Serving Hunt: We visited your favorite bartender’s favorite bartender

Photo by Maisie VanSlander

Behind every plate, glass, and to-go cup is a hand serving it.

Service industry workers make up almost 10% of all U.S. employment, with some metro areas nearing 15%. These servers, bartenders, and baristas interact with hundreds, if not thousands, of people daily, collecting stories, perspectives, and horrors.

Working-class industries like medical, culinary, and blue-collar have been hijacked and twisted into lifestyle branding. Shows like The Bear and The Pitt caricaturize a way of life for millions of Americans. Restaurant kitchen culture is trend-setting cooking utensils and workwear, while blue-collar workers have lost all of their good Carhartt jackets to twenty-something resellers. This new attention to the mundane has created niche clothing and style trends that steal from these industries, commodifying the working class.

This pop-culture gentrification puts these materials out of reach for the common worker. Snatched away at thrift stores, or raising the demand for goods from wholesalers, only benefits the cosplaying populace that wants to play make-believe working class.

People working in these trend-setting fields are influencers in their own way. Unlike social media personalities peddling the same restaurant or bar over and over again, service industry workers are experts in their field at recommending the best spots to visit.

Instead of stealing their style or tools, we should steal their knowledge of the industry they work in.

Who better to tell you which cafe, restaurant, or bar is best than the people working in those establishments?

As a cocktail bartender, I lean on my coworkers to expand my knowledge of Kansas City bars and restaurants. I constantly ask fellow staff where the best spots are in the city. If I am sitting down at a restaurant, I try to ask my server where they like to get brunch or where they had their best meal recently.

Across many service-industry staff, we prefer to look for signature menu items. At a bar, I focus on the seasonal drink menu or how a specific restaurant spins a classic dish. Instead of ordering a boring classic cocktail or the same steak anybody can make, I seek out what each place excels at. That’s how you find something truly unique and special.

Sometimes working in this field makes me feel like a vending machine with a soul, pumping out the same drinks over and over again. Developing a connection with a guest by explaining our cocktails, making something custom, or giving them dinner recommendations is the core purpose of my work as a bartender.

When traveling, you ask a local where is good; In Kansas City, you ask those running your food and steaming your milk where they go after their shift to grab a bite or get a drink.

I followed a thread of recommendations by local servers, bartenders, and baristas to find where these early risers and late-nighters go when they clock out.

Westport was the starting point, where I got some work done at Broadway Cafe. After ordering a chai latte with oat milk, I met Johanna Morgan, a barista at the popular coffee shop. She is typically found sipping on an iced Americano, and if you ask her to surprise you, you will be delighted to taste an iced vanilla latte.

Her choice of breakfast or lunch, depending on her shift, is Mexican food from San Antonio Carnicería y Tortillería, typically consisting of tacos of some variety.

For dinner and drinks, Morgan will head right around the corner of the cafe to Harry’s Bar and Tables—a well-known industry classic. Contrary to other industry patrons at Harry’s, she strictly partakes in early evening dining. She orders gumbo for the spice and either a horsefeather or Dark ‘n’ Stormy to drink.

I followed Morgan’s recommendation for dinner and walked to Harry’s Bar and Tables. As the sun sets, Westport becomes more alive, even as the fall temperature drops. Most people stay inside at the bar, but the people-watching on the patio allows for a front-row seat to the festivities of Westport. 

The grilled cheese and artichoke soup was what I ordered. The warmth from the dish was perfect, given the brisk temperature. Dipping the sandwich in the soup is highly recommended. I sipped on the non-alcoholic strawberry margarita for a drink and was happy to have something inoffensive and tart to balance the warm, hearty grilled cheese.

Harry’s staff values the convenience and low cost of Westport dives. Many of the workers choose to stay at home or survive off of Harry’s wicked food menu. The common denominator bars for staff are either Buzzard Beach, a seedy dive less than 50 feet from Harry’s, or Kelly’s Westport Inn, a pub-style spot right across the street.

