This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

The Savoy is the restaurant in the 1903 Savoy Grill room of the Hotel Savoy at 219 W 9th St — the dining room where Harry Truman ate in Booth No. 4 when he ran a haberdashery down the street, under a dozen Edward Holslag murals of the Santa Fe Trail painted for the room’s opening. The Savoy Grill was Kansas City’s oldest restaurant until a 2014 kitchen fire closed it; 21c Museum Hotels restored the building for $50 million and reopened the room as The Savoy at 21c in July 2018; in January 2025 the hotel was sold and rebranded as Hotel Savoy Kansas City, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, managed by Avion Hospitality. Contemporary American with steakhouse and seafood bones — breakfast, weekend brunch and dinner daily. The Pitch’s readers named it Best Hotel Restaurant in 2025.

Description

The Savoy’s dining room is the 1903 Savoy Grill: dark oak woodwork and a carved oak bar, terrazzo and emerald-green tile, stained glass, high-backed booths, and the Holslag murals — pioneers leaving Westport on the Santa Fe Trail, steamboats on the Missouri, Native figures — that KCUR called “that 1903 time-capsule” of the cattle-town era.123 Booth No. 4 carries a plaque as the “Presidents’ Booth”: Truman’s regular seat, later used by Harding, Ford and Reagan.43 In 2018 21c hung Brad Kahlhamer’s dream-catcher-inspired “Super Catcher, Vast Array” in the room as a deliberate counterweight to the murals’ celebration of westward expansion; it was among the few contemporary works retained after the 2025 sale.32

The restaurant’s own framing today: “Since 1903, The Savoy has been part of Kansas City’s story as a restaurant where fortunes were toasted, deals made, and nights carried by the sound of jazz,” with seasonal menus of local ingredients and classic cocktails.5 The 2018 opening menu under chef Joe West was mid-century Americana with French roots — vichyssoise, avocado crab Louis, steak tartare, scallops meunière, lobster Newburg, duck à l’orange, deviled lamb chop with mint jelly, prime rib, baked Alaska — “stuff you haven’t seen on a menu in years,” West said, at entrée prices in the teens and twenties.21 Subsequent chefs kept the steak-and-seafood spine while moving seasonal and local: KC Magazine described Brandon Brumback’s cooking as “rooted in French technique and driven by seasonality,” and by 2025 the hotel was running First Friday half-price oysters and sparkling wine.67 Current listings describe the menu as contemporary American with shareable starters — oysters, caprese, scallops — a cacio e pepe and a Campo Lindo chicken; the restaurant’s website does not presently publish a menu.5

Axios Kansas City reviewed the room during Restaurant Week in January 2026 under the headline “This historic restaurant remains one of KC’s best.”8 KCUR’s December 2024 survey of the city’s oldest restaurants counted the Savoy — recognized as the city’s oldest dining establishment until the 2014 fire, and “designated as the ‘Best Historic Restaurant’ in 2023” — among the places where one can “still eat your way through city history.”9

Ownership and history

The hotel was built in 1888 by the owners of the Arbuckle Coffee Company, designed by Van Brunt & Howe, and opened in 1889 as the Hotel Thorne; it became the Hotel Savoy in 1894.49 A 1903 remodel added the west wing and the Savoy Grill, initially a men-only dining room, with Edward Holslag — a National Academy of Design pupil of John La Farge — painting the murals for its opening.43 Truman ate there regularly while running his haberdashery at 12th and Baltimore before Pendergast-backed politics; construction ran in four phases between 1890 and 1906, ending at seven stories.3 Donald F. Lee bought the Grill in 1960 and the hotel in 1965, ran the hotel in its later years as a bed-and-breakfast, and began a preservation-minded renovation in 1985; the property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 30, 1974.43 By the 2000s the Savoy Grill was routinely called the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Kansas City and the longest-running west of the Mississippi.39

