bottoms “It’s still raw and unrefined. I love all the old railroad lines and bridges. They’re almost sculptural.”

The River Market “Saturday mornings having coffee, getting produce from the stalls and flowers for my wife, and then riding bikes along the Missouri River.”

Union Station “You can feel a different era there. It’s almost a dream state. Go out the back door and take the footbridge across the tracks to the Crossroads.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY NATALEA BONJOUR

‘NOTHING CAN COMPARE TO THIS TIME CULTURALLY’

“When we did H&R Block Building, that became a cultural foundation for visual arts in the Crossroads. That huge collection of local artists’ works inspired other galleries to open there and inspired artists to open studios. It began the Kansas City Renaissance.” To support the emergence of Kansas City’s young artists, the Leopold Gallery Educational Foundation supports Big

THANK YOU FOR VOTING US A TOP DENTIST ! WHEN YOU BUY A DIAMOND FROM A RETAIL STORE, YOU PAY FOR YOUR DIAMOND AND: SALARIES COMMISSIONS BONUSES RAISES BENEFITS ON-SITE JEWELERS

HIGH RENT HUGE ADVERTISING SERVICE PLANS RECRUITING HIRING TRAINING

WHEN YOU BUY A DIAMOND FROM PREMIER DIAMOND SOURCE, YOU PAY FOR THIS:

A BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND WHY PAY RETAIL? REMEMBER, DON’T BUY TIL YOU SEE

“THE DIAMOND GUY” OUR LOCATIONS KIDSMILEKC.COM 40 YEARS EXPERIENCE KANSAS CITY

OVERLAND PARK

OLATHE

PRAIRIE VILLAGE

8919 Parallel Pkwy. Suite 460 Kansas City, KS 66112

15151 South Black Bob Rd. Olathe, KS 66062

14420 Metcalf Ave. Overland Park, KS 66223

8226 Mission Rd. Prairie Village, KS 6620

(913) 851-9999

THANK YOU FOR MAKING US OVERLAND PARK'S #1 SOURCE FOR DIAMONDS

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

S WAY HOM E

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

LAKE LIGHT Erica Rigdon gives a lake home on Winnebago a classic, casual feel with wood ceiling trusses and effortless chandeliers. BY DAW N YA B A R T S C H

PHOTOGRAPHY BY STYLE AND GRACE

her very first home design project had the potential to be a game changer for her fledgling business. It needed to be not only seamlessly executed but also formidably impressive. “The owner of the very first home I designed took a huge leap of faith in me,” says Rigdon, who got the gig just a few months after starting a home design blog called Style and Grace Interiors. “I thought, this is going to be their family home and I want it to be perfect for them,” Rigdon says. “I only had a few hundred followers at the time.” The home, a new build in Overland Park, eventually made its way onto the Braden’s Hope for Childhood Cancer charity home tour, which “launched” Rigdon’s career. “She [the property owner] was so gracious to open her home for the tour, and so many people saw that first home and went through it,” Rigdon says. One of those tour-goers was Cheryl Lowden, who fell in love with Rigdon’s designs so much

that she nabbed one of her business cards at the event and tucked it away, saving it for when she was ready to build her dream home. Several years later, the Lowdens found an ideal waterfront lot on the newly expanded Lake Winnebago, perfect for a custom build. “Erica is very relatable,” Lowden says, adding that working with Rigdon was one of the best parts of the whole building process. “She quickly understood our personalities and helped make our home fit our lifestyle. Everything she designed had a purpose.” The custom seven thousand-square-foot home has a classic style and an open floor plan. It was designed by architect Gerald Janssen of Elswood, Smith, Carlson Architects. With five bedrooms, seven bathrooms and lake views from almost every room, the property was built with entertaining family and friends in mind. Finished only a few months ago, the house has already become Lowdens’ “happy place.” The Lowdens still have teens living at home but plan to make their new lake house their primary residence when they officially become empty nesters.

1 LIVING ROOM Dramatic and massive wood ceiling trusses lift the eye up past large glass windows that frame views of the lake, bringing attention to a massive chandelier ensconced in a modern metal orb. The fixture’s layers of crystals contrast with the rest of the room’s casual and comfortable approach. “When I design a home, I try to create an environment that is comfortable and livable but also tailored and put together,” Rigdon

says. She aims to design rooms that feel new but are classical enough that the owner won’t feel the home needs to be completely overhauled in a few years. In the living room and throughout the house, Rigdon used blue and grey tones that invoke waterfront living without being too obvious. “No large anchors on the wall,” she said. “I think overall the whole house vision is a light, casual aesthetic.”

RICA

RIGDON

KNEW

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

S WAY HOM E

2 K ITCHEN Rigdon chose traditional white cabinets in the kitchen but used simple modern brass hardware throughout to make it fresh. Rather than create a backsplash with classic white subway tiles, she selected a bold and uneven gray subway tile as a surprise element.

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

3 CURVED STAIRS

A unique custommade banquette that follows the curve of the stairwell’s base is a perfect example of Rigdon’s “design with a purpose” ethos. It’s an architectural element that also serves a function.

4 ENTERTAINMENT ROOM AND BAR

Slightly more masculine than the rest of the home, the downstairs entertaining space and bar was made so that both adults and kids would feel comfortable hanging out there. Backlit shelves behind the bar showcase glassware and special libations. Rough stone, dark wood and a classic copper ceiling make the bar the perfect place to get out of the sun, relax with friends and watch the big game.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

S WAY HOM E

5 WINE CELLAR

Just off to the side and behind the pool table, a large window lets folks peek into the wine cellar. The room’s walls are lined with wine, and the stone counter is anchored by a bourbon barrel that once housed a special brew created at a Kentucky distillery by Alan Lowden and his friends.

6 BUNK ROOM

A room made for slumber parties, the bunk room, with built-in bunk beds, can sleep six. The room is a lesson in contrasts: Dark wood paneling lines the sleeping nooks while bright white paint covers the trim and ceiling. It’s cozy. Each bunk provides privacy and has its own reading light yet feels open and communal.

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

SPONSORED CONTENT

WHY KANSAS CITY LOVES 30A!

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

SPONSORED CONTENT

Why Buy Property on Florida’s 30A? There’s a special place in Florida that

And along the scenic stretch of 30A you’ll find more than a dozen picture-perfect small towns, each with their own quirky personality,

travelers are just beginning to discover and

all are most especially inviting to new visitors.

they won’t likely tell you about it because

Within these small towns, you’ll find great

once you get to know this charming 24-mile

accommodations, unique shops filled with one-

stretch of the coast, you’ll want to keep

of-a-kind art pieces, pottery, souvenirs as well

it a best-kept secret. It’s the beachfront community known as 30A Highway.

as thriving local food scenes, family-friendly activities and incomparable ocean views.

Why Should You Buy Property on 30A?

K A I YA

To know 30A is to love it. It’s technical

The price is right, right now. As is the case

geographic description is the highway that

almost everywhere, real estate values are

runs along the beach from Topsail Hill State

climbing, but as more visitors discover

Park on the edge of Florida’s Miramar Beach

America’s best kept secret, home values can only

and Camp Helen State Park on the edge of

continue to soar.

Panama City Beach.

As an investment property, you will never have

What makes the properties so special, aside

trouble generating income to help offset your

from their elegant Florida vibe, are the powdery

investment. But, as a second home, you won’t

white beaches with relatively high dune bluffs

find property more peaceful or more relaxing

nearby set against the turquoise blue waters.

than 30A’s laid-back communities.

There are a number of surrounding State Parks,

And, it’s easy to own and manage a vacation

State Forests and plenty of area’s that will

property when you know the right people.

remain undeveloped as they’ve been deemed

Some of the most popular properties

unbuildable--all serve to protect the pristine

include: Alys Beach, Kaiya Beach Resort and the

properties and charm of the community.

Watercolor community.

WAT E R C O L O R

A LY S B E A C H

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

SPONSORED CONTENT

Alys Beach

One of the fastest growing communities along 30A is A LY S B E A C H . This beach-front community

is masterfully planned and has become known for its large white butterflies and towering palms that flank 30A. Constructed of all white concrete stucco, and touted as the strongest and most efficient homes on earth, Alys Beach home planners, designers and architects worked together to make a fortress of a community that can withstand both the test of time and natural disaster.

Strolling Alys beach is a dreamy

experience. The 20-acre nature preserve is perfect for a lazy bike ride complete with an elevated wooden boardwalk. You’ll also find carefully crafted walk paths tucked into natural landscape peppered with edible fruits and of course, those breathtaking views.

WAT E R C O L O R is a master-planned

community located in the heart of 30A. The resort town hosts Western Lake, Gulf front swimming pools, luxury shopping, Florida’s only four Diamond AAA hotel and timeless architecture.

Watercolor is interspersed with butterfly

gardens, boardwalks and nature preserves, providing plenty of green space and recreational opportunities for families. This is the place to sink your feet into white sand, take in the views and celebrate the fact that you’re living in the lap of luxury.

One of the key things you will notice

while touring Watercolor and its homes for sale is how this community fits snugly into its natural surroundings. Watercolor is home to matured oaks, magnolias, palmetto trees and other coastal forest

Watercolor

greenery. The luxury homes for sale in Watercolor are seamlessly embedded in its natural surroundings.

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

SPONSORED CONTENT

Kaiya Beach Resort With a name inspired by an ancient word for connection and comfort, K A I YA B E A C H R E S O R T

offers a refreshing experience to 30A. This luxurious property conveys a carefree lifestyle and a feeling of being cared for. From expertly curated fine dining and recreational adventures, to the concierge service and VIP benefits of the members-only Kaiya Club. Kaiya nurtures a balance with luxurious homes that blur the line between indoor and outdoor living and spacious floor plans balance the excitement of family life with the quiet of private moments.

Want to learn more? As a Midwest transplant and someone that has vacationed and spent time on 30A for 20 years prior to permanently relocating to the area, I truly appreciate the evolution of one of the best-kept secrets in our entire country. My focus is to first and foremost be a resource to all of my clients interested in this special place so I can help them make the best decision for themselves and their families. I personally enjoy the investment opportunities that come along with a purchase on 30A and take pride in assisting my clients to reach their financial and Beach House goals with their purchase. —Brad Dahler

BRAD DAHLER

Berkshire Hathaway Beach Properties of Florida

brad@bpfla.com 30arealestatefl.com Office:

850-842-8800

Mobile: 850-842-8800

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

Give Hope. Find Answers. Tristyn, age 12, patient born with gastroschisis

Next month has extra special meaning for families like Tristyn’s, because they get to celebrate another holiday with their beloved child. But the holidays didn’t always include moments at home for Tristyn and her family. She was so sick when she was born, her doctors predicted she’d never live past age 4. “We didn’t accept it. We couldn’t accept it. We refused to give up hope,” Tristyn’s mom, Jill, said. When Tristyn was born, several of her organs were outside her body, and her intestines were severely damaged. She has short bowel syndrome and receives her nutrition through an IV tube, which causes chronic infections requiring weeks, and sometimes months, spent in the hospital. Until now. Tristyn, age 12, has defied all odds and now pediatric research discoveries have provided new hope.

