‘It’s my dream.’ Johnson County upscale seafood restaurant with oyster bar opens soon
On Wednesday, Wan Phen “Penny” Mufuka hurried around in her new dining room.
Above, clusters of greenery hung from the rafters. A marble statue stood in one corner, a rotating glass sculpture spun in another.
Getting ready to open Aqua Penny’s — her new, upscale seafood restaurant with a raw oyster bar — has been a labor of love. She and her husband, Doug Mufuka, have spent the past several months transforming the old Gordon Biersch space at 11652 Ash St. in Leawood’s Park Place into a coastal haven in the Midwest.
And now, the restaurant is in its final stages of preparation.
“My baby’s being born,” she said, clapping in excitement and eliciting a few laughs from servers in the room.
Aqua Penny’s opens April 16, just a stone’s throw from the Mufukas’ other restaurant at 5270 W. 116th Place.
While Bamboo Penny’s is a Thai restaurant, Aqua Penny’s offers fine-dining for patrons with an adventurous palate for all things aquatic.
On the far right, a seafood bar displays oysters, lobster, mussels and other marine creatures. Managing partner Michael Werner said the restaurant has several small-farm suppliers.
Aqua Penny’s Boston Tear Drop oysters, for example, begin their lives in the tidal flats of Crowes Pasture Beach, where Quivett Creek and Cape Cod Bay converge. A dozen cost $40.
The Rappahannock River Pearls, on the other hand, are farmed near the Chesapeake Bay. The menu notes hints of sweetness and low saltiness. (Also $40 a dozen.)
Order the fire-roasted octopus and peppers, and your server will deliver a curled octopus tentacle plated with sweet peppers, jalapenos, shallots, chickpeas and red-pepper coulis ($26). The seafood and saffron plate ($38) includes salmon, jumbo shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, calamari and vegetables sauteed in a tomato saffron broth.
Some folks simply don’t like fish. No problem — try the ribeye steak ($75) or the duroc pork porterhouse ($42).
“We want our guests to come and feel like, ‘Hey, that was outstanding, I can’t wait to go back,’” Werner said.
It’s surreal for Penny Mufuka — who immigrated nearly three decades ago — to be standing in her own luxurious seafood place. Now 56, she came to the U.S. with $800 in her bank account.
“I don’t know how I got here, but it’s my dream,” she said.
Immediately after arriving, she began busing tables in restaurants. She worked her way to the place where she finds true fulfillment: the kitchen.
In 2013, the Mufukas bought Thai House at 9938 Holmes Road. Three years ago, they poured everything they had into Bamboo Penny’s in the throes of the pandemic.
“‘What if we don’t make it?’” she said, remembering a conversation with her husband before it opened. “He said, ‘We’ll just pack everything up in the car and live with Mom and Dad.’”
Luckily for the couple, Bamboo Penny’s took off. Its dishes (The Star’s Eric Adler raved about the mango duck in a recent Let’s Dish column) dazzled customers. So they thought, why not try something else?
Aqua Penny’s was inspired by their travels to seafood restaurants all over the coastal United States. She said to her husband: “We could do that.”
And they did. Inside, blue lights line a bottle cabinet. Dim lights dangle from the ceiling. A patio wraps around the restaurant.
An extensive cocktail menu includes drinks such as the High School Reunion ($12), with pineapple rum, blood-orange soda and a lemon.
On the dessert menu: bananas foster or cherries jubilee (both $25).
Aqua Penny’s will be open only for dinner for about the first month. Happy hour starts at 3 p.m., and dinner will be served from 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursdays, and 4 to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. It will slowly extend its hours to include lunch, then brunch.