The Campground

The Campground has one of the better origin stories in Kansas City, and it prints it on its own menu. It began in autumn 2012 as a gathering place for friends in a backyard shed in Midtown. When founders Chris and Cristin had a daughter in 2015 they decided to turn the backyard hangout into a business, and in July 2018 they got the keys to the late and great Genessee Royale Bistro — the room where they had held their own wedding rehearsal dinner in 2012. The Campground opened there on 3 December 2018, at 1531 Genessee Street in the Historic West Bottoms. Kansas City Magazine named it Best Date Bar in its Best of Kansas City 2024 awards, and its kitchen produced a James Beard Emerging Chef semifinalist the same year. The food is small, sharp and reasonably priced: marinated olives at $8, green beans with fermented jalapeño ranch and aged cheddar at $14, a shrimp tostada on blue corn at $16, a double smashburger at $16, ricotta gnocchi with miso-aubergine butter at $24, and a root beer float with hickory ice cream at $9.

The non-alcoholic drinks sit in a section headed simply "N/A Options", and they are built rather than bought in. The N/A Gimlet ($12) uses a non-alcoholic blood orange aperitif with wild mint, white sage and lemon; the N/A Spritz ($12) pairs the same aperitif with a non-alcoholic sparkling pinot noir and soda. A Paloma and a Margarita ($10 each) are made with Strongwater from Denver. The most interesting item is the cheapest: Topo Lupo at $6 is a sparkling hop water from Alma Mader Brewing here in Kansas City, so a non-drinker can order something both local and genuinely made for the purpose rather than defaulting to a soft drink. Best Day Brewing's Electro Lime Mexican-style lager rounds it out at $6. One practical note: the bar does not publish opening hours on its own site, though it flags that the outside bar runs Fridays and Saturdays and that Mondays are burger specials.