Nikki Overfelt Chifalu

After serving in the Army Infantry in Kosovo and Iraq, Kansas City native Patrick Benson created a nonprofit teaching veterans and active military personnel how to work with horses and transition back to civilian life. The program is run out of a farm in Stillwell, Kansas.

Cherry grew up loving pickles but couldn't find what he liked when he moved to Kansas City. So he started making them and now sells them online, at barbershops and coffeeshops and on social media.

Dale and JoAnn Romano recently opened Nana's Tiny Town on Main Street in downtown Spring Hill, offering a hands-on children's play center that's designed to look like its own, child-sized main street. It's next door to their other store, the nostalgic ice cream parlor Pop's Sweet Shop.

C Word Cakery owner Savannah Brady specializes in “good cake, bad words” — vintage-looking, classic, floral cakes that feature messages with swear words.

Andrea Cira created ACira Studio after moving to the United States from Mexico, and took the leap a month ago to concentrating full-time on her paper illustrations. She sells them at a Latinx market in Independence, and is creating custom pieces for local businesses.

A new spot in the Crossroads already offers obscure books and 'this great little collective and ecosystem.' A kitchen offering plant-based eats could open by the end of the year.

PorchfestKC took the last three years off, but now it's back. On Oct. 14, around 135 bands are set to perform on 49 porches and stages in Midtown's Roanoke and Valentine neighborhoods.

When it launched in 2016, KC Cattle Company made it a priority to hire veterans like founder Patrick Montgomery. With a retail store in Parkville and a ranch in Weston, they were put on the map with an all-beef wagyu hot dog named the best in the nation by Food & Wine.

After two shootings at stores in the Plaza, some retailers have changed their business hours out of concerns for employee safety. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas says the city is talking with the Plaza's owners about increasing law enforcement presence in the area.

Chingu Coffee, which celebrated its grand opening in the West Plaza early this month, is the caffeinated companion to Keeyoung Kim's other Korean restaurants in Kansas City, Chingu and Sura Eats.