Gold, marble and pasta: Check out Kansas City’s new Italian Renaissance restaurant

Jenna Thompson
·3 min read

Diners twirl their gold forks around strands of pasta, sipping boozy Negronis under candlelight in Florence, Italy.

Or — almost Florence. The embossed plaques, ornamented ceilings and marble tables paint the illusion that the small crowd is lounging in a high-end European restaurant. But past heavy curtains, cars zip down 18th Street in Kansas City’s Crossroads.

Italian-style Bar Medici opened in Kansas City’s Crossroads Dec. 22.
Italian-style Bar Medici opened in Kansas City’s Crossroads Dec. 22.

Chandeliers and tableware gleam. The restaurant’s name, Bar Medici, reminds history pupils of the prominent banking family whose patronage of the arts helped birth the Renaissance.

The “M” in its logo echoes the window arches of the Medici Palazzo in Florence.

Bar Medici serves a variety of cocktails, including the lemony frizzante.
Bar Medici serves a variety of cocktails, including the lemony frizzante.

“It’s been a longer process of design — curating everything that goes into this,” said general manager Bennett Hofer. “Whether it be the furnishings, the style or even the talent that goes into creating a beautiful bar like this.”

Bar Medici is on the ground floor of the Reverb apartment building, at 1800 Walnut St., Suite 100. Its first customers dined Dec. 22, with a multi-course menu to choose from.

Granchio spaghetti alla chimaera is one many dishes served at Bar Medici. It features spaghetti with snow crab, crab bisque sauce, scallion, Aleppo pepper and Grana Padano.
Granchio spaghetti alla chimaera is one many dishes served at Bar Medici. It features spaghetti with snow crab, crab bisque sauce, scallion, Aleppo pepper and Grana Padano.

First, for the antipasti (appetizers): focaccia with Calabrian chili butter, oysters, porcini ciambella (savory mushroom doughnuts) and more. Main courses include pesce spada (grilled swordfish, bagna cauda and wilted bitter greens), scallops or maiale la gamba (braised pork shank, stewed lentils and prosecco zabaglione).

Drinks are, of course, a must when visiting Bar Medici. Perhaps a frizzante (vodka, limonello, egg white and sparkling wine)? Maybe the favo spritz, a honeycomb-infused Cocchi Americano with limoncello and mead?

Bar Medici’s Negroni Pisco is served with an ice cube stamped with the bar’s logo.
Bar Medici’s Negroni Pisco is served with an ice cube stamped with the bar’s logo.

To polish it off, Medici offers desserts like its homemade gelato or cannolis dusted with powdered sugar.

“Our cuisine and our cocktails are no slouches, that’s for sure,” Hofer said.

Bar Medici’s dessert menu includes cannoli and housemade gelato.
Bar Medici’s dessert menu includes cannoli and housemade gelato.

The glitzy space is the newest concept from Exit Strategy, the company that owns The Mercury Room on the 14th floor of the same building and Verdigris in Leawood. The Monarch bar off the Country Club Plaza is owned by architect David Manica and managed by Exit Strategy.

Exit Strategy, founded in 2019, is the brainchild of Manica and Christian Moscoso.

Manica pulled inspiration from his frequent trips to Italy, bringing elements of its classical style to Kansas City.

Bartender Abby Lee prepares a frizzante cocktail at Bar Medici, a Renaissance-style bar and restaurant.
Bartender Abby Lee prepares a frizzante cocktail at Bar Medici, a Renaissance-style bar and restaurant.

Medici is the only concept from Exit Strategy that offers a full menu. It’s meant to go hand-in-hand with The Mercury Room — a small bar lined with twinkling lights and tall windows, offering a view of Kansas City’s skyline. First a fancy dinner, then an elevator ride to the view.

The Mercury Room opened in 2020, but it was always Exit Strategy’s plan to offer a dining option alongside it. Medici has been in the works since 2021.

Bar Medici is just an elevator ride away from The Mercury Room, with twinkling lights and views of Kansas City’s skyline.
Bar Medici is just an elevator ride away from The Mercury Room, with twinkling lights and views of Kansas City’s skyline.

Through Bar Medici’s door and past the lounge area are rows of tables and a long, rectangular bar. A few couples sit across from each other, leaning in to talk.

Upstairs, under the glow of the city lights, customers speak in murmurs. The Mercury Room opens to a patio looking out above the city, the tallest buildings dotting the sky.

“They really had the design that this building would be the one-stop shop for the most beautiful date that you could have with someone,” Hofer said.