“A new daily shot was recently FDA-approved to help Tristyn absorb nutrients. This hopefully will be a game changer, and we will be able to get Tristyn off the IV feeding tube and let her live the rest of her life out of the hospital,” Jill said. Even though this is Tristyn’s dream, she has many fond memories of growing up at Children’s Mercy ― throwing birthday parties in the playroom, playing hours of card games with the Child Life staff, and shopping for holiday gifts at the in-hospital Snowflake Shoppe. “We’ve always wanted her to live a full life — just like her two brothers. Children’s Mercy is a special place and has helped us do just that inside and outside its walls. As a parent, that means the world to us,” Jill said.

Gifts to Children’s Mercy make a life-changing impact for kids, like Tristyn, and their families — providing hope, comfort and care when they need it most. Give today: childrensmercy.org/tristyn

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Give Kansas City A SPECIAL SECTION FOR THE SEASON OF CHARITY

This is the traditional season for giving and, more than most years, Kansas Citians are faced with tough choices about which philanthropic cause to support. Which worthy cause is closest to your heart and the most urgently in need of support from you as a donor? Which are the best stewards of your donation? That’s where our third annual Give KC special section comes in. There’s no shortage of need in our community right now—needs that can be addressed not just by writing a check but with volunteer time, too. We made your job easier by laying out the options so you can support the cause that’s right for you.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

Give KC

Pet Resource Center of Kansas City

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

1116 E. 59TH ST. KANSAS CITY, MO PRCKC.ORG 816.353.0940

Since 2002, Pet Resource Center of Kansas City (formerly known as Spay and Neuter Kansas City) has been working with underserved communities to keep pets and people where they belong … together. The organization serves over 35,000 pets each year with low-cost spay/neuter, affordable vaccines, as well as resources such as toys, parasite treatments, litter, tie outs, bowls, dog houses, pet food and education. And their outreach team— formed in 2005 and the first of its kind in the region—hits the streets of Kansas City multiple days a week to operate a mobile vaccination clinic and resource distributions to help homebound clients and those without transportation. The outreach team can also be found going door to door providing education, supplies and support to pet owners in vet deserts throughout the city.

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

• • • •

35,000 pets helped annually Low-cost spay/neuter Affordable vaccines Resources, education, medical support

In recent years, PRCKC has also operated an emergency medical fund that is used to provide additional medical care for families who couldn’t get care for their pets otherwise. As part of that program, the organization has developed affordable parvo and heartworm treatment programs that have saved dozens of lives in 2021 alone. By supporting PRCKC, you can help them continue to reduce the number of homeless animals in the Kansas City metro, which keeps pets off the streets, out of shelters and in their homes with the people who love them. Learn more at prckc.org.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Give KC

Open a Donor-Advised Fund Build Your Charitable Legacy The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation is one of the nation’s most well-respected, knowledgeable leaders on charitable giving. Over the years, we have grown to one of the largest and most entrepreneurial public charities of our kind, managing more than $4 billion in assets and ranking among the top 1 percent of over 700 community foundations in the country for more than a decade. A donor-advised fund maximizes and organizes charitable giving. Like checking, money market, 401(k) retirement and 529 college savings accounts that you use for speciﬁc purposes, a donor-advised fund is a charitable giving account. >> Give cash, stock or other assets as tax-deductible contributions to your fund. >> Grow dollars tax-free by investing assets through your ﬁnancial advisor or our pools. >> Grant funds to support your favorite charities. Ready to set up your fund and build your charitable legacy? It is quick, easy to do, and customizable to meet your needs as an individual, family or business. Choose to name younger generations as future advisors to your fund, passing along the gift of giving and creating a legacy for your philanthropy.

816.842.0944 | info@growyourgiving.org KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

Give KC

First Bra Foundation A Free Bra for Breast Cancer Survivors. The First Bra Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to giving every breast cancer survivor a symbol of renewal – a new bra. First Bra provides survivors with a free bra of their choice, along with a personalized fitting experience to lift their spirits. Opportunities for breast cancer survivors to receive assistance with post-treatment bra selection, outside the clinical environment, are few and far between. First Bra has changed that. We understand that finding that first bra as a breast cancer survivor is a moment a woman never forgets. Now that moment can become one filled with understanding and support instead of anxiety.

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

PO BOX 7212 OVERLAND PARK, KS 66207 FIRSTBRA.ORG

Our merchant partner clair de lune and Hawthorne Plaza Shopping Center are hosting the Diagnostic Imaging Center’s Mammography Coach on Wednesday, November 10 starting at 9 am at 119th and Roe in Overland Park. Schedule your mammogram appointment by calling 913.344.9989 or 816.444.9989.

Request a Bra Request a certificate of support by visiting FirstBra.org/request-a-bra/ and completing the simple form. We will email your personal, nontransferable letter of acknowledgement which you can print or show electronically to the designated merchant. That letter will indicate the merchant and retail location for you to visit to receive your fitting and bra. In the Kansas City area, that partner merchant is clair de lune. You may also receive a request form from one of our partner hospital cancer centers. They are St. Luke’s Cancer Specialists, KU Hospital Cancer Center, Midwest Cancer Care at Menorah Medical Center and Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Donate Today The First Bra mission is made possible through the generosity of our donors and sponsors. Their loyalty allows us to provide this simple gift as a symbol of renewal. Support our mission. Donate today through the website at firstbra.org/donate-today/ or by making your check payable to First Bra Foundation, PO Box 7212, Overland Pak, KS 66207.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

The Parkinson’s Foundation

Give KC

PARKINSON.ORG/HEARTLAND 1-800-4PD-INFO

The Parkinson’s Foundation makes life better for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) by improving care and advancing research towards a cure. Our Heartland office is located in Kansas City, and we provide education, resources and programs throughout the states of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa. As a national organization with local presence and impact, we bring help and hope to the estimated one million individuals in the United States, 10 million worldwide, who are living with Parkinson’s. Whether you are newly diagnosed with PD or have been managing it for years, a care partner, family member or friend of someone with PD, we are here to help you. Visit us at Parkinson.org/heartland to donate or learn more, or call 1-800-4PD-INFO to chat with a member of the team.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

Commonwild

Meet the Makers Kansas City is a city of artists, but the last year and a half of pandemic living has led to more people than ever making things like kiln-fired porcelain earrings, custom resin-filled charcuterie trays and fine art prints that forever capture floral arrangements from important life events. After talking to makers around the city, we’ve cultivated a new collection of art and goods. From plantderived perfume oils to hand-painted ceramic teeth, our list of makers highlights the coolest projects happening around KC right now. ED I T E D BY

Mary Henn

WOR DS BY

Megan Folmsbee, Natalie Torres Gallagher, Shayla Gaulding, Mary Henn, Nicole Kinning, Kayla Szymanski, Sofia Tewell PH OTO G R A P HY BY

Caleb Condit, Joshua Haines, Samantha Levi, Rebecca Norden

What's a Maker? We use “maker” as an allencompassing term for highly skilled and creative individuals— artists, designers, craftspeople and artisans. Most, but not all, make things by hand.

Soft Goods 62

Whitney Manney

Whitney Manney WEARABLE ART W H I T N E Y M A N N E Y (@whitneymanney) knew she wanted to get into fashion at the age of thirteen, but it wasn’t until a trip to New York that things started to click. “I went to art school and quickly noticed my strengths in color and pattern,” Manney says. “I just didn’t figure out how to put the pieces together until a study trip to NYC.” Manney’s clothing translates street art and cultural movements into wearable art. She’s inspired by the stories and cultural shifts created by those often forgotten by the mainstream. “Everyone deserves to have their stories told, and I hope that I can convey some of that narrative through pattern, color and texture,” Manney says. Manney describes herself as a “more is more” kind of person. “I’m not sure I have a specific word for how I dress, but just know if I’m showing up then I’m showing out,” she says. Some of her favorite garments to create are jackets, which she likes because they’re easy to mix in with existing wardrobes. “I love designing and stitching jackets,” she says. “I think a real fly, well-cut jacket can make a look come alive.” Her jackets start at around a hundred bucks, and you can shop her creations online at whitneymanney.com. —MARY HENN

Yvonne and Mitchel

ASIATICA PHOTO BY STUART HEIDMANN

UPCYCLED CLOTHING Caylin Yvonne Willis and Jared Mitchel Armstrong founded Yvonne and Mitchel (yvonneandmitchel.com) in Kansas City with sustainability and secondhand fabrics in mind. They create completely upcycled clothing by breathing new life into thrift store finds. “Our inspiration mostly comes from nature and, most importantly, the desire to protect and preserve it,” Willis says. Their high-fashion pieces range from around $30 to $200. The duo source, design, sew, model and photograph everything themselves in their apartment, making every design completely unique. — S H AY L A G AU L D I N G

HEART MAKERS KC // SOF T GOODS

Asiatica ARTISANAL CLOTHING If you’re lucky enough to have Elizabeth Wilson grant you a peek behind the proverbial curtain at her Westwood shop, Asiatica (asiaticakc.com), you’ll find shelves that hold hundreds of bundles of fabric lined up in rainbow order, each meticulously bound with a ribbon. Almost every one of these bundles of cloth once belonged to a kimono, a traditional Japanese garment. “Kimono is a modular construction, so the fabric is very narrow, twelve inches wide for the most part,” Wilson says. “And you can easily recycle it because it has straight seams and straight sleeves.” Since starting her shop in the seventies, Wilson has made an annual expedition to Japan to shop secondhand stores and meet with sophisticated kimono dealers to handpick kimonos, most of which were produced in the forties or before. Once a kimono makes its way to the shop on Rainbow Boulevard, it’s evaluated by her team of talented designers and seamstresses and taken apart via seam ripper, and every stain or weak piece of fabric is flagged. That fabric is then given new life in the form of anything from scarves and dresses to skirts and blouses. — N I C O L E K I N N I N G

Hot Tub Crochet Machine CROCHET GARMENTS You remember those granny-square crochet blankets that draped across the arm of every chair in your parents’ home during the eighties? The ones with black borders around neon orange and green and blue shapes that seemed to go with nothing and everything at the same time? Local fiber artist Adrienne Bandy does. Her pieces, sold under the brand name Hot Tub Crochet Machine, take “grandma-chic” to another level. Fittingly, Bandy learned needlecrafts from her grandparents as a child, and her interest in crochet never waned. On her Instagram (@hot.tub.crochet.machine), find everything from throw blankets and knit pompom hats to crocheted dresses, tops, tote bags and cat toys. The more challenging the pattern, the better—and Bandy rarely makes the same thing twice. An admitted “fiber snob,” she works with eco-friendly fibers made from cotton or bamboo and secondhand yarns from Scraps KC. “The magic of creating something beautiful with just a hook and thread is truly special,” she says. “It’s a therapeutic art. There’s something new to learn every day, and the possibilities are endless. You can literally crochet anything anywhere!” Shop ready-to-wear garments via Bandy’s Depop online (depop.com/hottubvintagemachine). Commissions are available via Instagram. — N ATA L I E TO R R E S G A L L AG H E R

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

HEART MAKERS KC // SOF T GOODS

Alyx Jacobs HAND-SEWN LINEN QUILTS So many traditional crafts have faded from the modern ethos—glassblowing, woodcarving, blacksmithing. Not quilting, though. And in the hands of Alyx Jacobs, this enduring art form has a new look. Jacobs’ studio is usually covered in fabric scraps and ink splashes. This space is her sanctuary, where she creates indigo-dyed and hand-sewn linen quilts using the traditional Japanese sewing technique of Sashiko, a type of embroidery that reinforces fabric. On her website (alyxjacobs.com), Jacobs showcases her creations—six-by-five-foot quilts cast in shades of wistful blues and grays, stitched with squares, circles, scallops and hypnotic lines. “Indigo dyeing is unlike any other natural dye,” she says. “The act of dipping into an indigo vat and watching the indigo oxidize and the color change right in front of your eyes is truly magical.” Jacobs’ quilts are usually commissioned: The process is detailed and personal to her, which is why she prefers to directly interact with the person who is purchasing rather than selling to strangers via Etsy. Ultimately, she hopes “that people can see beauty in the simplicity of the sustainable materials that I use in my quilts.”

