Port Fonda’s Patrick Ryan is elevating the hotel restaurant landscape with The Town Company (1228 Baltimore Avenue), a Midwest-inspired concept located in downtown’s Hotel Kansas City, set to open October 15. Once home to the Kansas City Club, the new 144-room boutique hotel is designed to chronicle KC’s rich history and progressive future, as is the restaurant. Based around an open hickory-burning hearth, The Town Co. menu will rotate seasonally, leaning heavily on local farmers, ranchers, and fisherman, and include in-house cheese and reserve steak programs. Ryan also developed the restaurant’s sexy, western-tinged cellar saloon, El Gold which is poised to open this March. Both will be helmed by executive chef Johnny Leach, a veteran of New York’s Town, Del Posto and Momofuku, with desserts and breads crafted by his wife, pastry chef Helen Jo Leach.