It has been a little over a year since @wjc_memes made its first post on Instagram. Not long after that, @wjc_memes became the talk of the campus. The page reached 100 followers within a few weeks of its first post. Now, the page has garnered over 900 followers and has been a consistent presence on the Instagram feeds of many William Jewell College students. The page recently requested another interview with The Hilltop Monitor, and we were happy to oblige. I reached out to the secretive owner of the account to get an update on the page.

“The creative process has been challenging,” @wjc_memes said in regards to how the new school year and COVID-19  have impacted their mindset when it comes to running the page.  

“I don’t wanna just make a bunch COVID-related memes (there’s plenty of other stuff around campus to make fun of). The mindset remains the same: give students something to laugh about, especially now when it can be hard to do that,” @wjc_memes said.

The fact that @wjc_memes has persisted for over a year at this point, especially when other Jewell-based social media accounts like a Jewell confessions account and a parody account of Jewell’s president, Dr. Elizabeth MacLeod Walls, have burnt out quickly after their creation, is surprising. I asked the page creator about these controversies and how @wjc_memes has been able to stay relatively free of controversy for so long, both within the administration and among students.

“I felt like I made my stance toward those pages [the Jewell confessions and the parody MacLeod Walls accounts] pretty clear. Ultimately it comes down to the underlying purpose of why these pages exist. For those Twitter pages, as far as I can tell, the purpose was to create drama. The purpose of @wjc_memes has always been to give Jewell students something to laugh about. More often than not that does not involve controversy (sometimes it has), but I think the drive to be a positive influence on campus is what has set this page apart from others,” @wjc_memes said.

@wjc_memes is looking to spread laughter to as many people on campus as possible, and on a campus as small as Jewell’s, an influx of new students provides the best opportunity for @wjc_memes to grow. 

“I’m pleasantly surprised at how well new students have responded to the page. Recently there have been a lot of high schoolers committed to Jewell who have followed the page, which I think is hilarious,” @wjc_memes said. “I think it’s interesting because last year the page was the new thing that everyone picked up, but for the first-years it’s just another part of the Jewell experience, and that was a big milestone for me.”

Along with that, @wjc_memes discussed its upcoming goals for this school year.

“I would like to see consistent growth on the page, but I also understand that there’s a limiting factor of how many students there are. I would say the main goal is to be relatively active on a week-to-week basis, and see where it goes from there,” @wjc_memes said.

When people talk about @wjc_memes on campus, one question always comes up: who runs the account? The person or persons who run @wjc_memes have remained a mystery since the very beginning, and some students have been working hard to figure it out. There have been several theories floating around on campus. I decided to ask @wjc_memes if they have heard any theories that they found interesting or if there were some that were close to the truth.

“I won’t name names, but the guesses that some people have thrown out are interesting to see, to say the least. Some people have point-blank [direct messaged] the page with their theories. There are definitely certain students at Jewell that are more likely to be suspected of running it, but I will answer the same way I did last year: No one has been 100% correct with their guesses yet, and it’s more complicated than everyone has suggested so far,” @wjc_memes said.

This raises the question: why the anonymity and mystery when it comes to the identity of who runs the page?

“More than anything, it comes down to my preference to compartmentalize the two,” @wjc_memes said. “If people found out who ran the page, people wouldn’t see it the same way. It’s like watching a magic trick and then seeing how it’s done, it takes the fun out of it. I have personal reasons to keep the two separate as well, but for the most part, it’s about keeping it fun for the students.”

@wjc_memes certainly has done that. The page provides a consistent source of laughter and discussion among students whenever a new post drops. If you do not already follow @wjc_memes on Instagram, I highly suggest you do. We all could use a bit more laughter in the world right now.

