Taste 200 restaurants in 10 days? Why your stomach (and hungry neighbors) will thank you
January 14, 2022 | Channa Steinmetz
Curious Kansas City diners can step away from their kitchens for the next 10 days, teased Carlos Mortera, as chefs at 200 restaurants across the city plate their latest trending tastes during the metro’s most-anticipated culinary showcase.
Carlos Mortera, Poio Mexican BBQ, at a Kansas City Restaurant Week preview event at J. Rieger’s Monogram Lounge
“It’s a big deal in Kansas City. Many of the restaurants feature items they don’t usually have on the menu, so a lot of planning goes into this,” said Mortera, the founder of Poio Mexican BBQ, describing the stakes of the 13th annual Kansas City Restaurant Week. “And right now, we’re in a pandemic and January is the slowest time for restaurants — so this really helps us bring in business.”
Restaurant Week begins Friday, running through Sunday, Jan. 23. Each participating eatery offers a $15, $35 or $45 fixed menu with multiple courses.
Click here to check out the full list of restaurants and their menus during KC Restaurant Week.
Along with supporting local restaurants, consumers can be assured that their dollars will boost community organizations like the Visit KC Foundation and Greater KC Restaurant Association. Both are annual community-first recipients. A third organization is chosen each year by event organizers.
Guadalupe Centers was selected for 2022.
Gary Bradley-Lopez, Guadalupe Centers, at a Kansas City Restaurant Week preview event at J. Rieger’s Monogram Lounge
“Guadalupe Centers is one of the longest-serving Hispanic nonprofits in the United States,” shared Gary Bradley-Lopez, communications and outreach director at Guadalupe Centers. “We provide a variety of services such as youth development, programming and recreation; health, and social services; education; and then social and cultural events.”
Click here to learn more about Guadalupe Centers.
Proceeds from Restaurant Week benefit Guadalupe Centers’ catering services — a department focused on providing food for Hispanic and Latinx communities across Wyandotte and Jackson counties.
“Especially with Coronavirus, we have a lot of older folks who don’t have any hot meals,” Bradley-Lopez noted. “The funds will help us expand our work within the community.”
“One of the main reasons I wanted to participate in Restaurant Week was because a percentage of the proceeds go to the Guadalupe Center,” Mortera added. “They are pro-immigrant and support the Mexican community, which I am all about.”
Click here to read more about Poio and how Carlos Mortera united his Mexican-American identity through food.
Fannie Gibson, Fannies African & Tropical Cuisine, and Margaret Bai, Bai The Way Hair Salon, at a Kansas City Restaurant Week preview event at J. Rieger’s Monogram Lounge
Restaurant Week features a vast array of cuisines, cultures and dietary needs.
Second-time participant Fannie Gibson — founder of Fannies African & Tropical Cuisine — noted that Restaurant Week showcases Kansas City’s true diversity.
“Kansas City has embraced my culture, and I am so grateful for this opportunity,” Gibson shared. “To see people from all walks of life coming together to enjoy West African cuisine, I think it’s amazing.
“[Restaurant Week] customers can expect to see some of the favorites on our menu, as well as new dishes that you cannot find anywhere else in Kansas City,” she continued.
The 10-day event is an opportunity for restaurants to attract new customers and hopefully build long-term relationships, said James Taylor, the founder of La Bodega and BLU HWY.
“When you open a restaurant, you get a honeymoon period and that’s all you get,” Taylor noted. “It’s very difficult to get in front of new people, but Restaurant Week is that opportunity. It’s a great marketing vehicle to show people who you are and what you do.”
This story is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that works together with communities in education and entrepreneurship to create uncommon solutions and empower people to shape their futures and be successful.
For more information, visit www.kauffman.org and connect at www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn
Featured Business
2022 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
1 Million Cups credits its six-year run to the strength of its volunteers, entrepreneurs
After six years, the connectivity at 1 Million Cups remains as strong as the coffee, organizers said. The Kansas City-born event series is celebrating the anniversary of its first pour 9 a.m. May 2 with the program’s trademark brew — two startups delivering 10-minute pitches to an audience with the intent to educate, engage and…
Duo creates app-based audio tour exploring KC’s history of segregation
Most Kansas Citians are uninformed on the area’s segregated past, Nathaniel Bozarth said. “To be quite honest, I’m convinced that this ignorance is by design,” said Bozarth, a Kansas City ethnographer and host of the Wide Ruled podcast. “White America does not want to deal with the sins of our fathers and our own sins…
KC suburb ranked among nation’s best cities for Hispanic entrepreneurs
Strong purchasing power for Hispanics in one Johnson County community helped land the suburb on a new ranking of the best cities for Hispanic entrepreneurs. Overland Park, Kansas, cracked the list’s overall top 25, according to WalletHub, a personal finance website that examined more than 180 cities across the United States. The survey pool included…
Fund Me, KC: East Aster Brewing hopes to heal Kansas City from the soil up
Editor’s note: Startland News is continuing its “Fund Me, KC” feature to highlight area entrepreneurial efforts to accelerate businesses or projects. If you or your startup is running a crowdfunding campaign, let us know by contacting news@startlandnews.com. Today’s featured campaign from Kansas City-based East Aster Brewing, which applies lessons from microbiology and microbrewing to gardening in…