Golden Ox is a fine-dining restaurant in West Bottoms, Kansas City.
Golden Ox in Kansas City's West Bottoms opened in 1949 inside the Live Stock Exchange as the birthplace of the KC strip. Reopened by Gartner and Jill Myers in 2018.
Tip: The stockyards-era dining room is the destination; reservations on Tock. Voltaire is the sister wine bar.
Address: 1600 Genessee Street, Kansas City, MO 64102
Michael Smith won a James Beard Award before Extra Virgin and runs a Mediterranean tapas concept in the Kansas City Crossroads with wood-fired plates and a deep European wine list.
Tip: Big Night Italian Thursdays are family-style. The wine list goes deeper than the menu suggests.
Nick and Leslie Goellner's Longfellow room in Kansas City is the chef's-counter pick of the city: Persian, Mediterranean and East Asian small plates with a growers-only wine list.
Tip: Nick Goellner is a three-time James Beard Best Chef Midwest semifinalist. Book the chef's counter for a tasting; the dining room runs a la carte.
Ryan Brazeal and Jessica Armstrong's East Crossroads tasting menu in Kansas City pairs chef-driven small plates with Jessica Armstrong's pastry. The room is intimate, the wine list grower-focused.
Tip: Tock reservations open 30 days out at noon. The bar takes walk-ins for a short menu and the same wine list.
The Restaurant at 1900 in Mission Woods, on the Kansas side of Kansas City, runs a tasting-menu programme inside a renovated 1967 Modernist building. The wine list leans Old World.
Tip: Sister to the casual Cafe Sebastienne. Quieter midweek; the bar takes walk-ins.
The Capital Grille on Kansas City's Country Club Plaza dry-ages its beef in-house for 18 to 24 days and hand-cuts to order, paired with a 3,500-bottle wine cellar in glass.
Tip: The Generous Pour Sunday wine programme is the value. Lunch service runs business-friendly weekdays.
Colby and Megan Garrelts' Rye Plaza on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City refined the Midwestern restaurant template. Fried chicken, biscuits, butterscotch pie anchor the menu.
Tip: Megan Garrelts is a multi-year James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef semifinalist for her Rye work. Brunch on weekends; Tock for evening reservations.