TheHilltopMonitor · Interview with Dr. Smith

William Jewell College formally announced that Dr. Rodney Smith would be appointed to the newly created position of vice president for access and engagement (VPAE) in a July 29 email to the campus community. As VPAE, Smith will head the College’s radical inclusivity efforts, which includes such tasks as “supporting the recruitment and retention of students, faculty, and staff of color and forging meaningful relationships with communities of color in Kansas City and beyond,” according to Jewell President Dr. MacLeod Walls.

Prior to stepping into the VPAE position, Smith worked with Jewell in a consulting capacity through his company Sophic Solutions, wherein he assisted with Jewell’s radical inclusivity initiative. Sophic Solutions is a change management and consulting firm, co-managed by Smith and his partner Stephenie Smith, which, according to the about section of its website, aims to “provide educational consultation to schools and school districts, offer change management solutions to a variety of organization-types and conduct diversity, equity & inclusion training for various companies and associations.

Highlighting his foundational educational experiences that led him on this professional path, Smith shared that he obtained his bachelor’s degree at Morris Brown College, a historically black college in Atlanta, Ga., majoring in fine arts with a concentration in architecture. He then worked at an eight-person architecture firm, which was helping the city of Atlanta prepare for the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Soon after, Smith came to terms with the idea that architecture may not be his calling and redirected his energy toward the educational world. He returned to Morris Brown, hired as a recruiter. This position solidified his affinity for education, and he went on to earn multiple degrees in education.

Have you found any parallels between what you studied in architecture and education?

Absolutely… [P]hilosophically, I like to think that the architect is a master builder of structures. An educator is a builder of thoughts, a builder of people even. Again, any structure has to have a foundation. So, the foundation you put in place on anything, on any person, is the platform on which you build or erect that person. I like to believe that education is helping people to fortify that foundation, and then they become whoever they become as a result of that foundation.

What was your relationship with Jewell prior to accepting this position?

When I first moved to Kansas City, I had my eye on Jewell as a possible place for me to land. It was definitely at the top of my list. At the time, I did have an opportunity to talk to the then-President Dr. David Sallee back in 2011 or 2012, perhaps. The opportunity we were looking at would’ve been in the development office fundraising for the College because my role at Belmont was as director of development. But, I decided against that because I didn’t know the region very well, and I didn’t know Kansas City very much. I also know that, in the development world, I think you have to know the community a whole lot better than I did at the time in order to really do your job well, and so I decided against that role at the time and went elsewhere, mostly to UMKC [University of Missouri-Kansas City]. And UMKC was my first and only public school that I worked for – public, state-supported institution, you know, this big machine. I had never worked for an institution like that.

Again, prior to coming to Kansas City, I was at Belmont, and prior to Belmont I was at Fisk University, and prior to Fisk, I was at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, and prior to Clark Atlanta, I was at Morris Brown. All small, private schools. I think Clark was the largest that I had been in, I think Clark’s enrollment at the time was maybe between 5,000-8,000 students, which that was huge for me because most of the schools I worked for and attended were capped at 2,000 students, perhaps. So that was my relationship to Jewell prior to now… I’ve always been looking at the progress of Jewell and what Jewell had been doing over the years.

When you’re stepping into the VPAE position, in your eyes, what duties and responsibilities are defining this role? How are you envisioning that the position will fit into Jewell’s framework?

I’m really excited about this because the possibilities are endless. There’s also [the] burden [of] being the founding vice president for access and engagement, but also, it is the opportunity to put direction to this position and this role and what it does. I’ve been brainstorming about it a lot just on my own, and I’m just really anxious just to get with the rest of the campus community and do some more brainstorming about some possibilities…  I see myself as the chief hope officer, right? Because you’re injecting this notion of radical inclusivity. You’re looking to include faces in the place where historically they haven’t been included. For me, that’s hopeful. For me, that’s looking to extend the College’s footprint and its visibility…

…I think part of access begins with just knowledge and people knowing about us, people who had historically not known much about us. So, you know, with [all my past] experience coming together, I see myself wearing a lot of different hats. I look forward to the phone call from the development team that they want me to go on a call with them, they want me to go on a potential donor’s visit. 

