CHEF ANDREW LONGRES PLANS OPENING OF ACRE RESTAURANT IN
PARKVILLE, MISSOURI, LATE WINTER 2022
______________________________________________________
After more than two decades of working at some of the country’s — and Kansas City’s — best-known restaurants, Longres plans to open a restaurant featuring Argentinian brasserie-style, wood-fired hearth, in-house dry-aged steaks, handcrafted pasta, accessible wine list, and genuine Midwestern hospitality.
Andrew Longres checked out a copy of Gourmet magazine during a trip to the school library when he was 10 years old. Flipping through the pages, he was captivated by an article detailing lettuce varieties and their flavor profiles. “I’m a nerd,” he says. “That magazine article just made me want to taste and try them all.”
Twenty-five years later — after working at some of the country’s finest restaurants, including The French Laundry, Bluestem, and The American Restaurant — Longres is poised to open Acre, a 3,500-square-foot, 90-seat restaurant in Parkville Commons Shopping Center in Parkville, in late Winter 2022.
Acre includes a 37-seat patio with a pergola and free parking. Longres’ research into Parkville demographics indicates suitable conditions to build a robust restaurant business. But ultimately there is another reason to choose Parkville as the site of his new restaurant: Longres, his high school-sweetheart-now-wife Megan, and their two young children happily call the city home.
“I’m excited to bring Acre to Parkville,” he says. “It’s taken almost a year to find the right spot, but I like that it has a small-town feel, and people are willing to help you get your business started.”
Culinary homage to Longres’s childhood
The name refers to Rolling Acres, Longres’ grandparents’ farm in Liberty, Mo., where he learned to ride horses, as well as how to hunt, fish, garden, and prepare food over a campfire. He used his knowledge of the outdoors as a Boy Scout, eventually earning the rank of Eagle Scout.
“I knew at a young age I wanted to get into cooking,” he says. “I’m hard-nosed, and when I say I’m going to do something, I do it.”
Acre will highlight open-fire cooking, high-quality ingredients, pristine execution, genuine Midwestern hospitality
“The most primitive way to cook is with an open fire. It’s challenging to work with a living thing and there is a push and pull with fire, getting the mix of fuel and oxygen just right,” Longres says.
The Acre menu also includes handmade pasta, including an ode to Bluestem’s cappelletti with braised rabbit, sides such as Robuchon-inspired mashed potatoes, and fried spinach topped with cheese curds, as well as comforting desserts, such as his Grandma Maxine’s lemon cake.
Accessible and approachable wines at affordable price points are designed to complement the food. Local beers, craft cocktails on tap, and coffee by Parkville Coffeehouse round out the list.
Follow Acre Restaurant @acre_kc on Instagram.