In the 1920s, some of the greatest jazz musicians in America performed regularly at the pulsating clubs around Kansas City’s 18th and Vine, before the neighborhood fell into decades of decline and poverty. Now a dynamic brewery is championing change in the area.
“So, I had a friend who owned this space with a few other people,” says Kemet Coleman over a wheat-hued glass of blonde ale, part of the four-beer flight forming a satisfyingly symmetrical row on our table. “And when I looked at it, I was like, ‘Wow, it has to be here.’”
Coleman could be referring to the undulating 19th-century limestone building that houses Vine Street Brewing, his brainchild and Missouri’s first Black-owned brewery. It’s certainly striking enough, on first glance. But equally, he may be talking—subconsciously or not—about the wider neighborhood.
Deep in the heart of America’s Midwestern plains, modern-day Kansas City (known locally as ‘KC’) is a dynamic city on an upward trajectory. Local NFL team the Chiefs are perennial Super Bowl shoo-ins, it’s a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and megastar Taylor Swift’s romantic ties to Chiefs player Travis Kelce have added a sprinkling of glamor with every appearance she makes.
Flanked to the north by the mighty Missouri River, KC’s assortment of gothic skyscrapers, glass towers and the distinct pylons of Bartle Hall’s convention center form an oddly compelling skyline. At ground level, the free-of-charge streetcar that glides through downtown passes by several lively communities, where the city’s iconic BBQ joints are being joined by quality farm-to-table restaurants and truly global cuisine.
Then there’s 18th and Vine.
“So this area… I’ll broaden it out,” says Coleman who grew up in Kansas City and for much of his life has been a musician and rapper, creative energy running through his veins. His journey into craft beer began when he started working as a tour guide for the popular local Boulevard Brewing Co, in 2013 where his curiosity was piqued—”Craft beer is like a whole new world,” he says, admitting he didn’t particularly like craft beer back then, but soon grew captivated. Now, 12 years later, here he is.
“The neighborhood itself is probably one of the most important, if not the most important, in the city. It’s where our barbecue legacy was founded,” Coleman says. He’s softly spoken, leaning back in his chair in a black hoodie and baseball cap. He tells me that just a couple of blocks away is where Negro Leagues were founded, an early 20th-century baseball league solely for Black players who wanted to play but couldn’t due to segregation laws.
“And there’s the jazz history here during Prohibition, too,” he adds. “This is what that neighborhood was. And it was a bit of a mecca for Black innovation. African American innovation here in Kansas City in the Midwest. That was important.”
“There were drug stores, lawyers’ offices, clothes stores, shoe stores. It was the business district. Leona Pouncey Thurman worked right over on 15th St, and she was the first Black woman to practice law in Kansas City.”
- Carmaletta Williams, CEO, Black Archives of Mid-America
Sadly, this is also a place that’s often referred to in the past tense. Cut off from the rest of downtown KC by the ugly Highway 71 that crashed through Black districts and demolished thousands of homes during the second half of the 20th century in the process, 18th and Vine is a dilapidated shell of its former self.
Yet 100 years ago, some of America’s finest jazz musicians regularly performed at the pulsating clubs that once lined these streets, including local hotshot Charlie Parker and national stars like Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. With KC’s apathetic attitude towards Prohibition—thanks to local mob boss Tom Pendergast running the show—politicians, raconteurs, celebrities, musicians and misfits would travel from miles around to groove to the bebop jazz ringing out from the smoky clubs.
But 18th and Vine wasn’t just a haven for hedonism.
“There were drug stores, lawyers’ offices, clothes stores, shoe stores. It was the business district,” says Carmaletta Williams, CEO of the Black Archives of Mid-America. “Leona Pouncey Thurman worked right over on 15th St, and she was the first Black woman to practice law in Kansas City.”
Just north of 18th St, the Black Archives of Mid-America is a quiet museum that tells the story of Black America, with a particular focus on this region. Stories are both harrowing and inspiring, from a blue placard explaining the lynching of local African-American Levi Harrington in 1882, to sepia-toned photos of the iconic Street Hotel, one of the most famous hotels catering to African-Americans and home of legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson for one year in 1945. Williams shows me old black-and-white images of a once-thriving community, but walking back to 18th St, this area cuts a dismal sight.
The concrete streets here are wide and airy, with little in the way of amenities or restaurants. Aside from the interesting American Jazz Museum and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the area appears unloved and tired. I find it hard to look at its crumbling buildings and maudlin streets, and not think of America’s equally important music arteries, like New Orleans’ Bourbon St or Nashville’s Broadway, both of which are absurdly animated tourist magnets year-round. With KC’s deep and pioneering jazz heritage, this community should be their equal.
But a couple of blocks south on Vine St, there’s hope in spades.
