They were neighbors in Africa. Now they’ve opened a Johnson County restaurant
“Small world” is an understatement for Abertha Reeves and Florence Muni. When the two were little girls, they were neighbors in Liberia’s capital city, Monrovia.
They’d play and run up and down the same street — until one day about 30 years ago, Reeves’ family moved to Kansas. Muni’s family moved to New Jersey a few years later.
The pair reconnected years later when Muni came to the state to attend the University of Kansas. And now they’re running a new restaurant half way around the globe, in Overland Park.
Their new spot, Tasty African Food, opened at 11240 W. 135th St. at the end of February. It serves the classic West African dishes the pair loved growing up: oxtail stew, jollof rice and more.
They’re not completely boxed into West Africa, though. Ugali is an East African dish. They serve burgers, kebabs and tacos.
“There’s something for anybody,” Muni said.
African wings are popular at Tasty African Food. It comes as a meal with a side of the customer’s choosing, plus a drink, like a spiced pineapple lemonade. The tilapia is another favorite.
Food is a passion for both Muni and Reeves. But so is teaching their friends and neighbors from Kansas about life in West Africa.
“I wanted to share my culture, doing a way in which I know how to,” Reeves said.
Before opening their sit-down restaurant in Overland Park, the pair operated a ghost kitchen restaurant offering to-go only entrees off Interstate 35 and Lamar Avenue.
But a leasing situation caused the two to lose their space. They weren’t ready to give up, though, so they moved into the former La Patrona Tacos & Tequila space near Slow Rise, Bahama Buck’s and Craft Putt.
Things have been especially busy since internet personality Window Wolf, aka Davis Roether, stopped by.
In a video posted by Roether this month, he takes a bite of the African wings and exclaims — “you gotta be kidding me” — then removes his glasses and throws them across the room.
On a Tuesday afternoon, a few tables of the 40-seat restaurant are full. But Muni said this is the slowest it’s been in a while.
Roether’s shoutout was nice, the owners said, but they treated him as they would any other customer.
“We never give out anything to get a review,” Muni said. “Serving people is just one thing that I love.”
Tasty African Food is open from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 1 to 6 p.m. Sundays.