Finding myself in the Crossroads, I got to talk to Karson Harris, a lead bartender at XR. He typically works late nights, closing the lobby bar of the Crossroads Hotel. Harris experiments with housemade syrups and high-quality whiskeys to craft new cocktails. His most recent creation is Sigourney Weaver’s Bush, a whiskey-forward cocktail featuring an Earl Grey syrup.

If he is awake in time for breakfast, he goes to Mildred’s (Crossroads location), where he orders the Monte Cristo sandwich and sips on “whatever seasonal matcha they got.”

After one of his long closing shifts, you can find Harris at Missie B’s nursing a whiskey Diet Coke, either on the dance floor or outdoor patio. He chooses Missie’s for their service-industry-friendly hours and the variety of different bars within the same space.

For breakfast, I followed Harris’ suggestion and stopped into Mildred’s. Luckily, I went in on Monday, which gave me 20% off, being in the service industry. They offer this discount both Mondays and Tuesdays.

Once I bit into the sandwich, I instantly understood the validity of Harris’s recommendation. The sandwich was every part salty and sweet thanks to the strawberry cream cheese. It was the correct choice, and I highly recommend it to those who are looking for a sweet brunch that isn’t pancakes.

Photo by Maisie VanSlander

I had the privilege of being helped by Olivia Cooper, one of the servers at Mildred’s. I told her I followed the recommendation of XR and that I wanted to know where she and other staff go after their shift. She answered Chez Charlie, a local dive that offers food, darts, and cheap drinks.

“All of us go to Chez because they are super service industry friendly. They are like a community for the working class. I just get a gin and tonic or a pickle shot if we are doing shots.”

She had her own personal pick outside of the staff of Mildred’s, back in Westport.

“If I’m not with everyone from Mildred’s, I will also go to Westport Cafe. They have a great wine selection, and I always get the scallops. It’s a good place to get away from the Westport craziness.”

Wanting to find the possible core of the service industry, I entered the cherished dive, Chez Charlie, 30 minutes after opening at noon. I was the only customer inside initially, with regulars trickling in to play an afternoon game of chess or darts.

AnnMarie Griese, the opening bartender at Chez Charlie, was dividing her time restocking the bar, serving her regulars the drinks she had memorized, and discussing the plot of The Substance playing on the TV.

For breakfast, Town Topic was her no-brainer response, ordering the 123: one pancake, two eggs, and a choice of bacon or sausage. After some more time to think, she mentioned a new diner that opened in early 2026, Dear Donna in the River Market. They offer a classic breakfast and dinner menu, open from brunch hours to evening dinner. 

Opened by a couple with multiple James Beard Award Semifinalists, the popular corner restaurant is gaining a lot of attention. This is not the only time Donna’s will come up in conversation with service industry professionals.

For dinner, Griese gives another point to Westport Cafe, but the favorite bar question became more complicated because it came as a four-bar package.

“I would say The Ship is really great, Hillsiders, and Rewind, and also Easy-Inn. I feel like you see all of the same regulars at all four of those a lot. The Venn diagram of all four bars is just a circle.” She didn’t give specific traits that stood out to her for each bar, but she said the vibes are similar in some way between all four bars. 

If you are bouncing around multiple dives, your regular drink has to be common enough for every well to have. Griese likes a tequila pineapple, specifically with Espolón.

Developing signature cocktail menus is Erin Rosele, the beverage specialist at the Crossroads Hotel. She is excited to be working on Percheron’s first-ever winter menu, now that the rooftop bar and restaurant is open year-round. She hopes to bring a new variety to cold-weather offerings with flavor profiles.

When it’s time for brunch, she orders the charcuterie and French toast from Fox and Pearl with table-side coffee press. A majority of Fox and Pearl’s menu is locally sourced, and Rosele praises the atmosphere and unique curation of the menu.

When she isn’t doing R&D on new menus, she gets inspiration by going out for drinks of her own. The seasonal mezcal cocktail from Swordfish Tom’s is at the top of her list. For a spin on a classic, she heads to Chartreuse Saloon for a grasshopper made with fernet-menta, a service industry classic spirit.