I look forward to that engagement, to be able to leverage my position, perhaps, who I am and what I’m assigned to do for the College in an effort to help people find out more about the College and ultimately give and donate more to the College. We’ve designed a summer bridge program… I see myself very intimately involved in that program or process of helping students who come from backgrounds who don’t have this long history or tradition of college-going. [I’ll be] helping those students [mainly students of color] navigate the transition from high school to college and also being able to thrive on a college campus. 

Of course with my enrollment and admissions background, I see myself going on enrollment and recruitment trips. That’s my first love and being able to sell the college and sell education. I used to say in years past that I wasn’t a salesman, you know, because sales is a tough job, but I realize that I am a salesman. I’ve been selling education for a long time because I believe in it, I’m a product of it. My dad is one of the smartest people you’ll know – he’s a high school dropout…  And in one generation, we went from a high school dropout to someone with a doctoral degree… 

My kids’ natural next step is for them to go to college. My daughter is going to start her freshman year at Howard University in the next couple of days. She’s already thinking about graduate degrees even though she’s only 18 years old. When I was 18, I didn’t even know what a graduate degree was, let alone a doctoral.

[My middle school principal] was my first introduction into graduate degrees and what [they] really meant and what they did. I only thought about medical doctors in that role. Again, I’ve gone from one generation of a guy who’s extremely intelligent but a high school dropout to now. I say all that to say, I believe in education. I can sell it.

How do you think the VPAE position will help Jewell achieve some of its goals and really become more diverse and inclusive?

Just as you have someone like Joe Garcia who wakes up every day with the finances of the institution on his mind, just as you have someone like Dr. Dema who’s waking up every day with academic progress on her mind, so too you must have someone who wakes up with equity on their mind and how to better infuse equity on our campus. And with that, naturally helps the campus enhance itself with regards to equity and inclusion …

My great grandmother had a green thumb. She could walk by a plant at your house and snap the plant off and take it and love it and nurture it and next thing you know it’s a beautiful plant at her house. I thought she just had magic going, and I was like, “Grandma, how do you do that?” And she was like, “You know, baby, anything you pay attention to will grow.” You give it attention. And it will indeed grow. I think about it with the same regard to equity. If we pay attention to it, it will grow …

I don’t want to send the message that I’m the only person responsible…  Eric Blair is the chief enrollment and marketing officer. He’s not the only one responsible for enrollment and marketing. We all are! …  [Enrollment] is the responsibility of [everyone from] the president to our groundskeeping staff. And so too is equity. We’re all responsible. Though I will be the chief equity officer, or as I like to say, the chief hope officer, everyone is responsible for hope. Everyone is responsible for equity. 

[The position] will just naturally enhance Jewell’s campus because you have someone who’s thinking about it, asking questions around it, putting programs in place. I think a big part of helping the institution do better with regards to diversity and inclusion is really honing in on creating a sense of belonging for students of color or students who identify as LGBTQIA, create a better sense of belonging for those students so that they can have a place that they call home as well, right?… 

A big part of creating a sense of belonging – it may sound counterintuitive – is providing opportunities for students to come together, to coalesce among themselves… I think it does give them a community where they can sometimes commiserate and sometimes celebrate among themselves… I think that’s what sustainability is about, what retention is about: helping students to create a sense of belonging.

Do you have plans for how you’re going to engage the current student population in these initiatives? Alumni?

Absolutely. I’ve enjoyed the work we’ve been doing, the radical inclusivity committee and the work we’ve been doing around the initiative, but it has also exposed me to some alumni who are also very much interested in the progress of the institution… [W]hat if we solicited [alumni’s] assistance in creating an undergraduate chapter of [a] fraternity on this campus for African-American male students on your campus now? I’m a member of another one of those fraternities. What if we start a chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha or Omega Psi Phi? I know that there are some alums who were members of these historically black fraternities and sororities that will help us find out what we need to do to establish the undergraduate versions of these fraternities and sororities that are historically serving black and brown students.

