A Kansas City dining mainstay will soon enter a new chapter in Johnson County.
Emmanuel Langlade opened French bistro Aixois with his wife, Megan, in Kansas City, Missouri’s Crestwood neighborhood in 2001.
After more than two decades in business there, it’s almost time for the popular eatery to make its debut on the other side of the state line.
Pending final inspections, Aixois will “soft open” its doors at its new location in Leawood next week — followed by a grand opening event the next week.
Aixois will operate at 11570 Ash St.
- The restaurant moved into a space on the western end of the Park Place shopping center, near Upgrade Group Training.
- Pig & Finch Gastropub occupied that space for roughly a decade before shuttering in August 2022.
- Once it opens, Aioxis will operate from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., every day of the week.
Aixois serves up traditional French dishes
The restaurant’s lunch and dinner menus feature a range of French entrees, from croque monsieur sandwiches and savory crepes to duck confit and French ham omelettes.
Aixois also offers a coffee bar and a breakfast menu with items like croissant sandwiches and parfaits — as well as an extensive wine and cocktail list.
The restaurant will also offer a weekend brunch and a happy hour from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. with bar specials.
Simon Soeun, co-owner and head chef at Aixois, said the Leawood restaurant’s menu will be a roughly 80% match to the menu that customers have come to love at the Crestwood location.
Soeun intends to use the new Leawood kitchen to try out some new things as well. Some of his ideas entail using the new space’s pizza oven, some new salads and some “French-Asian influenced” rotating specials — a personal mix of Soeun’s culinary skillsets, as he himself is Cambodian and trained as a chef in Paris.
“Everything is traditional-style and homemade,” he said. “We try to keep everything high-quality.”
This will be Aixois’s first expansion
Langlade said that several aspects of his restaurant’s new growth are exciting — from choosing the chairs and tables to welcoming in a new set of customers.
A design team made up of a trio of Langlade’s friends — John O’ Brian, Justin Gainan and Kaitlin O’Brian – have been hard at work giving the space into the cozy feel of what Langlade calls a “new restaurant with old influences.”
“When you come in, we want it to feel like the place has already been open for 10 years, 15 years, even 20 years,” Langlade said.
After seven years of working together, Langlade said he’s also excited to have Soeun on board as his partner for this next chapter.
“We get along very well together and we kind of have the same ideas,” Langlade said. “He’s a very talented chef.”
Langlade said he chose the former Pig & Finch space partly for the charming “village-like” feel of Park Place.
He’s looking forward to opening Aixois to a whole new community, he said, and he hopes the café and bistro feels like a place where Johnson Countians can make themselves at home.
“Park Place has grown so much in the last 10 to 15 years,” he said. “We’re hoping we stay for a long time. The idea of a place like this is that it’s open to anyone, and the goal is to have people come in every day.”
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