THE KANSAS CITY STAR MAGAZINEJUNE 22, 2014

TRAVEL: MAINE’S SCENIC VINALHAVEN ISLAND | 14

NEXT COURSEWith a renovated Bluestem and Leawood's Rye, Colby and

Megan Garrelts look to the future. PAGE 4

THE KANSAS CITY STAR MAGAZINE H June 22, 20144

PHOTOS BY DAVID EULITT | THE KANSAS CITY STAR

A newly remodeled open kitchen puts the chef and his cooks onstage. The remodel was done by architect David Herron of Herron + Partners.

BLUESTEM BLOSSOMS

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Walk into Bluestem — one of Kansas City’s pre-mier dining destinations — and this is whatyou’ll see: a neutral gray color palette, walnut-

stained millwork, suede banquettes and Edison bulbs thatoffer a streamlined and sophisticated tableau.

But it is the dramatic, cloud-like, curvilinear 3-D ceilingand a clever wine rack constructed of mailing tubes to re-semble crop circles that provide the electric jolt of antici-pation that the best restaurants feed on.

It’s a dramatic transformation for thecharming yet slightly cockeyed1,100-square-foot dining room that sport-ed shabby chic decor just three monthsago. Chefs/owners/husband and wifeColby and Megan Garrelts hired DavidHerron of Herron + Partners in Olathe, alongtime Bluestem fan and customer, torebuild and rebrand.

On the second night of service, Colbystands at the helm of the open kitchenwith gleaming, stainless steel counters.He positions himself with his back todiners at “the pass,” kitchen lingo for thelast inspection by the head chef beforethe plate is picked up by the server andwhisked to the expectant diner. “Nowwe’re basically onstage, which adds dra-ma to the dining experience,” he says.

The menu is as refined as ever, but a lacarte is gone. Instead, the three- ($65),five- ($75) or 10-course ($110) tasting

meals are designed as carefully as theroom. The season offers such gems asthe restaurant’s signature spring peasoup with edible flowers, and torchon defoie gras to swipe on buttery briochetoast. There is a lemony garden aspara-gus salad, an olive-oil poached halibutand fresh strawberries with a delicatescoop of chamomile ice cream andstraws of white chocolate.

For an additional cost, well-consideredwine pairings are recommended.

Before the remodel, the progressiveAmerican fare coming out of the Blues-tem kitchen seemed to magically burstforth through a swinging door that con-cealed the gnarled blueprint of a102-year-old building that had contortedto the breaking point. The Garreltses andtheir staff had done “the Bluestemdance,” making do with the crampedworkspace while creating and refiningthe seasonally driven dishes that wonthem national acclaim.

Back in 2004, the couple chose thespace at 900 Westport Road for its affor-dable rent and its urban vibe. Colby, now40, started his career a few doors downat the Stolen Grill, a harbinger of thegrowth of Kansas City’s independentrestaurant scene over the next decade. Inthose days, the funky Westport neigh-borhood was more comfortable, withbohemian falafel shops, beer kitchensand late-night food trucks.

Like many chefs of his generation whowere eager to escape what was consid-ered culinary exile in flyover country,Colby left Kansas to work under celebri-ty chefs, peppering his resume withstints at Rick Tramonto’s Tru in Chicago,

With the renovation of their iconic Westport restaurant complete, Colby and

Megan Garrelts look to build on their solid foundation.

By JILL WENDHOLT SILVA

The Kansas City Star

Jean Joho’s Eiffel Tower and CharliePalmer’s Aureole in Las Vegas, and HansRockenwagner’s Rockenwagner in SantaMonica, Calif.

Friend and fellow chef Patrick Ryan,39, also headed out of town, eventuallylanding at Chicago chef Rick Bayless’Topolobampo.

On a trip home, Ryan sauntered intoBluestem for dinner.

“I wouldn’t be lying to say that I wasblown away,” recalls Ryan, who nowowns Port Fonda a few blocks away. “Ididn’t know a restaurant like that existedin Kansas City. I remember thinking,like, this is a big city restaurant.”

