See inside Kansas City’s new international nightclub and entertainment venue
Who is Laila?
Bronze letters spell her name outside 1717 W. Ninth Street, a sizable brick building in the West Bottoms once home to 9th & State.
In addition to being the name of Kansas City’s ritzy new international club, she’s a legendary figure from seventh century Arabia. Born into luxury, she fell in love with a pauper named Majnun whom her father forbade her to marry. The two met in secret, and some versions of the story suggest their love lives on only in death, much like the Western tale of Romeo and Juliet.
“Some say you can still feel it in the air — when the music softens, when the lights go low. Laila lingers,” reads an epigraph in the front of the menu.
Laila’s influence is seen around the Kansas City lounge and entertainment spot — the room glows hot pink as the evening waxes. Goddesses from around the world dance in the back of the room on mosaic murals.
Golden plates imported from Morocco line the walls of the club, with Laila’s logo etched in the center. The same emblem is repeated on napkins, cocktail skewers and menus.
Farhan Shiekh, a neurologist, and Shahzad Ghafoor, an attorney, are the co-owners of space who hail from Pakistan. The club has echoes of their culture, as well as others.
“The goal of the place is we are bringing East meeting West — modern meeting classic,” Shiekh said. “I’m trying to bring that same lifestyle I lived, and I’m bringing that here.”
Performers have influences from Egypt, Greece, Brazil and beyond.
On Friday night, Grammy-nominated artist Jesaiah performed for a Vegas-themed evening of music and dancing. A large dance floor is surrounded by velvety pink, circular booths — the VIP section. A gold disc with intricate patterns spun in place of a disco ball.
Last weekend was the club’s official opening, and customers who paid the $25 cover fee on Friday or Saturday (down to $15 on Thursdays) experienced the entertainment and beverages from other worlds.
“A lot of comments I’m hearing are, ‘It’s very different from what we’re used to in Kansas City, in a good way,’” Shiekh said. “That’s the goal behind it — to bring something we don’t have here.”
In a previous interview, the partners likened it to high-end international club Raspoutine, which has locations in Los Angeles, Paris and Dubai.
Laila’s Saturday lineup included acrobatic artist Ambers Camp and belly dancing from Bayati and Kim. DJs Crossfire, Matthaus and OHMS played tunes throughout the night.
Jazz musicians will perform at the club every Thursday night. On Aug. 15, the Kansas City Dance Collective will host an evening centered around Greek mythology called Created by Chaos. (Reservations can be made online at thelailalounge.com.)
The drinks are similarly named after goddesses from around the world:
Aphrodite’s drink is peach vodka, passion fruit, Prosecco, lemon and egg white. Mayahuel, the Aztec goddess of fertility, intoxication and healing, is represented through tequila, mezcal, beet, basil and grapefruit. Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and sexuality, has a tequila, guava, habanero and lime drink.
And then there’s the Laila special — a drink called “eternal love,” no doubt in reference to her relationship with Majnun. It’s a $36 drink with vodka, hibiscus tea, elderflower, grapefruit, rose and Prosecco. A bartender tops the cocktail with flakes of gold.
On the food menu: beef tartare, stuffed mushrooms, tuna sushi, serrano ham bruschetta, roasted cauliflower and Bulgarian osetra caviar.
The business partners are planning an event space upstairs, which hopes to open sometime next year. In the long term, Ghafoor said he would like to open a second spot, but there are no concrete plans for that yet.
If the club itself wasn’t enough cause for intrigue, the building it resides in has a curious history.
Built in 1911, it was once home to Pabst Brewing. During the Prohibition, it operated as a “soda shop,” though patrons were rumored to bring their own liquor. In the 1930s, jazz club and casino the Antlers Club took over.
Its laundry list of other tenants include: Fahrenheit Gallery, Wild West Border Deli and Bar, Soviet-themed night club Korruption, punk space Spitfire, fetish club Club XI, and underground gallery and club Negative Space.
Heather Hamilton and Sean Smith, owners of 9th & State, bought the building in 2020 after Hamilton was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. The bar, a popular spot for ping pong, closed in 2023.
This story was originally published August 11, 2025 at 3:03 PM.