Afi

Afi is Howard Hanna’s natural wine bar and contemporary restaurant in the Crossroads — 1989 Main Street, opened early 2023. Open-fire hearth cooking, indigenous ingredients from North America, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Operated as a worker co-op alongside sibling concept Small Axe. Hanna is a James Beard Award semifinalist, previously of The Rieger and Ça Va.

Description

Afi is chef-owner Howard Hanna’s natural wine bar and contemporary restaurant — a Crossroads concept opened in early 2023 as part of the Manaia Collective, a worker co-op he co-founded with operations partner Kyle Gardner. Hanna, a James Beard Award semifinalist, previously built his KC reputation at The Rieger and Ça Va; Afi represents his most ambitious statement: a kitchen centered on an open-fire hearth, with a menu that draws on indigenous ingredients and cooking techniques from across North America, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The wine program is natural — small-producer, low-intervention bottles chosen to complement the fire-forward cooking rather than compete with it. Afi operates alongside sibling concept Small Axe, a modern diner next door, as part of the Manaia Collective’s co-op ownership model. That structure — worker-owned, chef-directed — makes Afi one of the more distinct business models in the KC restaurant scene alongside its food profile.

Tier classification

Tier pending — Howard Hanna birthplace. Hanna is confirmed KC-based — he ran The Rieger for years in the Crossroads and opened Ça Va there before launching Afi and Manaia Collective. His depth of Kansas City institutional involvement is clear. “ — no press source identifies Hanna’s hometown or origin. If KC-born or raised in the metro, Tier 1; if he relocated to KC for culinary work, Tier 2. Both are plausible given his long Kansas City tenure.

Menu

Last verified: 2026-07-14 · Source: Manaia Collective official site; Instagram @afinaturalwine · URL(s): https://www.manaiacollective.com/, https://www.instagram.com/afinaturalwine/ · Confidence: Low (Afi runs a frequently-rotating, unpublished small-plates menu; no fixed itemized menu or PDF is posted online)

Afi is a natural wine bar with an open-fire hearth kitchen; the food changes frequently around indigenous ingredients and techniques from North America, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and is not published as a fixed itemized list online.¹

Kitchen

• Open-fire hearth (wood-fired) cooking is the through-line of the food menu¹
• Small plates built on indigenous ingredients and techniques from North America, Africa, Asia, and Latin America¹
• Dishes rotate frequently and are announced via Instagram (@afinaturalwine) rather than a standing online menu¹

Wine

• Natural wine program — small-producer, low-intervention bottles chosen to complement the fire-forward cooking¹

Links

• Website: https://www.manaiacollective.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afinaturalwine/

Sources

Footnotes

1. Afi / Manaia Collective — official site https://www.manaiacollective.com/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/afinaturalwine/ (accessed 2026-07-14). Afi does not publish a fixed itemized food menu online; dishes rotate frequently and are shared via Instagram. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