Ryan wasn’t the only one who noticedthe level of food swinging through thosedoors at Bluestem. The first blip on thenational radar came when Colby waschosen as one of Food & Wine’s Top 10Best New Chefs in 2005, barely a yearafter opening. But the celebrity chefgame isn’t always a straight shot to thetop, and after skyrocketing to success,he spent seven excruciating years wait-ing for a nod as James Beard Best Chefof the Midwest, the pinnacle of a culi-nary career.

Colby brought home the Beard in2013; by then, he and Megan had author-ed the “Bluestem Cookbook” andopened Rye, a much larger and moremainstream (and yes, less expensive)restaurant at 10551 Mission Road in Lea-wood. Rye offers a comfortable, modern,mom-and-pop operation and chef-drivensalute to Midwestern comfort food rang-ing from a more rustic version of peasoup to fried free-range Amish chicken.

Meanwhile, Westport has evolved froma mishmash of quirky eateries into acollection of quintessential dining spots.In recent months, notable openings haveincluded Preservation Market by LocalPig’s Alex Pope; Julep, a whiskey bar byhusband and wife team Beau Williamsand Keely Edgington; Ça Va, a cham-pagne bar by the Rieger Hotel Grill andExchange’s Howard Hanna; and Ryan’sPort Fonda, whose Mexican street food-inspired menu debuted in an Airstreamtrailer.

“We want to continue to be that iconicrestaurant for a very long time,” Megansays of the neighborhood’s maturingrestaurant scene, “and the remodel isbasically so that we can.”

Prairie chic

Bluestem’s 10th anniversary party onMarch 15 — the date the restaurantopened — has the unmistakable air ofout-with-the-old/in-with-the-new. Sur-prisingly, neither Colby nor his dad, ahandy guy who had helped him build theoriginal bar, had any qualms about sayinggoodbye.

“Rye consumed us for two years,”

Colby says two days later on a walkthrough the “before” space with Herronthe day before the demolition began. “Iwas feeling guilty. I lost some of my lovefor this space because it was just bro-ken.”

The kitchen layout was insanely bot-tlenecked. The tile floor was collapsingunder the sink. The wine storage closetwas an odd-shaped space that had oncebeen a hair and nail salon. A utilitarian-looking fire door awkwardly joined the

PHOTOS BY JILL TOYOSHIBA | THE KANSAS CITY STAR

Guests at Bluestem’s 10th anniversary got a last glimpse of the old space. The restaurant closed for almost threemonths while the space was renovated to improve flow, functionality and diner experience. Below, rack of lamb withseven curry vegetables and hearts of palm was on the 10th anniversary menu.

“The bottom line is when you chain yourself

to that stove, you just don’t grow.”COLBY GARRELTS

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space between the bar/lounge, whichwas tacked on two years after the origi-nal dining room opened. And patrons onthe more casual side were always reluc-tant to traipse through the dining roomto get to the bathroom.

“Our goal was to streamline the space,”says Herron, who has designed skyscrap-ers and was eager to tackle a more intim-ate project with a sense of brand identityat stake. “Ultimately, I wanted the spaceto be at the same caliber as the food.”

Herron doesn’t consider himself afoodie, though he and his wife, Mary,

have been regular customers at Bluestemalmost since the beginning. As a diner, hehad watched the food and the chefsmature, and he wanted to help themmake the leap to the next level of sophis-tication — a look that did not include anyobvious prairie imagery, despite therestaurant name’s reference to a prairiegrass.

“I’ve had a long time to think aboutways to make a gesture to the prairie,” hejokes.

Although Herron pushed for obliquereferences, at the beginning of the rede-

sign it wasn’t clear if the dramatic ceilingtreatment would make the cut. PriorityNo. 1: Colby needed a new hood over thestove.

Millwork, lighting and the hood wouldtake the lion’s share of the pie, so Herronhelped keep costs down by nixing a$15,000 to $18,000 custom wine cabinetin favor of the ingenious mailing tubesthat came in at about $1,000. The swapultimately freed up enough money for adramatic yet fairly inexpensive ceilingtreatment fashioned from laser-cutprimed and painted MDF (medium

density fiber) board.“To me, it’s like plating the food,” Her-

ron says. “A couple of these details makesa big difference.”

