Fine Dining in Kansas City: The American Restaurant
Kansas City is not exactly known for its fine cuisine. Barbecue and steaks, sure. But fine cuisine? Not so much.
However, this trend is changing. Upscale dining is getting better all the time in Kansas City and one of the women making it happen is Chef Debbie Gold from The American Restuarant in Kansas City, MO. Through its thirty-five years of operation, the American has become a culinary tradition in Kansas City, being the personal vision of the Hall family (of Hallmark cards…). However, more than its backers, the restaurant is a destination because it brings a subtle mix of timeless classical decor and unpretentious contemporary American cuisine.
Walking into The American is an experience. It sits four stories up, right next to the legendary Crown Center. As you enter the restaurant, you move through a short entryway that opens up so that you can see the entire dining area. Done in light wood accents, the most remarkable feature of the restaurant is the two story floor-to-ceiling windows that show a gorgeously scenic expanse of downtown Kansas City. There’s just something very open about the space like the dining area flows out into the city itself.
Then there’s the food. Chef Gold’s cuisine is refined. It’s elegant without being the type of cuisine you need to speak a foreign language or understand the subtleties of molecular gastronomy to understand. Plates are stylishly organized with an eye towards color and presentation. Chef Gold has taken to heart the idea that diners eat with their eyes first and then with their mouths. Indeed, I felt no small amount of guilt taking the first bite of both the roasted lamb belly (that’s meat, not stomach) and the La Belle duck breast simply because I knew I was ruining a piece of art.
Any such guilt was drowned out by the sheer pleasure of taking that bite, however. Chef Gold’s food was nothing short of a masterpiece. The lamb belly, served on top of what I think were peas and a tomato relish, was by far and away the best piece of lamb I have ever tasted. It was simply roasted, lightly spiced, and let the lamb speak for itself. The peas were a little crunchy, but the relish more than made up for it.
The La Belle duck breast was also very good. It was served on a bed of sunchokes with broad beans and was one of the most tender duck breasts I’ve had. Sometimes duck gets chewy or tough and my duck breast was neither. The broad beans were earthy and savory and the Grand Marnier jus was the perfect accent to the duck.
Also, if all I wanted was a drink, I could have stayed in the bar above the dining area and had a cocktail with Willie, the bartender of thirty-five years. If, while drinking my cocktail, I got hungry, I could have sampled something from the bar menu, which should by the time of this writing, include marrow bones served with some amazingly subtle mustard croutons.
The American Restaurant is a great place to get a first rate meal in Kansas City. It’s service has been nominated for a James Beard award and it’s the only Mobil four star restaurant in the area. More than that, the restaurant is run by good people who, whether they know it or not, are putting Kansas City on the fine dining map.
