After four years, these two KC area bars will close at the end of this month
ReRoll Tavern, a North Kansas City bar built around tabletop gaming, role-playing campaigns and fan culture, will close its doors June 30. Its sister venue, Vignettes, a pop-up cocktail bar featuring rotating themes, is also shutting down at the end of the month.
“When we began this quest, we always knew it would be a great challenge,” the bars’ owners wrote in a Facebook post announcing the closure. “Although we had some great triumphs, constantly rising costs make it impossible to continue.”
Edward Schmalz opened the adjoining bars — ReRoll at 2368 Armour Road and Vignettes at 2376 Armour Road — in 2021. He had previously founded Pawn & Pint, a similar gaming bar concept, in 2016 but later sold his ownership shares. ReRoll and Vignettes quickly gained a devoted following for their blend of pop culture, nerd culture and nightlife.
ReRoll hosted regular game nights, Dungeons & Dragons Adventurers League campaigns, trivia nights, and knitting parties. Next door, Vignettes hosted monthly rotating immersive bars with themes like “Lord of the Drinks” — a Lord of the Rings-inspired pop-up featuring a Bag End door, Tolkien-themed cocktails and live English folk music — and others centered around cult hits from TV and film (“Parks & Recreation,” “Schitt’s Creek,” “Mean Girls”).
Schmalz did not respond to a request for comment Friday. General manager Donald Lewis said in the comments of ReRoll’s closing post that he and Schmalz “intend to stay active in the community, to keep our event programs going as best we can at new locations, to remain active on the convention circuit, and to work at potentially forming a new LLC going forward.”
Current ReRoll memberships will be canceled, and refunds are available upon request, the owners said. Popular pop-ups including Vikingfest and Apparition will continue in some capacity, they added, saying they are “working on continuing those community events with others.”
For fans looking for venues similar to ReRoll, Kansas City still has a few: Pawn and Pint (613 Walnut St.), Cardboard Corner Café (9240 Metcalf Ave. in Overland Park and 8750 Penrose Lane in Lenexa Public Market), and Mission: Board Games (5606 Johnson Drive in Mission and 7751 NW Prairie View Road in the Northland).