…I think in some regards it’s some low hanging fruit because I know there are some students on that campus who know about these fraternities and sororities and want to be involved with these organizations, but Jewell [hasn’t] provided that opportunity for them. And so we have to provide that opportunity for them. It also enhances campus life and campus environment. It infuses energy into the campus because these organizations are a lot of times outwardly facing community service organizations, and they’re always doing stuff to support the community around it, and it just creates energy, it creates opportunity, and it also allows students to build some leadership skills.

What are your thoughts on the current state of diversity and inclusion at Jewell?

I think I’m encouraged. I’m excited about the conversation the College is already having… I think we all can stand to always do more internal work. The internal work of opening our minds more to what diversity can look like, I think it’s an ongoing thing. I heard one of the alum from Jewell say, “We have to look at equity not as a quota system. We have to look at equity like a health assessment.” Meaning, when you go to the doctor, your annual assessment, you’re going to measure your cholesterol numbers, your triglyceride levels. You’re not just doing that at one time, you’re doing that at all times in order to keep those numbers in check. In order to make sure that you’re healthy. So, I think that this opportunity, this role, this position will help the institution to continue in its health assessment of itself. Not that we need to get to a certain number of Latinx students, a certain number of Brown and Black faculty/staff, we need to just make sure that our campus is a healthy environment for whoever wants to come to our campus. That’s what equity is about at the end of the day.

Anything else?

I’m excited to be a part of the campus in a more permanent way because I feel like I’m a part of campus already. I’ve fallen in love with the place. I’m excited to be in this role. I’m excited to meet all of you and for us to move the campus forward with regard to what it’s trying to do – being a more inclusive environment, a place where people feel like they belong regardless of their background. I’m encouraged that the College is aware. 

I think it’s a sign of hope that the College is even aware that we need to have this conversation. Again, [there are] hopeful people – not people who live in this whimsical world – people who recognize that, yes, we will have some challenges, [and] yes, we will confront some barriers. But we have what it takes to get on the other side of those challenges and those barriers. That’s why we’re having these conversations. It all makes us better at the end of the day… I look forward to it all.

There are many titles one could give Kasim Hardaway, who is one of Kansas City’s most influential online food personalities. He is a marketer, a food influencer, a recipe developer, a food writer and, most recently, a restaurateur. Above everything he manages to balance, Hardaway’s overarching role seems to be that of a storyteller. 

Hardaway grew up around food. After leaving a career in civil engineering, he rediscovered that passion for food and, in combination with his marketing and entrepreneurship skills, turned it into his own brand: “Part social media influencer, part marketing guru and full on fatty with an insatiable appetite.” After moving from New Jersey to Kansas City while in high school, Hardaway came to love what made KC such a hidden gem – and has since dedicated his career to promoting what the city has to offer, all from the chair of a dinner table. 

One can look to Hardaway to find anything from restaurant recommendations to original recipes. As soon as July 8 – when his new fast-casual restaurant, Cultivare, is set to open – people can also find Hardaway filling the stomachs of Kansas Citians with a variety of flavorful bowls of greens and grains. 

I called Hardaway for a conversation as he, quite literally, moved from project to project in preparation for opening Cultivare. Hardaway maintained both his focus and bubbly personality even while talking over the phone and multitasking to a degree many would find too stressful. In talking about everything from his reluctant move to Kansas City during his adolescence, to leaving his job and incorporating himself into the Kansas City food scene, to developing recipes for Cultivare, Hardaway’s passion for what he does shines through. His rise to prominence happened relatively quickly but was not without hard work and an intense dedication to his passion and craft. Below is a portion of our call, edited for readability. You can also listen to the interview by clicking play on the SoundCloud player below.

TheHilltopMonitor · Interview with Kasim Hardaway

Do you think that [participating in journalism at University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC)] affected your drive to blog and be this active on social media, or do you think that came beforehand? 

