Back in 1871, that cow kicked over a lantern, starting a fire that burned much of Chicago. O’Leary’s cow to thank for the charms of Harry’s Country Club. Classic neighborhood spots (named after dudes) While researching this list, we did not ask for special treatment, announce our presence or take free drinks (unless someone was buying a round). We take each place on its own terms and judge it by how it’s meant to be enjoyed. We are not judging dive bars on their Mezcal selection, nor are we downgrading trendy speakeasies for their lack of pull-tabs. We picked bars that are good at what they’re doing. We revisited every spot included post-pandemic. Bars are social spaces, and our definition of a great bar is a great place to be for a while. With the pandemic behind us and everyone eager to make up for lost time, we surveyed the city to document the 87 best bars, pubs, jazz joints, speakeasies, mixology temples and clubs in KC. It’s been almost a decade since a local publication made a comprehensive guide to the city’s best bars. As the rest of the country ripped up its bar culture and had to start from scratch, KC experienced a golden era of nightlife, music and cocktails. We’ve argued before that the birth of Kansas City as we know it came when the city took a pass on the whole Prohibition thing.
Kansas City is an amazing bar city-and it has been for a long, long time.
