when you want, where you want.
Stand out and stand tall: Father of Tech N9ne, two of KC’s favorite chefs inspired their drive from his Kansas City hair salon
Hassan Khalifah only had to look to his elders for entrepreneurial inspiration, he said.
They were a family of bakers, moonshiners, salvagers, restaurateurs, grocers, pool hall operators, and nickel-and-dime candy shop owners.
After a short time working for the city, Hassan opened several small businesses before a three-decade career as a salon owner.
Four of his five children took note.
Now they too are entrepreneurs: Guroux Khalifah, owner of District Biskuits; Kiraameen Khalifah, owner of District Fish & Pasta House; and Aaron Dontez Yates, known best by his rap name, Tech N9ne. Their sister, Basimah Frazier, has a full-time career in the financial services industry but also can make as much money on her growing TikTok page, Basieslise, with more than 105,000 followers.
“When they were young they would ask, every now and then, ‘Am I going to be able to do that?’” Hassan said. “They saw how hard I worked. And they started with nothing, like I did. I’m surprised and proud at the same time.”
Here’s a look on how he influenced a next generation of builders and doers.
Hassan Khalifah inspires a laugh from entrepreneur sons Aaron Dontez Yates, known best by his rap name, “Tech N9ne,” Guroux Khalifah, owner of District Biskuits, during an interview at Tech N9ne’s Kansas City studio space; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News
Hassan Khalifah, father
Fresh out of high school, Hassan just wanted a steady paycheck so he could “play and chase girls” on his off-hours, he said. He drove a city bus, but not for long.
“They treated me like a child, like I couldn’t make the right decision when I was on the road,” Hassan said. “I’m a grown man. I wanted more control over my life.”
He saw an empty building at 18th and Vine, and took over the spot, opening Steak N’ Take. Less than two years later, Hassan moved on to a laundromat, then two franchise bakeries, and a T-shirt company that sold its merchandise at busy intersections. There were times that employees and bills were paid, but he wasn’t.
“I was hittin’ and missin,’ hittin’ and missin,’” he said. “I didn’t start on a shoestring, I started on a string. When you don’t have capital then you have to be creative and press forward and hope things work out for you.”
He thought back on his teen years when neighborhood girls would seek him out to do their hair. So he took the hobby up professionally, earning a cosmetology degree and opening Hassan’s salon. It operated for 30 years before he retired about 20 years ago.
“You can do for yourself. You don’t have to wait for someone else,” he said.
Guroux Khalifah, owner of District Biskuits in North Kansas City
Having a father in the home was a huge deal, said Chef Guroux Khalifah.
Guroux Khalifah, owner of District Biskuits, details his career journey so far; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News
“Some of the first things I noticed was he just ‘did for oneself.’ Not relying on someone to steer you through life, taking control of your own destiny,” he said. “Seeing him work day after day, super hard to keep us clothed and fed, in a nice home in a nice neighborhood. But he was never too busy for us.”
Guroux graduated in 2009 from the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Atlanta. He then worked at restaurants throughout the Kansas City metro, as well as a private chef.
When he needed a reset, he stayed in the Dominican Republic for a couple of weeks, returning with a plan for a simpler restaurant concept.
Guroux had long tweaked his mother’s biscuit recipe. Now it would be the specialty at The Distrikt Biskuit House, a breakfast operation in his uncle’s Lutfi’s Fried Fish restaurant.
A startup budget of only $150 was enough for a week of ingredients — chicken, flour, butter and spices — to make towering buttery Southern-style biscuits and biscuit sandwiches.
“My dad was so used to seeing me starting and stopping businesses. So he just sat back to see how it would do,” Guroux said. “When I started succeeding he would help me purchase pieces of equipment to help me further the brand.”
When he outgrew the space, he relocated to the former Adam’s Mark Hotel & Conference Center near the stadiums. When it closed during COVID, he moved to pop-ups and catering.
A friend operated a restaurant in a freestanding building at 504 Armour Road in North Kansas City and asked Guroux to take over the space.
He painted it black with yellow trim to make it pop and opened District Biskuits with an investor in late 2022 — after further streamlining the operations and menu.
District Biskuits front door in North Kansas City; photo by Channa Steinmetz, Startland News
Its slogan: “Crafted for the Culture.” That embodies Black culture and the culture of Kansas City, paying homage to different Kansas City icons, he said. It also means using such local brands as Black Drip Coffee, and Wiener Kitchen’s freshly-ground chicken sausage.
His most popular order is The Wonder, a chicken biscuit breakfast sandwich with fried egg and bacon named after the former Wonder Bread bakery on Troost Avenue. He also has milkshakes, bread pudding and cake slices, and singular sides like fried macaroni and cheese balls, and cauliflower patties.
He recently introduced the Howlin’ Fowls, a hot chicken late night menu, and is perfecting a frozen biscuit so he can offer it to area coffee shops and bakeries.
Still, he would like to take more business courses and is looking into area small business development resources to help him grow the brand.
He often turns to Kevin Heaton, founder of Stone Canyon Pizza, who has helped him fine-tune leases, scout the best restaurant locations, look for new revenue streams, and even talked him through the COVID pandemic.
“I was in a down place and didn’t know if I wanted to continue with this, but he helped me push through it,” Guroux said. “Dark times are going to happen, but you can’t let downtimes stop you.”
Presentation also is a key at District Biskuits; another tip he learned from his father.
“He has an artistic eye. His home looks like an interior designer did it,” Guroux said. “Presentation was everything. He taught me that people eat with their eyes first and I have led with that my entire life.”
