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Fox and Pearl is a chef-owned, live-fire Midwestern bistro in Kansas City’s historic Westside, opened in 2019 by chef Vaughn Good and his wife and co-owner Kristine Hull. Built on whole-animal butchery and seasonal, regionally rooted cooking, it earned a James Beard Foundation semifinalist nod for Good (Best Chef: Midwest, 2020) and a national notice from Esquire. Owner-operated and independent.

Description

Fox and Pearl is a “Midwestern bistro” serving a soulful, rustic, seasonal menu that blends chef Vaughn Good’s French culinary training with the Southern and Midwestern comfort cooking of his upbringing. 1 Good builds flavor with a live-fire hearth, a smoker, and a range of preservation techniques (charcuterie, pickling, fermentation), working directly with local farmers and butchering whole animals in-house — a practice he carried over from his earlier Lawrence butcher shop and restaurant, Hank Charcuterie. 23

The restaurant occupies a handsome brick building at 2143 Summit Street, originally constructed in 1907 as a Swedish lodge hall, on a corner lot in the Westside neighborhood. 3 Co-owner Kristine Hull designed the airy, much-photographed interior. 2 The name comes from the middle names of the couple’s daughters, Ophelia Fox and Tallulah Pearl. 1

Ownership and history

Fox and Pearl is independently owned and operated by chef Vaughn Good and his wife and business partner Kristine Hull (general manager/co-owner). 1 There is no corporate parent.

Good attended Johnson County Community College’s culinary program and graduated from the French Culinary Institute (International Culinary Center) in New York, where he discovered a passion for butchery while intending to study molecular gastronomy. He returned to the region and worked at Lawrence’s Pachamamas before opening Hank Charcuterie, a Lawrence butcher shop and restaurant. 2 He announced Hank’s closure in 2018 to move to Kansas City and open Fox and Pearl in the fast-changing Westside; after more than a year of renovations, the restaurant opened to the public July 12, 2019. 23 Kansas City Magazine named it the city’s 2019 Restaurant of the Year. 2

Good has since launched a barbecue concept, Night Goat Barbecue. 4

See also

  • westside
  • Registry

Sources

Footnotes

  1. “About,” Fox and Pearl official website (accessed May 2026). https://www.foxandpearlkc.com/about ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. “Why Fox & Pearl is KC’s 2019 Restaurant of the Year,” Kansas City Magazine, December 2, 2019. https://kansascitymag.com/why-fox-pearl-is-kcs-2019-restaurant-of-the-year-1/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. “Behind the Scenes: The Much-Anticipated Fox and Pearl Opens July 12 in Kansas City,” Feast Magazine, 2019. https://www.feastmagazine.com/travel/kansas-city/behind-the-scenes-the-much-anticipated-fox-and-pearl-opens-july-12-in-kansas-city/article_b2dd0ddc-98f2-11e9-a5da-03fba20be09d.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. “The Bleat Goes On: Chef Vaughn Good’s Night Goat Barbecue gets permanent residence,” The Pitch. https://www.thepitchkc.com/the-bleat-goes-on-chef-vaughn-goods-night-goat-barbecue-gets-permanent-residence/ ↩

See also

  • Registry
  • westside
Categories
  • Locally owned
  • American
  • Westside