Let down by World Cup traffic, Crossroads businesses pivot on tipping, hours
Some restaurants and bars in the Crossroads are pivoting — reducing staff, taking off automatic gratuity and even reducing hours — in response to a World Cup that’s brought businesses the usual amount or even fewer customers than a typical summer in Kansas City.
News of business concerns began to trickle on social media, with restaurants like Manny’s Mexican Restaurant posting statements about getting rid of automatic gratuity. Jim’s Alley Bar and its sister restaurant, King G, also announced on Instagram that both businesses would operate at normal hours after extending operations for the World Cup.
In a post on Facebook on Monday from Manny’s, owner Danny Lopez started by explaining his reasoning for adding an automatic 18% gratuity for less than two weeks into the World Cup. The business, decked out in FIFA World Cup decor, thought international visitors would show up to the Crossroads eatery, but wouldn’t tip, as it isn’t the custom in most countries.
Restaurants in Missouri had also received guidance from the Missouri Restaurant Association to add automatic gratuity through the duration of the World Cup to ensure their tipped employees were paid.
“With that being said, adjustments can and should be made based on information on customer traffic, type of traffic and what’s best for staff and community,” Manny’s Facebook post said. “We have chosen to discontinue the 18% World Cup gratuity and go back to business as usual. This is a new experience where preparation, plans and focus can and should be adapted to care for all.”
While not always publicly announcing it, other businesses are following suit. Lulu’s Thai Noodle Shop removed automatic gratuity after a week of waiting for that World Cup bump to materialize.
Lulu’s decorated its space with the dozens of flags of competing countries and promoted its restaurant on social media as a place to visit for pad thai or a wok dish during international guests’ visit to Kansas City.
Those international guests have trickled in — usually the day before and after a game takes place at Arrowhead Stadium — but locals have been largely absent, said Malisa Monyakula, owner of Lulu’s.
“People are avoiding downtown because they think it’s going to be crazy, but it’s not,” Monyakula said.
The less-than-expected foot traffic has led Monyakula to reduce staffing at her Crossroads restaurant.
Cat Brown-Koenig, manager at City Barrel Brewing Co., also said her team made the decision to reduce employee hours after a June that was slower than last year.
The reason they staffed up — in addition to extending hours and putting in place automatic gratuity — was because officials told City Barrel that they could expect a 30% bump in sales given the bar and restaurant’s prime downtown location. Brown-Koenig said sales are actually down 15% from last year.
She said they’re seeing an increase in regional visitors, customers from places like Omaha and Chicago. But both international guests and locals haven’t shown up as expected.
The team at City Barrel is still optimistic in events to come, like the Orange Fanwalk that’s expected to gather thousands of Dutch fans and anyone else who wants to join for a march through downtown Tuesday. Brown-Koenig said City Barrel will open up an hour early at 10 a.m. to offer revelers a space to grab a beer.
But if business continues to slump the way it has during the World Cup, they may consider rolling back hours.
“We’re in this industry to be flexible and to pivot, and if we need to make that decision, that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Brown-Koenig said.
Buffalo State Pizza Company owner Philippe Lechevin expressed slight disappointment in the business his pizzeria and bar’s Crossroads location has seen in the two weeks since the World Cup began.
Because Buffalo State does a good bit of takeout, Lechevin decided against adding automatic gratuity, but he did extend the business’s hours for guests seeking a place to watch matches or get a late-night bite.
Still, on the first Friday of the World Cup, Buffalo State was dead. Their usual lunch crowd of regulars also didn’t show the first week, though they are slowly coming back.
“(Maybe) they were afraid of traffic and not able to find a parking space, which is not the case,” Lechevin said. “Also some people got upset with the automatic gratuity.”
Despite the disappointment, Lechevin said Buffalo State may keep the extended hours — until 10 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and midnight Friday and Saturday.
It’s possible that expectations of a bustling World Cup in Kansas City were even higher for those who live and work in the Crossroads, a neighborhood sandwiched between the FIFA Fan Fest and the Power & Light District.
Eric Flanagan, owner of 3 Trees Hospitality, approached the World Cup with more cynicism. He figured international visitors would stay in the fan zones, or potentially seek out sports bars or barbecue while here in Kansas City, while King G and Jim’s Alley Bar would hopefully see an uptick in business from locals and regional visitors.
For that reason, he didn’t add automatic gratuity. But he moved forward with extended hours at King G and Jim’s Alley Bar just to be prepared. It added around five staff shifts to the schedules at his neighboring concepts in East Crossroads.
But sales were flat in the first handful of days, and after five days of business that looked like any other summer in KC, Flanagan’s teams made the choice to roll back hours to what they were before the World Cup.
“It just didn’t make any financial sense for us to stay open those hours,” Flanagan said.
He said he made peace with having to adapt, as small businesses must do whether or not there’s a global event. And he’s enjoyed the energy that the World Cup has brought to Kansas City, even if it’s in pockets of town.
Flanagan also suspects that visitors are sticking to businesses that are easy to get to from the main fan zones and streetcar line, and some neighborhoods in the “spread-out” Kansas City just aren’t accessible enough.
There’s also been an incremental turnout from weekend to weekend, and when Kansas City is actually hosting a game. Lechevin’s Buffalo State first World Cup weekend may have been an initial letdown, but he saw bigger gains in customers when Ecuador and Curaçao faced off in Kansas City. Monyakula also saw an uptick in customers because of the local match.
But he and others are calling on one specific group to show up: the wary locals.
City Barrel is trying to lure Kansas Citians in with a bar tab deal, which takes 15% off the final bill when a customer shows their Kansas City ID. And Flanagan took to the social media accounts of King G and Jim’s Alley Bar to let locals know that parking is no worse in the Crossroads than any other day.
“It’s business as usual. The only difference is that the games are on, and there are flags and (World Cup) decor up,” Flanagan said. “That’s it.”