Unleashed from the stove

In recent years, both Garreltses havebeen moving out of the daily grind tofocus on expanding their restaurantportfolio.

“The bottom line is when you chainyourself to that stove, you just don’tgrow,” Colby says as he sits at a windowseat at Rye one afternoon while a robust

DAVID EULITT | THE KANSAS CITY STAR

Dishes were unpacked and stacked as staff organized the new kitchen at Bluestem. The hood above the stove was Colby Garrelts’ No. 1 remodeling priority.

THE KANSAS CITY STAR MAGAZINE H June 22, 20148

weekday lunch crowd swirls around him.“I see a lot of chefs in this town andother towns that feel like they can’t stepaway from that thing, and they never goanywhere because they can’t let go. It’snot about me anymore, and it’s not abouther (he nods to Megan). It’s about all myguys (on the line). I have to give themtheir opportunity.”

Despite all the critical accolades, the28 seats at Bluestem will never producethe kind of cash flow needed to expand.Rye, on a busy Friday night, can mean1,000 plates sent out of the kitchen tobetween 220 and 240 diners spreadthrough the dining room, patio and pri-vate dining room.

Oklahoma Joe’s barbecue founder JeffStehney and his wife, Joy, are partners inRye. He says Rye’s volume will take theGarreltses into the next stratosphere ofdining. “I know (Colby) would neverturn away from his vision for fine din-ing,” he says, “but Rye is a better finan-cial model.”

On a recent Friday night, Rye had 200reservations on the book. During the lullbetween lunch and happy hour, Megansurveys the sprawling 7,000-square-footspace looking for its imperfections. Anaccomplished pastry chef with an eye fordelicate details, she can’t walk past astand displaying their blue-linen coveredBluestem cookbook without straighten-ing it. A few minutes later she climbs aladder and reshelves her favorite cook-books on a high shelf that is built into thecustom wine rack. Someone has replacedthe books after use, but she doesn’t likethe order.

“Colby is the dreamer,” she says. “I’mthe one who actually makes sure thelights stay on, so we’re a good team.”

And teamwork (plus three sets ofgrandparents and a nanny) has helpedthem raise two young children, Madi,who just finished first grade, and3-year-old Colin, while they devote timeto building their brand. Both take offSunday and Monday for family time, andthey alternate who works Tuesday andThursday night. They usually both workFriday night.

At 5 p.m., Rye’s general manager, Jere-my Lamb, runs through the specials andtakes a few moments to remind serversto engage with their customers. Over adozen years, he has worked in 26 restau-

rants in cities across the country. But hehas been at Bluestem and now Rye foreight years, a long time in an industryknown for turnover.

“They are just awesome to work for,”Lamb says of the Garreltses. “Megan isefficient, open-minded and willing totake ideas. Colby is incredibly creativeand passionate. We hit it off as partnersand friends from Day 1.”

With Rye chugging along and provid-ing capital to grow, the Garreltses hint at

Megan Garrelts, co-owner of Ryewith her husband, Colby, prepareddesserts at the Leawood restaurantbefore a Friday night rush.Increasingly, they both spend moretime running their businesses andless time working in the kitchen.

Bluestem chef de cuisine AndrewLongres (left) brainstormed the newopening menu with chef/owner ColbyGarrelts in Garrelts’ basement kitchen.

PHOTOS BY SUSAN PFANNMULLER | SPECIAL TO THE STAR

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more concepts — maybe with the Steh-neys. During the remodel the couplewere also working on their second cook-book, on comfort food based on many ofthe dishes served at Rye, due out nextyear.

About the only thing they insist theywon’t add to their plate: a TV show.

“The people I look up to in the indust-ry, you don’t see them on television,”Colby says. “They write books. They runtheir businesses well. It’s not about us

anymore. It’s about the brand and thecompany. It’s way bigger than we are:We’re just the face of it.”

Bittersweet brainstorming

In mid-April, Colby and Bluestem chefde cuisine Andrew Longres hunkerdown in the basement test kitchen of theGarreltses’ Leawood home for a menubrainstorming session.

