Kitty's Café

Kitty’s Café is a cash-only lunch counter at 810½ E. 31st Street that has served the same tempura-battered, triple-stacked pork tenderloin sandwich since 1951. Founded by Paul and Kitty Kawakami — a Japanese-American couple who came to Kansas City after being confined in a California internment camp during World War II — it has been run since 1999 by Charlie Soulivong and, today, his daughter Jinna. The New York Times put it on its 2022 Restaurant List as “possibly the most delicious fried pork sandwich in the United States.” There are two stools inside and a handful of patio tables; most orders go out the door in a paper bag, and nothing on the menu costs much more than $10. It closed for six months in 2024 over a stalled kitchen expansion and again briefly in early 2026, reopening March 2, 2026.

Description

Kitty’s sits on the south side of 31st Street between Midtown and the East Side, a small red-and-brown building that KCUR describes as unchanged across seven decades; the menu is largely unchanged too.¹² Inside there is a counter with two stools; outside, a covered patio with six tables. The Kansas City Star counted roughly 100 orders a day in 2025, most of them the same thing.³

That thing is the pork tenderloin sandwich: three razor-thin slices of pork, hand-battered and fried in the Japanese-style tempura coating Kitty Kawakami devised, stacked on a bun with shredded iceberg, raw white onion, tomato and pickle, and dressed with a house hot sauce the Times’ writers said “eats like spicy ketchup.”³¹ KCUR’s 2018 story traced the batter to pork katsu — “the Japanese influence of the original owner” — and quoted Soulivong on the method: “You have to cut it pretty thin, flour it so it’s real crispy.”⁴ The Pitch, filing it under Cheap Eats in 2023, noted that where most Midwestern tenderloins are pounded into a single plate-sized cutlet, Kitty’s goes the other way with “smaller, stacked patties,” “extra crunch and big flavor,” and recommended the tater tots alongside — “a little over $10” for both.⁵ The rest of the board is a homestyle lunch counter: chicken and catfish sandwiches, burgers, BLTs, fried chicken and breakfast sandwiches, all under $10.¹⁶

The Times listing in September 2022 changed the scale of the place. Kitty’s was the only Kansas or Missouri restaurant on the paper’s 50-restaurant list, and the Star reports it brought “hour-long wait times” to a counter that had been a neighborhood secret.³¹ “We are very grateful to be open for so long,” Jinna Soulivong told Startland the following year. “We love to serve any and everybody.”⁶

Ownership and history

Paul and Kitty Kawakami opened the café in 1951. Both were born in the United States; both were confined in a California internment camp during the Second World War, and they relocated from California to Kansas City afterward. Kitty, by the accounts of later owners, was the personality the place was named for and the cook who developed the tempura batter.¹³⁴ The Kawakamis retired in 1986 and sold to a second set of owners whose names none of the retrieved coverage records; KCUR notes that the business “has changed hands several times, with some of the history lost over the years.”¹⁴

Charlie Soulivong — spelled Charley in some coverage, and Souvilong in the Star — bought the café and its recipes from those second owners in 1999. He had “worked in restaurants much of his life,” and kept the Kawakamis’ recipes intact.⁴¹³ The Star gave his age as 67 in 2025. His daughter Jinna (also written Jenna), 28 in 2025, runs the front of house and is identified by KCUR as co-owner; a son, Dylan, also works the café.³²¹ The Soulivongs’ own background is not addressed in any retrieved source.

In April 2024 Kitty’s closed for what was meant to be a few weeks of remodeling to expand the kitchen. The first contractors underperformed, and the city’s permitting requirements — the city later said only a service-upgrade permit had been applied for, and that contractors’ failure to pull the right permits caused the delay — stretched the closure to six months. “They were asking for more and more and more and more, and there’s only so much we have,” Jinna Soulivong told KCUR; “We were just waiting like you guys, it was horrible.” The café reopened October 10, 2024 with the expansion abandoned, the exterior unchanged and the tenderloin up slightly to $9.50.²³ It closed again for a period in early 2026; on February 27, 2026 the café’s Instagram announced “This Monday! March 2nd we’re back in business!!” without stating the reason.⁷

Links

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kittyscafekc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kittyscafekc/
• No website; no online ordering.

