Kansas City’s Anjin rises

Kansas City has a 20-seat restaurant on Oak Street that opened in July 2025, and less than nine months later it is one of 10 finalists nationwide for the 2026 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant. The finalist list was announced on March 31, and the winners are scheduled for June 15 in Chicago. (kcur.org) (jamesbeard.org) The restaurant is Anjin at 1708 Oak Street in the Crossroads district, and its model is a Japanese izakaya, which is a casual drinking place where food comes in small plates instead of one big entree. Anjin says its menu centers on rotating yakitori, daily seasonal specials, sake, shochu, and Japanese beer. (anjinkc.com) (kcur.org) That format is unusual enough in Kansas City that chef and co-owner Nick Goellner told KCUR diners would be hard-pressed to find the same kind of meal elsewhere in the city. On KCUR’s April 11 program, he said the goal was to build a place that feels more like a neighborhood spot in Japan than a standard Midwestern dinner destination. (kcur.org) The room is tiny on purpose: local coverage describes about 20 seats wrapped around a bar that looks into the kitchen, so the cooking is part of the show. Kansas City magazine says the setup feels less like a sushi counter and more like a modern yakitori bar built around live fire. (kcur.org) (kansascitymag.com) Goellner and co-owner Leslie Newsam Goellner built Anjin after years in Kansas City restaurants, and the James Beard run did not start with the finalist list. In January, Anjin was one of 30 semifinalists in Best New Restaurant before the field was cut to 10 finalists in March. (axios.com) (kmbc.com) The James Beard Foundation is one of the biggest prize-givers in American dining, so a finalist slot can change who flies in, who writes reviews, and who books a reservation. Eater’s national finalists roundup put Anjin on the same list as new restaurants in cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and St. Louis. (jamesbeard.org) (eater.com) For Kansas City, that lands at an interesting moment, because the city already has a national barbecue identity and is still trying to widen the picture beyond smoked meat. KCUR reported that Anjin is the metro’s first restaurant in two years to advance to finalist status in the James Beard restaurant and chef awards. (kcur.org) The local pitch around Anjin is not just that it is good, but that it asks Kansas City diners to follow a chef somewhere less familiar. On the April 11 KCUR segment, Goellner said he wants the area around 17th and Oak to become a place where people expect more adventurous dining instead of safer, more predictable menus. (kcur.org) That is why one finalist spot for one 20-seat room is getting treated like a city story. If Anjin wins on June 15, Kansas City would not just get a trophy for a new restaurant at 1708 Oak Street; it would get a national stamp on the idea that the city’s next food chapter can be smaller, stranger, and more globally specific than the one outsiders already know. (jamesbeard.org) (kcur.org)