My favorite spot to while away an hour in the Crossroads is the flagship location of local third wave caffeine purveyors Messenger Coffee (1624 Grand Boulevard. Tel: 913-669-9883. messengercoffee.com). While every hip city seems to have its own roaster/wholesaler, KC’s combination of chilled-out culture and ultra-reasonable real estate allows for something astonishing: a three story emporium (four, if you include the all-weather rooftop lounge, complete with firepit) with separate seating areas for working and socializing, and an inhouse branch of local favorite Ibis Bakery making fresh loaves and pastries for the casual in-house eatery.
THE WILHELMINA WONKA OF BEER
It’s About twenty minutes outside of Kansas City, Missouri along the main strip of small town Shawnee, Kansas is a veritable mad scientist’s lab of thirst-quenching fun. The Servaes Brewing Company (10921 Johnson Drive. Shawnee, Kansas. Tel: 913-608-5220. servaesbrewco.com) is a lesbian-owned, and the draughts on offer include some of the brightest, bizzarest, and yet always well-balanced beers you’ve ever quaffed.
Courtney Servaes (Photo by Shawnee Mission Post)
In 2019, former newspaper reporter Courtney Servaes expanded a home brewing hobby into this one-of-a-kind operation, run with her wife Brandi (the couple have three sons and have concocted a line of soda pop, so whole families can enjoy a visit). In the brewery’s bar room and on a lively front porch, guests can enjoy the likes of Servaes’ Orange Pineapple Berliner weisse beer, which incorporates lemongrass and vanilla; distinctive stouts made with cocoa nibs, coffee, or a combination; and special lines inspired by (and actually made with) homemade fruit pies and pickles. The brewery frequently host special events and fundraisers for charitable causes, including LGBTQ+ and women’s rights.
THE HEART OF FINE ARTS
If you’d prefer to base your visit to Kansas City in a boutique bed and breakfast rather than amidst the industrial chic of the Crossroads, check into the Truitt (4320 Oak St. Tel: 816-325-3510. thetruitt.com) or the Aida (206 E. 44th St. Tel: 816-325-3510. aidakc.com).These handsome old homes have been refurbished with distinctive contemporary élan by ambitious gay hoteliers Ryan Hiser and David Tran.
David Tran & Ryan Hiser (Photo by The Truitt)
Today, KC is more than ready to welcome queer visitors. While it was in 1943 that Rogers & Hammerstein composed their musical paean to the city, 80 years later its lyrics ring truer than ever: “Everything’s up to date in Kansas City.”
The young couple’s two properties (both opened over the past three years) are a far cry from traditional midwestern B&Bs. Their distinctive art collections, modernist furniture, outdoor garden lounges, and sumptuous sitting rooms will whet your appetite for martinis and macarons more than chamomile tea and oatmeal cookies.
“I love collecting unusual pieces,” says Tran, who oversees the inns’ uniquely handsome aesthetic. “I want guests to feel like they’re seeing things they haven’t seen before.”
Nelson Atkins Museum (Photo by VisitKC)
These urbane oases are located within a block of each other an easy walk from the manicured Country Club Plaza district, where a Spanish-style open air mall dotted with fountains and sculptures has been drawing tourists and well-heeled shoppers since 1922. Also within walking distance of the Truitt and Aida are two not-to-be-missed museums, both with free admission: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (4525 Oak St. Tel: 816-751-1278. nelsonatkins.org) is the Met of the Midwest, featuring an encyclopedic trove of top-notch collections, from ancient Egyptian tombs and artifacts to the gigantic Claes Oldenburg shuttlecocks on its lawn which have become symbols of the city. Its original Beaux Arts structure, which dates back to the 1920s, is complemented by the natural-light-drenched Bloch Building, opened in 1999, it’s a modern architectural masterpiece.
The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art (Photo by Jim Gladstone)
The neighboring Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (4420 Warwick Blvd. Tel: 816-753-5784. kemperart.org) is a small but mighty showcase for a permanent collection dedicated to work by minority and women artists historically excluded from the modern art canon. It also boasts a visually dizzyingly lunch restaurant, Café Sebastienne, whose walls are a floor-to-ceiling crazy quilt of paintings by Frederick J. Brown.
Hiser, who also works as a mental health counselor, and Tran, a licensed pharmacist, say that since first opening the Truitt, approximately 25% of their guests have been queer. Eager to support fellow LGBTQ+ business owners, they’ll happily direct guests to community-owned businesses.
“We think of ourselves less as about providing guests with a place to sleep and more about being a part of their overall experience of the city,” says Hiser.
