Sage Monet brings expert-level craft cocktails to Prairie Village with Good Spirits Club takeovers
Sage Monet of Good Spirits Club // Photo by Shea McGraw
If you’ve paid attention to the restaurant scene in Prairie Village over recent years, you’ve probably heard some buzz about Scratch Gourmet Kitchen. What started out as an event catering business—an area it’s still doing quite well in—has evolved into a combination full-scale restaurant, cocktail bar, and catering company, serving up some of PV’s most interesting dishes and drinks. For Sage Monet, the Beverage Director of Scratch’s ownership group, Wildcat Hospitality, it’s time for the team at Scratch to evolve yet again. It’s time for the Good Spirits Club to take center stage.
“The Good Spirits Club started as some quick messages between myself and some of my friends in the cocktail industry,” Monet says. “Even working in exciting places, it can be tough to get back to the true fun and innovation of why we all fell in love with cocktails in the first place. We wanted to create something that wasn’t taking itself too seriously and was able to give back to community causes that are important to us.”
Here are the basics: The Good Spirits Club is a cocktail bar that will take over the space at Scratch Gourmet Kitchen about twice a month. It kicks off at 10:00 p.m., allowing the Scratch team to close out dinner service and giving the GSC team time to transform the space. They’ll turn down the overhead lights, add some moody candles, and sling fun and fancy drinks until 1:00 a.m.
“We want to create a late-night cocktail destination in Prairie Village,” Monet says.
Monet has plenty of experience putting together impressive drinks: Before her time at Scratch, she put in the work at Lifted Spirits and Drastic Measures, plus she helped open Blanc Champagne Bar. That said, she’s thinking bigger than herself for Good Spirits Club by pulling in her friends from the industry.
“For our first event on Aug. 1, Zach Domville from Drastic Measures joined the party,” Monet says. “We currently have collaboration events in the works with bartenders from places like John Brown Underground and Fern Bar. Even better, word is starting to spread about Good Spirits Club, so even more industry experts are getting in touch with me. We’re putting together a stacked lineup!”
Sage Monet of Good Spirits Club // Photo by Shea McGraw
Part of what pushed Monet to start up the Good Spirits Club was her drive to try some really out-there concoctions. “When you work in a restaurant or cocktail bar, it’s a really fast-paced environment,” she says. “It can be difficult to justify creating something silly, overly time-consuming, or just completely out-there. GSC is a way for us to stretch our creativity and try things that we otherwise might not be able to.”
For each Good Spirits Club event, Monet and her collaborator will individually prepare two signature cocktails, one signature mocktail, and one shot. In general, there are no constraints or parameters to create these drinks, but both bartenders tried to create drinks featuring the flavors of summer for GSC’s opening event. One of Monet’s drinks, the Peach Perfect, featured Probitas rum, peach, burnt honey, lemon, and a cream cheese foam. Domville matched her energy with the Golden Canopy, made with cachaça, rhum agricole, pisco, guava, lime, and a housemade tincture.
Scratch Gourmet Kitchen // Photo by Shea McGraw
The other big draw of the Good Spirits Club is its commitment to supporting community organizations. Monet was inspired by the fundraising efforts of her old stomping grounds, Drastic Measures. “When I was at Drastic, we ran an event to help raise money for Hope House,” she says. “I was blown away by the generosity of our customers and how much money we raised for such a good cause. Hope House’s mission is near and dear to me, so I knew that was the first nonprofit we wanted to go to bat for.”
Hope House offers services and support for domestic violence victims in the Kansas City metro. $1 of every drink sold at each Good Spirits Club event is donated to the selected organization. Part of the collaboration effort between Monet and her guest bartender is discussing and landing on a worthy organization that has a personal connection.
As Good Spirits Club continues to ramp up, Monet expects events to start attracting more people. “Between the inside space and the patio seating, we have room for about 80 guests,” she says. We do accept reservations, but plan on having walk-in seating when we can.” Essentially, book a rezzie (through OpenTable or the Scratch Gourmet Kitchen website) if you want to make sure you’ve got a seat, but it’s a big enough space that you can try your luck if you decide at the last minute to check things out.
Last month’s event was held on August 22, and featured a collaboration with Mattea Nedele from John Brown Underground to raise money for La Luz Immigration Clinic—a branch of the Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas that offers immigration legal services, including full representation and counseling.
Drinks at Good Spirits Club events run at a pretty standard price point for KC craft cocktails—You can expect to pay somewhere in the range of $15–$18, depending on the drink. There is also a small wine list if cocktails aren’t your speed, and Monet isn’t ruling out the possibility of small snacks in the future. “At least for now,” she says, “we want the cocktails to be the star of the show.”
For the foreseeable future, Good Spirits Club events will be held at Scratch Gourmet Kitchen in the Prairie Village Shops. Monet doesn’t rule out the possibility of picking up anchor on occasion once they’ve gotten things figured out—and even hints that there may be a standalone GSC location somewhere down the line. For now, however, events every few weeks are the name of the game.
Supporting local charities, throwing back experimental cocktails by some of KC’s brightest bartending stars, and hanging with friends in a vibey, laid-back environment? Sign us up. You can find announcements of future Good Spirits Club events on Scratch’s social media pages.