The butcher block table is stacked withluxuriously photographed coffee table

cookbooks. A dry-erase board on aneasel is nearby. But there’s also a collec-tion of skateboards in one corner (“Igrew up skating. I obviously don’t any-more!”), a guitar in another (“I’m a failedmusician!”) and a very fat cat fullystretched out on the carpet.

Colby turns on tunes (mostly rock, JimiHendrix, the Stones, the Beatles) whileLongres kicks off his flip-flops, grabs ared marker and starts things off by mak-ing a list of all the spring vegetables he

wants to use on the new Bluestem menu.It is a long list that includes obviouschoices, such as asparagus, rhubarb andpeas, and not-so-pedestrian choices, likefavas, nettles, chanterelles, chickpeas andfiddlehead ferns.

Longres, 27, grew up in Liberty, and hehas spent three years busting it at theFrench Laundry, Thomas Keller’s NapaValley ode to American cuisine that isconsidered to be one of the best restau-rants in the world. Longres’ enthusiasm,

SUSAN PFANNMULLER | SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Rye’s staff gathered for a pre-service meeting to review the evening’s specials. Business is typically brisk at Rye; on a recent Friday evening, there were 200reservations on the book.

THE KANSAS CITY STAR MAGAZINE H June 22, 201410

talent and dedication aren’t even a ques-tion, but as chef de cuisine, he’s alsostuck in the unenviable position of tryingto divine what “Chef” — with a capital“C” — wants and executing it brilliantly.

“What do you want to do with theasparagus?” Colby asks.

“Asparagus, lemon, ricotta and ham …or do we want to go off the wall with abottarga vinaigrette?” Longres responds.“Wait! Should we do ricotta or Parme-

san?”The discussion is rapid-fire: Ribbons

or buds? Poaching, steaming, blanchingin a court-bouillon or sous vide? Parme-san or preserved lemons? Or a Parmesansquare on top or, even better, a Parmesantuile?

“This is hard. You have something upthere, but I don’t know what it is,” Colbysays. “Draw it.”

They both take turns drawing badly,

but well enough to get on the same page.Chef nixes a Parmesan tuile, which re-sembles a delicate cookie, because thedish is beginning to “look like dessert.”

“I want something natural. That’salmost too contrived,” Colby says. “AParmesan tuile looks produced, and itdoesn’t look super natural, and the restof the dish does. That’s the stuff we needto work out. … That’s when we get frus-trated because you want something like

this, and I want something like that.”The final squiggles are recorded with

iPhones. Weeks later the finished dish —an artful melange of asparagus pieceswith wafer-thin circles of radish andpreserved lemon in a Parmesan vinai-grette and garnished with sorrel — isserved.

“Andrew … that kid is amazing!” Colbysays. “I’m going to get him trained andthen,” he sighs, and his voice becomes

PHOTOS BY SUSAN PFANNMULLER | SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Colby and Megan Garrelts sat down to dinner at Rye with their children, Madi, 6, and Colin, 3, before a Friday night rush.

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cover story will include dinner and cocktails at the

DoubleTree Hotel in Overland Park.

816-363-2600 or kchospice.org

HOPE AND ALL THAT JAZZ is the signature

fundraising event of Hope House, with

food, dancing and more at the Muehle-

bach Tower of the Downtown Marriott.

$200. 816-257-9328 or hopehouse.net

Aug. 22

PROJECT POOCHIE: BROADWAY’S GONE TO

THE DOGS is a cabaret event at the In-

terContinental Hotel benefiting the Great

Plains Society for the Prevention of Cruel-

ty to Animals. $100-$125. 913-742-7318 or

greatplainsspca.org

ART UNLEASHED will consist of dining and

silent and live art auctions at Cerner’s

Riverport Landing, with proceeds going

to the Humane Society of Greater Kansas

City. 913-596-1000 or hsgkc.org

Aug. 23

MAINE ON MAIN: LOBSTERFEST 2014, a Give

Back Hope event, will benefit the Chil-

dren’s Mercy Cancer Center Auxiliary, with

food, auctions and entertainment at Roof-

top Park in the Power & Light District.

