Chef Joe Shirley takes over the Kansas City Club’s kitchen
Joe Shirley may be the best-known chef in Kansas City without his own restaurant.
Of course, a restaurant of his own is in the plans, but not anytime soon. The 36-year-old Shirley has decided to wait until his son, now 11, graduates from high school before pursuing his own place.
Until then, Shirley and his wife, Carolina, both restaurant veterans, have held day jobs — he was the executive chef at the Federal Reserve for six years before leaving that position earlier this year — and funneled their creative energies the last few years into Uberdine, a series of imaginative pop-up restaurants hosted in different area venues.
Uberdine will continue to be Joe Shirley’s sideline business. In March, he accepted a new culinary challenge as executive chef and food and beverage director for the 133-year-old Kansas City Club, one of the oldest private clubs in the metro and a relic of the days when belonging to such an exclusive institution was a sign that you had officially “arrived” in the civic life of this river town.
Moving from the dining room of the Federal Reserve to a venerable private club wasn’t a huge jump: “The Federal Reserve,” Shirley says, “is a private club.”
“The Kansas City Club was created to be a gentlemen’s club,” says Adam Walker, president of the organization’s board of directors. “Not in the context that we think of a gentlemen’s club today but as a gathering place — with athletic facilities and a good dining room — for men in Kansas City society and in spheres of influence.
“Before the club was founded, these men would gather in each other’s homes to smoke cigars, play cards and drink brandy. But when their wives got tired of this, they formed a clubhouse.”
A fixture at 13th Street and Baltimore for more than a half-century, the Kansas City Club merged with the University Club in 2001 and moved into the latter organization’s building at 918 Baltimore. Both clubs had been experiencing dwindling memberships for more than a decade; the Kansas City Club had more than 2,000 members in 1987. Today, 235 men and women are on the rolls. Walker says the need to promote club benefits to a new generation of members was the reason that Shirley was hired.
“We knew that Joe would be a selling point for the club,” Walker says. “And he is. Joe is a visionary guy, very forward-thinking, and the food he creates for our members is very ingenious, very intelligent. When people find out that Joe handles the parties and receptions here, they’re very impressed. I had great confidence that he could turn around the food and beverage operations.”
Shirley says: “The challenge for me was the opportunity to create something of my own, but less risky than opening my own restaurant.”
There’s still a risk, Shirley says. “If I can’t pull this off, I might be out of a job.”
Shirley’s duties include operating two small dining venues — the Crystal Room and Tomlinson’s Pub, each of which can seat 30 guests — as well as banquet rooms that can be rented for private parties and receptions.
Since taking over the kitchen earlier this month, Shirley has updated the menus.
“It’s a huge kitchen,” he says. “It was built for a club that had over 2,000 members. Some of the equipment is dated, but that’s another one of my challenges.”
Shirley says he will continue to host his Uberdine dinners — the next one is scheduled for May 2 — and his catering operation that creates private Uberdine events at patrons’ homes. But his main focus is attracting new members to the Kansas City Club, he says.
“It’s much more reasonably priced than people might guess,” Shirley says. Memberships run from $87 to $260 a month. “This isn’t a country club. We’re also offering 60-day trial memberships for men and women to check us out.”
“Joe is bringing a new generation of Kansas Citians into this club,” Walker says. “He makes people coming into this facility feel special. And this is a special place. Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower were members here. Joe is helping to create a renaissance for this club.”