On October 23, 2014 a fire destroyed the Grill’s kitchen; the dining room survived with smoke damage, but restaurant and hotel closed.41 Louisville’s 21c Museum Hotels — founded by Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown in 2008 — took the building on in 2016 for a $47.5–50 million restoration that preserved the Grill, the 15-foot Art Nouveau glass dome in the lobby, the original tile and reception desk, and added 6,200 square feet of free contemporary-art galleries.1107 The Savoy at 21c opened July 3, 2018 with executive chef Joe West (40 Sardines, Bluestem, Stock Hill) and a 125-seat room; the 120-room hotel followed in mid-July and joined Historic Hotels of America in 2019.2104 Brandon Brumback — a KC native with Bouchon, The French Laundry, Blackbird, Grace and Roister on his résumé — was executive chef by March 2022; in March 2024 the hotel announced Eric Michael, a Topeka-born chef with Michelin-starred Chicago stops (Longman & Eagle, Dusek’s), as his successor.611

On January 16, 2025 21c sold the hotel; it reopened the same day as Hotel Savoy Kansas City, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, with Avion Hospitality awarded management. “The acclaimed Savoy Grill remains an integral part of the newly rebranded hotel,” the KC Star reported, while most of 21c’s art program left the building — “The Future is Female” went back to Louisville; Luftwerk’s “Linear Sky” LED piece stayed in the lobby.1213 Avion’s Robert Burg said the property “has undergone a complete transformation to update its design and amenities.”12 The restaurant dropped “at 21c” and now trades as The Savoy on its own BentoBox site.5 The purchaser behind the Hilton flag was not disclosed.

A footnote for the Registry’s West Bottoms readers: the buffalo head that hung in the old Savoy Grill now hangs at westside-storey.

Re-check 2026-09-08 (/compile) — diagnosis sharpened. The Menus page exists and returns HTTP 200, but the site runs on BentoBox and the menu content is loaded client-side: the served HTML has zero price tokens and no PDF links, /api/v1/menus 404s, and the published sitemap.xml lists only /menus/ with no per-menu child pages to fetch. So this is renderer-blocked rather than unpublished, and it is worth a Firecrawl pass when budget allows — this is a flagship downtown room.

Last verified: not verified · Source: the restaurant’s website has a Menus page with no menu content as of 2026-08-29, and OpenTable’s menu could not be retrieved · Confidence: none for current items. Dishes named above are from 2018 press and 2026 listing summaries.5

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Kevin Collison, “Restored Savoy Grill Is Centerpiece In Restoration Of Historic Kansas City Hotel,” KCUR, 2018-05-02 — Confirms: 1903 Grill with dark oak, terrazzo, Old West murals (“that 1903 time-capsule”); 2014 fire; 21c’s $47.5 million renovation of the 120-room hotel; glass dome, tile, Truman’s Booth No. 4 preserved; 6,200 sq ft exhibition space curated by Alice Gray Stites; projected openings (restaurant mid-July, rooms August 6, 2018); chef Joe West (40 Sardines, Bluestem, Stock Hill); mid-century menu and price range; West quotes. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Jenny Vergara, “The Savoy Restaurant and Lounge Opens Inside Kansas City’s 21c Museum Hotel,” Feast Magazine, 2018-07-26 — Confirms: restaurant opened July 3, 2018; Joe West’s background; opening menu items; $50 million renovation, 120 rooms, 6,200 sq ft museum; 125-seat dining room; 1903 Holslag murals, green tiles, stained glass, Presidents Booth; Kahlhamer installation; 2018 hours; West quote on the lounge menu. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. “Savoy Hotel and Savoy Grill (1888–2014); Hotel Savoy Kansas City (2025–),” Clio entry 39893, last updated 2026-07-15. Retrieved 2026-08-29 — Confirms: Savoy Hotel from 1888, Grill added five years later; four construction phases 1890–1906 to seven stories; Grill initially men-only; Truman’s haberdashery patronage and Booth 4 plaque; Savoy Investment Company (1962), Donald F. Lee (Grill 1960, hotel 1965); oldest restaurant in the city until the 2014 fire; 21c renovation from 2016, dining room reopened 2018; Kahlhamer work added 2018 to balance the murals; hotel now operated as Hotel Savoy Kansas City; NRHP #74001073. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  4. “Savoy Hotel and Grill,” Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-08-29 — Confirms: built 1888 by Arbuckle Coffee owners; opened 1889 as Hotel Thorne, renamed Hotel Savoy 1894; Van Brunt & Howe; 1903 west wing and Savoy Grill; Holslag murals and Santa Fe Trail subject; Booth No. 4 presidents (Truman, Harding, Ford, Reagan); Don Lee bought the Grill 1960 and hotel 1965; NRHP 1974-12-30; fire 2014-10-23 destroyed the kitchen; $50 million renovation and 2018 reopening as 21c; Historic Hotels of America 2019; sold January 2025, Avion management, Hilton Tapestry rebrand. Cited for the compiled chronology; underlying references include NRHP NRIS, the KC Star (2025-01-17) and Avion’s 2025-01-20 announcement. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  5. The Savoy — official website (home, About, Hours & Location, Menus). Retrieved 2026-08-29; thesavoykc.com; thesavoykc.com; thesavoykc.com — Confirms: name “The Savoy”; hotel “Hotel Savoy, Tapestry Collection by Hilton”; address 219 W. 9th Street, Kansas City, MO 64105; phone 816-443-4260; hours (breakfast Mon–Fri 7–11; brunch Sat–Sun 8–1; dinner daily 5–11, kitchen closes 10; happy hour Mon–Fri 5–6:30); “Since 1903” statement quoted; OpenTable link; Facebook/Instagram links; Menus page carries no menu content; site “powered by BentoBox.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. “Meet chef Brandon Brumback from the Savoy at 21c Museum Hotel,” Kansas City Magazine, 2022-03-30 — Confirms: Brumback as executive chef; KC hometown, vocational culinary program at 16, Johnson & Wales Denver; Bouchon, The French Laundry, Blackbird, Grace, Roister; “rooted in French technique and driven by seasonality.” ↩ ↩2