W.H. Ranch Dungarees

Happy Habitat

PERFECT-FITTING DENIM

ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY BLANKETS

Ryan Martin, the founder of W.H. Ranch Dungarees (@whranchdungarees) in Olathe, began sewing at seven years old and started selling lightweight denim ties on Etsy before growing his craft into a business that has made jeans for celebs like Lyle Lovett and Kevin Costner. “I wanted my jeans to fit like Dwight Yoakam’s, and you cannot find those off the shelf,” Martin says. He makes every pair by hand, reconstructing the crotch so that the jeans are flexible for movement. Martin’s jeans start at $375 for a standard pair. In the near future, you’ll be able to find W.H. Ranch Dungarees in western stores throughout Kansas. — K AY L A SZ Y M A N S K I

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

from advertising, Karrie Dean decided to turn to art and founded an eco-friendly blanketmaking business, Happy Habitat (happyhabitat.net), in Kansas City. She draws inspiration for her colorful and creative designs from everywhere. “Inspiration is everywhere if you’re open to it,” Dean says. “Close your eyes and it’s lyrics in a song or nostalgia from the smell of fresh baked goods. Open your eyes and it’s bugs, wind and wheat. Inspiration is geometry in Mother Nature’s creations.” Happy Habitat’s throws are ethically made with recycled cotton, American-made wool and local alpaca and handdyed linen. Her cozy and sustainable creations start at $165 for a full-size throw. —SHAYLA GAULDING AF TER GETTING LAID OFF

HAPPY HABITAT PHOTO BY KARRIE DEAN

— N ATA L I E TO R R E S G A L L AG H E R

Hard Goods

40 Grit KC WOOD AND RESIN BOARDS TRACEY VAETH was trying to fix her dining room table

when she was struck with the concept for her business. “[The table] was not kiln-dried properly, and the humidity from our house created big cracks in the wood,” Vaeth says. “So I got some epoxy, made a mess, and it turned out amazing.” After the happy epoxy accident, Vaeth had the idea to use the resin to make Christmas gifts for five of her closest friends. She made charcuterie trays, and her friends’ reception of them was overwhelming. Soon after that, Vaeth began taking orders from Facebook and Instagram posts, and she received her first corporate order from Encompas Furniture. She’s been busy making wood and resin boards ever since. Vaeth uses InDesign to create and lay out the designs of her boards, then she gets to work cutting the wood.

The creative process happens in her home studio and garage, what Vaeth calls her “lab and mill.” “I have an amazing support structure of family and friends,” Vaeth says. “My husband will get up at 5 am and cut a project out before he goes to his job because I have been on my feet the day before.” When business picks up around the holidays, Vaeth’s support system kicks into overdrive. “They believe in me and think what I have been doing for almost two years now is pretty darn cool.” In addition to charcuterie boards and trays, Vaeth makes petite boards, stovetop covers, countertop covers and table covers. Each one comes custom-made and has its own blend of elements and layers. Boards at 40 Grit KC (40gritkc.com) vary in price, depending on the size and complexity of the design. Small-scale boards start at $120. —MARY HENN

Castilleja Furniture MINIMALIST FURNITURE MATT CASTILLEJA (@mattcastilleja) is continuously pushing the limits of what physical materials can do within and beyond the walls of his River Market studio. The furniture maker’s background in architecture and studio art sparked a desire to combine different styles of furniture for his collection of modern and minimalist tables, chairs, credenzas and more. “I pull a lot of concepts from ancient buildings and primitive methods of construction and work those ideas with a more contemporary design lens,” Castilleja says. “I don’t believe in anything new—everything you see is just an interpretation of something else.” Castilleja uses solid marble components, woods and metals to create boutique pieces. His work can be seen around Kansas City, at highend showroom Una Malan in Los Angeles and in projects for several NYC interior designers. You can see more of his work online at mattcastilleja.com.

—MEGAN FOLMSBEE

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

HEART MAKERS KC // HARD GOODS

A-Frame Design MODERN FURNITURE

Kufukaa CUSTOM APRONS

started, well, around when the pandemic started. Kufukaa (kufukaa.com) began in late 2019 as a global marketplace with clothing and home goods made by artists in countries such as Kenya, Qatar, Taiwan and India. But when the pandemic hit early the next year, Koul quickly realized that there were artists in her own neighborhood who needed support. So she recruited a team—of Kansas City refugee artists, specifically—to make masks when the need was high, some to sell and others to be donated to hospitals in Kansas City and New York (where she lived until moving to KC in 2016). Although making masks was successful and much-needed at the time, Koul knew that it wasn’t a permanent niche for Kufukaa. So, with fabric and sewing as the backbone of Kufukaa’s business thus far, Koul and her team started to produce custom aprons. “I cook at home a lot and realized I didn’t have any good-looking aprons,” she says. To get the word out about her aprons, she started cold-emailing restaurants. “The pandemic didn’t give me any time to communicate with anyone, and it didn’t give me any time to go and meet people,” she says. “I started using free platforms like Instagram. I figured out who the top twenty local restaurants in Kansas City were, wrote to them and explained that we were local manufacturers creating custom-made aprons, and we would really love to create something for their chefs. The response I got was something beyond expectation.” —NICOLE KINNING ANITA KOUL’S BUSINESS

The furniture Andy Thacker produces under his brand, A-Frame Design (@aframe_design), echoes Scandinavian and Japanese design influences: They are bold and modern but also delicate and simple. Much of his work—an elegant white oak storage bench and matching armoire, coffee tables, cabinetry, barn doors—is commissioned, but Thacker is also currently developing a retail line. Although he can create pretty much anything out of wood, his path to furniture making was not a straight line. Thacker went to architecture school, where he spent most of the time feeling like he was going about his coursework all wrong. “Most of my classmates would start with a big idea [for a building] and work their way down,” he says, “but I would always start with a small detail and then the design would go around that.” After graduating, Thacker spent five years working as an architect. In that time, he realized that he was drawn more to the things inside the buildings—namely, furniture— than he was to the buildings themselves. His interest wasn’t all that shocking: His grandfather and great-grandfather had both been woodworkers, and Thacker inherited many of their tools. “I came into a family profession through the side door,” he says with a laugh. — N ATA L I E TO R R E S G A L L AG H E R

Zen eARTh Studios REDWOOD DESKS AND TABLES Tiffany and Micah Zen, owners and artists behind Zen eARTh Studios (zenearthstudios.com), draw inspiration from the outdoors. Their adventures in Redwood and other national parks across the U.S. fuel the production of their various works.

“We drive to the redwoods in Northern California and hunt around for mills that supply redwood from down trees in private residences,” Tiffany says. “We then bring it back to Kansas City and make desks, coffee tables, side tables, dining tables and nightstands. We bring it back so the Midwest can enjoy redwood in their beautiful homes.” While the studio primarily sells furniture and paintings, Tiffany has recently shifted her attention to ceramics. “I get inspired by how clouds form, how water moves and how land is layered and try to make those patterns onto my pottery with colorful dots. I use a metal stylus to dip into the underglaze and then press it onto the clay. I have to dip it every time I make a new dot. I find the mediation of it so pleasing,” Tiffany says. The couple’s pieces can be found at Shop Local KC and popups like The Strawberry Swing Indie Craft Fair and the Park Place Farmers Market. — M EG A N FO L M S B E E

Allen Craft WOODEN FURNITURE Jake Allen (@allencraftkc) knew he wanted to be a woodworker after reading a book about the famous American architect and furniture maker George Nakashima. After ten years of working in a cabinet shop, Allen followed his dream and began his own custom furniture business with his brother, James, creating unique furniture and wood products by hand. “I have always loved to build things and create,” Allen says. The Allen brothers’ pieces average around $700 but can be as low as $200. Allen Craft’s products are completely designed and hand-built at Bella Patina in the West Bottoms and available for purchase on First Fridays. — S H AY L A G AU L D I N G

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

Jewelry

Crown & Heart PORCELAIN EARRINGS A D E C A D E of teaching elementary school art, Sara Kharatyan (@crownandheartkc) began making jewelry as a way to create art outside of school. Never having made jewelry before, Kharatyan jumped in feet first by applying for The Strawberry Swing Indie Craft Fair. She had a few prototypes and a vision: “I knew I wanted to make fun, colorful pieces that I could wear with anything.” Kharatyan isn’t making your standard clay earrings; she cuts her unique AFTER

shapes from large slabs of porcelain. “I felt like most of the jewelry I saw for sale was either expensive fine jewelry made with precious metals or cheap trendy jewelry made from plastic,” Kharatyan says. “I wanted to create an affordable hybrid of classic, modern pieces that were unique.” She starts by collecting images that inspire her. Then, when she has time to create new styles, Kharatyan combines different patterns, shapes and colors in experimental sketches. Once the sketches are complete, she makes

paper templates to put on the slabs and cuts the jewelry pieces. After being cut and smoothed, the porcelain shapes get multiple layers of glaze before being kiln-fired to achieve a unique, ultra-glossy look. All metal elements are added after the shaping, glazing, firing and drying processes. It takes a minimum of two weeks to complete a batch of Crown & Heart Jewelry (crownandheartkc. com). Kharatyan’s wearable art pieces start at $19 for hair clips and earrings. —MARY HENN

HEART MAKERS KC // JEWELRY

Anne-Marie Designs

Made by Courtney Taylor

LUXURY ACCESSORIES

JEWELRY DISHES AND EARRINGS

Katherine Blauwiekel of AnneMarie Designs (annemarieshop. com) started her jewelry business as a way to cope with postpartum anxiety and depression. What started as a way to keep her hands busy soon turned into her passion, and Blauwiekel expanded her business to make luxury accessories for bridal and everyday wear. She is best known for her sculpted floral designs, which she makes using only an X-Acto knife and a shape cutter. “Almost every piece is one of a kind, from the florals used to the way I marble my clay,” she says. “You know that when you order from me you’re the only one who has that shape and style. Anne-Marie Design’s earrings start at $12 for studs and have been featured in fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and Harper’s Bazaar.

