Kansas City, Taylor’s Version: A Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce dining and shopping guide
Taylor Swift fans from around the country made pilgrimages to Kansas City last summer for her Eras Tour at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Then they kept coming after she started dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, boosting Chiefs ticket sales to levels that made other NFL teams jealous. Now some Swifties are coming back to watch Kelce at Chiefs training camp.
Can’t argue it. Kansas City is now Swift country.
She doesn’t live here but is expected to spend time in Kansas City after she finishes the European leg of her tour Aug. 20 in London.
For any Swifties planning to visit the Mother Ship, we’ve created a guide to the Kansas City Swift knows.
This is where she had cocktails with Kelce and his teammates on a rooftop, spent New Year’s Eve, hung out with Brittany Mahomes and other Chiefs wives and girlfriends, and where that viral vintage Chiefs sweatshirt she wore came from.
Arrowhead Stadium: Where it all began
July 8, 2023
Swift rolled like thunder into Kansas City last summer with her giant Eras Tour, filling Arrowhead two nights straight. Kelce sat in a suite and watched the second show, hoping to get the chance to hand her a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it.
We now know that moment never came.
But privately, things developed until Sept. 24, when Swift stunned the world by returning to Arrowhead to watch Kelce and the Chiefs crush the Chicago Bears.
She attended 13 Chiefs games, seven in Arrowhead. Fans who want to breathe the same rarefied air can pay to go to a game.
But the Chiefs also offer tours of the 76,000-seat stadium, which will make its Hollywood debut in a new Hallmark Christmas movie about the team coming the week before Thanksgiving. Filming at that location wrapped last week.
The 90-minute guided tours include a look at the press box, field, locker room, Hall of Honor (see those Super Bowl trophies!), the Founder’s Club (where Chiefs cheerleaders and KC Wolf visit guests pregame) and the press conference room where coach Andy Reid, quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Kelce and others wrangle the media.
Public tour tickets for adults are $38.14 ($65.39 if you want a Chiefs hat, too) and $32.69 for children ($59.94 with a hat), according to the team’s website.
Private tours range from $300 for groups of up to four people, $500 for five to 10 people and $650 for 11-20.
Get tour tickets at Chiefs.com.
Prime Social: First KC outing
Sept. 24, 4622 Pennsylvania Ave.
After the Chiefs-Bears game, Swift and Kelce drove away from Arrowhead in his 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle convertible and headed to Prime Social Rooftop, an upscale cocktail bar off the Country Club Plaza. Chiefs fans had seen Kelce there before.
This isn’t a jeans and T-shirts hangout. Management reserves the right to turn away anyone deemed inappropriately dressed. The attire guidelines request “polished” clothing. Anything “emitting excessive marijuana odor” is discouraged.
The hot spot is known for its romantic rooftop view of the city and sophisticated cocktails such as the Smoked Old Fashioned with Woodford Reserve Kentucky Straight Whiskey, mesquite smoke and a bourbon maple infusion.
The Ma-Homes ($68), a shareable drink, is made with George Dickel bourbon, pomegranate, fresh lemon and champagne.
The place shut down that night for the Kelce-Swift mixer, which included Chiefs players, their spouses and plus-ones — Brittany Mahomes was there, along with Kelce’s childhood buddies and his mom, Donna Kelce.
Some of the first photos of Swift getting cozy with Kelce were taken there.
Months later, Chiefs safety Justin Reid gave more details, saying Swift charmed everyone she met that night.
“So Travis rents out Prime Social right downtown, and from Prime Social he throws a private party, all the players are invited,” Reid said. “And everybody at some point or another meets Taylor. And Taylor is just awesome.
“She found a way to compliment everybody that she met that night. They were enjoying themselves having a good time. And you know, everyone got a chance to meet her. It was a really organic space and it was a lot of fun.”
Golden Ox: Kelce’s Swift-less birthday dinner
Oct. 7, 1600 Genessee St.
Kelce celebrated his 34th birthday with his buddies — Swift arrived in Kansas City the next day — at the Golden Ox restaurant in the West Bottoms, known as Kansas City’s oldest steakhouse.
They sat at the exclusive Chef’s Table in a private cove hidden from the rest of the restaurant near the kitchen, People magazine reported. General manager Craig Shannon told the magazine he seats high-profile guests at that big table near a secret entrance.
Kelce has eaten there so often he has a go-to order: A 28-ounce, dry-aged, medium-rare porterhouse ($86) — one of the restaurant’s bestsellers — a filet ($59) on the side, lobster mac and cheese ($14) and broccolini ($9.)
“Those athletes can power away some steak,” Shannon told People.
After Kelce dined there, The Star’s Toriano Porter visited and tried some of the same food Kelce had on his birthday.
