Hereford House

Hereford House is a classic Kansas City steakhouse founded in 1957 at 20th and Main in downtown Kansas City. Named for the Hereford breed of beef cattle — a nod to the city’s stockyards and meatpacking heritage — it grew into one of the metro’s longest-running steakhouse institutions, known for hand-cut steaks grilled over hardwood coals. Its landmark downtown restaurant was destroyed in a 2008 fire that was later proven to be arson set by its own owner. Under new ownership since 2012, the restaurant survived a 2024 food-contamination scandal and several location closures; as of 2025 it continues to operate from a reduced number of suburban locations.

Founding and history

Hereford House opened on October 1, 1957, at 20th and Main in downtown Kansas City. Partners Jack C. Webb and Joe Marlo had taken over the existing Kansas City Serveteria at that address in July 1957 and, that October, converted it into a steakhouse.¹ The name was drawn from the American Hereford Association, whose headquarters stood near the restaurant — directly tying the new steakhouse to Kansas City’s identity as a cattle and beef town.

From the start the restaurant built its reputation on traditional Midwestern steakhouse cooking: steaks hand-cut, aged roughly three weeks, and grilled over hot hardwood coals. Several early menu signatures — including the “sea hogs” (jumbo shrimp), carrot cake, and an iceberg-wedge steakhouse salad — remained on the menu for decades.¹

An earlier fire in 1965 damaged the original restaurant; it took more than a year to rebuild and reopen.¹

Ownership and locations

Hereford House has passed through several owners across its history:

• Jack C. Webb and Joe Marlo — founders, 1957.
• The Simpson family — Webb sold the restaurant to them in 1980.¹
• Rod (Rodney J.) Anderson — acquired the business in November 1987.¹
• Mary Holland and Camellia Hill — acquired the restaurants in 2012, following Anderson’s downfall.²

Over its peak decades the business expanded beyond the original downtown flagship into multiple KC-area locations, including suburban restaurants in Leawood, Shawnee, Independence, and the Zona Rosa development in the Northland.²³

The 2020s brought a wave of closures. The Leawood location closed in August 2024 amid financial strain tied to the food-contamination case (below).⁴ The Zona Rosa location closed permanently in March 2025 after the lease ended without agreement on new terms.³ As of 2025, the Independence and Shawnee locations remained open, with Camellia Hill owning the Independence restaurant.³

In 2024 a former Leawood employee, Jace Hanson, was charged after allegedly contaminating food in the kitchen and posting videos online, triggering multiple civil lawsuits and a deep-cleaning response.⁴⁵ The scandal contributed to the closures that followed.

The 2008 fire

The original downtown Kansas City Hereford House was destroyed in a fire at approximately 12:44 a.m. on October 20, 2008, after an explosion brought the Kansas City Fire Department to the scene.⁶

Investigators determined the fire was deliberately set as part of an insurance-fraud scheme. Then-owner Rodney J. Anderson — a co-owner of B & C Restaurant Corporation, the holding company for the business — conspired with Vincent Pisciotta and Mark A. Sorrentino to burn the restaurant. According to federal prosecutors, accomplices placed 14 plastic containers of gasoline throughout the bar area and ignited them, following a walk-through days earlier.⁶ The indictment described a roughly $2.5 million fraud scheme.⁶

Anderson was convicted of arson conspiracy and mail fraud in 2012 and, along with his co-conspirators, sentenced in 2013.⁶⁷ The arson conviction ended Anderson’s ownership and opened the way for the restaurant’s 2012 acquisition by new owners.

Connection to KC beef and stockyards heritage

The Hereford House name reflects the city’s history as a center of the American cattle and meatpacking trade. The Hereford — a red-bodied, white-faced beef breed originally developed in Herefordshire, England — was a mainstay of the U.S. beef-cattle industry through the 19th and 20th centuries and a fixture at the Kansas City Stockyards in the West Bottoms.

The American Hereford Association, for which the restaurant was named, was headquartered in Kansas City, and Hereford cattle were a long-standing show category at the American Royal livestock show and rodeo.¹ By branding itself around the breed, the steakhouse positioned itself squarely within the city’s beef economy and its steakhouse tradition.

Legacy

Founded in 1957, Hereford House ranks among the enduring anchors of the Kansas City steakhouse tradition, alongside contemporaries and predecessors such as the Golden Ox (founded 1949; closed 2014), Plaza III, and Jess & Jim’s (1938).

Its history captures both the strengths and the vulnerabilities of a legacy independent restaurant: a durable brand rooted in local beef heritage, undermined first by an owner’s 2008 arson scheme and later by a 2024 contamination scandal, yet outlasting both through changes in ownership. Even in a reduced footprint, Hereford House remains a recognizable name in Kansas City dining and a living link to the city’s stockyards-era beef identity.

Sources

Footnotes

1. “About — Hereford House: A Kansas City Tradition,” herefordhouse.com; and KC dining-history coverage of the 1957 founding (Webb & Marlo, 20th & Main, American Hereford Association naming, 1965 fire, 1980 Simpson sale, 1987 Anderson acquisition). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. “Can Kansas City’s Hereford House restaurants survive a food contamination scandal?” KCUR, June 16, 2024 (Mary Holland / Camellia Hill 2012 acquisition; multiple metro locations). ↩ ↩²

3. “‘Difficult decision’: Hereford House Zona Rosa closes, other locations to remain open,” KCTV5, March 5, 2025 (Zona Rosa closure; Independence and Shawnee remain open; Camellia Hill ownership of Independence). ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. “Hereford House in Leawood closes after food contamination scandal,” KCUR, August 3, 2024. ↩ ↩²

5. Johnson County Post coverage of the Jace Hanson food-contamination case (2024–2025). ↩

6. “Jury Convicts Hereford House Owner of Arson Conspiracy,” U.S. Department of Justice / FBI Kansas City press releases, 2012 (Oct. 20, 2008 fire; Anderson, Pisciotta, Sorrentino; ~$2.5M fraud scheme). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. “Hereford House Owner, Two Others Sentenced for Causing Fire That Destroyed Landmark Restaurant,” FBI Kansas City, 2013. ↩