Penny's In the Village

Penny’s In the Village is a chef-driven Thai street-food restaurant in The Shops of Prairie Village, opened in January 2025 by Wan Phen “Penny” Mufuka and her husband Doug Mufuka — the local restaurateur couple behind Bamboo Penny’s, KC Thai, and other area Thai concepts.

Description

Penny’s In the Village is a Thai street-food restaurant located in The Shops of Prairie Village shopping center in Prairie Village, Kansas. The restaurant frames itself as a chef-driven concept built around the cooking of Thai-born chef Penny Mufuka, translating traditional flavors from the Thai countryside and the street-food stalls of Bangkok into a contemporary sit-down format.

The menu emphasizes authentic Thai dishes and shared plates, with reported signature items including barbecue sticky-rice rolls, crispy pork belly in Thai basil sauce, spring rolls, and Thai calamari. The owners describe the venue as a community gathering place, framing the concept around “showcasing original Thai food, the soul of Thailand.”

The restaurant is one of several restaurant concepts operated by the Mufukas across the Kansas City metro, and the “In the Village” name refers to its Prairie Village location (The Shops of Prairie Village, in the Mission/“the Village” district around 71st & 95th-corridor Johnson County) rather than a separate village place-name. It should not be confused with the Mufukas’ two Park Place, Leawood concepts — Aqua Penny’s (seafood/oyster bar, 11652 Ash St) and Bamboo Penny’s (Thai, 5270 W 116th Pl) — which sit roughly 4 miles south near 117th St.

Ownership and history

Penny’s In the Village is owned by Wan Phen “Penny” Mufuka and her husband Doug Mufuka. Penny immigrated from Thailand in 1994 and worked her way up from busing tables to chef at area restaurants before opening her own establishments; she and Doug married in 2013. The couple previously opened Thai House in south Kansas City (since sold, reported sold in 2022) and operate or have operated a cluster of metro Thai-and-fusion concepts including Bamboo Penny’s (Thai, 5270 W 116th Pl, Park Place, Leawood), Aqua Penny’s (seafood/oyster bar, 11652 Ash St, Park Place, Leawood — opened April 2024), KC Thai (Overland Park), and Str-Eatz (a taco-focused cafe).

Penny’s In the Village opened to the public over the weekend of January 17, 2025, in the former-retail space at The Shops of Prairie Village.

Tier classification

Tier 1. Penny’s In the Village is an owner-operated, locally owned restaurant run by a hands-on chef-owner (Penny Mufuka) and her spouse, who have built a metro-rooted family group of Thai restaurants over more than a decade. The concept is personal, chef-driven, and independent — no franchise or chain affiliation — reflecting the pride-and-dedication-to-local-roots Tier 1 measures.

Menu

Last verified: 2026-06-30 · Source: pennysinthevillage.com; JoCo Post opening coverage · Confidence: Medium (signature dishes confirmed from press; full menu at pennysinthevillage.com)

Thai street food. 4160 W 71st St, The Shops of Prairie Village, Prairie Village KS.

Thai street food — signatures:

• Barbecue sticky-rice rolls
• Crispy pork belly in Thai basil sauce
• Spring rolls
• Thai calamari
• Shared plates + authentic Thai dishes

Chef-driven by Penny Mufuka (Thai-born). “The soul of Thailand.”

Full menu: pennysinthevillage.com

Links

• Website: https://pennysinthevillage.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pennysinthevillage/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Pennys-in-the-Village-61567161704916/

