Chartreuse Saloon

Chartreuse Saloon is Jill Cockson’s 21-and-over cocktail bar and billiards room at 1627 Oak Street in the East Crossroads, open since 2021. Three nine-foot regulation Diamond pool tables under custom chartreuse-green felt, free to play; steel-tip darts, custom chess and checkers tables, a jukebox, and a late-night kitchen serving custom hot dogs and nachos until 12:45 a.m. A monthly eight-ball tournament on the second Thursday is its standing programmed night. Cockson also founded swordfish-toms in the Crossroads and drastic-measures in Shawnee.

Description

Chartreuse Saloon is a 21-and-over cocktail bar and billiards room at 1627 Oak Street in the East Crossroads, at the corner of East 17th Street. The operator describes it as an “inclusivity-driven” neighborhood bar and elevated billiards room, and the site carries explicit statements of support for Black Lives Matter, Planned Parenthood, and LGBTQIA communities.¹

The bar was opened in 2021 by Jill Cockson, a veteran Kansas City bartender whose other ventures include swordfish-toms, the subterranean cocktail bar elsewhere in the Crossroads, and the James Beard Award-nominated drastic-measures in Shawnee.²³ Chartreuse Saloon is operated separately from those rooms rather than as a branch of them.

Seating is first-come, first-served; the house takes no reservations, and pool and the other games are complimentary with a food or beverage purchase.¹ The room is available for private rental on Sundays and Mondays, the two days it is otherwise closed.¹

The room

Three nine-foot regulation Diamond pool tables anchor the space, laid with custom chartreuse-green felt that gives the bar its name.¹² Alongside them are two steel-tip dart boards and custom-built tables for chess and checkers.¹² The interior pairs chartreuse walls and hanging ferns with Wild West imagery — longhorn skulls, saloon doors, black-and-white historical photographs — against deliberately unserious touches including plastic fast-food toys and sticker-covered refrigerators; a jukebox carries the room’s music.² Regular players quoted by KCUR travel across the metro for the tables, one calling them “the best tables in the city.”²

Seated capacity is not published. “

Programming

Chartreuse Saloon is a games room rather than a live-music stage; its programming is competitive and recurring rather than booked by act.

• Eight-ball tournament — second Thursday of each month, 7 p.m. check-in, $10 entry, cash prizes.¹²
• Free open pool — all operating hours, complimentary with purchase.¹
• Darts, chess and checkers — house equipment, always available.¹
• Jukebox — the room’s recorded music; no house DJ or booked live acts are published.²

No live-band calendar is published on the first-party site, and none should be assumed. “

Menu

The kitchen runs late — until 12:45 a.m. — and the first-party site describes custom hot dogs, nachos, street corn, pickled eggs, and pulled-pork sandwiches alongside craft cocktails, beer, and wine.¹ Item-level prices are not published first-party, so no price list is recorded here. “

Sources

Links

• Website: https://www.chartreusesaloon.com/
• KCUR feature (2024): https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2024-05-03/meet-the-pool-playing-regulars-of-the-chartreuse-saloon-in-the-crossroads-this-is-sacred-to-me
• Crossroads Community Association listing: https://kccrossroads.org/explore-the-crossroads/chartreuse-saloon/

Footnotes

1. Chartreuse Saloon — official site — asserts: 1627 Oak Street, Kansas City, MO 64108; hours Tuesday–Saturday 4 p.m.–1:30 a.m. with happy hour 4–7 p.m.; 21+ cocktail bar and elevated billiards room, inclusivity-driven; free pool on nine-foot Diamond tables, darts, board games, chess; kitchen serving custom hot dogs, nachos, street corn, pickled eggs and pulled pork sandwiches until 12:45 a.m.; monthly eight-ball tournament second Thursday, 7 p.m. check-in, $10 entry, cash prizes; first-come first-served, no reservations; private rentals Sundays and Mondays; no published phone line; statements of support for BLM, Planned Parenthood and LGBTQIA. (Retrieved directly 2026-08-13.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. KCUR — “Meet the pool-playing regulars of the Chartreuse Saloon in the Crossroads: ‘This is sacred to me’” (May 3, 2024) — asserts: East 17th and Oak Streets, Crossroads Arts District; opened 2021; owner Jill Cockson, also of Swordfish Tom’s and Drastic Measures; three regulation nine-foot Diamond pool tables; dartboards and painted chess tables; free-to-play pool; recurring eight-ball tournaments with cash prizes; chartreuse walls and felts, hanging ferns, longhorn skulls, saloon doors, historical photographs, plastic toys, sticker-covered fridges; jukebox; players traveling across the metro; regular’s quote “They have the best tables in the city”; April 2, 2024 election watch party opposing the proposed Crossroads stadium. (Retrieved directly 2026-08-13.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. Feast Magazine — “Jill Cockson’s new East Crossroads bar, Chartreuse Saloon, is all fun and games” (November 2021) — asserts: Chartreuse Saloon as Jill Cockson’s new East Crossroads bar; opening in 2021; games-forward concept. (Cited from search result title and summary; full-text retrieval not performed — see method note below.) ↩