J. Rieger & Co. expanding: New garden bar nods to iconic Kansas City amusement park
Kansas City distillery J. Rieger & Co. is expanding in the East Bottoms.
Its new 11,000-square-foot Electric Park Garden Bar will have an open-air patio bar and an adjoining atrium to serve as an indoor/outdoor extension of its tasting room. It is expected to open this fall.
The garden bar was part of the company’s original plan, said Andy Rieger, the distillery’s co-founder and president.
“We really wanted to create a fun, energetic, and large outdoor gathering space that has the same level of excellence in food, beverage, and design that our guests have enjoyed in our indoor spaces since 2019,” Rieger said in a statement.
The atrium will be open year round with large glass windows that will allow it to be open-air or fully enclosed depending on the weather. It will have a free-standing bar with its own cocktail menu, including frozen cocktails, boozy snow-cones, draft cocktails and cocktail floats.
The outdoor area will have a food trailer and it will be open April through November. It will be dog-on-leash friendly and have a park-like atmosphere with mature trees and other landscaping.
J. Rieger is looking to hire staff for the garden bar and will have a job fair at the distillery, at 2700 Guinotte Ave., from 9 a.m. to noon and 2 to 6 p.m. on Aug. 3.
The Electric Park name draws on the name of the amusement park that operated in the neighborhood from 1899 to 1906.
Yes, an amusement park electrified Kansas City’s Brush Creek in 1900s. A KCQ answered
J. Rieger & Co. was originally founded in 1887 in the West Bottoms. In 2014, Andy Rieger (the great, great, great grandson of founder Jacob Rieger) and Ryan Maybee relaunched the distillery in the East Bottoms.
