The Golden Ox was a steakhouse restaurant located in the Kansas City Live Stock Exchange building in the West Bottoms area of Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1949, the Golden Ox was the birthplace of the Kansas City strip steak. The Golden Ox was often regarded as the oldest steakhouse in Kansas City, because while Jess & Jim's Steakhouse opened more than a decade earlier in 1938, the Martin City area where Jess & Jim's is located was not annexed by Kansas City until 1963. The original Golden Ox location closed permanently following dinner on December 20, 2014, but new owners have leased the space and will reopen the Golden Ox in a renovated portion of the original space in Spring 2016.
History
The Golden Ox opened for business on the first floor of the Kansas City Live Stock Exchange building in May 1949. Founded by Jay Dillingham and owned by the Kansas City Stockyard Company, the restaurant originally catered to ranchers and farmers who brought their cattle to the stockyards. Dillingham also used the restaurant as a place to entertain dignitaries, including Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. The restaurant closed briefly as a result of the Great Flood of 1951. In 1957, the Golden Ox expanded when a one-story addition was added to the south side of the live stock exchange building to accommodate the restaurant expansion.
Jerry Rauschelbach and Steve Greer purchased the Golden Ox from Jerry's father Bill in 1997. In The Golden Ox closed in November 2003 without warning. Rauschelbach cited high beef prices, fewer people dining out, and overall poor economic conditions as reasons for the closure. The restaurant was purchased and reopened two weeks later by a group of investors led by Bill Teel and Steve Greer. Geer retired in August 2014. In December 2014, the Golden Ox announced that it would close permanently before the end of the year. Landlord Bill Haw indicated that the Golden Ox was behind on rent, and Haw planned to pursue a different restaurant or entertainment concept for the restaurant space in the livestock exchange building.
Following the 2014 closing of the restaurant, the space was divided, and Stockyards Brewing Co. plans to open in the south portion of the space, which was previously the bar area and one of the back dining areas. In November 2015 it was announced that Wes Gartner and Jill Myers signed a lease for the remaining 5,000-square-foot space, including the main dining room and kitchen on the north side of the original Golden Ox space. Gartner and Myers are also co-owners of Voltaire in the West Bottoms. They announced plans to re-open the Golden Ox, and the renovated space will include a wood-fired grill in a semi-open kitchen. Livestock Exchange Building owner Bill Haw stated that the new owners of the Golden Ox will have access to any furnishing or memorabilia from the previous Golden Ox restaurant. The Golden Ox is expected to reopen sometime in Spring 2016.
Other Locations
In the late 1950s and into the 1960s, the owners of the Golden Ox expanded with additional locations in Denver, Colorado, Washington, D.C., and Nashville, Tennessee.
In 2003, while the Golden Ox was owned by Jerry Rauschelbach, it opened a short-lived second location in a space at 95th Street and Metcalf Ave in Overland Park, Kansas, that had been formerly home to Houston's restaurant. The Overland Park location closed in November 2003, citing the bad economy and fewer people dining out.
In May 2013, owner Bill Teel opened the Ox Bar & Grill at an all-but-abandoned dining room in the Clarion Hotel at 7000 West 108th Street in Overland Park, Kansas. The location at the Clarion Hotel has some similarities with the original Golden Ox, but Teel stressed that it is a separate restaurant geared toward hotel guests and not a second location of the iconic Golden Ox.
References