Their advice proves well-worth taking when you treat yourself to a meal at Café Trio (4558 Main St. Tel: 816-756-3227. cafetriokc.com), Tai Nguyen and Chris Youngers’ casual contemporary American spot with live piano music, an outdoor dining porch, and a selection of infamously strong martinis (make sure to try the fried chicken or seafood lasagna).
And it would be hard to find a more convivial community gathering place than Ragazza Food & Wine (4301 Main St. Tel: 816-960-4744. ragazzakc.com), KC native Laura Norris’ bustling Italian-American corner joint where the patrons at every table seem to know one another. Norris will happily regale you with stories of queer personalities and now defunct nightspots from KC’s recent past as you feast on a linguine carbonara, which is enhanced with the addition of peas, mushrooms, and impossibly crisp and salty eggplant fries that could convert you away from potatoes.
OUR KIND OF TOWN
As appealing and queer-friendly as the Crossroads and Country Club Districts are, neither is Kansas City’s most gay-centric neighborhood. That’d be Old Westport (westportkcmo.com), home to the city’s newest gay nightspot along with some longtime pillars of local social life.
Fountain Haus (401 Westport Rd. Tel: 816-831-3450. fountainhauskc.com), which opened in 2022, has ushered in a fresh flourishing of the local gay scene in post-pandemic KC. The neon-trimmed 13,000 square foot complex with multiple bars, dance floors, a performance area and a rooftop lounge would make a major impression in any city. Fountain Haus is carved into three distinctive spaces: The Cube, a dance club; the Pump Room, a pub-like show bar with table seating; and the Pool Deck, a Palm Springs-styled indoor-outdoor area. A subterranean tiki speakeasy called The Siren will be added to the mix soon.
One of Fountain Haus’ most popular regular events, Boozical Mondays, has featured a crew of community members putting on an elaborate spoof of a Broadway musical, complete with costumes and occasionally even pieces of scenery.
The shows are spearheaded by Spencer Brown a.k.a. Daisy Bucket, pronounced “bouquet” (missdaisybucket.com), Kansas City’s current first lady of drag. Brown, a local native who moved back to Kansas City after several years in New York where he graduated from the American Music and Dramatic Academy.
Brown spends about 14 weeks of each year touring as a member of the acclaimed drag acapella group The Kinsey Sicks (kinseysicks.com). Having lived in Manhattan and traveled the world with the Kinseys, Brown says he has no desire to make a permanent home anywhere but Kansas City, where he has spearheaded the raising of over $100,000 at fundraisers for the local AIDS Service Foundation.
“Its so affordable to live here,” he says. “And between 2006, when I first moved back and now, its hard to believe how much the sense of a queer community has grown.”
“Its nothing like when I came out in my junior year of high school,” he says, pointing out the presence and influence of the Passages LGBT Youth Center (kcavp.org/passages), and the robust Mid-America LGBT Chamber of Commerce (midamericalgbt.org) with a membership ranging from bankers and healthcare workers to artists and caterers. Brown feels that queer life in Kansas City is on the upswing, with lots of opportunities for even more nightlife and culture.
Within blocks of Fountain Haus in Westport, visitors will find the city’s most storied gay bar, Missie B’s (805 W. 39th St. Tel: 816-561-0625. missiebs.com which opened in 1994 and has continually expanded ever since. Open from noon to 3 A.M., 365 days a year, it is the center of the KC drag scene.
Also in close walking distance are Bistro 303 (303 Westport Rd. Tel: 816-753-2303. bistro303.com), known for being the city’s first gay bar to have windows opening onto the street and for high quality French-influenced food as well as a large bar area; Woody’s (3740 Broadway Blvd. Tel: 816-888-3340. woodyskc.com for dancing and karaoke; Sidekicks Saloon (3707 Main St. Tel: 816-931-1430.) for pool, darts, and country tunes; Hamburger Mary’s (3700 Broadway Blvd. Tel: 816-842-1919. hamburgermarys.com/kc); and several other queer watering holes.
Smaller queer nightlife enclaves are also developing in other parts of town, particularly the cheekily-monikered West Bottoms neighborhood where the dark, cozy restaurant Voltaire (1617 Genessee St. Tel: 816-472-1200. voltairekc.com) provides delicious mussels, charcuterie, and happy hour drink special; and funky dive bars like The Ship (1221 Union Ave. Tel: 816-471-7447. theshipkc.com) and Lucky Boys (1615 Genessee St. Tel: 816-442-8131. instagram.com/luckyboyskc) that pull in genderqueer and gender couldn’t-care-less crowds of Millennial and Gen Z night owls.
“We’re starting to have a fairly big scene in Kansas City,” notes Spencer Brown. “It’s not one of those cities where you’re going to go out and run into every gay person you know at the same place.”
