This massive Johnson County brewery is opening soon. Here’s an inside look
The last time patrons were inside 7060 Mission Road, COVID-19 was an emerging, though worrisome threat in the United States.
Clothes still hung on racks under a bright red Macy’s star at The Shops of Prairie Village. After the last garment was carried away, the 120,000-square-foot building sat empty for a year. Then a few more.
Neighbors with dogs and baby carriers strolled past the rundown building, some likely wondering whether the repeatedly delayed redevelopment would ever kick off.
On Thursday, though, employees hung green balloons from the rafters of Big Grove Brewery. It’s the first of a few businesses to usher in a new era for the former department store.
“I’ve never been on a project where everybody walks up to the project,” said Matt Swift, co-founder of Big Grove Brewery. All around him, dozens of hands filled cabinets with liquor and hung frames on the walls.
“They just come up like, ‘What are you opening?’”
Neighbors, here’s your answer: Big Grove Brewery is a roughly 700-seat, 12,000-square foot brewery and taproom hailing from Iowa. With seven locations total, this is the first in Kansas.
It’s celebrating its grand opening Thursday, May 21.
“I don’t wanna be overly optimistic, but everybody’s enthusiastic about it,” Swift said.
Like nearly any brewery and restaurant they, of course, want to keep the menu central. But it’s hard to ignore the sizable patio, fire pits, dozens of TVs, corn hole, children’s play mound and other amenities.
Perhaps all those elements contribute to Big Grove being one of the “fastest-growing craft breweries” in the Midwest. It’s been on a steady path of expansion for the past few years, according to Iowa news outlet The Gazette.
“We try to do all the things the right way,” Swift said. “Amazing beer, amazing space, amazing food, all kind of wrapped up in hospitality and trying to create an amazing experience.”
The space has made a turnaround from its dilapidated state just months before. Its green backsplash, concrete floors and oak tables were being wiped down and polished during the Thursday visit with The Star. Employees were frantically readying the space to serve its first customers.
Its two bars — one in the main seating area, another in a room that doubles as an event space — will serve hundreds of Kansas Citians cocktails and beer.
Tyler Carter, taproom marketing manager, told The Star that the space will eventually brew its own beer. Large fermentation tanks, yet to be hooked up, sat behind a glass wall.
“We’ll have some select, limited releases that will be available here,” Carter explained.
As for those already on the menu, Carter said Big Grove customers especially love Citrus Surfer Lime (a wheat ale) and Easy Eddy (a hazy IPA).
One bragging point: Big Grove recently went to the World Beer Cup and won second place for its Zero Eddy zero-proof beer.
Third place went to Kansas City’s own Boulevard, which poured Space Camper Low Gravity IPA.
“If you know anyone from Iowa, chances are they’ve been to a Big Grove, and they’re gonna tell you so many amazing things about it,” Carter said. “So many of my friends have been hitting me up, like, ‘Oh dude, Big Grove’s coming.’”
As for the food, that’s Topher Carpenter’s job.
The chef de cuisine is serving a special yaegermeister sausage that’s ground and smoked in house as part of a sharable brewer’s board, which has housemade cheese curds, a giant pretzel, cornichon pickles, beer cheese and maple mustard ($19.99).
Carpenter highly recommended patrons try the handmade bao buns, which are offered as either braised pork belly ($15.25) or Reuben ($15.95) flavors.
Big Grove offers salads, poke bowls and wraps. Its sandwiches include the taphouse burger (two quarter-pound beef patties, American cheese, special sauce, and bread and butter pickles on a brioche bun for $17.95).
On the cocktail side, Big Grove offers the Neighbs Bloody Mary (J. Rieger vodka, blood Mary mix, a beef stick, pickles, olives and lime with a tajin rim for $15), the PV Patio Refresher (Hendricks gin, cucumber, soda, lime and mint) and a few others.
The sausages and spirits are great, chef Carpenter said, but they’re a small piece of what makes the brand stand out.
“For me, what makes Big Grove different … is the people,” he said. “Matt, the owner, I’ve seen him unboxing 200 chairs. He’s in the building, taking care of the team.”
It’ll be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, and 11 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays. The kitchen will close an hour before Big Grove does.
More tenants, like GolfTRK and a relocated Hen House, will open in the old Macy’s in the months following.