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LOOKING FORWARD
January is all about new beginnings. Throughout the past few months, I’ve teased you with sound bites from here and there; in this and next month’s issues, my reporting on five of our city’s newer restaurants will be more in depth. I’ve got my eye on them, and so should you.

A Better Zest: If there’s one restaurant to try right now in Kansas City, it’s Zest. Formerly the executive chef at JJ’s on the Plaza, where I awarded her three stars (KC Magazine, June 2008), Linda Duerr now heads the kitchen at this eatery in Leawood’s Mission Farm development (10681 Mission Road). Hiring her was the best thing owner Joe DiGiovanni did last year.

Zest isn’t exactly new: DiGiovanni opened the restaurant in November 2008 after closing the immensely popular Joe D’s Winebar-Café in Brookside. And Duerr isn’t technically a new addition: She arrived in early summer 2009. But thanks to her, much of the menu is completely fresh.

And that’s getting noticed. You’d never know we’re nursing an ailing economy by the way the restaurant looked on a recent weekend night. Every seat was filled, including the comfy sofas in the lounge where walk-in customers and early reservation holders waited for tables to empty.

And why wouldn’t people wait, knowing they can get one of the best fish and chips plates in the city ($23)? The mountain of scallops, cod, and a prawn the size of Cape Cod, all encased in a well-structured and flavorful beer-batter crust, was served with a zippy tartar sauce and delicious planks of sweet potato fries.

Duerr is also working her magic around the Mediterranean rim with dishes like a subtly spiced Moroccan lamb chili ($9). Chockfull of pulses (chickpeas, black-eyed peas and lentils) and served with a dollop of sour cream, this hearty “soup” is a full meal.

A warm bowl of roasted garlic and almond bread soup garnished with sliced grapes ($7) was like drinking a bowl of Spain in velvet form, and the roasted butternut squash salad ($10) towed a tasty line from Greece to France with crunchy walnuts, creamy pockets of feta cheese and silky pieces of roasted shallots. Bits of candied orange peel gave it an unexpected lift. I loved it so much I cribbed it for a dinner party the very next night.

Desserts at Zest have always been good, especially the cheesecake ($8), homemade by DiGiovanni’s sister. I was glad to see that Duerr, who also oversees the pastry production, has kept that decadent delight on the menu. She has deleted, however, some of the more prosaic offerings I’d previously tried, including the chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies and those odd, store-bought “babysitter chocolates.”

This winter, she replaced them with comforting sweets like a spoon-soft bread pudding studded with dried cranberries, raisins and pears; burnished with a caramel glaze; and served with bourbon-spiked crème anglaise ($7). Her caramel apple pie ($7) is golden and gooey, and it manages to avoid being overly sweet. It’s served either American style, with vanilla ice cream, or British style, with a wedge of cheddar cheese.

Farm to River Market: The space that briefly housed Delaware Café (300 Delaware St.) didn’t sit empty for long. Shuttered for six months, The Farmhouse appeared last summer. The concept—local, seasonally minded food—hasn’t changed. But the owners and the menu have.

With the exception of a Thursday night, prix fixe dinner, The Farmhouse is open only for lunch. [Editor's Note: After this column went to press, The Farmhouse announced new dinner hours: Thursday, Friday and Saturday beginning at 5 p.m.] My first noontime excursion there was uneven. The service was efficient, but several orders were incorrect. The fall squash salad ($7) was excellent, but the green bean and arugula salad ($7) was over-salted. The house-made corned beef looked and tasted more like roast beef, but the sweet potato fries were crisp and delicious. And, served without pepperoncini slaw and peach-Dijon aioli, the pulled pork sliders ($7.50) were dry, but the house-made caramel ice cream ($4) was fantastic.

Things improved on a follow-up visit a month later. Service was as slick as before but more precise. The corned beef was pink and—sandwiched between slices of marbled rye with pickled red cabbage, creamy Russian dressing and melted gruyère ($8)—deliciously (mind the pun) Ruebenesque.

With its large nubs of roasted butternut squash tossed with chopped spinach, soft pears, blue cheese, walnuts and maple vinaigrette, the fall squash salad was just as good as I remembered—a romp through a winter larder. But the French onion soup ($4 cup/$5.50 bowl) could have been better. The broth was thin and wan. Thankfully wonderful, floating croutons bubbling over with melted gruyère cheese lent body and flavor.

A sight for sore eyes in the River Market neighborhood, The Farmhouse is packing them in. I hope it continues to do so.

Local on the Westside: By the time it opened, Westside Local (1663 Summit St.) seemed so organic to its space, so well worn, it was hard to believe anything else existed there before.

That said, my two visits made it clear Westside is indeed a new restaurant that will need time to find its pace. Service was wobbly at dinner and didn’t seem to improve at lunch a month later, but there was nothing wrong that couldn’t be remedied if the servers would just study the menu a little more. And though the prices here are quite reasonable for the most part, some did seem inflated. For $12, I expected something more than a small tuft of baby arugula and a few paper-thin slices of beets. And for that same price, I hoped for something better than a fishy salmon burger with a glaze that thoroughly soaked the buns intended to deliver it to my mouth.

But what Westside Local does well, it does very well. The deviled eggs ($2 per egg) pack the sort of zing you can only get from a good dose of vinegary mustard. Colcannon, offered as a special at lunch ($6), had all the comforting qualities of the Irish original with the added innovation of being served as breaded, deep-fried cakes. And a thick potato, leek and carrot soup ($5) was the kind of hearty mantle you want to pull over yourself on a cold day.

The sauces are wonderful, too, though the kitchen could stand to use a little restraint in applying them. The roasted garlic cream that coated round ravioli filled with sheep’s cheese ($17) was dangerously addictive. So was the rich Boulevard Saison-infused stew sauce that came with a braised leg of rabbit ($20), which, unfortunately, was a touch dry.
Still, Westside Local ultimately personifies the type of can-do, local bravado Kansas City needs. I hope to see it pull together all the other pieces soon.

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SAVE—What can you get for 10 bucks these days? You’d be surprised. 1924 Main (1924 Main St.) has reopened for lunch and offers customers their choice of two courses for that price—one from a list of half a dozen starters and the other from an inventory of just as many sandwiches. Desserts are $6 a piece.

STAND—Robert Krause, the man who brought upscale dining to Lawrence, now brings the college town The Burger Stand at Dempsey’s Irish Pub (623 Vermont St.), a gourmet burger joint that serves everything from The Classic—your basic cheddar cheeseburger ($6.99)—to special creations like the Guinness Pork-Chili Burger ($7.99). And he’s not turning away vegetarians. There’s a Romesco lentil burger ($7.50) and a falafel burger with tzatziki sauce and pickled cauliflower ($6.99). Fries come in four variations: regular ($1), sweet potato ($2), truffle ($2) and fried in duck fat ($3).

MOVE—News that the original Blanc Burgers + Bottles in Westport would be moving to the Plaza sent loyal fans atwitter. If calculations are correct, the owners plan to open their new location in the tucked-away space that was once home to Uno’s Chicago Grill (4710 Jefferson St.) shortly after the new year begins.