Courtney Taylor started making jewelry dishes and earrings in Kansas City as a creative outlet when she fell in love with clay. That led to her launching Made by Courtney Taylor (@madebycourtneytaylor). She strives to bring a minimalist, boho style to her pieces by using texture and earthy colors. “I focus on bringing pieces that you haven’t seen before but also reflecting the style within my brand,” Taylor says. Her earrings and jewelry dishes, available on her Instagram and Etsy shop (etsy.com/shop/madebycourtneytaylor), range from $20 to $28. — S H AY L A G AU L D I N G

Shea Made Earrings

After Another Studio

RAINBOW CLAY EARRINGS

POLYMER CLAY JEWELRY

— S H AY L A G AU L D I N G

Shea Ehresman began making earrings as a hobby in July of 2019. After selling them to family and friends, she realized a business was in the making and Shea Made Earrings (@shea.made) was born. “It brings me a lot of joy to see my art being worn,” Ehresman says. Her handmade polymer clay earrings come in a variety of different colors and designs, but Ehresman’s signature design is her rainbow pair of earrings. She uses social media like Instagram and TikTok to boost her business. Shea Made Earrings can be purchased online (sheamadeshop. com)and in stores at Made in KC. Her rainbow earrings start at $20. —SOFIA TEWELL

Alyissa Johnson made and sold jewelry to neighborhood kids, charging fifty cents for threaded pony beads or charm necklaces made from reclaimed pieces. Johnson has always liked making with her hands, and in 2019, after starting her art print business, she returned to jewelry. “This time, I chose polymer clay as my medium,” Johnson says. “I love the colors you can achieve. You can go big without adding much weight, and you can incorporate other elements like metal, plastic, glitter or stone.” It begins with color. Johnson selects a color palette first, then AS A TEEN,

sketches the jewelry designs on her iPad. Each unique color is made by mixing clays together to create a slab. Johnson cuts shapes from the slab before baking, sanding and buffing each one. After that, charms or hooks are added to each piece. The inspiration for Johson’s designs comes from nature, floral shapes, insects and celestial bodies. Such inspirations can be found in her art prints as well. Johnson loves bright colors, hard edges and geometric patterns. Many of her earrings are designed after her artistic interests and are accented with gold, textured or patterned. You can see her designs on Instagram (@shopafteranother) and shop all of her creations on her website (shopafteranother.com). Stud earrings start at $15. —MARY HENN

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

Pink Lipps

Self-care

Pink Lipps Cosmetics MAKEUP FROM QUALITY INGREDIENTS KEN YATA GAN T knew she was meant to follow in her parents’ footsteps and be an entrepreneur. In 2011, when her daughter began asking for lip gloss, Gant decided to use her love of makeup and create her own. What started as a project in her kitchen for her daughter soon turned into Pink Lipps Cosmetics (pinklippscosmetics.com). Gant continued working her corporate job, but when she became the most requested makeup artist in the metro area, she decided to take a leap of faith and dive into the world of makeup full time in 2015, opening the Pink Lipps storefront a year later. “I knew I had to work for myself in order to feel fulfilled and to feel accomplished,” she says. “Quitting corporate was the best thing for me. I was finally able to walk in my true passion and do things wholeheartedly because I loved making people look and feel beautiful.” Pink Lipps, which gets its name from Gant’s nickname, Pinky, is a Black- and woman-owned business and prides itself on having a healthier solution to beauty with products that are vegan, paraben-free and gluten-free. The products last up to sixteen hours and are lightweight and non-drying. Pink Lipps offers makeovers, beauty consultations and cosmetic products such as its signature lip glosses, sticks and liners, which are available in up to twelve beautiful and bold colors and start at $10. —SHAYLA GAULDING

Amy Davenport, manager of Buff City Soap (@buffcitysoap. leessummit) in Lee’s Summit, has PLANT-BASED SOAP recently opened the first Buff City Soap in the KC area. All of their soaps are made in store and are completely plant-based. “We utilize the creativity of the team and come up with some pretty dynamic fragrances and designs,” Davenport says. Their standard-size bricks of soap, cut in store, start at five and a half ounces for $7, and their coconut oil-based laundry soap, customized with your favorite fragrance, is $18.

Buff City Soap

— S H AY L A G AU L D I N G

HEART MAKERS KC // SELF-CARE

For Strange Women PLANT-BASED OIL PERFUMES The first perfume Jill McKeever made for herself was called A Tincture for Strange Women. It was an earthy, subtle fragrance made with natural plant extracts, CO2 extracts and essential oils—nothing like the synthetic departmentstore-counter variety. Although the twelve scents in her line are unisex, the name For Strange Women made sense when McKeever launched her business in 2009. “The idea was that not all women want to smell light and floral,” she says. “I didn’t want it to be a ‘This is going to make you sexy’ thing. It’s supposed to be a personal comfort. Perfume has different meanings for everyone, and when you’re working with natural materials, you’re accessing peoples’ minds, memories and limbic systems. These scents can relax, energize or comfort.” Astral Projection—a soft perfume layered with verveine, chamomile, sage and lavender—is designed to complement a peaceful slumber, though McKeever says it can help ease daytime anxiety, too. A dab of French Oak Moss on your wrists or neck grounds you deep into the earth—a good complement to meditation. Each one of McKeever’s potions features a combination of around twenty different plant-derived oils, some

featuring rare materials like Vietnamese oude (a wood fungus), sandalwood-based Indian attar or Osmanthus flower. Purchase fragrances online at forstrangewomen.com. For those who want a scent uniquely their own, McKeever also offers custom perfumes; in-person consultations are available by appointment only at the For Strange Women studio in the Crossroads. — N ATA L I E TO R R E S G A L L AG H E R

Untamed Supply OUTDOORS-INSPIRED CANDLES EJ Wood started making candles in 2016 to help pay for college before turning his side gig into a full-time business in 2017. Wood and his partner, Emily, create one hundred-percent natural soy wax and cotton core candles at their storefront, the Outpost, in Liberty, Missouri, and are one of the few trans-owned businesses in the Kansas City area. “Our inspiration comes from the outdoors,” Wood says. “We are deeply inspired by natural things, and you can smell it in the scents we create.” Untamed Supply’s ethically sourced scents are available as travel candles for $14 or jar candles from $24. Untamed Supply (untamedsupply.com) also lets you bring in a container of your own to create a unique, custom candle. — S H AY L A G AU L D I N G

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

Ceramics 72

Object Enthusiast

SPACES

KANSAS CITY TEXTILE ARTS CENTER @kctextileartscenter Kansas City Textile Arts Center is a grassroots, artist-run and inclusive space in the Strawberry Hill district that offers small classes and workshops in textile arts. You can find their schedule for upcoming classes at kctextileartscenter.com.

KC CLAY GUILD @kcclayguild KC Clay Guild promotes ceramic arts by offering studio classes and ceramic workshops in the Waldo neighborhood. They also provide gallery space and outreach programs to encourage participation from all members of the community. You can find details about their events online at kcclayguild.org.

HEART MAKERS KC // CERAMICS

Object Enthusiast CERAMIC VESSELS

(theobjectenthusiast.com) strives to make ceramic pieces that aid people in their daily rituals, from a cup of coffee to a totem on an altar. “I want them to become a vessel that brings the user what they’re looking for,” Reinhardt says. “Perhaps it helps them to slow down and practice mindfulness or becomes their favorite addition to a sacred space.” Reinhardt makes every piece by hand in her Crossroads studio, a process she believes gives her pieces their unique touch. “You can see my finger marks or slight imperfections, and I want them to be there,” she says. “Those marks are part of what makes a handmade piece of ceramics special.” Object Enthusiast was recently featured among other Etsy artists in Nicole Richie’s House of Harlow 1960 line, an experience that Reinhardt says helped her grow as an artist. Reinhardt’s pieces range from $12 for an incense holder to $225 for a ceramic wall hanging. E M I LY R E I N H A R DT,

—SHAYLA GAULDING

Kimberly LaVonne CERAMIC TEETH AND MORE Kimberly LaVonne knows a lot about strangers’ teeth, more than she probably wants to know. But teeth—and feet, intestines and other anatomical imagery—feature regularly in her ceramic work, and people feel compelled to tell her their oral surgery horror stories. “Everyone has sort of a unifying bad dream or experience they want to share,” she says with a laugh. LaVonne hand-builds mugs, planters, dishes and other vessels, inspired by the ornate reliquaries she observed in cathedrals on a trip to Italy and the traditional pots she grew up seeing in her native Panama. Her color palette is somber—mostly black with gold accents—and her lines are firm and decisive, even when etching detailed portraits onto vases. “When you get something handmade, you’re not getting a pot,” she says. “You’re getting a piece of what that person can do and a piece of their story.” Shop LaVonne’s work or contact her via Etsy (etsy.com/shop/ klavonnestudio). — N ATA L I E TO R R E S G A L L AG H E R

Katherine Moes EARTHY POTTERY Katherine Moes began her pottery business (katherinemoes.com) in

Seattle before moving to Clay County, Missouri, three years ago. All of her pieces are made by hand, thoughtfully crafted with organic shapes and textures and often in Moe’s favorite shades of sand, earth, red clay and dark desert rocks. “People tell me that they get a sense of calm, peace and gentleness in my work,” Moes says. “My hope is to make pieces that can bring an understated and intentional beauty to your home.” Moes’ pieces, made in her studio space at Belger Arts Center, include pots, sculptures and vases starting at $30. — S H AY L A G AU L D I N G

High Noon Pottery NOSTALGIA-INSPIRED MUGS When Ashton Bethel started making home decor in her house, she didn’t know her pandemic-era hobby would turn into her new business, High Noon Pottery (highnoonpottery.com). Bethel makes every piece with the eighties and nineties in mind, striving to match the quirky and colorful aesthetic of the movie theaters and malls during those decades. “Specifically, I think of this really run-down movie theater from the eighties in my hometown, Wichita, called The Palace,” Bethel says. Her nostalgia-themed cups and mugs start around $40. Each of her functional ceramic homewares is completely unique. — S H AY L A G AU L D I N G

MAKER VILLAGE

CHERRY PIT COLLECTIVE

THE STRAWBERRY SWING

@makervillagekc

@cherry_pit_collective

@strawberryswingkc

Maker Village is a shared woodworking and metalworking shop in Midtown that offers workspace, memberships and classes. Saturdays are open-shop sessions at Maker Village, and anyone can utilize the equipment during that time. They have monthly intro classes and higher-level courses as well. See more at makervillagekc.org.

