Eat This Now: Bar Nachos at Jim’s Alley Bar

Bar Nachos at Jim’s Alley Bar // Photo by Elle Bui

Tucked in a little alley of the Crossroads is a place aptly called Jim’s Alley Bar. 

It is cozy and deeply Midwestern with unpretentious booth and table seating, and the kind of nostalgic dark wood paneling that evokes a childhood basement hangout with your cousins. Funnily enough, this is where I decided to take my visiting cousin and a high school friend on a Saturday afternoon whim. 

The Pitch is no stranger to this place; in our Best Of KC 2023, Jim’s won Best New Bar. The same year, staff preceding the Kylie Volavongsa Era gave a shout to the sliders and beer for Cheap Eats. 

But I’m here to talk about another staple: the $10 Bar Nachos. 

They’re a somewhat daring enterprise, in that they’re smothered with a rosemary cheese sauce rather than the usual neon stuff from a bag.

While an eye-catching description, the flavor comes out subtle, rich, and warm. Usually, I’d call this move elevated—with the expectation that other city slicker bars would extort an extra $5 at the mention of rosemary—but thankfully, the minds at Jim’s are kind in keeping things reasonably low. The bowl is an easy split between three people, and the kitchen can add protein options for a small upcharge. 

The nachos arrive piled with a pico of not only diced tomatoes, but halved cherry tomatoes too. They were juicy and plump, mellowing the bite of the onions and giving a change of texture from the chips and cheese. Similarly sliced and diced are the jalapenos. They’ve got a crunchy, bitter-pepper body that gives another layer of variety to the whole thing. There’s also a healthy kick of spice—which I’m saying as a woman of color who spent her youth being punished by her ancestral cuisine. It’s not intolerable, but noticeably welcome. 

All of this sits atop a heap of corn tortilla chips. They’re the manageable circular kind, where you can shove the whole thing in your mouth without looking like too big of a tipsy mess. As with any bowl of nachos, make sure you eat them before they get soggy. 

For the full Midwestern bar experience, pair this with a Chicagoan Old Style ($4), a Milwaukeean Miller High Life ($5), or—hell—go as far north as Minnesota with a can of Hamm’s ($4). 

My associates and I did the full tour. It was a beautiful February afternoon. 

Jim’s Alley Bar is at 500 East 18th St, Kansas City, MO 64108.