See also

• overland-park
• Registry
• bamboo-pennys
• kc-thai

Sources

1. Johnson County Post — “Bamboo Penny’s owners opening new Thai eatery in Prairie Village” (2024-05-02) — https://johnsoncountypost.com/2024/05/02/pennys-prairie-village-233002/ — accessed 2026-05-30 (owners Penny + Doug Mufuka, immigration/background, sister restaurants)
2. Kansas City Magazine — “Penny’s, A Thai Street Food Restaurant, Is Now Open In Prairie Village” — https://kansascitymag.com/pennys-a-thai-street-food-restaurant-is-now-open-in-prairie-village/ — accessed 2026-05-30 (address, January 2025 opening, concept, menu items, owner bios, sister concepts)
3. Penny’s In the Village — official site — https://pennysinthevillage.com/ — accessed 2026-05-30 (address, phone, chef-driven Thai street-food positioning, social links)
4. The Shops of Prairie Village directory — https://shopsofprairievillage.com/store/penny-s-in-the-village — accessed 2026-05-30 (location confirmation)
5. Yelp — “Aqua Penny’s” — https://www.yelp.com/biz/aqua-pennys-leawood — accessed 2026-06-15 (Aqua Penny’s = 11652 Ash St, Leawood; seafood; the base-data address)
6. Johnson County Post — “Upscale seafood eatery Aqua Penny’s drops anchor in Leawood” (2024-04-17) — https://johnsoncountypost.com/2024/04/17/aqua-pennys-leawood-open-231987/ — accessed 2026-06-15 (Aqua Penny’s opened April 2024 at Park Place; Mufuka-owned; sister to Bamboo Penny’s)
7. Yelp — “Bamboo Penny’s” — https://www.yelp.com/biz/bamboo-pennys-leawood — accessed 2026-06-15 (Bamboo Penny’s = 5270 W 116th Pl, Leawood — a separate address from Aqua Penny’s)

Verification

Drafted 2026-05-30 from web research; 4 sources. Address corrected from base data (base listed a Park Place address that belongs to a sister restaurant); Prairie Village location confirmed by three independent sources. Thai House sale date and current status of sister concepts (KC Thai, Str-Eatz) flagged provisional. Social links (Instagram, Facebook) confirmed.

Compiler note — 2026-06-15 (map-pin audit untangle)

A map-pin audit flagged that this record’s base-data address “11652 Ash St” sits ~117th St (Park Place, Leawood) while the map pin sits at ~95th St (the Mission/Prairie Village “Village” corridor) — a name/address/identity conflation of two different “Penny’s” businesses.

Untangle outcome: this Registry record is, and remains, Penny’s In the Village — the Mufukas’ Thai street-food restaurant at 4160 W 71st St, Prairie Village, KS 66208 (neighborhood: Prairie Village / The Shops of Prairie Village). Name, address, and neighborhood in the infobox are correct and verified.

The stray base-data address 11652 Ash St belongs to Aqua Penny’s, a separate Mufuka concept (seafood/oyster bar) in Park Place, Leawood (Yelp; Park Place directory; aquapennys.com; Johnson County Post 2024-04-17). This corrects an earlier draft note on this page that had mis-attributed 11652 Ash St to Bamboo Penny’s — Bamboo Penny’s is also a separate Park Place concept but at 5270 W 116th Pl, Leawood (a distinct address). So three distinct Mufuka businesses were involved: Penny’s In the Village (this record, Prairie Village), Aqua Penny’s (Ash St, Leawood), and Bamboo Penny’s (116th Pl, Leawood).

Name/slug check: slug pennys-in-the-village and the page name match the actual business this record represents. No rename needed. Canonical name confirmed: Penny’s In the Village.

**** — Website-zone follow-ups (pin coords + slug routing are outside the Compiler write zone):

1. Map pin: ensure this record’s pin is set to 4160 W 71st St, Prairie Village (~71st & Mission Rd area) and NOT 11652 Ash St / ~117th St. The base data’s “11652 Ash St” must be purged from this record’s geocode so it doesn’t re-snap to the Leawood location.
2. Possible missing records: Aqua Penny’s (11652 Ash St, Leawood) and Bamboo Penny’s (5270 W 116th Pl, Leawood) appear to be legitimate separate KC-metro businesses not (yet) confirmed as their own Registry records. If the base data’s Ash St entry was meant to be Aqua Penny’s, it may need its own page/slug rather than being folded into this one. Strategist to decide whether to queue them.