Not often does this family of mine sit together for a meal.</p><p>I’m sure that’s the case for most of us with kids and their constant flood of practices and rehearsals and games and our own long workdays and chores and errands.</p><p>But early into dinner at Zest, in Leawood, an unfamiliar feeling sort of appeared, and it was there before I knew it. I think it’s called tranquility.</p><p>Across the table from me and my wife was No. 1 son Andy, almost 14, trying new food, without earbuds and not texting his friends, hardly at all.</p><p>Next to him was No. 2 son Sam, almost 10, happily chowing down on his first try at calamari.</p><p>"Dad, this is squid?"</p><p>"Yep."</p><p>"Squid is good."</p><p>And there was conversation and laughter.</p><p>We’d started the day with a few hours of wandering around Worlds of Fun (dads get in cheap on Father’s Day). Although the new Prowler was excellent, smooth and fast, the Patriot is still my favorite. But the heat index was in triple digits, and we were soon sweaty and headed directly toward fussy.</p><p>The kids knew they had to go to some "fancy" restaurant later that afternoon and weren’t too happy about it. They like macaroni and cheese and pizza and chicken strips and TV. They wanted to just stay home and cool down. They did not want to venture back out into the blazing heat. We were beat. But we had a 5 o’clock reservation and it was Father’s Day, and I was looking forward to it.</p><p>So venture back out we did.</p><p>Zest is just north of Interstate 435 and State Line Road and was opened in November by longtime Kansas City restaurateur Joe DiGiovanni and marketing veteran Mike Schreiber. DiGiovanni owned the former Joe D’s Wine Bar Café and Patio in Brookside.</p><p>Linda Duerr, previously at JJ’s, Frondizi’s and Lidia’s, just recently took over as executive chef, and Otto Miller is general manager. Miller is back in KC after a stint in Las Vegas. He owned Otto’s Malt Shop on 39th Street in the 1990s.</p><p>We parked and walked through the heat up to a pair of 10-foot-tall wooden doors with leather-wrapped handles and entered a cool, calm oasis, with a Modest Mouse tune playing softly on the sound system.</p><p>The space is angular and airy and feels sort of like it could be someone’s home. It’s a mix of greens and browns and some burnt orange stripes, with an Asian/modern elegant yet comfortable kind of vibe. There’s a 14-foot-tall glass walled "wine gallery" between the bar and dining areas. One wall of the room is lined with booths, the rest is filled with tables.</p><p>The firm 360 Architecture designed the space and décor and added some kind of magic that enables the servers and other staff to appear and disappear at will.</p><p>We were seated in a booth, the only ones in a long row of empty booths. There was one table occupied by four ladies nearby, another, farther away, with an older couple. Across the room, the bar seats sat empty, with each one carefully placed at a 45-degree angle to the bar.</p><p>The focus at Zest is "upscale comfort food with a twist." The menu includes soups, salads, pizza, pasta, steaks and signature dishes, from $8 to $24. Schreiber says in the next couple of weeks Duerr will revise the menu, adding more seasonal ingredients, salads and seafood, and "her unique culinary touch to brighten and add even more flavor to many of the old favorites" -- as well as more than 20 new dishes.</p><p>I told the boys they could order anything, hoping they would step out from their mac-and-cheese/hot dogs/burgers routine. I looked down at the menu and immediately spotted macaroni and cheese, hot dogs and burgers. Great.</p><p>So we concentrated on the appetizers. Zest offers eight choices, from $4 "Homemade tater chips" to $15 seared yellowfin tuna. We each picked one, deciding on creole-fried calamari, crab cakes, baked brie and artichoke dip and cold-smoked salmon carpaccio.</p><p>A guy just appeared at the table, said his name was Mark. He took our appetizer orders, said, "Very good," and poof. Disappeared.</p><p>The crab cakes were gone in less than two minutes. They were lightly seasoned and mild but accompanied by a zingy aioli sauce and were by far the favorite at the table. The second-favorite was the calamari, which was crunchy and light, also with a zingy sauce.</p><p>Maybe that’s why they named the place "Zest."</p><p>As we ate, the hostesses were steadily leading group after group to tables, filling up the dining room, and the bar was soon full, too. But the sound level stayed the same. Another nod to the design team.</p><p>The No. 1 seller at Zest is the meat loaf, so I followed the crowd and made that my choice.</p><p>This is not your mama’s meat loaf. This one ($17) is made with ground sirloin, veal and pork and topped with a red mushroom sauce and a pile of toothpick-thin onion rings and comes with a scoop of mashed potatoes. Kind of like Mom’s, but really kind of not. And there was enough for a hearty leftover lunch at work Monday.</p><p>My wife ordered the grilled chicken sausages at $16. She tried a bite or two, but didn’t eat them. They were charred on one end, with black bits of grill gunk stuck to them. She said they tasted more like grill than meat.</p><p>And the boys ... when it was their turn to order, I fully expected "pizza" or "macaroni and cheese." But no.</p><p>Andrew said, "The rib-eye, please."</p><p>Sam said, "I’ll have the ribs off the specials menu."</p><p>Wow.</p><p>And when the food arrived, they were happy. The steak ($20) needed just a fork to cut, and Sam plowed into his plate of ribs and fries ($9.95).</p><p>Zest offers eight dessert choices, from bread pudding to crème brulee to Foo’s Frozen Custard. It was 10 or 15 minutes before we realized our desserts had yet to arrive.</p><p>Seconds later, Mark appeared tableside with the tray.</p><p>"These should have been out 15 minutes ago. I apologize, and I’m buying them for you."</p><p>The wife made up for her lack of dinner with a giant piece of chocolate cake drizzled with a bit of raspberry sauce.</p><p>As stated somewhere on the menu: "If your mom cooked like this, you were one lucky kid."</p><p><hr></p><p><strong>zest</strong></p><p>10681 Mission Road, Leawood</p><p>913-381-5678</p><p><a href="http://www.zestkc.com">www.zestkc.com</a></p><p><li>Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 8 p.m. Sunday</p><p><li>Entrée range: $8 to $24</p><p><li>Vegetarian choices: Grilled Vidalia onion, gorgonzola and red sauce pizza, $8; linguini primavera with fresh vegetables, $14</p><p><li>Noise level: Comfortably quiet</p><p><li>Happy hour: 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday through Thursday with half-price appetizers</p><p><li>Late-night menu: 10 p.m. to midnight Wednesday through Saturday</p><p><li>Reservations: Suggested, at www.zestkc.com or 913-381-5678</p><p><hr></p><p>MY DINNER AT is a story about a single dining experience. The narrative is based on an anonymous visit. The Star pays for the meal.</p><p><hr></p><p><strong>what to drink</strong></p><p>Zest stocks more than 200 wines, including reds on display in a temperature-controlled, 14-foot-tall glass-walled wine gallery between the bar and dining areas.