KC restaurant may be one of the best in the country. What makes it great?
Editors note: Welcome to KC’s Best Eats, a series where we explore the most iconic, beloved and tastiest spots in the metro. These restaurants are places you’d recommend an out-of-towner (say, someone who’s coming for the World Cup).
If you have a recommendation, email our reporter at jthompson@kcstar.com.
“Hello, my friend!”
A man with a wide smile and powder-white beard emerges from behind a curtain. He claps his hand around the shoulder of a customer, who breaks concentration from his food and arches his eyebrows.
“Hey, how are you?” the diner replies warmly once the trance is lifted, and he sticks out a hand. His meal is nearly devoured in front of him.
The neighborhood calls Yahia Kamal “Baba,” which means “father” in Arabic. Only four people can truthfully call him that — his adult kids, Hannah, Yasmine, Omar and Kamal — but his commitment to addressing everyone as “friend” makes the nickname ooze out like warm honey on baklava.
And before that, the bearded man was known as “Yummy.” So “Baba” works just fine.
Anyone visiting Palestinian restaurant Baba’s Pantry at 1019 E. 63rd St. has likely been greeted the same way, perhaps including the staff at publication Bon Appetit in 2022. The magazine declared Baba’s Pantry was one of the 10 best new restaurants in the country that year.
Not to mention, Southern Living named it one of the “best restaurants in the South” in 2023 (though whether Missouri is “the South” is debatable). And former “Saturday Night Live” star Heidi Gardner enjoyed Baba’s Turkish coffee, baba ghanoush and labneh for her 40th birthday.
Kamal’s not looking to become some celebrity chef, though the accolades are flattering. He’s been in the food business in some capacity for the past couple of decades for sheer enjoyment.
“I don’t hesitate to put as much love in my food,” he says, holding a glass cup of coffee and grinning from ear to ear.
No shortcuts
If there’s one thing Mediterranean restaurants can’t afford to bungle, it’s hummus.
And really, it should be easy. That’s according to Kamal, anyway. He uses chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini, water and salt. That’s it.
“There are no shortcuts. I make the hummus the way the hummus was made 150 years ago — the falafel, same thing,” he says. “If I don’t think it’s good, I’m not going to serve it.”
Kamal buys tahini, olive oil, beans, and spices from vendors out of New York and Chicago. The companies themselves import them from the Middle East.
Popular dishes at Baba’s include the chicken shawarma ($12.25), which is made with halal chicken, house shawarma seasoning and slathered with tahini. Pita sandwiches are made with a variety of proteins and come with a side of fries, covered in Baba’s special seasoning, and a drink.
Baba’s hummus platter ($9.35) is a popular choice and is covered with pickles, olive oil, olives, parsley and pita. For an extra $5.65, diners can add falafel, chicken shawarma, jackfruit and other proteins.
The adjoining space, called Baba’s Bakery, makes pastries like baklava, a sticky pastry with walnuts, rose, honey and pistachio. Some sweets are sold on the food side, as well.
Another point of pride is Baba’s lemonade, made with fresh-squeezed lemons and fresh fruits. Kamal estimates he serves 300 different flavors, like cream of mixed berries, watermelon basil, pineapple coconut and whatever else his mind can conjure.
He offers beef nachos and chicken tacos as Taco Tuesday specials.
Despite the cost of food increasing, Kamal is committed to keeping his prices low and his portions hearty.
“I don’t want my food to be out of reach,” Kamal says.
His mind’s eye is always fixed on the streets of Palestine, where sellers drum up customers for their on-the-go snacks and eats. He hopes to bottle some of that energy and bring it to the Midwest.
“You go to every corner, you find a cart, someone making falafel. Next to him, another person making falafel.”
Remembering roots
Kamal was raised in Tulkarm, a city of about 80,000 people on the north end of the West Bank. A few photos of his early days hang on the wall in his Baba’s Bakery. In one snapshot, he poses in front of several cascading, tan buildings.
His smile lines are smoother here. In place of his peppery beard, a jet-black mustache.
Kamal came to the U.S. for school in 1979 and attended Southeastern Oklahoma State in Durant. He’s been in Kansas City since 2001.
He began cooking in a state of homesickness. Kamal’s earliest memories include his mother in the kitchen, and, though he often snuck in to try to cook himself, chores were left for the women.
Still, he desired the food he’d grown up with. So he set out to make his mother’s recipes.
When Kamal relearned to cook in the U.S., he’d invite guests to taste.
“Slowly, slowly I start loving food, and then I start making food for people,” he tells The Star. “When you make food and people like it, you make more food.”
He started Yummy’s Choice as a wholesale business in 2003, then later opened Marble Top Cafe on Ward Parkway and Chips and Dips at 25th and Holmes.
Kamal gained notoriety among downtown residents for offering fresh shawarma and hummus inside Cosentino’s Market. It was a staple for about a decade before the pandemic slowed things down.
That’s when Kamal, making a trip to the bank at 63rd Street and Troost Avenue, spotted a vacant building.
“I noticed this building in the middle of COVID,” Kamal says. “The roof was collapsing, the floor you could see the ceiling.”
“I scratch my head, and I said, ‘This could really be a good place.’”
Family first
His kids pushed back some, he admits, telling them he was too old to start a new venture. He’s 65 today.
Still, Baba’s Pantry opened in 2021. His kids, though hesitant at first, became a large part of the business. The name itself is partly in their honor.
Kamal used to keep pickles, olive oil and other spices in a cupboard. The array of goodies was too tempting for his children to keep their hands out away from the shelves.
“When they come to dinner, usually they raid my pantry,” Kamal Yahia explains. “We want people to feel the same, like when they come to my home.”
They all work with Yahia now. His son Kamal is an artist who helped design the space. While Yahia chats with The Star, his daughter, Hannah, takes a tray of baklava out of the oven.
“I paved the road for them,” Yahia says. “And I did a good job.”
His wife, Yusra Abu-Alhasab, peels back the curtain to tell her husband something in Arabic. She’s just come from the kitchen. Turning to The Star, she glances at the camera and nods her head.
“Famous man!” she teases.
When asked how it is to work with family, Yahia says it’s great, but then adds that things don’t always go over as smoothly as his hummus plates.
“It’s difficult. The way they’re thinking and approach things is completely different.”
Still, he knows there are certain things he wouldn’t be able to accomplish without them. His restaurant’s following and brand is partially built by his design and social media-savvy children.
Buzzing neighborhood spot
On a Tuesday afternoon, the dining room fills with customers and the smells of sizzling beef and lamb.
Mercedes Bern-Klug, a former Brookside native, is visiting from Sioux City.
She came to see her sister. Before trekking back home, she declared:
“Robin — we ain’t goin’ anywhere until we stop at Baba’s.”
She holds up “the best” pita chips, preserved lemons, shatta, organic Palestinian olive oil and a few other goodies to show The Star.
Bern-Klug is a regular customer every time she ventures back to the City of Fountains.
“The people are great, the food is fantastic,” she said. “I like the fact that it’s in the neighborhood.”
If Yahia’s personal welcome wasn’t enough, a cartoon figure of the mustached chef beams from the menu board. Thin markers outline his red cap. His catchphrase is chalked out beneath.
“Hello, my friend!”
Those looking to taste Baba’s dishes can visit the pantry side from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays. The bakery side is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. It’s closed on Mondays.
