News Stories

Brit Estes, Jhy Coulter, and Jones Goldman, Devoured

Devoured chef designs oven-baked backyard pizza concept for pop-ups and beyond

An unexpected medley of events helped Jhy Coulter realize her career as a designer needed to end for her creativity to truly shine — through food, the emerging Kansas City chef shared. “Designing for others with all these limitations was just not fulfilling for me,” said Coulter, founder of Devoured — a pop-up pizzeria known…

Susana Bruhn, GUILDit

Advocate envisions Plexpod ‘art village’ rebuilding KC culture at the intersection of art, business

An arts advocate in Kansas City hopes to partner with one of the metro’s leading community coworking spaces to create a haven for nearly 1,300 art entrepreneurs. GUILDit announced Thursday plans to develop an art village within Plexpod Westport Commons — featuring coworking, studios, a theater, and gallery — with a goal to rebuild art…

Erin Luttrell, Eclairs de la Lune

Legacy-filled eclair shop launches with crowds, pastry case lined with custom, unexpected treats

Chef Erin Luttrell recalls tales of lines out the door and around the block at her great-grandparents’ bakery in the 1920s — the inspiration behind her newly opened sweets shop on the historic Independence Square. “During the grain strike, people couldn’t get flour or bread or products to bake at home for their families, so they…

Cori Smith, BLK + BRWN

BLK + BRWN debuts KC’s first smart bookstore with a twist: ‘I wanted to be as Black as possible’

Kansas City’s newest Black woman-owned, brick-and-mortar bookstore in Midtown has opened its doors, but customers shouldn’t judge the operation by its cover, owner Cori Smith said, revealing an additional first for the metro that has heads and pages turning.   “There’s a technological aspect paired with each book,” explained Smith, owner of BLK + BRWN — Kansas…

eHawk team 2021

Why KCRise Fund chose a Lee’s Summit-built criminal justice smartphone app for its first lead investment

A Kansas City startup’s smartphone-enabled alternative to ankle monitors taps into a huge courts and corrections market — with the potential for tremendous cost savings and societal impact, said Darcy Howe. And that docket of benefits presents a unique opportunity for KCRise Fund, which this week announced its lead investment in Lee’s Summit-based eHawk, added…