Menu

Last verified: — · Source: no first-party menu is published online; the items and prices above are drawn from press (KCUR 2023/2024, KC Star 2025, The Pitch 2023) · Confidence: Partial. Known board: triple pork tenderloin sandwich ($9.50, 2024–25); chicken sandwich; catfish sandwich; burgers; BLT; fried chicken; breakfast sandwiches; tater tots and fries; “all menu items under $10.”¹²³⁵ A site visit to photograph the wall menu is needed.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Taylor Wilmore, “Kitty’s Cafe is still serving Kansas City’s most famous pork tenderloin sandwich,” KCUR (from Startland News), 2023-09-10. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: founded 1951 by Paul and Kitty Kawakami after WWII internment; Kawakamis retired 1986; Charley Soulivong bought it 1999 and kept the original recipes; run with his children, Jenna on the floor; NYT “possibly the most delicious fried pork sandwich in the United States”; sandwich build (hand-battered, iceberg, white onion, tomato, hot sauce); hours Mon–Fri 10–4 (5 in summer), Sat 10–3; all items under $10; cash only; limited seating, patio, takeout emphasis; “31st Street between Midtown and the east side.” ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. Gabe Rosenberg, “Kitty’s Café is back in action: Kansas City mainstay reopens after months-long closure,” KCUR, 2024-10-10. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: closed April 2024, reopened 2024-10-10; contractor and city-permit problems (city: only a service-upgrade permit was applied for); Jinna Soulivong quotes; co-owner status; opens 9 a.m.; cash only; tenderloin $9.50; exterior and menu unchanged. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. Rachel Schlueter, “Why Kitty’s Cafe’s pork tenderloin sandwiches are worth the post-lunch coma in KC,” The Kansas City Star, 2025-07-25 (syndicated via Yahoo). Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: address 810 1/2 E. 31st St.; cash only; two counter stools plus covered patio with six tables; Kawakamis “confined in a California internment camp during World War II despite both being born in the U.S.”; Charlie Souvilong, 67, bought 1999, operates with daughter Jinna, 28; triple-layered sandwich $9.50, tempura coating “that Kitty herself developed”; ~100 orders a day; NYT 2022 list and hour-long waits; six-month 2024 closure over a stalled kitchen expansion and permitting. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

4. Michelle Tyrene Johnson, “The Story Behind A Unique Pork Tenderloin In Kansas City,” KCUR, 2018-08-31. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: Kawakamis opened 1951 after relocating from California and internment; business “changed hands several times, with some of the history lost”; Soulivong “worked in restaurants much of his life,” bought ~20 years earlier with the original recipes; tempura/katsu influence; “cut it pretty thin, flour it so it’s real crispy.” ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Jordan Baranowski and Zach Bauman, “Cheap Eats: Kitty’s Cafe,” The Pitch, 2023-03-20. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: address 810 1/2 E 31st St., Kansas City, MO 64109; “31st Street institution … since 1951”; NYT 2022; “smaller, stacked patties,” house hot sauce, tater tots; “a little over $10”; open until 5 weekdays and 3 Saturdays; cash only. ↩ ↩²

6. Taylor Wilmore, “Family serves tender tradition at Kitty’s Cafe with KC’s most famous pork sandwich,” Startland News, 2023-09-05. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: Charley Soulivong with children Jenna and Dylan; “We are very grateful to be open for so long … We serve homestyle, American food”; menu of breakfast sandwiches, BLTs, burgers, fried chicken, catfish; batters “each tenderloin by hand every single day”; NYT 2022. ↩ ↩²

7. Kitty’s Cafe (@kittyscafekc), Instagram post, 2026-02-27. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: “This Monday! March 2nd we’re back in business!! We look forward to opening back up!”; account handle; the early-2026 closure and reopening date; no reason given. ↩