  7. “Eat, Play & Stay at 21c Museum Hotel,” Kansas City Magazine (partner content), 2025-08-18 — Confirms: 21c founded by Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown, Louisville, 2008; Kansas City opened 2018 as the chain’s eighth; First Friday half-price oysters and sparkling wine; still names Brumback as executive chef (likely stale — see Open questions). ↩ ↩2

  8. “This historic restaurant remains one of KC’s best,” Axios Kansas City, 2026-01-15 — Confirms: Restaurant Week review of The Savoy in January 2026 (headline); page body not retrievable (403). Provisional. ↩

  9. “Kansas City’s oldest restaurants: Where you can still eat your way through city history,” KCUR, 2024-12-21 — Confirms: Savoy “first opened in 1903”; recognized as the city’s oldest dining establishment until the 2014 fire; 1888 Thorne Hotel / 1894 Savoy; 2018 restoration; “Best Historic Restaurant” designation in 2023; Booth 4 plaque. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. “Kansas City’s Historic Savoy Hotel Finds New Life,” Prevue Meetings & Incentives, 2018-07-26 — Confirms: 21c reopening July 17, 2018 after a two-year, $50 million renovation; 120 rooms; The Savoy at 21c with executive chef Joe West, “chef-driven Americana with surf and turf focus”; carved oak bar and 1903 murals preserved; “oldest continuously operating hotel west of the Mississippi” claim. ↩ ↩2

  11. “In Culinary News: The Savoy at 21C,” IN Kansas City Magazine, March 2024 — Confirms: Eric Michael announced as executive chef, succeeding Joe West and Brandon Brumback; Topeka origin, 15+ years, Chicago career (The Southern, Longman & Eagle, Dusek’s). Page body not retrievable on 2026-08-29 (403); content per search index. Provisional. ↩

  12. David Hudnall, “Historic Kansas City hotel has new owners. They promise ‘a complete transformation,’” The Kansas City Star, 2025-01-16 (via Yahoo) (original: kansascity.com) — Confirms: 21c Museum Hotels sold the property; rebrand as The Hotel Savoy, A Tapestry Collection Hotel by Hilton; Avion Hospitality management; “The acclaimed Savoy Grill remains an integral part of the newly rebranded hotel”; art removals (“The Future is Female” returned to Louisville; “Linear Sky” retained); Robert Burg quote; founded 1888; $50 million 2016–18 renovation. ↩ ↩2

  13. “21c Museum Hotel Kansas City Rebrands to Hotel Savoy,” MEET Magazine, 2025-02-14 — Confirms: Avion Hospitality awarded management; Tapestry Collection positioning; redesign blending historic and contemporary. ↩

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On the record — ks.city/registry/the-savoy · record updated 2026-09-08