Vietnam Cafe’s Bánh Tôm Chiên appetizer (deep-fried sweet potatoes and shrimp served on a bed of lettuce with a side of house fish sauce; $6.99)
Noelle Alviz-Gransee
As ICE raids escalated across the country, particularly those targeting job sites known to hire more immigrants, the moment put an unavoidable spotlight on the food industry.
How would restaurant owners, who hire immigrants or who are foreign-born themselves, respond? Would they say anything? Should they?
For Marissa Gencarelli, it was a no-brainer to express her opinion.
Click to resize
“I did get asked many times from people why I was willing to go ahead and stick my neck out for this,” Gencarelli said. “Are you kidding me? I’m from Mexico. I have a Mexican tortilla company.”
Gencarelli, from Sonora, runs the award-winning Yoli Tortilleria with her husband, Mark Gencarelli. For nearly a decade, the shop has been selling homemade Sonoran-style flour tortillas, stone-ground corn tortillas and other Mexican pantry staples to customers in Kansas City and beyond.
Anti-ICE Supper Club at Yoli Tortilleria. Zach Bauman
She’s never shied away from highlighting her Mexican heritage through cooking, classes and community connection. And when it came to being one of the three KC hosts of an anti-ICE supper club, part of a national initiative to raise money for an immigrant rights organization, she didn’t care if people thought it was controversial. After all, immigrants make up a significant part of the nation’s food supply workforce.
The Yoli dinner, along with the other two anti-ICE supper club events hosted by Clay & Fire and then Room 39 this month, sold out quickly, Gencarelli said. Presented by food and travel media company Roads & Kingdoms (founded by the late Anthony Bourdain), the anti-ICE supper club events have taken place in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and several other cities since last year.
Every ticket sale raises money for an immigrant rights nonprofit. The three events in Kansas City fundraised for Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation, a group that organizes in both Kansas and Missouri.
Yoli’s dinner was held at its test kitchen site, but it wasn’t just Gencarelli cooking her Mexican home state’s Lorenza tacos (known for being crunchy) for around 140 guests. The dinner featured a chef-y Sonoran hot dog from Chef Jeff Workman of Green Dirt on Oak, discada (a barbecued meat street food from Durango) from Chef Fernanda Reyes of Taco Naco KC, and a salsa seca (dry salsa) with yellow corn from Chef Johnny Leach of The Town Company and Dear Donna.
“Yoli has always stood for a diversity of Mexican cuisine, being very open-minded of all the different kinds of foods that are out there, and sharing that with the public,” Gencarelli said.
Marissa Gencarelli runs Yoli Tortilleria with her husband, Mark Gencarelli. Alyssa Broadus
It’s what pushes her to always bring something new to the lineup at her small, but mighty (and James Beard-winning) tortilla shop. She wants to do more fundraising for AIRR, and in the near future that could look like offering yoga classes.
Yoli also recently acquired Art’s Molino & Market, a 65-year-old brand of Mexican-American cuisine products from Kansas City, Kansas. Lifelong Kansas Citians are probably most familiar with Art’s thin tortilla chips that have come in the free chip baskets at restaurants like Jalapenos Mexican Restaurant and Margarita’s.
Because of the acquisition, guests can now find those chips not just at restaurants, but for grocery purchase at Whole Foods across in some Mountain West and Midwest states. The rest of their work in the coming months will be to get other Art’s products — like its enchilada sauce that Gencarelli adores — into more stores and in front of a younger audience.
“We have not changed one of their recipes, but we’re trying to bring this beautiful history that they have to a new generation,” Gencarelli said.
Yoli Tortilleria Flour Tortillas made with pork fat. Lauren Pusateri
They’re doing the same work with Yoli’s tortillas — a new tortilla is coming soon, Gencarelli teased — but it does mean the husband-wife team have pressed pause on expanding sit-down service out of their Westside location. The space they have in the Westside is just too small, Gencarelli said, but guests can still grab burritos and other prepared foods.
When Gencarelli isn’t charting expansion and supporting causes, she’s eating at Kansas City’s diverse array of restaurants: the immigrant-owned spots, the community staples and the eateries doing creative interpretations of global ingredients. For this week’s On the Menu, here are Gencarelli’s favorite food businesses in Kansas City.
Dear Donna, a new concept restaurant will open sometime in March in the spot formerly occupied by Happy Gillis at 549 Gillis St. in Columbus Park. Tammy Ljungblad tljungblad@kcstar.com
Dear Donna
Right now I’m obsessed with this Dear Donna salad. It’s like a charred cabbage with lemon pepper ranch. They also have this unbelievable meatloaf melt, which is a complete immersion of different flavor profiles. I didn’t grow up eating meatloaf, so I was very curious about it. It’s a really special treat. You also make room for whatever dessert Helen (Jo Leach) has going on.
Where: 549 Gillis St.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday; 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday; Closed Monday and Tuesday
Hot Basil Thai Cuisine
If I’m eating in, there’s this little strip mall place called Hot Basil. It’s old-school Thai. I know it’s such a cliché to order pad Thai, but I swear to God their shrimp pad Thai is sensational. I’ll order that, and I’ll order their green curry. I’ll pick up a bottle of wine at Lavada Wine Shop, which is very close to there. I’ll tell Lavada I got my Hot Basil, and whatever they tell me, I try. It’s the perfect meal to have at home.
Where: 7528 W. 119th St., Overland Park
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; noon to 8 p.m. Sunday; Closed Monday
Vietnam Cafe’s Bánh Tôm Chiên appetizer (deep-fried sweet potatoes and shrimp served on a bed of lettuce with a side of house fish sauce; $6.99) Noelle Alviz-Gransee
Vietnam Cafe
Vietnam Cafe has a beautiful shrimp roll (tôm cuốn) that is so delicious. It’s shrimp and onion wrapped in a spring roll skin. I’ll go with my kids, and we usually get some of that. They have deep-fried sweet potatoes with shrimp and lettuce (bánh tôm chiên), and you’re making lettuce wraps and dipping it in this really good fish sauce. And of course I love all of their soups and everything else they have.
Where: 9500 W. 135th St., Overland Park; Also located in Columbus Park
Hours: Overland Park location open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Monday and closed Tuesday; Columbus Park location is temporarily closed
Anna Scher, 12, from left, and her cousins Raylan Kreher, 6, and Remington Kreher, 4, share a Skyscraper Shake at Winstead’s in Kansas City. The restaurant dates to 1940. Tammy Ljungblad tljungblad@kcstar.com
Winstead’s Steakburgers
I love a Winstead’s chocolate milkshake. As I’m headed home, it will be a stop to just get a really good chocolate milkshake and maybe some fries. That’s a really nice nightcap for me.
Where: 101 Emmanuel Cleaver II Blvd.; Also located in Overland Park
Hours: Plaza location open 24 hours daily; Overland Park location open from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday
XO HiFi
If I am downtown, I like to go to XO. I am old school, so I always have some sort of martini, whether it’s with sake or whatever else. But it’s going to be a version of a martini.
Where: 709 W. 17th St.
Hours: 4 to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 4 to midnight Friday; 11 a.m. to midnight Saturday; Closed Sunday
Katelyn Umholtz
The Kansas City Star
Katelyn Umholtz is The Star’s Food Insider and covers Kansas City’s restaurant scene and food and beverage news. She comes to Kansas City from Boston, where she was an award-winning food and restaurant reporter for Boston.com and the Boston Globe Media Partners. She has worked in newsrooms across the country for nearly a decade as an education journalist, breaking news reporter and editor. Katelyn is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where she studied journalism.
Dining and Cooking