Now Guroux is helping his dad with a new dessert delivery concept, Sweet Crumbs. It would offer pastries, desserts, Japanese milk bread, croissants, chocolate chip cookies and more.
“Times have changed. The customer acquisition approach has changed with more people wanting to eat at home,” Guroux said. “When he was at the beginning of his entrepreneurial career you couldn’t access as many people as easily and as quickly as you can now.”
Kiraameen Khalifah, District Fish & Pasta House
As a child, Kiraameen Khalifah could often be found at his father’s hair salon while his mother dealt with health issues.
“I hated it, watching women getting their hair done all day,” he said. “But he always had nice cars. He dressed so nice and smelled so good and he was the boss, always calling the shots. I was always intrigued with that and wanted to be like him.”
By the time he was 12, Kiraameen’s family wanted him to get off the couch on weekends and go to work on Lutfi’s Fried Fish truck.
He would ride along, perched on a stool between the two front seats. At stops, Kiraameen would run samples to homes and businesses.
“We always hook them with a piece of fish. Then people would place orders,” he said. “Lutfi would always make us look clean and dress nice. The fish has to look good and the food has to look good. I explain that to my employees now. Every detail, the smallest detail, matters.”
Kiraameen Khalifah, owner of District Fish & Pasta House, left, describes the work of ethic of his father, Hassan Khalifah; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News
Kiraameen worked in the restaurant through high school — cutting up fish, cooking, cleaning the grease trap, taking orders, slicing cakes, and cashiering.
“Anything you had to do at a restaurant I did it. It was a great work ethic for me and I took it to other jobs,” he said. “But every day I used to be in there I would tell my uncle, ‘I’m not doing this all my life.’”
Jobs at the family business often don’t pay well, Kiraameen said. He dreamed of a prosperous career as a producer or entertainer.
After high school, he took his first job outside the family as a cashier and liquor department manager at a south Kansas City gas station. At Target, he worked stints from cashier to security guard. Other jobs he took both for the money and benefits to support his young family.
But when Guroux reached out, needing help getting his Distrikt Biskuits House off the ground, he joined his brother.
It operated in the morning at Lutfi’s. Then Lutfi’s menu would be served at lunch and dinner. Kiraameen would often work all three shifts.
“But I didn’t like the part of sitting in the back cooking. I wanted to be in the front like Lutfi, kissing babies,” he said with a laugh.
When Lutfi’s operations closed during COVID, Kiraameen sold enchiladas, smoked turkey legs and fried fish to-go out of the 63rd Street location. Later Lutfi suggested adding pasta — Cajun Alfredo pasta paired with two pieces of fish was a top order.
Kiraameen used a cash box for six months until he saved enough for a cash register.
District Fish & Pasta House at 1664 E. 63rd St., Kansas City; Google image
Now known as District Fish & Pasta House it serves a variety of seafood — basa, whiting, shrimp and salmon — from sandwiches to dinners, along with desserts such as buttercream cake.
“Four years later I’m standing tall,” he said.
Kiraameen said his father and uncle made it look easy. They even joke about it, how he must have thought they had their feet kicked up, drinking pina coladas.
“Now my employees think the same thing about me,” Kiraameen said. “But there’s a lot of work that comes with the guy being in charge. Making sure employees come in on time, making sure the restaurant is clean, making sure employees are paid on time, bills are paid. As they say, heavy is the head that wears the crown. But I am blessed to keep going and sustaining.”
Rapper and Kansas City native Tech N9ne performs during a 2023 post-Super Bowl concert featuring members of the Chiefs; photo courtesy of the Kansas City Chiefs
Aaron Dontez Yates, better known as Tech N9ne
Aaron was a tween when his stepfather Hassan took him to a seminar on starting a business.
“I was like, ‘What’s a seminar?’ ” he said with a laugh. “But he taught me work ethic. To have my own. I didn’t know I was retaining it. I have tried to be Tech N9ne since then.”
Aaron Dontez Yates, better known as “Tech N9ne,” center, talks about his youth growing up alongside stepfather Hassan Khalifah, left as his stepbrother, Chef Guroux Khalifah, right, looks on; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News
He worked in all of Hassan’s businesses — getting dirty knocking down sheetrock, blowing dust out of his nose, driving back and forth to the dump during remodels, then selling fish as a 14-year-old.
“I wanted to do stuff with my friends, go to Worlds of Fun,” Yates said. “I was working. But I loved to see it come to fruition.”
When he started rapping in his bedroom during seventh grade, his stepfather challenged him.
“He is the one who pushed me to be different, when I was in my room bebopping,” Yates said. “He was like, ‘There are so many rappers on the radio, what do you have that is going to stand out?’”
“It scared me. But it wasn’t discouraging,” he continued. “It made me think about what I was going to do to stand out. I was like OK, watch this.’”
As the Billboard-charting artist Tech N9ne (pronounced “Tech Nine”), Yates started a record label, Strange Music, with Travis O’Guin in 1999 and has since sold more than two million albums. He has worked with a number of international artists including Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar, as well as becoming a staple of the region’s highest profile music events, from Boulevardia to Kelce Jam.
“The fear of failure, of doing it on your own, was not there. I could build my own like my stepfather, with my partner,” Yates said. “Three brothers have their own business, I wonder why?”
“Their dad had his own.”
Startland News contributor Joyce Smith covered local restaurants and retail for nearly 40 years with The Kansas City Star. Click here to follower on X (formerly Twitter), here for Facebook, here for Instagram, and by following #joyceinkc on Threads.
The post Stand out and stand tall: Father of Tech N9ne, two of KC’s favorite chefs inspired their drive from his Kansas City hair salon appeared first on Startland News.