A little bit. As you’ll probably come to realize through this interview, I am one of those people that are, like, all over the place in terms of passion and what I’m interested in, so I constantly find myself doing 1,000 things. Not because I have to, but just because I find a joy in all of those things. 

Where do you think your passion for food came from? 

My passion for food definitely came from my late grandmother, so my mom’s mom. I referred to her as “Nani” all of my life. It’s a funny story. My first word was “Nani,” I was trying to say “Mommy,” I guess. But I said it to my grandma instead of my mom because she babysat me a lot. She was just a phenomenal cook – she didn’t have any professional training so she was just a home cook. Her kind-of style was southern cuisine, but [she] was also someone who loved the Food Network. Some of my earliest memories are watching Emeril or Bobby Flay with her and then seeing a recipe and going to the kitchen and making it. I’ve been cooking since the age of seven – I was making food for our Thanksgiving get-togethers; I was helping her with the turkey. So [food] has always been something I’ve been passionate about and something I’ve been surrounded by. 

You moved into Kansas City in high school. What about this city were you surprised by, and what made you love it enough to stay here? 

I am originally from New Jersey. I was an urban city boy through and through. I could get on the train and go to New York, be in Times Square, do all the fun things and go to all the parks. Before I came here I threw a tantrum. I threw a tantrum on the plane. I said I didn’t want to go to Kansas – I didn’t even know about Missouri. I was one of those people who, when I heard of Kansas City, thought we were going to Kansas. I thought there would be no electricity, there were going to be wells and horses.

I was so surprised when I got here – not immediately, because I just didn’t explore… I was really surprised at how developed Kansas City was and that was – I am 29, and I was 15 or 16 when we got here – so that was a while ago, and we’ve developed more since I got here. I think Kansas City is one of those places that people don’t give enough credit to with how much we’re doing here. I told myself when I go to college I’m leaving the Midwest. That was one of my initial thoughts before I got to know Kansas City. But once I got to know Kansas City – especially after high school, being an adult in Kansas City is a completely different experience. I grew up north of the river, and once I graduated from high school, that’s when I came south of the river and really experienced things like the [Country Club] Plaza and Midtown and all of the different eateries and museums, all of that cool stuff. It kind of opened my eyes to how awesome Kansas City is, and I was like, I don’t ever want to leave here. 

It’s pretty observable how much Kansas City has changed in the last decade. How has food specifically changed how you view Kansas City? 

It’s changed a lot since I’ve been here. There have been so many amazing restaurants, stores and concepts that have popped up in the last 12 or 13 years. It’s just crazy. I have friends that come from the East Coast and friends that come from Chicago and LA, and they’re like, “Wow, Kansas City has such an amazing and diverse food scene. I always thought Kansas City just had good barbecue.” And that’s the rep Kansas City gets, that you go here for good barbecue, and that’s about it. I love it just because we do a great job of representing so many different cultures and cuisines. While we do have a lot of modern American fare, we have a ton of really great good authentic ethnic cuisine, and I love that. 

How about your decision to become an influencer in Kansas City. How do you feel about that title, and what do you feel like you bring to Kansas City in doing that? 

I think that title is really interesting. I use it because now that is a more well known and recognizable title – it just tells people what I do. But you have to be careful about how you title yourself because there are certain perceptions that come with it. For a while when I said I’m an influencer I think people just imagined me, you know, taking pretty photos and posting them and getting paid to do that. But the job is a lot more complicated and a lot more demanding than that. 

