The Westside Local

The Westside Local has anchored 1663 Summit Street in Kansas City's Westside neighbourhood since 2009, a farm-to-table New American restaurant in an exposed-brick, wood-beamed room with a grapevine-shaded patio that is the reason many people come in warm weather. Its early years were rocky — The Pitch reviewed it in 2009 and could not recommend it, then returned in 2014 to say it had finally become as good as its fans always insisted — and it changed hands along the way, with founding partner McEvers selling his interest to the other partners in 2010 under current owner Brandon Strick. It has since settled into being one of the neighbourhood's fixtures: The Pitch's Tiffany Watts wrote in 2025 that few places hold her heart quite like Westside Local, calling it a go-to for meetings, lunch dates and catching up with friends. The kitchen leans vegetable-friendly without being restrictive — its Portabella Sammy is a beer-and-tempura-battered mushroom with mashed avocado, jicama, Thai-chilli slaw, fresh jalapeño and a vegan sriracha aioli.

The bar keeps four non-alcoholic drinks, and they are built rather than poured. Mother Goose is the most interesting: passion fruit and carrot juice with coconut water and lime, finished with salted toasted coconut — savoury-sweet in a way most zero-proof menus never attempt. Secco is a bottled option, a fruity, fizzy non-alcoholic sparkling from Fritz Müller, the German producer founded in 2009. Aesop is a Perrier-based drink with lime, red bell pepper, mango shrub and chamoy — and it carries one caveat worth knowing before you order, which KCUR flagged when it covered the list: the Bitterman's Hellfire Bitters that give it its heat are made with alcohol. Trace amounts in bitters are below most thresholds, but anyone avoiding alcohol completely should ask for it without, or choose Mother Goose or the Secco instead. Note also that the restaurant's website sits behind a bot-protection challenge that often blocks access, so hours and the current list are easier to confirm by phone.