He ran Kansas City taproom for a decade. Now pioneering beer geek launches second act
At Bier Station, the pioneering bottle shop and taproom he founded in Waldo in 2012, John Couture didn’t have to travel to get his fix of local beers. The inventory was delivered straight to his workplace.
But when Bier Station closed at the end of 2022, Couture became just another Kansas City beer geek. And he quickly discovered that tracking down six-packs of his favorite sours and stouts was harder than he’d imagined. Because the types of small local breweries he favored tended to have limited distribution, retailers rarely carried them. He often found himself driving all around town to specific breweries to find what he was looking for.
So in December, after a few years of planning and research, Couture debuted Local Liquid, a centralized online shop for local beverages — not just craft beer, but coffee, wine, spirits, seltzers, mixers and juices.
“Essentially, if it’s a beverage and it’s made in KC, we likely sell it,” Couture said.
For now, Local Liquid is a curbside operation: You place your order on the site and pick it up at their warehouse at 6500 Troost Ave., Suite G-10.
But in the coming months, Couture said they’ll be adding a delivery service, which he suspects will be the most popular use of the site.
“I see it as closer to the Shatto (Milk Company) model, where you know your local driver, they’re familiar with the product they’re delivering, and it all feels very local,” he said. “We’re kind of flipping the script on the DoorDash experience, where the inventory doesn’t include local stuff and it’s pretty impersonal.
“Ultimately, we’re partnering with small businesses that big conglomerates aren’t generally going to take the time to work with,” Couture said.
Currently, that includes breweries like BKS Artisan Ales, Diametric Brewing Co., Casual Animal Brewing Co. and Strange Days Brewing Co., to name just a few. You can order agave spirits from Mean Mule, a pickled bloody mary mix from Billie’s Grocery, and bags of coffee from Mother Earth Coffee or Broadway Roasting Co.
“I was super happy to get Broadway on board,” Couture said. “It was the first place I had a mocha back in 1994. It just feels so cool to be able to share their stuff — they’re such a KC institution. A lot of these places we’re carrying are like that: they have great stories, great histories, and people around here feel personal connections to them. We’re hoping to help facilitate those connections.”
Local Liquid pickup hours are currently noon to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday, at its warehouse on the south side of 65th Street between Rockhill Road and Troost Ave. More info at localliquid.com.
