Classic beers, Italian beef sandwiches. Kansas City’s new bar with ‘old-school feel’
The main door of this new Crossroads bar is in an art alley — colorful murals cover the back walls of the commercial buildings.
Owner and operator Eric Flanagan says Jim’s Alley Bar will have a “little VFW feel, a little of that dive feel.”
It is scheduled to open at 5 p.m. Friday at 500 E. 18th St.
Jim’s Alley Bar will serve classic beers such as Hamm’s and Old Style, draft cocktails, shooters such as one with St. George Green Chile vodka, wine and draft beers including some from City Barrel Brewing Co. and Alma Mader Brewing. It will make cola in-house for its Cuba libre.
The menu will include bar bites such as hummus and caprese skewers. For sandwiches it plans such offerings as Reubens. Other menu items include pork chops topped with chimichurri, wedge salads, curry chicken sliders and mushroom sliders.
Flanagan hopes his Italian beef sandwich, Jim’s Beef, will become the bar’s signature item. It will have flat iron steak slow-cooked for six hours in-house with Italian au jus and served on a Turano Baking Co. roll.
The bar and its Italian sandwich are named after Flanagan’s late maternal grandfather, Jim Pagliocco, a veteran of World War II.
“Working class, family man, the rock of our family. Always there, very steady,” Flanagan said. “I just thought this bar would speak to people that have people like that in their lives. Or if they are that person.”
A caricature of Pagliocco with glasses and mustache is on the Jim’s Alley Bar logo.
Flanagan family photos, some dating to the 1940s, line the walls, including some of Jim Pagliocco, along with Flanagan’s paternal grandfather and father, also named Jim. James is Flanagan’s middle name.
Jim’s Alley Bar also will have a shuffleboard, jukebox and four TVs for watching sports.
Starting in 2023, a portion of sales for each quarter will go to charities serving veterans and first responders.
It shares a kitchen with sister concept, King G bar and delicatessen, which opened in September 2021.
