KC Restaurant Week breaks down silos between diners, Kansas City’s chef-driven food scene

One of Johnson County’s favorite destination culinary experiences is back on the menu for Kansas City Restaurant Week, a 10-day showcase of innovative tastes from kitchens across the metro.

Laura Favela, executive chef at Silo Modern Farmhouse

“It helps the food industry,” said Laura Favela, executive chef at Silo Modern Farmhouse, said of the highly-anticipated, post-holidays event series. “The second goal is to bring new people to the restaurant and show them who we are and what we serve.”

Silo — which overlooks Canyon Farms Golf Club in Lenexa — is one of a recording-breaking 227 local establishments taking part in the 15th KC Restaurant Week, which began Friday and runs through Sunday, Jan. 21. Each participating business offers a curated lunch, brunch, or dinner menu, ranging from $20 to $55, with multiple courses. 

Click here to check out the full list of restaurants and their menus during KC Restaurant Week.

Participating restaurants also pledge to donate 10 percent of sales from every meal to benefit an annual charity partner and the two founding beneficiaries, the Visit KC Foundation and Greater KC Restaurant Association. The event series’ 2024 charity partner is Kanbe’s Markets, a nonprofit dedicated to eliminating food waste and eradicating food deserts.

From the archives: How Kanbe’s Markets is taking food waste off the menu

During Restaurant Week and every week, Favela said, Silo serves elevated comfort food with farm-fresh ingredients. Favela and her staff make all of their pasta, breads, sauces, and pastries from scratch and dry-age their own meats. while partnering with several local farms, including City Bitty in Kansas City and Green Dirt in Weston.

“It’s all fresh,” she added.

Silo Modern Farmhouse’s table at a recent preview event for Kansas City Restaurant Week

Favela has been at the helm of Silo since it opened in 2018. Before landing in Kansas City, her culinary journey took her through Mexico — where she grew up — to Texas, Aspen, Colorado, and Chicago. Once in Kansas City, she spent time at the Carriage Club before switching gears and joining Hollywood Casino at the Kansas Speedway as it opened.

“I just wanted a different experience,” she noted. “I just wanted to be exposed a little more to the public.”

After three years at the casino, she landed at Aramark, noting the company helps out with culinary school tuition, she shared. She not only headed up the kitchens in Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums for games and concerts, she also traveled a lot for the company in the off-seasons.

“It was really cool, but a very hard job,” she said. “It’s a lot of walking through the stadiums from kitchen to kitchen, supervising a lot of employees. But that was fun and they helped me out a lot.”

Favela then got connected with the owners of Silo through a mutual friend, she continued. She’s been serving up dishes like Kansas Berkshire pork shoulder, brioche short rib sandwich, and handmade oregano gnocchi ever since. For Restaurant Week, a few of the choices on Silo’s menu include whipped local goat cheese, slow braised short rib flatbread, pan seared orange sesame Chilean salmon, and lavender creme brulee.

Click here to see Silo’s dinner for Kansas City Restaurant Week and here for the lunch menu.

“It’s just the freedom and the opportunity to do whatever I want with fresh food,” she added.

Check out photos below from a Kansas City Restaurant Week preview event that featured small plates from an assortment of participating restaurants, like Silo, Lulu’s Thai Noodle Shop, Manny’s Mexican Restaurant, The Monogram Lounge at J. Rieger & Co.; Noka, Ocean Prime, OurHouseKC, and 1889 Pizza Napoletana.