Dish & Drink KC: Mocktails at Mean Mule and a deviously delicious “lunch” at Clementine’s Ice Cream

Illustration By Teddy Rosen

Mean Mule hosts a mean craft cocktail—with delicious mocktails to boot. One of their summer 2026 mocktails stole my sugary little heart and prodded me to get my donkey in gear to obtain another one, ever since parting with my last sip. 

I am pleasantly surprised to be thinking about my next mocktail as eagerly as I once thought about my next gin drink. It is not often I’ve had this experience with nonalcoholic drinks: I usually levy low expectations against mocktail offerings. My most sincere and honest expectation is that they are not much more than cocktail-priced juice, give or take the addition of laissez-faire soda. You’re paying for the experience. 

Into the Cosmos at Mean Mule // Photo by Samantha Russell

Into the Cosmos ($7) exceeds expectations. It takes you on an extraterrestrial journey with terrestrial grounding, strung somewhere between a moderate-temperature fruit-of-the-earth coast and the fictional warmth of Charles Dickens’ Christmas. 

The mocktail is a delicious sipping dessert, composed of Thai tea curry syrup, oat milk, nonalcoholic bitters, and sea salt. It’s so simple, but roaringly good. I had to take a silent, closed-eyes pause, savoring this return sip, captured in a photograph by my beaming roommate stealing a peek at my emotion. Set inside the desert-like landscape of Mean Mule, it fits well. 

In a delicate sipping-glass with a sophisticated orange parallelogram twist, a whiff of orange emits as the nose travels close to the glass, just before soft sipping lets flavor wash over the tongue. The scent beforehand coats the milky texture and settles gently into savory aromatics of Thai tea, that is—strangely, oddly, vaguely—evocative of milk left over after a bowl of fruit loops, in the very best way. 

While I once savored gin’s familiar juniper botanicals, I now have fun deciphering what near-pepper flavor settles around the edges of Into the Cosmos. Its bitters reminisce of mezcal notes. 

If you need to stay up and kick it late, you can also “make it dirty” and add a cold brew float ($1). The acidity of cold brew creates a starker, more tangy flavor throughout the drink. It skews more towards Aperol-on-coast-of-Italy than any candle-lit Christmas.  

I tried it both ways. I prefer it untampered by coffee, but the float version is tasty too. 

Mean Mule Distilling Co. is located at 1722 Locust St, Kansas City, MO 64108.

Clementine’s Thing of Evil // Photo by Samantha Russell

What’s not to love when ice cream collaborates with literature? Clementine’s Ice Cream did just that. Based out of St. Louis with a Kansas City location in Prairie Village (soon to expand to more locations in the metro), their Edgar Allen Poe collection brings a haunting flavor roundup to the ice cream lover’s table just before everywhere turns to Halloween-town when the switch flips on the first of October. Four ice creams form the limited edition collection from their micro-creamery: Nevermorange, The Raven, Midnight Dreary, and the star of this moment, Thing of Evil. Doubly blissful enjoyment for me, because it’s not only dairy-free ice cream; it’s also gluten-free. A rare creature. 

The prospect of this was too good. So the day before a cross-country flight with still plenty to do, I was lured South to inquire by tongue about Thing Of Evil’s mysterious descriptive pairing of caramel and miso. 

I phoned ahead to make sure the store had the creature before driving ten minutes longer than my usual ten-minute inner-city cutoff. I was making a delicate parlay of ice-cream-for-lunch, walking a fine line of freedom and responsibility. I had to be certain it would be there for my devilish decision. 

I entered the store and received full attention as I was the only one there. It seems other people err on the side of responsibility for lunch. However, most of the large scooping-bucket of Thing of Evil was already gone. I bought a small cup ($7).

The ambiance inside is lovely, with tiled floors and old-timey gilt-framed pictures and mirrors, and pedestaled hot sauce on a shelf, all against a wallpaper backdrop that feels sophisticated and cute. 

I had a corner table all to myself to ponder the naturally purple color and soft bits of dark chocolate cookie parsed graciously throughout. It’s as fun as it is tantalizing. The miso leverages heavenly salted caramel—salted as if the ocean ran up against a seaside caramel cart. So good. Each bite is decadent. The coconut leaves a velvety mouthfeel that lingers after every spoonful. It feels like what lipstick for the palate would be, if the palate could be primped out in such a way: a long-lasting, vibrant hue of a flavor.

The name Thing of Evil makes the cup in front of me feel alive, like I have a little pet. The purple enhances this. It’s playful and downright delicious. 

It was a light treat, and I did not feel heavy. This alone made me feel that ice-cream-for-lunch was a fine choice, just fine. Acceptable, even. A small little morsel appetizer before the perpetual girl dinner of afternoon munching begins. 

The Thing of Evil was so insidious, in fact, that I had to leave with a pint ($15) for the freezer at home. Diabolical. 

Clementine’s Ice Cream is located at 6966 Mission Rd, Prairie Village, KS 66208.