But, the way I got into the field was really interesting… I graduated from UMKC and immediately went to work in the civil engineering field… I came to a place where I loved the job and I loved the work, but it just was not fulfilling – and I did not know what was going to fulfill me. I think deep down I knew, but I just didn’t have that at the top of my mind. So I just kind of unplugged and did a little bit of traveling in Brazil. I came back and thought, okay, I think I know what I want to do, let me try my best shot. So, the first year of me being back, I just stayed on my parents couch. I applied for all these random Craigslist jobs within marketing. I was paid like three, four, five bucks an hour. My goal was just to learn paid ad strategy… just as much as I could. One job that I had, they asked me to negotiate a contact with an influencer. I did all this research and tried to understand what it meant to be an influencer, because while it wasn’t brand new at that time, it was still new enough that there wasn’t a lot of information out there. I talked to this influencer that my client wanted to engage, and I was like, this is what I want to do, you get to do this for a living? She wasn’t a food influencer, and I said, “Maybe I could do that.”

At that time in Kansas City, we had a couple, more lifestyle influencers, but there weren’t many food influencers. I remember being invited to Kansas City Restaurant Week and seeing the handful of food influencers – I remember thinking I made the right choice. So after a while different PR companies locally would reach out to me, and eventually larger brands started to reach out to me to work with me, and it became a more profitable source of income. I think it was just me finding this person, and I had this lightbulb go off – that I want to do this.

How was it creating all of these roles and fitting them together? Do you think it came naturally? 

No. Actually, it’s weird because, like most businesses, I branded and identified myself and then reidentified myself and relabeled my services. What I think it was is that I never felt comfortable saying, “I do marketing. I also am an influencer. I also do recipe development. I also do food photography,” just because I was one of the people that felt like you should probably do one thing really well and stick to it versus do a lot of things okay. I thought those were my two options: do one thing great or do a lot of things okay. But then I realized, like, that’s not true at all. You can actually do a lot of things really well – nothing’s stopping you. So once I got over that hurdle… I then figured out that these things actually mesh really well and are interconnected on different levels, and I think that’s kind of what I want to do. I want to be this marketer. I want to be this influencer. I want to be this food writer and recipe developer, and I think I can make that happen. 

In juggling your roles as a recipe developer and marketer and influencer, and now restaurant owner, you’ve become sort of a storyteller in combining all of these different avenues. Do you think of yourself as a storyteller, and, if you do, what does that mean to you? 

You just got me in a sentence. When people really ask what I’m passionate about – you really hit it on the nail – it’s storytelling. That storytelling sometimes takes the form of recipe development. It’s telling a story through something I created in my kitchen. It’s telling a story through marketing, helping tell someone else’s story through social media and digital marketing. Right now it’s taking the form of opening this restaurant, Cultivare, and creating this brand that focuses on redefining what it means to have fast-casual, healthy, flavor-forward salads and grain bowl options in Kansas City.

But, to answer your question more specifically, I love storytelling. I love being able to craft an image of something I visualize and bring that to life for others to partake in it. It’s just one of those things, like you said, it’s in all the little things that I do. How they’re all in common is that storytelling component. 

Do you have a specific story you aim to tell through all of these things, or does it change based on what you’re covering or what you’re doing at the moment? 

Yeah, I think it definitely changes from role to role or based on what brand I might be working with as an influencer or marketer. So, it’s not always the same story, but I can tell you that whenever I tell a story I want it to be a good and enticing story. What I do is really try to do a great job at everything I’m involved in – whether that be Cultivare, whether it be a marketing project, whether it be an influencer partnership – that’s really important to me. 

Tell me about Cultivare. This is your first restaurant, what led you to pursue it? What in your career progressed you to this point? Was it always something you wanted to achieve or did it just seem right at this time in your life? 

Last year – actually around this time, a bit earlier last spring – I tried to open a concept in the Iron District… I wanted to open a concept called Food for Joyce, it was going to be a tribute to my late grandmother. I quickly realized how complex opening a restaurant is and how much experience in operations and logistics you need to make sure it goes smoothly. As I said, I only like to do things I know I’ll be good at. Not that I’m afraid of failure, but I really just like to get a good product in front of people. So I thought, this is something I want to do but I can’t do it right now.

