Cliff's Taphouse

Cliff's Taphouse opened on 16 April 2021 at 3044 Gillham Road in Martini Corner, in the space that had been Ollie's Local, from Larry Kime — formerly the manager of Nick & Jake's on the South Plaza, who brought staff and chef Laura Valdivia with him. The name is a tribute rather than a founder: Cliff was a Chicago police officer in the 1960s whose favourite spot was a dark corner bar with a big sign out front. In Kansas City Magazine described a polished, modern bistro with a covered patio bordering the parking lot and sitting slightly below street level. The kitchen is broader than the taphouse label suggests, running flatbreads including a wild mushroom and a pear and brie, three burgers, beef tenderloin, grilled Atlantic salmon and a chef's meatloaf, plus weekend brunch from 10am. Happy hour runs Tuesday to Friday, 3pm to 6pm, and the bar is closed Mondays.

A place with taphouse in the name takes its beer list seriously — around twenty taps, many from local breweries — and the reason it belongs here is that the non-alcoholic side was built to the same standard rather than treated as a single token can in a fridge. Seven non-alcoholic options are printed with prices on the drinks menu, which is more than many dedicated bars carry: Athletic Brewing's Hazy IPA at $6 and its standard IPA at $7, a Paulaner Weizen Radler at $7, Guinness 0 at $7, Heineken 0.0 at $7, a Quirk non-alcoholic superfruit seltzer at $7, and — the one worth singling out — Border Baseline Pale Ale at $7, brewed non-alcoholic a mile and a half away in the Crossroads. That gives a non-drinker a genuine spread of styles in one room: hoppy, hazy, stout, lager, wheat and seltzer. Beyond the packaged options, three cocktails on the menu carry an asterisk marking them as available as mocktails — Eva's Bourbon Berry Smash, Bucky's Botanicals and Chan's Brew — so the bar will build a zero-proof version to order rather than pointing you at the cans.