Cherry Pit Collective is a studio space for women and non-binary artists, makers and creatives in Kansas City. They offer classes and events for skill sharing and collaboration. Learn more at cherrypitcollective.com.

The Strawberry Swing is a Midwest makers market and celebration of the handmade movement. The Strawberry Swing Indie Craft Fair showcases high-quality vendors in an inclusive and accessible environment. You can shop The Strawberry Swing’s curated online marketplace at shoplocalkc.com.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

Cloth & Paper

Isern Embroidery EMBROIDERY ART MORGAN ISERN’S MOTHER taught her how to cross-stitch as a kid, but it wasn’t until the pandemic hit and Isern needed a new hobby that she picked up embroidery as an adult. “I pursued several creative outlets throughout my life—photography, painting, you name it,” Isern says. “But when Covid-19 hit and I found myself quarantined at home for months on end, I needed something to keep me busy.” Isern started with an embroidery kit she found online. After realizing she could do the work on her own, she

ordered supplies and tried her hand at custom embroidery, recreating wedding bouquets for friends of hers who were recently married. Now, after a year and a half of creating custom embroidery pieces, Isern spends an average of fifteen to twenty-five hours on each piece, and each one is done completely by hand. In addition to custom bouquets, Isern embroiders homes and pet portraits. “I think pets are my favorite,” she says. “Although they are by far the most tedious to recreate, it’s very rewarding to do so. Many of

the pets that I capture are those that have passed away whose owners are looking for a keepsake to remember them by. As an animal-lover myself, that’s really special to me.” Most of Isern’s creations are made to order. You can see her work on Instagram (@isernembroidery) and DM her for your own custom creation. Each of her pieces is priced individually, but most of her creations range from $80 to $150. Isern hopes to attend an in-person market or craft show in the near future to showcase her embroidery art. —MARY HENN

HEART MAKERS KC // CLOTH & PAPER

Commonwild Flag Co. ONE-OF-A-KIND FLAGS AND BANNERS

Spur & Serif HANDMADE SIGNAGE AND PRINTS CHALK CREATIONS were a gateway into all kinds of lettering for Andrea Bosnak (@spur.and.serif), who handmakes signage around Kansas City. Bosnak has been creating art since childhood. “I became aware that I wasn’t the only person who valued well-made design and hand-generated work,” she says. While Bosnak works with local businesses to create hand-painted, lettering-focused branding, she also makes enamel pins, prints and greeting cards. “The greetings cards are all hand-drawn on my iPad, and then I print and cut them myself,” Bosnak says. “I really try to do everything I can by hand.” You can purchase Bosnak’s handmade cards and other creations online (andreabosnak.com). Cards start at $8 and pins start at $10. You can find her designs around the city at places like Rye KC and Cafe Europa. Bosnak also offers limited holiday-themed lettering workshops— you can find out more about those events on her website.

—MARY HENN

For Taylor Triano, Commonwild Flag Co. (commonwild.com) started as a happy accident. “A friend asked if I could make something that would cover a TV in their restaurant—a flag, banner, whatever you want to call it,” she says. And she took the task seriously, always willing to take on a new challenge. Before Triano knew it, she was making signs and flags left and right and found herself with a booth at art fairs and pop-ups around town. She had a solid collection going, but she found herself getting more excited at the thought of designing something custom for a business rather than making pieces in bulk and hoping they’d sell. “I'm far more interested in quality, not quantity, and creating well-curated, well-made, custom and oneof-a-kind pieces,” she says. Clients come to Commonwild for their banner or flag needs, whether they have a design in mind or want Triano’s creativity to run free. You know The Town Company flags waving outside of Hotel Kansas City? Those are Commonwild commissions—as are flags and banners posted up at The Wild Way Coffee, J. Rieger & Co. and new Crossroads bar and deli King G. A recent favorite commission of Triano’s was a five-foot-ten wall hanging to be displayed in Lake Lotawana’s city hall, where she had free rein in designing the

piece herself. “It’s so easy to spend far less money and order something cheap on the internet,” she says. “You get what you pay for. When you invest in artists, you get so much more reward. It’s a community built around supporting and hoping for all of our joint successes.” —NICOLE KINNING

Hammerpress LETTERPRESSPRINTED DESIGNS Brady Vest became interested in letterpress printing while attending the Kansas City Art Institute. Old letterpress equipment was transferred to his department after being unused and dust-covered for years. Letterpress is essentially the process of printing from a raised surface that is inked. “While printing, it also has the quality of impressing into paper,” Vest says. “That’s what I’ve always loved about it, and that’s just not possible with other printing processes.” Vest loves to make posters the most, mainly for concerts and events. Currently, he is intrigued by the artistic combination of the accidental and the messy juxtaposed with attention to symmetry and order. You can see Vest’s work on Instagram (@hammerpress) and online at hammerpress. net. The most popular Hammerpress products are the greeting cards, which start at $5. Hammerpress posters start at $20. — M A RY H E N N

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

Frame & Wall 76

Paulina Otero TUFTED FIBER CREATIONS IF YOU EVER FIND the opportunity to be in a room where the walls are covered by Paulina Otero’s tufted fiber creations, don’t hesitate. At first, it may feel a bit like you’re walking into a funhouse: Her abstract wall hangings are large, averaging six feet tall and four feet wide, and cast in vibrant carnival colors. They are playful, fantastical—and even a little familiar.

Otero draws inspiration from her native Cancún, where her childhood was full of tropical weather and days spent playing in the sand and swimming in the ocean. Her latest collection echoes shapes found in the water: bulbous fisheyes, squiggly coral reefs, wavy algae. And although her work process looks a lot like rug making, the pieces have far more in common with paintings. There is no denying they belong under a spotlight. “At first I thought, ‘I want to make rugs, but I don’t want people to step on them’ because I put so much time into making these pieces and I was more interested in seeing them on the wall,” Otero says. “I started calling them tufted wall hangings because a lot of people want more texture in their space and not just on the floors.” Find Otero’s work on exhibition at Duet (517 E. 18th St., KCMO) through November 14. Otero’s tufted wall hangings start at $140. Shop all of her works at paulina-otero.com. —NATALIE TORRES GALLAGHER

HEART MAKERS KC // FRAME & WALL

Socorro Rico

Porter Teleo

ILLUSTRATIONS AND ART PRINTS

HAND-PAINTED WALLCOVERINGS

Everbloom FLORAL-ARRANGEMENT PHOTOGRAPHY AS BEAUTIFUL—AND TRENDY —as

dried flowers are, they just don’t capture the same essence as they did when they were alive. Emily Walters came up with a flower preservation alternative with her business Everbloom Photo (everbloomphoto.com)—she arranges flowers while they’re still fresh and photographs them into fine art prints. The world of flowers isn’t new to her, either; she worked in wedding and event floral design for nine years and, until recently, taught floral education classes. “Last year, I was just kind of looking for a different creative outlet,” she says. “I love flowers so much— they’re kind of just part of who I am—and I’ve loved photography for years. I decided to combine those two loves and start creating floral arrangements and capturing flowers in a format that would make them last forever because, as we all know, they don’t last.” And Walters already has the entrepreneur thing down pat: She also owns Hazel and Ollie, a handmade jewelry company targeted to children. “I had my first daughter in 2014,” Walters says. “As one does when they have their first kid, they want to buy them all the cute things. I was looking at jewelry for kids and I just wasn’t finding anything that I liked that was modern and eclectic and colorful.” So she filled that gap in the market. Hazel and Ollie accessories are stocked at local stores like Halls and Pink Antlers, and Walters recently dove into making modern and eclectic adult jewelry, too.

Innovative artists and businesswomen Kelly Porter and Bridgett Cochran of Porter Teleo have shown Kansas City creators what it means to make it. Their unique hand-painted wallcoverings and textiles are museum quality and have caught the attention of many, including designer Courtney McLeod, who featured a Porter Teleo Japanese tea paper in her in-home Architectural Digest spotlight last year. “One of the most thrilling aspects of the work that we do is the opportunity to find ourselves in the offices of our clients, who happen to be the most critically acclaimed designers in the world,” Cochran says. “The work that you see at that level of design is what fuels Kelly and I to continue pushing boundaries— not only with our designs but also with the colorizations that we create them in.” Porter Teleo is eager to launch more residential fabrics and other new products online at porterteleo.com. — M EG A N FO L M S B E E

Before pursuing art, Socorro Rico started as a nursing major. “My parents are migrants from Mexico and expected their children to have ‘wholesome’ careers,” she says. As part of her degree program, Rico was required to enroll in at least one art class, so she signed up for beginner drawing. That decision changed the entire course of her career path. After drawing, Rico enrolled in screen printing and soon found herself leaving her small town for a printmaking workshop in South Dakota. Rico received a scholarship from Purdue University and has been making art ever since. Currently, Rico manages the Cherry Pit Collective in Kansas City. Her illustrations are inspired by coloring books, children’s books and tattoo flash. You can see such influences in Rico’s drawings of animals and plants. You can find more of Rico’s work on her Instagram (@socorroricos), and you can purchase her art at society6.com/ cocosrico. Most of her commissioned requests are sent via email, which you can find on her website (socorrorico. wordpress.com). — M A RY H E N N

—NICOLE KINNING

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

g in

pi n

ec n gi

ocal airw l o av kt es c a b

c t u r n a l Tr a n s

l d ly i n f l u e n t i a l a i w s

, w o

i h g

n tro

ic since the ear s u m ly

F I E R H S T T

’s

K ANS A S CI T Y O C TOB E R 202 1

h us t a i

e br

a n,

WORDS MARTIN CIZMAR PHOTOGRAPHY CALEB CONDIT & REBECCA NORDEN

0 2

r ea

ad i

D J ,

g kin

K ANS A SCI T YMAG.COM O C TOB E R 202 1

“The first cut on this record has been crossformat focused for airplay success. As you well know, a record must break on radio in order to actually make a living for the artists involved. Up until now, you’ve had to make these decisions on your own relying on perplexing intangibilities like taste and intuition. But now, there’s a better way. The cut that follows has been analytically designed to break on radio...” In the dim and slanted afternoon light of Ray Velasquez’s “subterranean suburban bunker,” the spoken word intro from Negativland’s Escape From Noise gives way to a song called “Paradise Engineering” from the 2019 debut by techno artist Sam Barker. “This is what I’m thinking about as an opening for the first show,” says Velasquez. “I want to integrate a lot of spoken-word, which is something I’ve done in my DJ sets—but I don’t want to be too obvious about things.” It’s all sort of perfect. Too on-the-nose, perhaps. A few days later, when Velasquez’s groundbreaking and wildly influential radio show Nocturnal Transmission makes its triumphant returns to the airwaves via Kansas City’s 90.9 FM after a twenty-year hiatus, the Negativland segment is tucked deep into the show, at the start of the third hour. It’s followed not by “Paradise Engineering,” but by a shimmery, pulsing trace track called “Rez” by a Welsh trace duo Underworld, released as a b-side in 1993 and now regarded as a classic in the genre.

