Kansas City venue opens with multiple dance floors, food, drinks, shows, ‘Pool Deck’
One of Kansas City’s most anticipated new venues has just opened.
Fountain Haus spent four months renovating a 13,000-square-foot, three-level space on the prominent corner of Westport Road and Broadway. It is one of the largest “queer and ally spaces” in the Midwest.
Each room offers a unique experience with performance areas, stages and DJ booths, and custom lighting that will change colors during performances and events, the owners said.
So Fountain Haus customers can start with happy hour drink specials and then bar hop throughout the building into late night.
When it opened at 6 p.m. Friday, it offered three of those areas:
▪ The Pump Room on the main floor is a bar and, coming soon, a dining lounge for happy hour, dinner and weekend brunch. But it also will convert to a dance floor later in the evening on some nights.
▪ The Cube has a bar and seating for dinner and brunch. But later in the evening it becomes a dance floor with a custom cube-shaped disco “ball” and fog machines. It also will be an event space for performances or private bookings.
▪ The rooftop Pool Deck and bar is designed so customers feel like they are inside of an empty swimming pool. It has seating indoors and out, and garage doors will open during nicer weather.
This fall, The Siren Lounge will open in the lower level in the former TikiCat space. It will be an intimate, reservation-only craft cocktail lounge.
The owners and managing partners are David Brinkerhoff and Ryan Overberg, along with Dan Meiners and a diverse group of community investors.
The ownership group wants to foster the arts in Kansas City by hiring local and world-renowned talent.
In the opening months, customers can expect performances by DJ Ashton Martin and DJ Hydan, DJ Cquence, Daisy Buckët, Kathleen & the One Nite Stand Band, and Lana Luxx, as well as special events like the “Dirty Derby” party with Dirty Dorothy on May 7.
Customers also can watch the 2022 KC Pride Parade from the Pool Deck on June 11 and then stay for an after-party in the Cube.
Recurring performances and theme nights will include a yet-to-be-named lesbian night, and Broadway Boozical Mondays.
But the owners said customers should “always expect the unexpected.” That can include pop-up performances.
Hours will be from 4 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Mondays through Fridays, and from 11 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
It will have a $10 cover charge on Friday and Saturday nights, but the fee could change for a special event.
During the day, customers will enter through the main door at 401 Westport Road. After 10 p.m. on Thursdays through Saturdays, they will enter on Broadway, and Fountain Haus will have its own security team.
Starting in late May, it will offer food menus for Happy Hour, dinner and Saturday and Sunday brunch.
The owners have hired 17 employees but are still taking applications for bartenders, servers, talent, and support and kitchen staff.
Hopcat and Tikicat had formerly operated in the space. They officially closed in mid-2020.
Westport recently got the metro’s first Taco Bell Cantina. Coming up, Nashville-based entertainment venue Tin Roof plans to open soon at 424 Westport Road.
This story was originally published April 21, 2022 at 1:24 PM.