The Antler Room

The Antler Room is an acclaimed husband-and-wife, chef-owned neighborhood restaurant at 2506 Holmes St in Kansas City’s Longfellow area, just east of the Crossroads. Opened in 2016 by Kansas City native chef Nick Goellner and wine director Leslie Newsam Goellner, it serves a daily-changing menu inspired by the East–West trade routes — Persian, East Asian, and Mediterranean dishes side by side. Goellner is a three-time James Beard “Best Chef: Midwest” honoree and one of KC’s longest-standing fine-dining standouts.

Description

The Antler Room is a small, owner-operated fine-dining restaurant in the Longfellow neighborhood on the eastern edge of Kansas City’s Crossroads, at 2506 Holmes St. It opened in October 2016 and is run by the husband-and-wife team of chef Nick Goellner and wine director Leslie Newsam Goellner.¹²

The kitchen’s concept is built around the historic East–West trade routes: the menu draws on “modern culinary traditions of Persia, Asia and the Mediterranean,” serving Persian, East Asian, and Mediterranean dishes side by side. The menu changes daily based on seasonal ingredients and the Goellners’ travels, with house-made pasta a recurring element of the eclectic, Mediterranean-leaning repertoire.²³

The restaurant takes its name from the Antler Club, a Prohibition-era bar in the West Bottoms — a deliberate nod to Kansas City history.⁴ It has become one of the city’s longest-standing fine-dining standouts and operates a deliberately small dining room, with reservations booked weeks in advance through Tock.³

Ownership and history

The Antler Room is independently owned and owner-operated by Nick and Leslie Goellner. There is no corporate parent.²³

Nick Goellner (chef-owner) is a Kansas City native.⁵ He attended the University of Kansas, then trained at the French Culinary Institute in New York. He staged across Europe and worked under chef Alain Allegretti in New York, as a sous chef at Boulevard in San Francisco, and at René Redzepi’s Noma in Copenhagen before returning to Kansas City to open the restaurant.²

Leslie Newsam Goellner (co-owner, wine director) has more than 20 years in hospitality. Much of her early influence came from Room 39 in Kansas City while she attended the University of Missouri–Kansas City; she later worked for restaurateur Danny Meyer in New York and managed restaurants for the Delfina Restaurant Group in San Francisco before co-founding The Antler Room.²

The couple opened the restaurant in 2016.¹ In 2025 they opened a sister restaurant, Anjin, a Japanese-inspired neighborhood spot; Anjin was named a 2026 James Beard “Best New Restaurant” finalist.⁶⁷

Links

• Website: https://www.theantlerroomkc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theantlerroomkc/
• Phone: (816) 929-4498

See also

• nick-and-leslie-goellner — chef-owners (The Antler Room)
• crossroads-arts-district
• Registry

Sources

Footnotes

1. Feast Magazine, “Sneak Peek: The Antler Room Opens Oct. 12 in Kansas City” (2016). https://www.feastmagazine.com/travel/kansas-city/sneak-peek-the-antler-room-opens-oct-12-in-kansas-city/article_24e9bad4-8c98-11e6-b429-db1d155e347a.html — establishes October 2016 opening (seed year “2015” corrected to 2016). ↩ ↩²

2. The Antler Room, “About.” https://www.theantlerroomkc.com/about — owners’ bios, address (2506 Holmes St), East–West trade-routes concept, James Beard mentions. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. Axios Kansas City, “The Antler Room is a James Beard-nominated Kansas City restaurant in Longfellow” (May 15, 2026). https://www.axios.com/local/kansas-city/2026/05/15/antler-room-longfellow-james-beard-kansas-city — Longfellow neighborhood, cuisine, current hours/reservations, active status. ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. KCUR, “7 Kansas City restaurants and bars named semifinalists for the James Beard Awards” (Jan. 25, 2023). https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2023-01-25/7-kansas-city-restaurants-and-bars-named-semifinalists-for-the-james-beard-awards — 2023 Best Chef: Midwest semifinalist; Antler Club name origin. ↩

5. Visit KC, “Kansas City’s James Beard Award Restaurants and Bars.” https://www.visitkc.com/articles/kansas-citys-james-beard-award-restaurants-and-bars/ — Nick Goellner a Kansas City native; James Beard recognition. ↩

6. Kansas City Magazine, “Owners Of The Antler Room Are Opening Anjin.” https://kansascitymag.com/owners-of-the-antler-room-are-opening-anjin-a-japanese-inspired-cool-neighborhood-restaurant/ — sister restaurant Anjin. ↩

7. KCUR, “Kansas City’s Anjin named Best New Restaurant finalist in 2026 James Beard Awards” (Mar. 31, 2026). https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2026-03-31/kansas-citys-anjin-named-best-new-restaurant-finalist-in-2026-james-beard-awards — Anjin 2026 JB Best New Restaurant finalist. ↩