Kansas City Restaurants With Live Music

The Majestic Restaurant & Jazz Club

A century-old steakhouse in the Fitzpatrick Saloon Building downtown, where the basement speakeasy is now a jazz room with its own stage. The kitchen sends the full steak and whiskey menu downstairs, so you can eat a real dinner a few feet from the trio. Live music runs five nights a week, and the club asks for reservations because seating down there is limited. On the nights the club is dark, solo pianists still play in the main dining room upstairs.

Lonnie's Reno Club

A supper club on the lower level of the Ambassador Hotel, run by trumpeter and tap dancer Lonnie McFadden, who grew up blocks from 18th and Vine. Dinner is as much the point as the set: beef Wellington, Atlantic salmon, Prohibition era cocktails, and a smart casual dress code. McFadden headlines Friday and Saturday nights, with other acts filling in through the week. Shows are ticketed and tables book out well ahead, so this is the one on the list to plan rather than wander into.

The Phoenix

One of downtown's oldest live music rooms, on the ground floor of the historic Phoenix Hotel in the Garment District since 1990. It books jazz, blues and soul six days a week and runs a live jazz brunch on weekend mornings, which makes it one of the few places in town where you can hear a band before noon. The kitchen runs a full menu, so it works as dinner and not just drinks. Minors are allowed with a parent or guardian before 7pm, which is unusual for a club like this.

Chaz on the Plaza

The restaurant inside the Raphael Hotel on the Country Club Plaza, and the most dependable live jazz in the city: a band plays in the lounge every night from 6 to 10. The kitchen does prime steaks, seafood and seasonal American plates in a dark, quiet dining room that people book for anniversaries. It is the dressiest room on this list and the easiest to plan around, because there is no calendar to check. Expect hotel restaurant prices to match.

Stock Hill

A four diamond steakhouse just south of the Country Club Plaza that puts live music in the lounge and on the patio three nights a week. Thursday sets run 7 to 10 outside and Friday and Saturday sets run 8 to 11 inside, with local players including Emily Dix, Marcus Lewis and Tyrone Clark on the bill. The restaurant never names a genre on its own pages, though the roster reads as jazz. This is a special occasion dinner first and a music night second, so book the dining room and treat the band as the backdrop.

BB's Lawnside Blues & BBQ

A 1950s roadhouse on 85th Street that has been pairing Kansas City barbecue with live blues since 1990, and the closest thing the city has to a blues institution. Founder Lindsay Shannon was a blues radio DJ and a founding member of the Kansas City Blues Society, and the bookings grew out of that rather than out of a marketing plan. Bands play Tuesday through Saturday evenings with a small cover, while the Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening sets are free. The Nickle family, whose pitmaster has worked the granite pit for thirty years, took over in 2022.

The Ship

A 1935 bar salvaged from a downtown basement and rebuilt piece by piece in the West Bottoms in 2014, with a restored lounge on one side and a nightclub stage on the other. The menu skews Cajun with gumbo and two kinds of po' boys, though the slow-smoked pastrami Reuben is what regulars order. Something plays almost every night: Honky Tonk Tuesdays, jazz on Thursdays with no admission charge, and weekend concerts that generally run about ten dollars. It is the most casual room here and the one where you are most likely to hit a genre you were not looking for.

Knuckleheads Saloon

A sprawling East Bottoms music complex of several stages tucked beside the rail yards, with a kitchen serving the same menu across the rooms. It pulls touring folk, blues, jazz and bluegrass acts that skip venues this size elsewhere, and Kansas City Magazine readers have voted it the city's best bar with live music, best rock club and best country venue. It is open Wednesday through Sunday and almost everything is ticketed, so check the calendar before you drive out. Come for the show and eat while you are there, rather than the other way round.

Grinders Pizza

A Crossroads pizza and cheesesteak joint that Food Network put on television, with a graffiti-covered dining room and a patio that turns into a stage when the weather cooperates. Patio sets are free and feature a rotating list of local and touring artists, and the attached Grinders KC yard next door hosts the bigger outdoor concerts. Order the New York style pizza or the Philly and eat at a picnic table. The music here is seasonal and irregular rather than scheduled, so treat it as a bonus rather than the reason to go.

Tin Roof Kansas City

A Westport bar and restaurant built around live music, with two stages, five bars and three patios. Weekend nights bring bands from Kansas City and Nashville on one stage while a DJ works another, so the room is loud and young rather than a place to talk over dinner. The kitchen calls its own food 'Better Than Bar Food' and leans on hand breaded chicken tenders and wings. Weeknights tilt toward DJs and drink specials, so come Friday or Saturday if a live band is the point.

Ted's Taproom

The newest jazz room in the Crossroads, a small McGee Street bar with a stage and a menu of flatbreads, bruschetta, dips and other shareable plates. Weekend nights are stacked with two acts, an early set around 5 and a later one running to 11:30, and the calendar is almost entirely local jazz. There is a ten dollar cover on Fridays and Saturdays. It is the most intimate club on this list and the one to pick if you want the music without a hotel dining room around it.

Black Dolphin Lounge

A Crossroads jazz lounge on Grand Boulevard, next door to the Green Lady Lounge and run by the same owner, and the room the Green Lady crowd moved to while that space is temporarily closed. Trios and quartets play early and late sets, with a ten dollar cover at the door, open seating and no reservations. The room is 21 and over and the food menu is short, so it is a drinks and music room more than a dinner destination. Included here because it is where Crossroads jazz actually is this year, but eat first if you are hungry.