Porter declared the lobster and cheese to be “deliciously divine, one serving wasn’t enough.” And the steak? “My goodness the flavor of the steak popped with each bite,” he wrote.
First Watch: pregame meal at Kelce’s house
Oct. 22, several locations
By the time Swift flew into Kansas City to watch her fourth Chiefs game, paparazzi were on the hunt for every possible glimpse.
So that’s how The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, caught takeout from First Watch being delivered to Kelce’s Northland house a few hours before the Chiefs-Chargers game.
Swift had just landed in her private jet and reportedly had lunch at Kelce’s house with family and friends.
The Daily Mail reported Kelce is a regular at the breakfast and brunch restaurant. The Florida-based chain’s website lists more than a dozen KC-area locations.
The tabloid reported the $45 order included a turkey omelet, farm stand breakfast tacos — they’re made with scrambled cage-free eggs, Cajun chicken, chorizo, cheese and avocado — and two kale tonic drinks.
Piropos: Date Night
Oct. 22, 4141 N Mulberry Drive
And the beef theme continues, sort of.
Before Kelce moved from the Northland to Johnson County, he dined several times at this upscale Argentinian steakhouse in Briarcliff Village.
But his most noteworthy visit came in October when he took Swift there for a post-game meal after the Chiefs beat the Chargers.
The Daily Mail reported they arrived in a Rolls Royce. “Everyone was excited to have them in the restaurant,” co-owner Gary Worden told The Star later.
Piropos is known for giving diners a great view from its perch on a hilltop overlooking the downtown skyline.
But restaurant manager Hector Rodriguez told The Star’s Yvette Walker that Swift and Kelce dined in a private room with curtained windows.
Worden’s wife and business partner, Christina, grew up in Buenos Aires and some of the menu items were inspired by family recipes.
A few menu items: an 8-ounce peppercorn encrusted filet in brandy cream sauce ($52), 14-ounce grilled ribeye ($54), 12-ounce pan-seared rack of lamb ($55) and chicken roulette Argentinian style ($39).
Empanadas — Argentinian finger food — and the Argentinian-style crab bisque ($12) are staples.
According to Rodriguez, Swift and Kelce ordered fish — Blackened Mahi-Mahi ($45), served with lobster risotto, julienned vegetables and red pepper sauce.
Trader Joe’s Leawood: Ice cream run?
Nov. 29, 4201 W. 119th St., Leawood
All right, Trader Joe’s is in plenty of cities.
There’s two in the Kansas City area — one in Leawood at 4201 W. 119th St. and one at 8600 Ward Parkway.
But for Swifties, the Johnson County one (near Kelce’s house) is forever THE Taylor Swift TJ’s.
In November, Kelce was seen making a trip to the specialty grocery store the same weekend Swift was rumored to be in town. Fans guessed he was buying ice cream for his girlfriend — though, we can’t confirm what flavor she may have requested.
A TikTok user named Alex Owens shared a video of Kelce walking around the store.
“No one approached him, was weird or acted crazy,” Owens wrote. “The moment he left the whole store exploded!”
Miracle Kansas City/The Wise Guy Tavern: Hangin’ with Mahomes
Dec. 1, 1924 Main St.
For the past few holiday seasons, Christmas pop-up bar Miracle Kansas City has been a popular Kansas City spot.
Swift attended one with other Chiefs couples last year, sporting a Christmas sweater with a squirrel on the front. (Swifties on X got a kick out of her apparel, thinking it must have been a reference to an old Kelce tweet from college in which he misspelled squirrel.)
Restaurateurs Bret Springs and Zach Marten have been hosting Miracle KC pop-ups since 2018, but up until last year had only one location, at 4807 Jefferson St. Miracle’s festive menu includes drinks like the Christmaspolitan.
They’ve since renovated the space, which was the old Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange, and it’s now The Wise Guy Tavern.
If you visit The Wise Guy, we can’t promise reindeer onesie-wearing Mahomeses or squirrel sweaters — or is it squirle? — but you’ll get to say you’ve walked on the same floors that Taylor once trod. You can munch on pizza and pasta and sip a cocktail while you’re there.
The Wise Guy is open from 4 to 11 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and 4 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays.
This year’s Miracle location(s) will be announced in November, according to Miracle’s website.
Westside Storey: Swift’s game gear
Dec. 10, 1701 Summit St.
Swift set a high bar for NFL fan fashion. No surprise.
She couldn’t walk into a game without fans clamoring to see what she was wearing so they could buy the same looks. Every stroll became a runway walk.
A couple of those viral garments came from Westside Storey, which sells new and vintage Chiefs gear along with other apparel.
In October Swift’s marketing team ordered five vintage Kansas City Chiefs sweatshirts, each about a couple hundred dollars.
Swift paired a rare, vintage ‘90s Chiefs sweatshirt from the store with a black miniskirt and knee-high black boots when she attended the Chiefs-Buffalo Bills game at Arrowhead in December.