Staying in the Crossroads, I decided to grab dinner at Fox and Pearl per Rosele’s recommendation. I sat at the bar and had the opportunity to talk to Katie Crossette, a bartender there. Her recommendations spanned multiple neighborhoods of Kansas City.

She, similar to Griese from Chez Charlie, chooses Dear Donna for breakfast.

“I try to switch it up, but I always end up coming back to the oyster mushroom bowl.”

For dinner, Crossette aims to get a table at Westport Cafe. Nestled between all of the dive-driven chaos of Westport, the French-inspired cafe offers an elevated level of service and food. Paired with the late hours of a Westport flagship, Crossette frequently orders the oysters or the Steak Frites, a hearty cut of steak with a creamy Béarnaise sauce, served with pommes frites.

A quarter of a mile away from Fox and Pearl, Crossette walks to Fern Bar when she is off for the day or gets out early. She chooses Fern for the proximity to her work and the level of craft behind the cocktails. Like many, she sips on their classic espresso martini.

“If I’m by myself, I’ll always go to Fern, but if I’m with everyone from Fox and Pearl, we go to Chez Charlie.”

The second time Chez Charlie has appeared in the wild, it seems like the majority of Crossroads service industry moonlights as Chez regulars. She failed to mention her drink order at Chez, but you can be assured it didn’t involve a shaker.

What does involve a shaker and a huge amount of care is Crossette’s newest cocktail, soon to be added to the Fox and Pearl menu. It’s a clarified yogurt appletini, aptly called the Yogurtini. The restaurant also offers 15% off for industry Sundays and Mondays.

Retracing the recommendation thread, Swordfish Tom’s has an intersection of tourist popularity and service respect. Waiting in the concrete vestibule, Brett Pitner, one of the bartenders/servers, let my small group in. Immediately, the atmosphere was different from the other bars and restaurants previously visited. It was much more speakeasy-inspired and had a low-key industrial basement aesthetic.

The environment felt almost antithetical to the tourist’s popularity complex. Looking around did confirm the dichotomy, though. The body of patrons consisted of gentle speaking duos and trios (most likely industry themselves) and loud large parties that clashed with the tender ambiance.

Our group’s order consisted of the Fauxnet Cola, an NA Fernet with house-made cola, the Exorcism, a gin-based hibiscus and lemon cocktail with green chartreuse, and the Turning Japanese, a Japanese whiskey cocktail with banana, pandan, and yuzu vodka. 

Photo by Maisie VanSlander

As Pitner was running around tending to everyone, he gave two recommendations with very simple reasoning.

For dinner, he recommends Akoya Omakase, an upscale Japanese restaurant that has a tiered pricing system.

“I get the middle tier, because the upper tier is bullshit fancy stuff. I like how it’s the chef’s choice, being Omakase, and it’s always different.”

With little hesitation, Pitner said the best espresso martini lived at Goat & Rabbit, in addition to some of the best seasonal cocktails in the city. On top of the standard espresso martini, Goat & Rabbit also does a seasonal version that takes new flavor profiles every quarter and elevates the cocktail to a more topical status.

With the chill mood and quiet air, Swordfish Tom’s is the right choice for a bar to wind down at and go home for a good night’s sleep.

The red thread tied around the map of Kansas City points to two hotspots with a couple of outlier gems. 

The Crossroads and Westport both house some of the most cherished bars and restaurants in the entire metro. A couple of spots fall outside of these locations, though, and they are frequented even more by industry. The big winners among industry staff are Westport Cafe, Dear Donna, and Chez Charlie. The value that each worker placed in their recommendation followed a unique philosophy and was individual to them.

Going forward, talk to your server or bartender; ask them where they get brunch or where they get their coffee every morning. Develop a new, service-focused philosophy for “going out.” There is a wealth of knowledge literally paid to talk to you every time you sit down. Let them guide you along your own journey of food and drink discovery. 

Check out some of the service industry hotspots, and you will see your favorite servers, bartenders, and baristas from all over the city. You will connect everyone to everywhere, and it will leave you saying…

“Small world.”