If you’ve dipped a toe into the avante-garde side of local radio, or to electronic music, over the past forty years, you’ve probably heard a set by DJ Ray Velasquez. Velasquez started as a DJ back in his days at KU’s Oliver Hall and went on to be a stalwart on the beloved and much-missed Lawrence-based new wave station 105.9 KLZR. He’s the type of DJ whose radio shows from thirty years ago get uploaded to YouTube after someone finds bootleg copies on cassette tapes in their attic. Though he’s a fan of everything from power-pop to honky tonk, Velasquez’s specialization in electronic music from its earliest days has taken him to World Cup parties in Brazil and the beaches of Israel. It also, famously, found him DJing the funeral of beat icon, and latelife Lawrence resident, William S. Borroughs. “I get it all the time: ‘You changed my life,’” he says. “Which is an amazing thing to hear. But it makes sense because music is really what changed that life. It wasn’t me. It was music that did. And music changed my life.”

ay Velasquez was born in Kansas City, Missouri at the start of the sixties and grew up in Overland

“I used to aspire to be the Beatles of DJs. Now, I’m perfectly content to be the Lester Bangs of DJs.” Park. His dad was a record-hound, and as a young child, his dad would take him to the old Katz Drugstore to buy 45s. After twelve years of Catholic school, he graduated from Bishop Miege at the end of the seventies and enrolled at KU. At KU, culture varies widely by residence hall—he ended up on the ninth floor of Oliver Hall, where he was named Social and Cultural Director. Though he made an effort to understand what the other kids were into—he went with classmates to see Rush and Jerry Jeff Walker— he was bullied by classmates down on the seventh floor, who subjected him to repulsive pranks and graffiti calling him a “punk rock f-----.” “I was hated so much at Oliver Hall by these guys,” he says. “I just kept programming great stuff, and just kept pissing them off.” Velasquez found his tribe at KU’s 90.7 KJHK, a classic college rock station operating on the “radio lab” format-free model. The station had an industrial music show on

Sunday nights called The Debraining Machine, that played stuff like Throbbing Gristle and Coil. That show went on hiatus in the summer of 1983, and Nocturnal Transmission was born. “It was the kind of show where I would do very strange things, like play film soundtracks—Vangelis, but not cheesy, stupid Vangelis,” he says. “Bits of things from Blade Runner, which I still do. The whole thing at the time was head music, as opposed to body music. I would also integrate acoustic music, like Paul McCartney’s ‘Junk’ from the first solo record. Or maybe ‘Old Friends,’ by Simon & Garfunckle and then go into something electronic that was warm and sad and sweet. I didn’t know that this is what I was trying to do at the time, but I was trying to create an emotional narrative.” Creating a narrative is the buzz in DJ circles now—aspiring DJs can enroll in a Master Class by Questlove of the Roots and The Tonight Show to learn all about it—but

82 "EDM is to Techno as Olive Garden is to Italian food. It makes my skin crawl because it’s so incredibly insincere.” it’s not something that was talked about until recently. When Velasquez started playing the downtempo electronic music that would go on to become the foundation of chill-out culture at raves there was “no definition” for what he was doing. “It came naturally to me,” he says. “I didn’t know at the time that’s what I was doing, but I later realized that’s what I was doing. The only thing I want people to take away from the show is the emotional content. It’s not about genre or anything, it’s all about the emotional content.” Velasquez stayed in Lawrence for a long time working at KLZR, a station named one of the ten best in the country by Rolling Stone during his tenure. Velasquez was a fixture in the city’s culture, perhaps best exemplified by being asked to spin records behind the casket of legendary beat writer William S. Burroughs during his 1997

funeral services in Lawrence. (Velasquez opened the set with Ry Cooder’s brooding “Paris, Texas.”) The family that owned KLZR sold it to a company that turned it top forty in the early 00s, a move that inspired pickets and bumper stickers, but didn’t bring down the Backstreet Boys or Britney. It was his cue to make the move to New York, to the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn. “I lived in Lawrence forever—twenty years in Lawrence,” he says. “Which prepared me for New York. When I moved to New York, everyone thought I was from New York. I thought that was hilarious. When I left here, people said to me, ‘Oh you’re going back home?’ No, I’m from here!” Velasquez does have a Big Apple swagger and speaks with the coffee vowels you might find in Hempstead. “I learned it all from the movies,” he says.

he great irony of Ray Velasquez’s career is that while one of his worlds— terrestrial radio—has collapsed, the electronic music he’s made his name knowing has become a cultural force. That was almost unimaginable when he was hanging out at the legendary SoHo discotheque Paradise Garage in the summer of 1983 as a band called New Order came in to perform the song “Confusion” live for the first time. Or when he saw a club kid fresh from the Detroit suburbs perform on the roof of a club called Danceteria. He remembers handling the heavy European-pressed twelve-inch single from a group called Daft Punk in the mid-nineties. “I remember the future,” is how Velasquez puts it. The thing about the counterculture is, while it has brief periods of

ascendance, such as the late sixties or early nineties, more often than not it’s subsumed back into the mainstream. Disco and House music largely started in gay and Black dance clubs in Chicago and New York during the era of Debbie Boon and Eric Clapton. In the middle of the noughties, the culture shifted with the rise of sub-genres like dubstep that were embraced by the same demographic that once bullied Velasquez at Oliver Hall. “At the very start I didn’t mind EDM—me and the people I knew gave it a chance,” he says. “It’s just a name that’s become a sound, and that sound is cheesy and cheap and stupid. If you’re going to encourage douchebaggery, I don’t want to be part of that... When Katy Perry has an EDM record out, it’s novelty music to me. EDM is to Techno as Olive Garden is to Italian food. It

makes my skin crawl because it’s so incredibly insincere.” He’s still working through his artistic response. “I’m thinking about doing a DJ set—I’ve been working on it in my head for about a year—called ‘Parasites, Posers and the Rise of the Roid Boys’ and it’s about these pretty boy DJs that play EDM, and they have the right headshots and they wear the right clothes—very handsome, thick-neck, roid boy guys. I’m thinking of doing a DJ set that makes fun of that, hopefully using quality music. I already have this fun spoken-word piece called ‘How to Become a DJ’ to work into that—it’s been in my head for a year now. I just can’t seem to get it down.” On the other hand, it’s gratifying for Velasquez to see DJs be treated as artists in their own right. Back in the early eighties, he says, he foresaw a world where there were

superstar DJs who drew crowds eager to experience their sensibilities and collections. “It’s my job to not be a jukebox, but to seduce the public,” he says. “I used to aspire to be the Beatles of DJs. Now, I’m perfectly content to be the Lester Bangs of DJs.” And yet, anytime a man stands behind turntables, the requests will come. On one memorable occasion, Velasquez was approached by a swarthy fellow who identified himself as “one of the investors” in a swanky new New York club he’d been hired to play, asking him to play Journey. “I said, ‘That’s not really what I was hired to do,’” Velasquez says. “He said, ‘Look man, I want you to play Journey, I’m one of the investors.’ I said, ‘Well then you should be grateful that I’m not going to play Journey—because it will fuck up your brand. What is this, a bowling alley now?”

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Making a list and checking it over and over? Check out our 2021 Holiday Gift Guide to find the perfect gift for everyone on your list.

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

uid

Ho l

y a id

2021

G t G if

Holiday Gift Guide ‘21

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Taste Tradition TOPSY’S POPCORN Topsy’s Popcorn – it’s the good stuff. The colorful tins, the inviting aroma, the delicious crunch—there’s a special magic in Topsy’s Popcorn. Pop open a tin and enjoy sweet caramel, savory cheese, spicy cinnamon and warm buttery goodness while you relive old memories—and build new ones.

Get Cozy CLOTHOLOGY:135 4800 W 135th St., Leawood, KS 66224 The snuggle is real! Everyone will love a fashionable gift that will warm you from the inside out!

Something Unique VICTORIAN TRADING COMPANY Welcome to a world of wondrous curiosities and timeless treasures! Unique and clever, we offer beguiling collections of home décor, apparel, and gifts for the hopeless romantic in your life. We invite you to peruse our website at victoriantrading.com.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

Holiday Gift Guide ‘21

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Essentials INDIGO WILD Give the gift of handmade whiffs this holiday season. The Divine Nine Zum Bar Soap Gift Set is packed with enticing goat’s milk lather-uppers for enthralling smells sink side and shower side. Handmade with plant-based ingredients in Kansas City, hand-packed by Zummers, and boxed ready for gifting and whiffing. Shop more aromatherapeutic Zum products for your body and home at www.indigowild.com.

Relax GEORGOUS AESTHETIC BAR georgouskc.com Treat a loved one to Georgous Aesthetic Bar with a gift card. Gift cards can be used on any services, products, facials, skincare, wrinkle relaxers, cosmetic fillers and more! Gift cards can be purchased on the online store.

2021 Holiday Gift Guide

For Your Tastebuds JACK STACK BARBECUE shipjackstack.com 877.419.7427 Give the Gift of Remarkable BBQ. KC Tour Taste Plate, $76.95

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

Be Sweet EDIBLE ARRANGEMENTS edible.com Get chocolate-dipped cheer and sweet season’s greetings delivered directly to all your hard-working vendors, clients, and employees.

Holiday Gift Guide ‘21

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Unleash Joy

PLUSH BLANKETS $35-60

L AND OF PAWS Deer Creek 6772 W. 135th St., Overland Park, KS 913.402.1033 Corinth Square 4021 Somerset Drive, Prairie Village, KS 913.341.1011 landofpaws.com Our mission at Land of Paws is simple: We want to provide the Kansas City community with an upscale pet supply store worthy of our beloved pets! That means you can expect to find the most exclusive pet supplies, high-quality toys, healthful treats, and delightful pet apparel and boutique items at Land of Paws, along with a staff that truly cares about your animals. We understand the joy your pets bring to your lives, because we’re pet lovers too! And we make sure everything we provide at Land of Paws, from our products to our grooming services, does a little something to give back to our pets the love, affection and happiness they give to us. Our pets deserve the best because they ARE the best! That’s our philosophy at Land of Paws, and we’d love to show you how we put our mission into action when you and your pets visit our store.

WOODEN FEEDER $100

TOY BIN $30

FLEECE PULL OVER $40, multiple sizes

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

Revolutionizing health care so you can feel whole for your whole life.

At AdventHealth, we’re redefining health care by employing the most innovative medical solutions in pursuit of less-invasive procedures, shorter recovery times and an elevated patient experience. Our leading experts are here to help you stay well ahead for your whole life.

Stay well ahead at AdventHealth.com.

