Bar with ‘cold drinks, hot food, good hangs’ is replacing a Kansas City taproom
Brick River Cider Co. closed its taproom in November, at first saying that it was taking a “pause” from taproom hours to focus on operations.
But it appears the pause at its 1701 McGee St., Suite 200, space in the Crossroads is now permanent. A Minnesota-based bar is taking over its spot.
Beckett’s, which opened in Minneapolis last year, is opening its second location — and first in Kansas City — in a few months. Owner Josh Immerfall said he’s tentatively planning for mid-August.
Immerfall described Beckett’s as a modern sports bar. It’s not the museum of antique sports memorabilia that your parents once sipped beers at while catching big games. Customers can expect cultural references on the menu and in the decor.
“We’re more, a little bit tongue in cheek,” he said. “More funny sports moments and pop culture collisions.”
The bar serves cocktails in 32-ounce buckets and offers a spiked, frozen version of Mountain Dew’s Baja Blast. While he’s not ready to comment on the Kansas City spot’s menu just yet, he did say that it will serve the beloved “Smashy B” burger with ground beef, onions, American cheese and a special burger sauce.
“We’re definitely a bar first that has food,” he said. “Cold drinks, hot food, and good hangs. We like to be a bar’s bar that does sports correctly.”
Immerfall has been eyeing Kansas City for a while and has specifically been waiting to open a bar in the Crossroads.
Some of the partners of Beckett’s are also partners in Up-Down Arcade Bar at 101 Southwest Blvd. (Bonus: the bar’s general manager is a major Chiefs fan. Sorry, Vikings.)
“Kansas City is clearly emerging, something that we want to be a part of,” he said.
St. Louis-based Brick River Cider Co. opened its Crossroads taproom in 2022.
Its St. Louis spot is still in operation.
This story was originally published June 18, 2025 at 3:36 PM.