Kansas City’s Anjin is a James Beard finalist

A 20-seat restaurant on Oak Street has put Kansas City into one of the most watched national food races of the spring: Anjin is now a finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s 2026 Best New Restaurant award. The finalists were announced on March 31, and the winner will be named in Chicago on June 15. (jamesbeard.org) (kcur.org) Anjin opened in July 2025 at 1708 Oak Street in the Crossroads, near the old Kansas City Star building, which means it reached the finalist list less than a year after opening. The James Beard Foundation placed it among 10 finalists nationwide in the Best New Restaurant category. (kcur.org) (jamesbeard.org) The restaurant is built around an izakaya model, which is a Japanese neighborhood bar where people order drinks and small plates over time instead of sitting down for one giant entrée. Anjin’s own site says the room is designed for handcrafted dishes, rotating yakitori, seasonal specials, sake, shochu, and Japanese beer. (kcur.org) (anjinkc.com) That format is unusual enough in Kansas City that chef and co-owner Nick Goellner told KCUR the food is hard to find elsewhere in the city. KCUR described dishes including a fried pork collar sandwich, pickled mackerel, skewers, and soft-serve flavored with black sesame or strawberry. (kcur.org 1) (kcur.org 2) The room itself is part of the pitch. KCUR and local profiles describe a U-shaped bar with about 20 seats facing an open kitchen, so dinner works more like sitting around a stage than disappearing into a dining room. (kcur.org) (axios.com) (inkansascity.com) Anjin did not come out of nowhere. The project was created by Nick Goellner, sommelier and co-owner Leslie Newsam Goellner, and Drew Little, and the team already had a local following through The Antler Room, their earlier Kansas City restaurant. (kcur.org) (axios.com) (inkansascity.com) That history helps explain why this finalist slot stands out. KCUR reported that Nick Goellner had already earned multiple James Beard semifinalist honors for Best Chef: Midwest through The Antler Room, but Leslie Newsam Goellner said this nomination feels bigger because Best New Restaurant is a national category and reflects the whole team. (kcur.org) The name also carries a personal story. KCUR reports that “Anjin” means “pilot” in Japanese, and the restaurant ties back to Goellner’s grandfather, who married in Japan after World War Two and passed down stories that shaped Goellner’s interest in the culture. (kcur.org) (inkansascity.com) So the headline is not just that Kansas City has a nominee. It is that a tiny Crossroads restaurant, open since July 2025 and built around a style of dining most local diners do not see every week, is now one of 10 places left standing for one of the country’s biggest restaurant awards. (kcur.org) (jamesbeard.org)