Hemma Hemma’s Pride menu educates and advocates through specialty drinks

Hemma Hemma’s Waldo location // Photo by Ava McCluer

Nestled in a homey stretch of shops on Wornall Road, Kansas City cafe Hemma Hemma is a cozy spot to get brunch, drinks, or try unique dishes. 

This woman-owned restaurant is more than just an aesthetic lunch spot with eclectic decor, though—with an ever-evolving menu of seasonal items, Hemma Hemma supports the local LGBTQIA+ community through dedicated drinks. This Pride Month, the cafe’s menu features two special drinks conceptualized by coffee director Angie Smith and bar lead Katt Ortiz.

$1 from every Pride drink sold will be donated to Our Spot KC, a resource hub for the KC area providing programs to support LGBTQ+ individuals—a no-brainer for Ortiz because of the organization’s unique reach. 

“The on-the-ground work Our Spot KC does to support the LGBTQIA+ community in Kansas City is admirable, and there aren’t many organizations quite like them. We’re excited for the chance to work with them and promote the resources they provide,” Ortiz says. 

According to cafe owner Ashley Bare, Hemma Hemma employs many queer individuals, bringing the pride menu even closer to home.

“As the rights of LGBTQIA+ people in our country continue to be threatened, we feel it’s important to show our solidarity and honor the history behind the fight for queer rights,” Bare says. “Our Pride menu and collaboration with Our Spot KC is one tangible way we can do this as a small business.”

Womontown—iced vanilla latte with lavender cold foam.

Womontown latte at Hemma Hemma // Photo by Ava McCluer

In response to frustration with housing discrimination in the 1980-90s, the Kansas City lesbian community took matters into their own hands and created a safe haven for queer individuals. 12 blocks of the Longfellow Neighborhood (near Union Hill) were sectioned off to make a community for and run by women—with events, get-together spaces, and matching purple flags with tulips in the center.

At Womontown’s peak, 80 women were housed there. The group had renovated 28 houses and 14 apartment buildings in the area, successfully making a self-sufficient neighborhood free of harassment. 

According to Smith, Hemma Hemma’s Womontown latte is a direct representation of this community’s hard work to make a safe space for all women.

“Womontown is an interesting piece of local history that I personally feel inspired by,” Smith says. “I used to live in Longfellow and loved learning about this wonderful community of women like me creating a safe and supportive community for themselves in Kansas City.” 

This pleasantly colored latte comes in a satisfyingly grooved glass cup and tastes just as good as it looks. Made with house-made vanilla syrup, the drink is a creamy combination of sweet and rich coffee, best paired with the velvety taste of oat milk.

The cold foam on top is made with lavender syrup, a delicate touch of flavor mixing with the vanilla to add depth to each sugary sip. This lavender taste was a purposeful choice, with lavender historically symbolizing empowerment, resistance, and pride within the queer community.

Not only does the cold foam’s taste have meaning, but the pastel purple color also—it’s a subtle nod to Womontown’s tulip flag. 

Miss Frances—white rum, lime juice, coconut cream, and cranberry juice with a blue sugar rim. (Only available at Hemma Hemma’s Waldo location).

This cocktail was named in honor of Frances Thompson, who was an American transgender woman born into slavery in 1840. Thompson was recognized as a woman by both her peers and enslavers, who were killed by the rebel army, allowing her to escape and live as a free woman.

Two Miss Frances cocktails at Hemma Hemma // Photo by Ava McCluer

She moved to a majority–Black neighborhood in Memphis called Hell’s Half-Acre and made a living sewing, washing, and ironing clothes.

In 1866, a fight between police and Black soldiers resulted in the Memphis Massacre, during which churches, schoolhouses, businesses, and homes were destroyed, burglarized, and even burned. Thompson was beaten and raped, and in the aftermath, was the first known trans woman to testify before the United States Congress. Her testimony shifted public opinion about the Massacre and reform after bringing the panel to tears.

The Miss Frances resembles the transgender pride flag, with the splash of cranberry juice making the drink a pastel pink, white coconut foam resting on top, and the blue sugar around the rim completing the color scheme.

The drink is like a modified piña colada but trades the typical pineapple for cranberry. It’s not too sweet, is coconut-forward, and is refreshing enough to get you through the muggy summer heat.

Ortiz says it was important to her to highlight a lesser-known figure in queer history. “We would not be here without black trans women,” Ortiz says. “They are the foundation of pride, and our rights wouldn’t exist without them.”