Flash forward to six to eight months ago, I was approached by a colleague that I worked with here in Kansas City with some of my restaurant clients, Kerry Goebel. He and his brother, Kevin, are actually the primary owners of Cultivare… From there, that’s when he offered me a stake in the company – I became a partner. It started with recipe development, and that evolved into doing the marketing and branding, the identity and values. It was definitely a thing that started out as a little ask but grew into me becoming a partner. 

I think that shows how much of yourself you put into all of your tasks. Would you say that’s pretty consistent between Cultivare and all of the brands you work with and your online presence? 

Most definitely. You’re getting 100 percent authentic Kasim. While it’s not, for example, what I envisioned when I said I wanted a restaurant, it’s still something I’m truly passionate about. The cool thing with this partnership that I have with Kerry and Kevin – and also my business partner in my agency, who is also a partner in the restaurant – is that the Goebels bring this multi-year experience in restaurant operations and logistics, which is what I needed with Food for Joyce. So I’m really able to focus in on that creativity, that recipe development, all the things I know I’m really good at – so I don’t have to focus on accounting and food sourcing and management – things where I would definitely fall short. 

What is your favorite dish at Cultivare, as you’ve developed these recipes? 

That’s like making me choose my favorite child. But, my favorite child as of right now is the miso mushroom bowl. It’s a grain bowl. It’s my favorite because it definitely has the most complex flavor profile on our menu. It comes on a bed of quinoa, with roasted sweet potatoes, roasted beets and roasted shiitake, which has been quick-marinated… and then fired. So, while they aren’t cooked completely, they have this great flavor. That’s then topped with this concoction my mom helped me come up with. 

To give you some background on my mom: my grandmother, her mom, was a phenomenal cook and instilled my love for cooking. It skipped [my mom] because she makes four things, and that’s it. She’s not a cook whatsoever. When I was describing this bowl… I said I need a crunch factor, and she said, “what about granola?” I said, “mom you put granola in yogurt, on fresh fruit, you don’t put granola on something savory.” But I was curious about what I could do – so I came up with this recipe. It’s a pistachio, sunflower and pumpkin seed blend with tahini, agave, garlic and onion. So, it comes out just like granola but it has all of those salty and savory notes with a hint of sweetness. It’s a crumble that goes on top of the sweet potatoes, beets, kale and mushrooms. We finish that with a maple miso sauce – miso is just an incredible, flavorful paste – and the maple syrup adds in the sweetness that really draws out the sweetness from the beets so they’re not as earthy… It’s just kind of this umami bomb.

I’m really proud of it because, I will say, some of the dishes were inspired by people that I adore. Things that they had that I said, “I really like that. Let me take this from that and put my own spin on it.” But this miso mushroom bowl and maple miso sauce with savory granola is 100 percent authentic me in the kitchen, really testing things out… The maple miso, I wish I could drink it. It’s just one of those dishes… it’s a really tasty and oddly delicious offering we have. 

Do you think that’s something unique about Cultivare that it brings to Kansas City, that mix of flavors and styles of dishes?

I think even if you take it a step further… I think it’s really important for any restaurant to have options for every dietary preference. I was really cognizant about saying, if you are the most carnivorous eater, you can come here and have a really good meal. If you are a vegan, and you don’t even look at meat, you can have a good meal. I really wanted to make it inclusive with everyone. The other thing that’s a little bit different about our fast-casual restaurant – because, again, this isn’t like table service, it’s very much just that you go up to your order window, place your order and they prepare it for you. Similar to a Chipotle, without the interaction in between. We pack a lot of flavor into all of our dishes. Which I feel like is typically really hard in a fast-casual setting. You are coming in and getting your meal within five minutes. So, it is a speedy process in terms of how you’re served, but the quality of the product you’re getting is really, really, really, really elevated. 

Cultivare is set to open July 8 in Overland Park, Kan. Hardaway plans to update the menu each quarter, so eaters will always be able to try something new. Catch Hardaway on his Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, follow a recipe on his blog or drop by Cultivare to get a taste of his creations. May we recommend the miso mushroom bowl?