This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

Core Coffee & Eatery is a neighborhood coffee shop and café at 546 Olive Street in Pendleton Heights, in Kansas City’s Historic Northeast, run by Eric and Deanna Bellamaganya, who took the shop over from Splitlog Coffee Co. and began service in March 2022.1 Within a month of taking over they had doubled the previous revenue, and eventually tripled it; Deanna, an art director for seventeen years before buying the shop, runs the room as a rotating gallery for local artists, changing the show every one to two months.1 The business is a member of the Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and is named in the Northeast News’s January 2026 survey of the Independence Avenue dining corridor.23 Tier 1 — owner-operated, husband-and-wife, single location.

Phone discrepancy: the business’s own site publishes (816) 963-1059; the NEKC Chamber member directory publishes (816) 287-5027. Both are recorded rather than one being chosen. The own-site number is the one to prefer if a single value is needed. “ for reconciliation.

Name-spelling note: Northeast News spells the co-owner Deanna; the NEKC Chamber directory spells her Deana; the business email address is deanacorecoffee@gmail.com. This page uses Deanna in prose because that is the spelling in the bylined press interview in which she is quoted, and records the variant here rather than silently resolving it.

Description

Core Coffee & Eatery occupies a corner storefront on Olive Street in Pendleton Heights, a block off the Independence Avenue corridor. The shop states its own purpose plainly: “Core is focused on community and bringing people of all walks of life together. Our shop is a cozy, welcoming, neighborhood spot where you can relax or get work done.”4

Two things distinguish it from a standard third-wave coffee bar.

It is also a gallery. Deanna Bellamaganya worked as an art director for seventeen years before buying the shop, and told Northeast News that owning “a coffee shop and an art gallery” was a long-held ambition. The walls carry rotating exhibitions of local artists, changed every one to two months and curated by her.1 The first-anniversary party in March 2023 was itself built around local artists showing work, alongside specials from other neighborhood businesses and Girl Scouts selling cookies.1

It is an eatery, not only a coffee shop. The trading name carries ”& Eatery,” and the business advertises catering, private parties and group bookings alongside counter service.4

The Northeast News’s January 2026 corridor survey lists Core Coffee among the Independence Avenue-area dining options whose owners live in the community — the paper’s framing for the corridor is that dining local there “means supporting business owners who live in the community and reinvesting dollars right back into it.”3

Ownership and history

The address at 546 Olive Street previously traded as Splitlog Coffee Co.’s Pendleton Heights shop. Eric and Deanna Bellamaganya acquired the business from Splitlog and began service in March 2022.1

Deanna’s stated motivation, to Northeast News: “I’ve always wanted to own a coffee shop and an art gallery, and I knew that this place had much more potential than it was being given.”1

The transition was not smooth on the regulatory side. She described the City’s permitting and licensing process for a change of ownership as difficult, and said: “The City has got to come up with a system that makes more sense for business owners.”1 That is a datapoint worth keeping — it is a first-hand, on-record account of small-business friction in Kansas City, from an owner who went through it.

Commercially the takeover worked immediately. Within one month of taking over, revenues had doubled; the business ultimately tripled the volume it inherited.1 On the community side: “We’ve made a lot of great relationships…we’re all about community and relationship building.”1

At the one-year mark the couple named three plans for the year ahead — obtaining a liquor license, expanding outdoor seating toward a French café aesthetic, and increasing operating hours.1 Whether any of the three was executed is not documented in any source read; the currently posted hours (7 a.m. opening six days a week) are the same as those reported in March 2023, which suggests the hours expansion at least did not happen as described. “

Names note: Eric and Deanna Bellamaganya are the only individuals named in any source read, and are reproduced as printed. No further family, staff or investor names are asserted. Splitlog Coffee Co. published its own Facebook announcement of the handover in 2022; that post could not be read — Facebook returned a login wall — so nothing from it is asserted here, and the handover rests on the Northeast News account.

menu_status: partial. The business’s own site publishes no price list, and no first-party ordering menu was readable — the shop’s mobile-ordering page (joe coffee) returned HTTP 403 on 2026-08-13 and its content is therefore not used here.4

Documented categories, from the shop’s own site text and the trading name:

Item / categoryPrice
Espresso and coffee beverages“
Food service (”& Eatery” — breakfast and lunch items)“
Catering“

Deliberately not listed: several aggregator and delivery-platform pages publish an item-by-item Core Coffee menu with prices. Those are not carried — delivery-platform pricing runs materially above in-store, and the Registry strips it. Individual dish names visible only in photographs on the own site are likewise not transcribed, because image-derived item names are not a citable source.

A visit, a photograph of the posted board, or a readable first-party ordering page would move this to verified in one pass. “

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Abby Hoover, “Core Coffee thanks customers after one year in business,” Northeast News, March 8, 2023 (accessed 2026-08-13). Asserts: Core Coffee at 546 Olive St., Pendleton Heights, marked its first anniversary with a celebration featuring balloons, cake, local artist displays and Girl Scout cookie sales; Eric and Deanna Bellamaganya acquired the business from Splitlog Coffee Co. one year prior; Deanna quote “I’ve always wanted to own a coffee shop and an art gallery, and I knew that this place had much more potential than it was being given”; Deanna on the regulatory transition, “The City has got to come up with a system that makes more sense for business owners”; revenues doubled within one month of takeover and were ultimately tripled; Deanna quote “We’ve made a lot of great relationships…we’re all about community and relationship building”; rotating local-artist exhibitions changed every one to two months, curated by Deanna, who previously worked as an art director for 17 years; plans for the coming year to obtain a liquor license, expand outdoor seating with a French café aesthetic and increase operating hours; Deanna quote “I just want to say thank you to everybody for the support”; hours Monday–Saturday 7 a.m.–4 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m.–2 p.m. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  2. Core Coffee & Eatery, Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce member directory (accessed 2026-08-13). Asserts: Core Coffee & Eatery, 546 Olive St, Kansas City, MO 64124; phone (816) 287-5027; website corecoffeekc.com; owner/contact names “Eric & Deana Bellamaganya”; email deanacorecoffee@gmail.com; categories Coffee Shop, Food and Drink, Retail; current member listing as of the access date. ↩

  3. “Local Cuisine is Just Around The Corner,” Northeast News, January 2, 2026 (accessed 2026-08-13). Asserts: Core Coffee is named among operating Independence Avenue-corridor dining businesses as of January 2026; the corridor roster also includes Yasmeen Cafe, Pho Bowl, San Antonio Market, El Paso Del Norte, Elvira’s Bakery, Charrito’s, Taqueria Mexico, Taqueria El Torito, Eleos Coffeehouse, Frutopia, Taco Express and KC Wings and Tacos; dining local in the Northeast means “supporting business owners who live in the community”; the NEKC Chamber of Commerce hosts an Independence Avenue International Taste and Tour each June and September. ↩ ↩2

  4. Core Coffee & Eatery official website (accessed 2026-08-13). Asserts: Core Coffee & Eatery, 546 Olive Street, Kansas City, MO 64124; phone (816) 963-1059; email deanacorecoffee@gmail.com; hours Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri, Sat 7:00 AM–4:00 PM, Wed 8:00 AM–4:00 PM, Sun 8:00 AM–2:00 PM, closed 12/24–12/27; self-description “Core is focused on community and bringing people of all walks of life together. Our shop is a cozy, welcoming, neighborhood spot where you can relax or get work done.”; sections for online ordering, parties and group bookings, catering and job opportunities; Instagram @corecoffeekc. No prices, no owner names and no founding date appear in the site’s text. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

See also

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/core-coffee-and-eatery · record updated 2026-08-13