Longtime Kansas City restaurateur has opened his ‘forever project’ — about an hour away

Erik Borger has opened more than a dozen local restaurants over the last decade, among them Il Lazzarone, Komatsu Ramen, and most recently Pizza Tascio, the growing chain of New York-style slice joints.

He’s no longer involved in any of them . Like a serial dater trying to settle down, Borger has focused all his attention the past few years on a single pursuit: EMI Ristorante , which opened earlier this summer in a former firehouse in St. Joseph.

“I enjoy the process of opening a place, but then I get restless,” Borger said. “I’m the guy who always misses the kitchen. I need an outlet to cook and try new things. I’m always screwing with the menu every few months because I can’t leave things alone.”

At EMI, he doesn’t have that problem. Borger changes the menu every two weeks. His Italian restaurant is reservation-only, and the three-course, prix-fixe meals are served family style. Everybody eats at the same time: 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The meals are $39 per person, or $58 with wine pairings, and a 20% gratuity is automatically added when you book the reservation .

“I’ve spent a lot of time in Italy over the years, and one of my favorite things about it is on Sunday you go into a restaurant and everybody eats together,” Borger said. “It’s very communal. I wanted to bring some of that (to St. Joseph).”

Borger bought the old firehouse, which dates back to the early 1900s, during the pandemic. Located at 2217 Frederick Ave., it’s near the rooting ground of Il Lazzarone, his first restaurant, which he opened in 2014 at 1628 Frederick Ave. (Borger later opened a second location in Kansas City’s River Market; both are still open but run by new owners.)

Very little sunlight makes its way into EMI. The eye is drawn to a white wood-fired oven, imported from Naples, in the back of the room. But save for that and the wood tables, just about everything else in the 56-seat space is black: the floor, the chairs, the walls, even the toilet paper in the restrooms. The moody, fine-dining vibes make for a surprising contrast with the restaurant’s homespun ethos.

“I don’t do concepts anymore,” Borger said, grinning slightly this past Saturday after service. “Everything you see here is because it’s exactly the way I want it to be. This is all my thing.” So far, so good: The room was sold out Saturday.

Il Lazzarone pioneered Neapolitan pizza in the area — it was the first pizzeria in Missouri or Kansas to be deemed authentic by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, a panel of pizzaiolos that certifies the Italian style of cooking worldwide. At EMI, Borger is drawing upon Italian traditions with an emphasis on pasta.

The restaurant is named after the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, an agricultural center celebrated for its cheeses and noodles. The meal on Saturday started with eggplant caponata (a sweet, slow-roasted Sicilian appetizer with onions, capers, celery, raisins and olive oil) and featured braised pork ziti as the main course and tiramisu for dessert.

EMI’s family-style approach to service extends to Borger’s actual family. While Borger makes the appetizers and main courses, his wife, Lesley, handles dessert and the restaurant’s organic sourdough bread, which diners can also purchase ahead of time for $12 per loaf and pick up when they come for dinner. Borger’s mother is one of the servers. On Saturday, the Borger’s two children, aged 9 and 10, were playing up in the building’s second floor while mom and dad were downstairs cooking.

“I see this as sort of like my forever project — my retirement project,” said Borger, who is 42. “I feel like I contributed a decent amount to the pizza scene in KC. I spread the gospel as best I could. But I’m kind of trying to chain myself down and sink into a bit of a slower life here. I want my kids to be around the restaurant, learning about food and how to work for a living. This place is about focusing on our family while trying to involve other people in our lives, too.”