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

THE GOAT

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CALEB CONDIT & REBECCA NORDEN

Curry goat was not an im- they have it, they’re hooked. ‘Forget that jerk chicken, let mediate hit at Wah Gwan, a me get that curry coat.’” stylish and comfortable new Curry goat is a staple in Jamaica and among the JaJamaican spot at 63rd and Troost (6228 Troost Ave., KCMO, maican diaspora, but Yarbrough’s version is not entirely wahgwantan.com). The dish requires two hours of active traditional—her’s uses organic coconut oil and milk with preparation time for chef-owner Tanyech Yarbrough, and peppers. Yarbrough is Jamaican, raised in Brooklyn’s Flatthe meat isn’t cheap. “I didn’t have a lot of Caribbean peo- bush neighborhood. Her husband is Nigerian and his backple coming in, so not a lot of people were ordering the goat,” ground has been an inspiration for her Jamaican cooking. she says. “I still didn’t want to take it off the menu, so I of“I go back to the root with a lot of things,” she says. fered it one day a week—let’s call it Curry Goat Friday.’” “When I got to Nigeria I’m like, ‘This is a big version of JaAnd on Curry Goat Friday, Yarbrough worked the crowd, maica.’ It’s all the same, and I want to be able to bring this introducing them to the rich, tender and lightly spicy stew. culture to people in Kansas City.” “I had my little silver containers—they look like shot glasses, And so she has, one silver sauce cup at a time. but they’re for sauces—and I’d give people a taste of it. Once —MARTIN CIZMAR

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

TA S T E R E V I E W

POSTCARD FROM STRASBOURG Maybe you’re not traveling to Europe yet. Tailleur’s duck breast confit will get you close.

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

H E R E I S A L I T T L E C A F E in Kraków’s Old Town: Its neat tables spill out into the street, waiters in starched aprons bustle about with wine bottles, and dishes that have sold out are crossed off the chalkboard menu. I idled there for an entire afternoon several years ago, sipping coffee and Zubrówka. I can’t remember the name of the place, and I can only remember some of what I ate, but I can recall exactly how I felt—like I had been going there for years. For many old-style European cafes, the food is nothing revolutionary. The magic is in the indubitable comfort of these spaces: Sitting in one of the well-worn seats, feeling the weight of tarnished antique silver in your hand, leaning across the aisle to knock your glass of wine in a merry salute with your neighbor’s. This is the vibe Tailleur is going for. Heather White and Amante Domingo quietly opened the two-level restaurant across from Transit Coffee in Westport over Labor Day weekend.

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

Tailleur seems to have materialized out of nowhere, though the road was long. White and Domingo planned it over eighteen months during the pandemic. They painstakingly remodeled the 1928 building, painting the walls a rich naval blue, laying hexagon tile and hanging warm brass chandeliers from the domed ceiling. Decor pays homage to White’s background as an equestrian show jumper: Hunting scene oil paintings hang on the walls, interspersed with gilded mirrors, and the second-floor dining room features handsome Victorian settees and cowhide rugs. The details are precise and intimate down to the black sequined show jacket hanging from a coat hook and the riding boots propped on the stairs, as though Ralph Lauren himself has just arrived home. I have heard people refer to Tailleur as a French bistro. They take cues from the name, the French spelling of Taylor, the sister restaurant to the Russell on Main and the second of White and Domingo’s culinary children. Folks also nod at Domingo’s menu, which centers on classics like steak frites, mussels and steak tartare. White holds that the restaurant is continental European and the menu will change seasonally. The classics are done well here. Domingo’s food is rustic—and occasionally old-fashioned, but in a way that soothes, like an endearing relative who still decorates with doilies. Domingo is at his best when dealing with large hunks of meat. The rack of lamb is rubbed in a bounty of garlic and thyme, roasted to a perfect medium rare and finished with a cheerful demi-glace that accentuates the robust, earthy protein. You will enjoy savoring the last juices from this dish in the polenta cake buried underneath the lamb, but the surprise scene-stealer is the mountain of crispy Brussels sprouts with wispy little leaves that are as snackable as chips. An enormous pork shank is braised slowly in bold red wines that you would be proud to serve at a dinner party, and you hardly need a fork to separate it from the bone—one stern look will do. Either of these entrees are excellent backup choices if the kitchen has run out of the duck. Here, where you

might expect duck a l’orange, Domingo delivers a pan-seared duck breast confit that he has glazed in a pomegranate and lavender reduction. It checks every box: crackling skin that could peel itself from the soft pink meat, a balance of sweet and tart against the lusty fat of the duck, a filling pool of lentils and sweet potato chunks that prolong those flavors. The salmon filet would benefit from more salt, but it has a wonderfully crispy exterior and flakes beautifully, revealing peachy flesh that has been precisely cooked. The mussels marinières are an indulgence. There is nothing secret about the sauce—it is the standard white wine, butter and garlic, plus a spice rack of dried herbs—but it is a good example of the honest, time-tested cooking that Tailleur leans on. Order a side of the house baguette, some of the softest and squishiest I’ve seen, and make sure you sponge up every drop of that golden broth. Likewise, the steak tartare is exactly what you want it to be, beef tenderloin tumbled with capers and Dijon mustard and finished with a chicken yolk and a crispy onion ring. It looks as though it has been transported from the Gallic countryside onto your table. “You’ll never see foam or anything gastro on anything we do,” White says, “and there is no can-opening here. It’s important that things are highlighted through their natural element.” Occasionally, Domingo’s plating turns from sentimental to disappointingly dated. I take umbrage with most garnishes that are purely decorative, and

more than half the plates I ordered arrived with a fat square of purple radicchio somewhere or a sprig of thyme or rosemary. The risotto was the worst offender: In addition to the inexplicable radicchio, the rice—mixed with pleasing chunks of lobster and served with goodsized seared scallops—was covered in heaping handfuls of undressed arugula. By the end of each meal at Tailleur, I felt like I had wasted an entire salad. There are other gripes. The bun on the burger was not quite right—it crumbled in my hands. The frites, which should have been an easy win, were pale and lackluster. And when the shrimp cocktail arrived, it was with the cocktail sauce smeared on the plate (next to thyme) and the shrimp themselves packed into a goblet (with radicchio). If you are willing to overlook these small sins, Tailleur is well worth the advance planning needed for securing a reservation (just a month after opening and without an online booking system, it’s near impossible to get in on a Friday or Saturday without a week’s notice). In true bistro fashion, portions are generous and prices are moderate (entrees run $15–$31). And White, who runs the dessert program, makes sure things end on a high note. The carrot cake has twenty-four ingredients—no raisins, though—and is finished with an irresistibly tangy cream cheese frosting. I savored each spoonful of chocolate pot de crème and wondered how it could be that the warm bread pudding, made from custard-soaked bread from yesterday and covered in maple syrup, disappeared so quickly.

There is no need to agonize over your dessert choices: Select three for twenty dollars and have all the cake you want. (Skip the flourless chocolate torte.) Soon, Tailleur will round out its fine wine list with a tableside cocktail service. Servers will wheel an antique drink cart from table to table, handcrafting cocktails to order. (There is no bar and therefore no bartender.) White plans to introduce a monthly high tea service, complete with froufrou pastries served on special-occasion china. And that divine pot de crème will transition into a communal chocolate pudding: In a move lifted from one of her favorite restaurants in her hometown of Vancouver, White wants to stroll through the dining room spooning out celebratory gobs of mousse while guests enjoy a post-dinner coffee. European cafes never go out of style. Part of their charm is that they were never trying to be stylish in the first place.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

TA S T E PER FECT DAY

BEING FRANK Branding expert Frank Norton is hungry for more creativity. BY DA N I E L L E L E H M A N

G ROW I N G U P I N S PR I NGFIE LD, Frank Norton was always drawing. His early fascination with packaging, neon signs, book covers, movie posters and pop culture drove him to pursue a degree in graphic design and illustration at Missouri State. Early in his career, Frank picked up a copy of Garrett Oliver’s book The Brewmaster’s Table and found a passion for beer. Thirsty for a new creative challenge, he sent a handful of work samples to Boulevard Brewing Company on a whim. There wasn’t an official job opening, but they hired him full time as a designer. He worked his way up to become the art director, a role in which he designed packaging, named several of the iconic beers (Space Camper, Easy Sport, Phantom Haze) and some not-so-iconic beers (Lickable Wallpaper). Now, the thirty-five-year-old designer is making a name for himself in the Kansas City hospitality scene by pushing brands to embrace individuality.

How is KC keeping up with larger cities when it comes to design and branding? A decade ago, I’d travel to larger cities and see restaurants and bars taking bold approaches with their branding— incorporating illustration, embracing a unique point of view, doing things that you might not see everywhere. It comes from huge competition, the need to stand

out, and the acknowledgement that design is part of the experience. I’ve noticed an increased appreciation for this philosophy as the community continues to grow and change. People are learning to be less shy about being themselves and standing out. It’s been great to see so many folks open the bar or restaurant or brewery or distillery that they’ve been dreaming about forever. Tell me about some of your favorite projects you’ve been a part of. I love working with people who are pushing the culture forward in some way and pursuing their passion, following their own path. Designing a beer can or pizza box or menu becomes this micro experience that goes out into the world. So much of our environment is built but not designed, not thought through, or void of any emotion, which results in a lot of visual pollution or boring material. When these little mundane moments of our life become reimaged as a creative opportunity built to support a larger experience, it can create this millisecond of delight that wasn’t there before— even if it’s subconscious. I really enjoyed working with Spencer Sight

on the No Vacancy project. We started with the naming process, then moved on to design, signage and eventually supporting pieces like glassware, matchbooks and a neighborhood guide. Sura Noodle Bar is another standout. I worked with Keeyoung Kim on the branding. What pushed you to take the leap to start your own business? Starting my own freelance practice had kind of always been in the back of my mind. In July of 2020, I started working with chef Nick Vella on the branding for Observation Pizza. We had been working together for a couple months when I suddenly got the news he was killed in a fatal motorcycle accident. His passion was super inspiring to me and played a big part in my final push to go all-in on my own business. Life is too short to not bet on yourself.

KC FAVO R I T E S Coffee & Plants “I love to grab coffee at Cafe Equinox inside Family Tree Nursery in Shawnee and treat myself to a plant if I have something to celebrate.” Lunch Break “Lunch at El Camino Real for al pastor and my favorite michelada.”

Late Night “Finally, a drag show (or Late Night Theatre) at Missie B’s, where everyone knows to bring plenty of dollars to tip the queens. Then grab a lift to No Vacancy in the Crossroads where my Little Butter weekly assorted pastry box is waiting on my pillow and I watch reruns of Rare Visions & Roadside Revelations on KCPT until I fall asleep.”

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

PHOTOGRAPHY BY NATALEA BONJOUR

Dinner & Drinks “Dinner at Waldo Thai followed by a drink at Campground in the West Bottoms.”

