Colors & Bottles, Kansas City

A passion for flavor has motivated Martin Heuser all his life, carrying him from his family’s restaurant in Bonn, Germany, to the kitchen of two restaurants with Michelin stars, and finally to Kansas City, where he’s planted his culinary and familial roots. Martin and his accomplished sommelier wife, Katrin, draw upon their globetrotting days sampling the tastes of Sweden, Hong Kong, and Vancouver to inform Affare’s menu of modern German cuisine. Plucking the freshest produce and meats available locally, the duo seasons Benton's prime steak, fresh Alaskan halibut, and riesling-marinated chicken and whips up iconic German desserts such as apfelstrudel. Behind the bar, resident opera-singer-cum-bartender Richard Gibson pours glasses of wine from a wooden cask as he belts out the greatest opera hits of the 1880s, '90s, and today. The contemporary motif continues across Affare’s walls, where modern paintings by local artists and a floor-to-ceiling pop-art mural color the spacious dining room.