$110-$150. 816-607-1268 or givehopeback-

.org

YOUNG AT ART COCKTAIL PARTY AND AUC-

TION at the Uptown Theater is a fundraiser

for the Metropolitan Organization to

Counter Sexual Assault. $75. 816-931-4527

or mocsa.org

GIGGLE WITH GILDA will bring comedians

Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood to the

Ameristar Casino in a benefit for Gilda’s

Club. $45-$200. 816-531-5444 or gildas-

clubkc.org

| Dan Kelly, The Star

Send event information to calen-

dar@kcstar.com.

June 25

TACOS AND BEER ON THE BOULEVARD is a

Southwest Boulevard Family Health Care

event at Boulevard Brewery. $50.

913-722-3100 or swbfhc.org/index.html

June 28

STEMS: A GARDEN SOIRÉE is an Arts and

Recreation Foundation of Overland Park

event at the Overland Park Arboretum and

Botanical Gardens. $120. 913-322-6467 or

stemssoiree.org

BOOTS & BOW TIES supporting the Coterie

theater will include dinner and cocktails on

the Crown Center Square. $175.

816-474-6785 or thecoterie.org/boots-

bow-ties-gala

Aug. 2

FREEDOM FUND BANQUET of the Johnson

County NAACP will bring journalist and

civil rights activist Joe Madison to the

Doubletree in Overland Park. $65.

913-362-2272 or jcnaacp.org

FOREVER FAMILIES GALA at the Kansas City

Convention Center will feature a dinner

and auction to raise funds for the Midwest

Foster Care and Adoption Association.

$100. 816-350-0215 or mfcaa.org

Aug. 15-16

SHOOT FOR THE CURE is a two-day event

benefiting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

Heart of America Chapter, with Nick and

Jake’s Western Dinner and Auction on Aug.

15 at the View at Briarcliff ($100) and a

Sporting Clay Competition on Aug. 16 at

Powder Creek Shooting Park ($400).

913-384-8997 or heartofamerica.cff.org

Aug. 16

KANSAS CITY HOSPICE HOUSE ANGEL GALA

PARTY PLANNER

tinged with sadness because he knowshow this story ends, “he’s going to moveon.”

Rye 2.0

In the past two years, Colby and Meganhave become close friends with the Steh-neys.

The guys bonded over barbecue. Colbyborrowed an Oklahoma Joe’s smokerwhile he was working on the first Ryemenu and soon started competing atbarbecue competitions. To date, Colbyhas been less than pleased with the judg-es’ scores. “I know from his barbecuethat he is fiercely competitive,” Stehneysays.

Colby cops to that competitive streak:“Sometimes it drives Megan crazy.”

Thankfully, the all-consuming pressureof chasing the Beard award is a thing ofthe past. And it’s no accident that thehefty and hard-won medallion hangs on awall between the bathroom and thekitchen. In the scheme of the new Blues-tem, it’s a fairly unobtrusive piece of realestate lit by a single spotlight.

“Colby didn’t want to flaunt it by put-ting it at the front door,” architect Herronsays. “Hanging it by the finishing table

reminds all those people (in the kitchen)what they are there for.”

Kansas City has had other James Beardwinners, including Michael Smith, CelinaTio and Debbie Gold. But Colby was thefirst chef not from the American Restau-rant, a corporate dining room owned byHallmark with established Beard founda-tion connections and deep pockets.

For seven years, everyone at Bluestemcrossed their fingers. Each nominationmeant months of roller-coaster publicrelations campaigns (both on their ownand with the help of a Chicago-basedfirm). So when the Garreltses walked handin hand to the podium at Lincoln Center inNew York City to accept his award, it feltlike it rightfully belonged to both of them.

“It’s nice not to be chasing that stuffanymore,” Colby says. “I feel like we cansettle down and mature. And now it’sabout John (Brogan, Rye’s chef de cuisine).And now it’s about Andrew. And now it’sabout Jeremy.

“I feel like we still have to keep workingour asses off and always will,” he pauses,“but I feel like we have the foundationdown, and now it’s time to start buildingtheir foundations and make sure theysucceed.”

Colby expedited orders on a Friday night at Rye. The Leawood restaurant hasbecome nationally known for its fried free-range Amish chicken.