With its wave-like stone exterior resembling something that could have been built in ancient Rome, Vine St Brewing looks nothing like anything else around here, both inside and out. As I cross the street, cracks in the asphalt resemble shattered gray windows, but the brewery’s curious architecture immediately intrigues me. The building once housed one of KC’s first public works institutions, the Street Department, which opened in 1878 but was decommissioned 100 years later in 1978, falling into ruin for over 40 years until Vine Street Brewing revitalized it.
Inside, it resembles the sort of modern taproom you might find in established craft beer meccas like Denver or San Diego. A TV screen above the bar explains the range of beer styles on offer, from tangy sours to hoppy double IPAs, while downstairs, the metallic sheen of brewing tanks and swirling aroma of hops denotes that this is a live operation. The walls are splashed by the colorful work of local artist Warren Harvey, whose bright Picasso-esque portraits catch the eye; most notably, the brewery’s own beer goddess creation Maris, also their logo, instantly striking with her afro and green hoop earrings. Maris also pays homage to beer’s little known past as an African invention, with evidence of brewing—often by women—taking place in ancient Egypt.
“The biggest dream is to have our communities support us the most, because this is why we’re here. But we can’t do that without the entire community of the city coming to support the neighborhood, because we can’t survive without restaurants, without extra businesses coming here.”
- Annie McGinnis, Vine Street Brewing
Coleman first met co-founder and co-head brewer Woodie Bonds Jr after giving Bonds a tour at Boulevard. Bonds had already been homebrewing for a few years when he met final co-founder, head brewer and equally passionate homebrewer Elliott Ivory, at a local beer festival. The three founders form the nucleus of Vine Street Brewing.
Coleman has also been a musician since high school, and the theme of music—especially hip hop—runs deeply here, perhaps no coincidence given this area’s heritage. “We have live music downstairs”, he says, as we walk down. The brewery’s sunny back terrace becomes visible. “There’s usually something happening either on Friday or Saturday. Everything from jazz to hip hop to funk.”
I’d noticed that within 20 minutes of the brewery opening, almost all of the upstairs tables had been filled, and with a real mix of demographics too. Old, young, black, white, families, friends and couples. Some were spillover from the museums, looking for a place to unwind, and others were just checking the place out. I could only think what a unique catalyst for regeneration a place like this could be.
The cross-community mix of beer and hip-hop is one of the most distinct characteristics of Vine Street Brewing, and in 2024, they launched KC’s first Hip-Hop Beer Festival, the snappily titled, Hip-Hops Hooray! Beer Fest. The festival pours plenty of beer from other Black-owned breweries, as well as showcasing live hip-hop, breakdancing and DJing, bringing the kind of gregarious atmosphere that once would have been typical of the 18th and Vine of yore.
And there’s more on the horizon. The soon-to-be-restored Boone Theater will host the Black Movie Hall of Fame and the Black Repertory Theater of Kansas City, and there are plans to build a 132-room Tribute Portfolio Hotel, part of the Marriott Bonvoy brand, with an upscale restaurant.
And dining is something sorely lacking around here. Nearby BBQ restaurant Arthur Bryant’s is a local icon dating back to 1908, but from Vine St it involves walking a poorly paved path flanked by bungalows and delivery warehouses. There’s also talk of a second cross-city streetcar line linking the eastside 18th and Vine more closely with the westside Crossroads area, currently separated by the physical and social dividing presence of Highway 71.
“There are a lot of people who have never been down to this area,” says Annie McGinnis, Vine Street Brewing’s business development manager. “They lived in this city for 25 years and never thought about driving on the other side of Highway 71.”
“The biggest dream is to have our communities support us the most, because this is why we’re here,” McGinnis tells me as I sip their smooth and pointedly named East 71 Cream Ale. “But we can’t do that without the entire community of the city coming to support the neighborhood, because we can’t survive without restaurants, without extra businesses coming here.”
From what I’ve seen, that feels like a distinct possibility. As I prepare to leave, people are thanking their taxi drivers and flowing through the door, while a stage is being set up on the breezy terrace.
Local metal band Kegare crunch through a few guitar chords as part of their soundcheck for a playful, multi-genre and slightly macabre Friday night show—it’s Friday the 13th, after all. Coleman’s own funk-fueled seven-piece band The Phantastics are gracing the stage later this evening too.
18th and Vine’s turnaround won’t happen quickly. But as long as this place exists, change won’t be far away.
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James March was a guest of VisitKC.
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James March is a freelance travel writer and photographer based in Birmingham, UK. His bylines appear in a variety of publications, including the BBC, National Geographic Traveller, The Washington Post, The Telegraph, Lonely Planet and Condé Nast Traveller.
