Fox and Pearl

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

Menu

Last verified: 2026-07-18 · Source: Fox and Pearl official site (current dinner/dessert menu PDFs); Kansas City Magazine; review aggregators (ChiLuxe Travel / Tripadvisor) · URL(s): https://www.foxandpearlkc.com/eat · https://kansascitymag.com/fox-and-pearls-meaty-menu-is-an-ode-to-kansas-citys-stockyard-roots/ · Confidence: Medium

Note: Fox and Pearl runs a seasonal, local, from-scratch menu that, per the restaurant, “changes regularly with seasonal availability.” ⁵ Specific dishes below are representative signatures and may not all be on the current seasonal card. Dollar figures are from Kansas City Magazine’s September 26, 2019 menu snapshot ⁶; each dish was checked 2026-07-18 against the current official menu PDFs (dinner card dated 7/13/26, dessert card 7/14/26) and its current-card status is noted inline. ⁷

Signatures

• Foie gras and pork sausage — emulsified Heritage/Duroc pork with foie gras folded into a pork casing, poached in duck fat, served with a berry sauce; a much-cited “non-negotiable” of the in-house charcuterie program. ($12 on the Sept 2019 card; not on the July 2026 card ⁷) ⁶⁸
• Pâté en croûte / charcuterie board — house-made charcuterie built from Heritage pork plus smoked and confit duck (e.g., Honeydel Farms smoked duck breast); the kitchen butchers whole animals and cures in-house. ⁶⁸
• Bone-in pork chop — a thick bone-in chop, a perennial diner favorite; earlier cards ran it seared with a chermoula/chimichurri-style preparation and seasonal vegetables ⁸. On the current July 2026 card it runs as a smoked pork chop with braised cabbage and sauce charcutière ($45). ⁷

Starters and small plates

• Roasted bone marrow — with caramelized green-tomato jam and Ibis Bakery bread. ($12 on the Sept 2019 card; not on the July 2026 card ⁷) ⁶
• Potted cheese — regional cheeses (Hemme Brothers quark, Green Dirt Farm sheep’s-milk, Edgewood Creamery blue) with pickled garlic and bread. Still on the current card: $14 with Ibis Bakery bread as of July 2026 ($11 on the Sept 2019 card). ⁶⁸⁷
• Lamb meatballs — grilled okra, smoky harissa, house buttermilk cheese. ($10 on the Sept 2019 card; not on the July 2026 card ⁷) ⁶
• Pork terrine — cured whole-pig-head sausage, seared, with strawberry honey and a fried egg. ($11 on the Sept 2019 card; not on the July 2026 card ⁷) ⁶

Pastas

• Cavatelli — smoked-tomato sauce, Prairie Tomme cheese, smoked pork jowl. ($15 on the Sept 2019 card; not on the July 2026 card, whose pastas are a fusilli and a chicken manicotti ⁷) ⁶
• Ravioli — house ricotta, brown butter, lemon, mint, basil, grilled squash. ($14 on the Sept 2019 card; not on the July 2026 card ⁷) ⁶

Large plates

• Grilled duck breast — cooked over the live-fire hearth for a bold smoke character; braised-duck preparations also recur seasonally. ($28 on the Sept 2019 card; not on the July 2026 card — the current duck entree is a fried duck leg, $42 ⁷) ⁶⁸
• Smoked beef short rib — large cut with a barbecue sauce built from ham-hock and pig-feet demi-glace. ($30 on the Sept 2019 card; not on the July 2026 card ⁷) ⁶
• Porchetta — pork loin wrapped in belly, grilled, with grilled stone fruit and a chimichurri-style sauce. ($26 on the Sept 2019 card; not on the July 2026 card ⁷) ⁶
• Whole grilled trout — cooked over coals with lime beurre blanc. ($27 on the Sept 2019 card; not on the July 2026 card ⁷) ⁶
• Fried chicken — double-breaded, served family-style with pickles and Fresno hot sauce. ($35 half on the Sept 2019 card; not an entree on the July 2026 card — fried chicken now runs as the Monday-night special and a happy-hour item ⁵⁷) ⁶

Desserts

• Blackberry buckle — skillet quickbread with milk-and-honey ice cream. ($10 on the Sept 2019 card; not on the July 2026 dessert card, which runs blackberry dumplings at $11 ⁷) ⁶
• Seasonal cake — e.g., pumpkin cake with toasted hazelnuts (rotates). ⁸

Links

• Website: https://www.foxandpearlkc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foxandpearlkc/
• Phone: (816) 437-7001⁹

See also

• westside-kc
• 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/ ↩

5. “Menu,” Fox and Pearl official website (accessed June 17, 2026). Notes seasonal-rotation (“our menu changes regularly with seasonal availability”), daily 5–10 PM dinner service, and weekly specials. https://www.foxandpearlkc.com/eat ↩ ↩²

6. “Fox and Pearl’s meaty menu is an ode to Kansas City’s stockyard roots,” Kansas City Magazine, September 26, 2019 (menu snapshot with dish descriptions and prices as of that date; re-accessed 2026-07-18). https://kansascitymag.com/fox-and-pearls-meaty-menu-is-an-ode-to-kansas-citys-stockyard-roots/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

7. Fox and Pearl current menu PDFs, linked from the official “Menu” page — dinner card dated 7/13/26, dessert card dated 7/14/26 (accessed 2026-07-18). Confirms: the current seasonal dinner card (incl. potted cheese with Ibis Bakery bread $14; smoked pork chop, braised cabbage, sauce charcutière $45; fried duck leg $42; charcuterie board $25; fusilli $22 / chicken manicotti $26) and dessert card (blackberry dumplings $11); the remaining Sept 2019 snapshot dishes noted above do not appear on the current card. https://www.foxandpearlkc.com/s/WEB-Dinner-Menu-7_13_26.pdf · https://www.foxandpearlkc.com/s/WEB-Dessert-71426.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

8. “Fox & Pearl Restaurant, Amazing Charcuterie in Kansas City,” ChiLuxe Travel; corroborated by Tripadvisor reviews (charcuterie, foie gras sausage, pork chop, duck). https://www.chiluxetravel.com/fox-pearl-restaurant-amazing-charcuterie-in-kansas-city/ · https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g44535-d17806915-Reviews-Fox_Pearl-Kansas_City_Missouri.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

9. Fox and Pearl official site, footer/contact block (menu and team pages, accessed 2026-07-18). Confirms: phone 816.437.7001; address 2143 Summit Street, Kansas City, MO 64108; email info@foxandpearlkc.com. https://www.foxandpearlkc.com/eat ↩