TA S T E ’CU E C A R D

BELT-B-Q Upstart Lueck’s Barbecue eyes a major expansion from a carryout spot in Grandview to one of Belton’s most prominent buildings. BY M A R T I N C I Z M A R

COURTESY PHOTOS

HEN CASEY LUECK

opened his business on the main drag in Grandview, he intentionally left the word “barbecue” off the sign. “I was kind of afraid to put barbecue on the sign just because it’s such a saturated market here,” he says. “But the barbecue took off because that’s what everyone wanted.” Right now, that barbecue is available to-go from the small carryout shop, a general store with homemade

provisions from Lueck’s mom. But soon it’s going to be a much bigger business a few miles south in his native Belton. Lueck recently inked a deal to buy the old Bank of Belton building, built circa 1884. It was the first masonry structure in the southside suburb and sits in the middle of a main drag the city has recently, in Lueck’s words, “dumped a bunch of money into.” The two-story building has its three original vaults and a skylight that was its source of light. There’s plenty of room for outdoor seating and increasing

foot traffic thanks to downtown antique shops and a street beautification project that’s set to tackle sidewalks next. The project was announced at a golf tournament for the city’s Chamber of Commerce and “kinda blew up” with attendees. Lueck’s goal is to be open next spring—and with a background in the lumber business, he might have a better handle on the build-out process than many newbie restaurateurs. “Belton is making that change and you can see it,” Lueck says. “I think the community’s excited for it. Anything that has outdoor seating, where you can smell the barbecue and hear live music and get a cold beer, is going to do well.” Lueck’s barbecue is made very much to his own taste. The brisket is super tender and super lean. The burnt ends are real burnt ends, cut from the point. My preferred way to eat them is as a topper to a salted baked potato—for some reason a rare format in these parts but always a personal favorite. Everything Lueck smokes is done on stick-burners using cherry, with no pellets or gas assist. Lueck says he does it this way for several reasons, but “definitely not to save money.” “I used to swear by hickory, and I’ve tried all the woods out there, but hickory has sort of a numbinginess about it,” he says. “You can overpower the meat really easily with it. Cherry just turns out the way I like it. That being said, it’s barbecue, and you can’t please everyone in the city. I learned that real fast.” One place he’ll never try to please people is at a barbecue competition. Competition standards vary too much from his own taste, Lueck says. “Mine would fail,” he says. “It’s too tender. My ribs fall off the bone and that’s the way I like them, and that’s the way people who come to my place like them. If I ever go to a competition, I’ll be standing behind the judges taking all the stuff they throw out.”

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

TA S T E DR I N K

FANCY FREE Craft cocktails come to MiniBar.

before retinol cream entered my bedtime routine, many nights included a stop at MiniBar. (It helped that, for a time, I lived in a duplex right behind the establishment.) It was usually my last stop, the place I’d go when I wasn’t quite ready for the night to end, and I would sip a three-dollar Hamm’s or knock back a shot of Cuervo before stumbling home. It was never the bar I’d go to for a craft cocktail. Ryan Miller is quietly changing that. In August, he became MiniBar’s general manager, and he brought with him all the goods that he had developed under his pop-up beverage concept, Fancies Sodas. Of the eleven taps available at MiniBar, Miller took over five for seasonal rotating highball cocktails. Highballs are your typical rail drinks—a spirit and a carbonated mixer, like a vodka soda. But Miller’s draft cocktails are far from basic. There’s a seasonal gin and tonic (Rieger’s Midwestern Dry Gin paired with a crisp and calming celery tonic), a warming Americano made with chai-spiced seltzer, a mojito made with tart mint soda, whiskey with a punchy ginger soda. The Boozehound, Miller’s take on a classic Greyhound, A LIFETIME AGO,

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

marries Tito’s vodka with Fancies Twangy Grapefruit soda and a salted rim. The Fancies brand is true to its name, and Miller doesn’t cut corners. “Everything is made from scratch,” he says. “The spicy ginger soda is ginger, chiles, water and sugar, and I’m processing all those things by hand.” To make his grapefruit soda, Miller zests grapefruit peels and juices the fruit, then adds sugar, water and different acids and salts for balance before carbonating all the ingredients together and kegging the cocktail for the tap line at MiniBar. The final product looks deceptively easy—Miller rims a glass with salt, fills it with ice and releases the pinkish liquid from the faucet—but the drink itself is bright and tart and eminently sippable. “Draft cocktails can make service speedy and more efficient and offer a consistent product,” Miller says. “And it comes down to the service part. Being a craft bartender means that you’re great at your craft, and there’s plenty of craft in pouring a shot of Malört at a sports bar and serving it with pretzels because there’s more to bartending than just making drinks.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY NATALEA BONJOUR

BY N ATA L I E TO R R E S G A L L AG H E R

TA S T E B I T E S

NEWSFEED

More Wichita

WHAT’S NEW IN KANSAS CITY FOOD & DRINK

Dior

The completely unexpected invasion of Wichita restaurant concepts continues with a new Mediterranean grill that says it will have multiple locations in KC. On the heels of Doo-Dah‘s own HomeGrown cafe, which brags of serving only items sourced within six hundred miles, now comes Meddys Mediterranean Eatery & Craft Bar (4105 W. 83rd St., Prairie Village). “Kansas City is an extension of Wichita,” owner Alex Harb told the Star. “It is big and vibrant.” The first location is in the Corinth Quarter plaza, but Harb expects fifteen more to follow.

Church of Dior Riot’s Over

PHOTOS COURTESY OF RESPECTIVE VENUES

New Amsterdam Kansas City is about to get just a little more stoked with the help of an Oregon import. Dutch Bros. Coffee is a chain of drive-thru coffee shops from sunny Southern Oregon. They’re famous for both sweet coffee drinks—an Irish cream breve called the Kicker is a favorite—and for the cheerful disposition of their “broistas,” who always seem to brighten your day. The company has been profiled in Forbes for both its rapid expansion across the West (Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico were recently claimed by the Dutch) and unique company culture, which featured multiple broistas-turned-franchisees making six figures and claiming they’d work for the company for free. Two new shops are coming to KC, one in Belton and the other at the Legends in KCK. We asked the company whether they can bring the same level of stoked-ness to KC without having so many ski bums and surfers to hire and were told that all employees will get “hands-on training on the Dutch culture.” “We’ve received a really warm welcome so far,” says Aaron Harris, vice president of development. “We can’t wait to open and meet all of our new neighbors.”

Westport’s concert venue and bar The Riot Room in Westport is officially closed. With no bands touring and no audience buying tickets or drinks during the pandemic, the live music venue suffered huge losses. Riot Room co-owner Tim Gutschenritter confirmed the news to KCUR Monday, stating that the landlord has leased the property to someone else, though no information about who will move into the space has been released yet. Gutschenritter owned Riot Room for over a decade with his brother, Dallas. The brothers applied for small-business Covid-19 relief funds but didn’t receive their grant money. They also created a GoFundMe account during the pandemic to keep the Riot Room afloat but came short of their $50,000 goal. No word yet on whether the brothers might reopen a new Riot Room elsewhere.

In south Overland Park, a new restaurant told Feast magazine it’s serving “mostly fresh local ingredients.” Cary Ricks, the owner of Dior (6995 W. 151st St, Overland Park) is a former firefighter who found it odd that people would go out to restaurants and purchase food he knows came frozen and prepackaged. Dior took over the former Llywelyn’s Pub, a charming former church with soaring ceilings, and is making traditional fare like chicken wings, burgers and chicken flatbreads. He told Feast he is working with local companies for supplies—Dior’s eggs are even delivered by a farm in Leavenworth.

Italian Renaissance After temporarily closing like many restaurants during the pandemic, Lazia is set to relight its candelabras and little pink neon sign on Friday, November 12. The restaurant’s location, in a hotel, led to its slow return compared to most KC establishments and it’s among the last of highly expected returns from the pandemic. The Italian restaurant on Central will offer traditional favorites like wood-fired Neapolitan pizza and seasonal house-made pasta, including ricotta cavatelli with braised lamb and mint, and agnolotti del plin, pasta filled with pork and roasted veal. Chef Justin Kent, who has worked at some of the city’s best-known restaurants, including Classic Cup and The American, and Jordan Hayes, who formerly served as executive chef at J. Rieger & Co., have created a menu that updates traditional Italian dishes by offering special consideration for ingredients sourced from the heartland.

KANSASCITYMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2021

BACKSTORY

1977

A catastrophic fall flood strikes KC, killing twentyfive and causing millions in damage to the Country Club Plaza. The Plaza rallied to return from disaster in time for the holiday shopping season.

“

W E H A D M U LT I P L E D AY S

of rain going into this, so the ground was saturated. The actual event was a hurricane-like drenching that started after dark. My wife and I were at the Royals game, so I want to say it started, like, eight o’clock or something. We were in the middle of the game. My wife and I actually stayed at the game because we’d befriended one of the Royals players and we’d often hang around afterwards and talk to him, go get a beer. We did that night—we went

KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 2021

to go get a beer. We were still in the stadium, he came up and said, ‘Let’s go across the street to the Ramada Inn or whatever.’ My car was out in the parking lot. He parked close, being a player. He said, ‘Listen, let me get my car and I’ll take you to your car.’ All I had to do was get from the passenger seat of his car, open my door, and get into my car. And when I stepped out onto the pavement, in the middle of the Royals parking lot, the water ran over my foot, as though I had stepped into a creek. That’s something that

always stuck out to me. Like, holy cow, there is something odd going on here. What was said was that there was as much water flowing down the creek that night as the normal flow in the Missouri River. That kind of gives it perspective, right? I had grown up on that creek, so I’d seen plenty of flooding through the years, but that was really something. We weren’t even aware the flooding had occurred. We were in the basement bar at this hotel, the power went off, they brought candles. We sat there for a couple hours. At about eleven o’clock, we decided to head home. When we got into the car, we’d had the radio on from the pre-game broadcast. It was KMBZ, and they immediately went to the local broadcaster, who was Scott Kilgore at the time. I looked at my wife and said, ‘Well, that’s odd—there’s national news at the top of the hour, and they go immediately to Kansas City.’ He was describing the flooding and we had no idea. We were totally in the dark sitting at that hotel. My dad comes by the next morning, and we head on down to the Plaza. I can remember driving on the South side of Brush Creek, directly across from where our store is now, and we could see the damage. My dad started our store in 1954, so we’ve been on the Plaza for sixty-eight years. Our store was in a different location. We didn’t suffer from the flood directly—the store that’s where we are now did. It was six feet deep here. When we moved down to our current location, in my back room, which is five steps below street level, there was grass still growing on the ceiling. It would not surprise me if there’s still some grass growing there. The one thing that I have always remembered: There used to be a post office on the block where I am now. They had a short wall and then a large picture window. And hanging there, half in, half out, was a car. But that isn’t what got my attention: It was the car on top of that car that got my attention.” — Curt Diebel, owner of Diebel’s Sportsmens Gallery, as told to Kansas City magazine

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE K ANSAS CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY, MISSOURI VALLEY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

I M P O R TA N T M O M E N T S I N K A N S A S C I T Y H I S TO R Y

Delivering you in flawless luxury From the first press of the throttle, you'll know you're driving something with authority. Visit us to experience the newly refreshed interior of the 2022 INFINITI QX80. I-35 & 67th Street | Merriam, KS 66203 | INFINITIofKC.com | (816) 941 - 0770

November 21: Makers Issue

Articles inside

Backstory

Backbeat

Calendar