Her dad, Scott Swift, appeared to wear it the next week when he attended his first Chiefs game, Chiefs vs. Patriots, in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
Store owner Chris Harrington was shocked when he saw Swift wearing the sweatshirt.
Then his girlfriend, Kathryn Cacho, the store’s social media manager, was stunned when Swift showed up at the Patriots game wearing a hat she had crocheted as a gift for the singer.
“When I heard that she ordered from the store, I immediately thought I wanted to make her something to include in the package,” Cacho told the Star in December. “So I crocheted it the night before the package was sent out.”
Cacho runs Kut The Knit — @kuttheknit on Instagram — as a side business, selling “vintage knitwear and other cute and eclectic pieces you might find in your grandma’s closet,” she said. “But I also sell stuff I make. I crochet, knit and tuft. All the pieces are made with secondhand yarn.”
Swift’s hat was white with a perky brown pom-pom, accented with a red stripe and the number 87 in black thread — Kelce’s jersey number.
Orders poured in when fans saw Swift wearing the hat.
Cacho has since started her own website — kuttheknit.com — where she sells that hat ($65) and a new “The Tortured Poets Department” style ($65).
“I’m Kat, yes, the one that made Taylor’s Beanie,” she wrote on the website.
Meanwhile, the store is leaning into all the new attention coming its way by adding Swift merch — candles, apparel, jewelry — from local makers. All available in store or thewestsidestorey.com.
Rye KC: Girls’ night
Dec. 30, 10551 Mission Road, Leawood
Megan and Colby Garrelts have hosted Chiefs players before.
They’ve fed Kelce many times, in fact, serving him favorites from their menu of high-end Midwest comfort food at both their Plaza and Mission Farms locations. Think pie, fried chicken, steak, loaded baked potatoes, etc.
They knew a group affiliated with the Chiefs would be visiting the Leawood location one night in December. But when eight or so wives and girlfriends (Brittany Mahomes included) arrived, they were starstruck to see a certain blond singer among them.
If you want to taste what Swift had that night, try the goat cheese appetizer ($16.50) and chicken and dumplings (with bacon, carrot, celery, onion, herb dumplings — $29).
To drink, Swift ordered a French blonde, Megan Garrelts told The Star at the time.
“It was a ladies’ night, and it was very fun,” Garrelts said. “I’m glad we were able to give them a space to enjoy themselves.”
Finishing off the meal, Swift’s table ordered cinnamon rolls and pie for dessert.
Rye opened in 2012, and the couple added a Country Club Plaza location at 4646 Mill Creek Parkway. Colby Garrelts won the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef Midwest award in 2013.
The restaurant’s Leawood location is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays, 9:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays, and 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays.
The American/Crown Center: New Year’s Eve party
Dec. 31, 200 E. 25th St, #400
Tay Tay knows how to throw an extravagant New Year’s bash.
Take her 2019 costume party, for example, in which Blake Lively (that night, Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz”) and Gigi Hadid (dressed as Mary Poppins) made an appearance.
But her party that ushered in 2024 might have taken the cake.
With many swoon-worthy moments of her and Kelce smooching when the clock struck midnight, dazzling architecture and panoramic views of the Kansas City skyline added to the evening’s romance.
Local Swifties quickly noticed The American’s signature arched ceilings in the background of her snapshots.
While the venue mostly hosts private events — weddings, rehearsal dinners and now, pop star parties — it hosts five-course dinners a couple times a year. Visitors can marvel at its three-story high windows, white oak pillars and rosette-covered ceilings.
The American was named the James Beard Foundation’s Design Icon in 2018.
If you aren’t looking to book an event (or wait around for a ticketed dinner), there’s still plenty to do in the area.
The venue sits atop Crown Center, a shopping center that features Hallmark’s headquarters, a seasonal ice rink, the Sea Life aquarium and the Legoland Discovery Center.
EB and Co.: AFC Championship bling
Jan. 28, two locations
While we’ve never seen claims of Swift visiting this jewelry store, with locations on the Country Club Plaza at 327 W. 47th St. and in Brookside at 326 W. 63rd St., she’s likely worn pieces from Kansas City’s EB and Co.
After the Chiefs defeated the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship, Swift and Kelce embraced on the field.
EB and Co. reshared photos of the couple, pointing out the “87” jersey ring on her right index finger.
“That moment when your dreams come true. Spotted our #87 Ring on @taylorswift at the end of our CHIEFS win!” the store posted on Instagram at the time.
The piece is available online for $16 at ebandcompany.com.
To see owner Emily Bordner’s other designs, you can stop into her two stand-alone stores or visit her stalls in the Made in Kansas City locations in Lenexa at 8703 Penrose Lane and the Plaza at 306 W. 47th St.
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