KC group has opened new restaurant and bar concept, with music venue in the works
P.J. Purtle has spent a good amount of time in the Missouri Valley Special Collections room over the past few years.
The resource center inside the Kansas City Public Library’s Central branch is a treasure trove for local history enthusiasts, and Purtle had a specific subject of interest: the 9th Street Incline, an elevated cable car line that from 1885 to 1905 carried passengers from the bluff atop Quality Hill down to the West Bottoms.
Purtle’s research is on display on the walls of Incline on 9th, his recently opened bar and restaurant at 1414 W. 9th St. A kind of collage of century-old land surveys of the neighborhood and black-and-white photos of the cable car take up a huge wall inside the space.
“Especially with SomeraRoad and all this out-of-town development coming into the Bottoms, we wanted to open something down here that felt very local to Kansas City and this specific neighborhood,” Purtle said. (SomeraRoad, a New York-based developer, plans to invest $500 million as it redevelops wide swaths of the West Bottoms.)
Purtle is a partner in Krown Concepts, a local group that also owns John’s Big Deck and The Levee. The group bought the building in 2021. It was previously EJ’s Urban Eatery, and before that Woodswether Cafe.
At Incline on 9th, Purtle is partnered with Chad Sander and Marco Albarran, who is also the head chef. The menu includes appetizers like a mushroom fondue ($15) and birria nachos ($18); specialties like sauteed scallops ($43) and paprika chicken ($29); and sandwiches like a Sloppy Ralph (beef, pork belly, sauce and onion straws on toasted brioche; $18) and a G.E.L.T. (gribenes crispy chicken skin, a fried egg, lettuce, tomato, garlic aioli on toasted sourdough; $16).
“So far, the crab rangoon fries and the seafood pasta have been insanely popular,” Purtle said.
In addition to beer and wine, Incline on 9th has a cocktail list, cocktails on draft and a non-alcoholic drink section on its menu.
“I think our nonalcoholic program is probably the best in the city,” Purtle said. “Most of the time, places serve you a glass of cranberry juice with a mint sprig in it. We actually have zero-proof spirits that go into zero-proof cocktails. We’ve had a great response to it so far.”
The property Krown Concepts bought extends beyond the restaurant’s 2,800-square foot dining room. Purtle said they are planning to build a patio on the east side of the building and a live music venue in a former diesel repair shop to the north.
They opened quietly in late September and are planning a grand opening party the weekend of Nov. 8-10.
Hours for now are 2 p.m. to midnight, Wednesday to Saturday. After the grand opening, Purtle said, they’ll be open 11 a.m. to midnight, Tuesday to Saturday. Eventually they’ll add brunch on Saturday and Sundays as well.
