Summary: A hole is an induced cycle with at least four vertices. A hole is even if it has an even number of vertices. Even-hole-free graphs are being actively studied in the literature. It is not known whether even-hole-free graphs can be optimally colored in polynomial time. A diamond is the graph obtained from the clique of four vertices by removing one edge. A kite is a graph consists of a diamond and another vertex adjacent to a vertex of degree two in the diamond. T. Kloks et al. [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B 99, No. 5, 733–800 (2009; Zbl 1218.05160)] designed a polynomial-time algorithm to color an (even hole, diamond)-free graph. In this paper, we consider the class of (even hole, kite)-free graphs which generalizes (even hole, diamond)-free graphs. We prove that a connected (even hole, kite)-free graph is diamond-free, or the join of a clique and a diamond-free graph, or contains a clique cutset. This result, together with the result of T. Kloks et al. [loc. cit.], imply the existence of a polynomial time algorithm to color (even hole, kite)-free graphs. We also prove (even hole, kite)-free graphs are \(\beta \)-perfect in the sense of S. E. Markossian et al. [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B 67, No. 1, 1–11 (1996; Zbl 0857.05038)]. Finally, we establish the Vizing bound for (even hole, kite)-free graphs.