Fast Fred's Market

Fast Fred’s Market is a Black-owned neighborhood market at 1806 N 18th St in Kansas City, Kansas — part grocery and convenience store, part kitchen, with a counter that turns out burgers, homemade cakes and penny candy. It has been trading in Wyandotte County for 63 years, which on that figure makes it one of the longest-running Black-owned businesses in the county and the longest tenure among the eleven restaurants in Kansas City, Kansas’s first Black Restaurant Week in September 2026. It is also, on the evidence located this pass, almost entirely undocumented — no owner is named anywhere in the public record and no history of it has been written.

Description

Fast Fred’s Market is the kind of business that does not fit one category and is therefore filed under several. Directories list it as Grocery; delivery platforms list it as a restaurant; the coverage describes a market with a menu.¹² What the reporting adds to the shelves is the part regulars would name first: homemade cakes, and penny candy.³

Penny candy is a detail worth keeping. It is what a corner store sells when it has been serving the same blocks long enough that the children of its early customers are now bringing their own — and Fast Fred’s has been trading in Wyandotte County for 63 years.²³

In September 2026 it took part in Kansas City, Kansas’s first Black Restaurant Week, offering select items at $9.13 for the 913 area code, alongside ten other Black-owned county businesses.²³⁴ Its family business consultant, Anita Taylor, made the case for the week in plain terms: “Celebrate Black Restaurant Week because it is a first. We want to make sure we do that big,” and “Get out to support us this week. We all need to support each other.”³

The full roster and the week’s organisation are recorded at 2026-kck-black-restaurant-week.

Ownership and history

Almost nothing is documented, and this page will not invent it.

What is established: the business has operated in Wyandotte County for 63 years as of September 2026, and Anita Taylor acts as its family business consultant — a role that indicates a family-held business and is the only ownership-adjacent fact in the record.²³

What is not established: who Fred was or is; who owns the business now; whether it has always been at 1806 N 18th St; whether it was always a market; and the actual founding year. The 63-year figure implies roughly 1963, but that arithmetic is this page’s, not a source’s, and a business describing itself as “63 years” may be counting from a founding, an incorporation, or a family’s arrival in the trade.

A 63-year-old Black-owned business in Kansas City, Kansas with no written history is itself a finding about how thinly the Kansas side of the metro has been documented. Multiple targeted searches this pass — for a founding year, a founder, a family name, or any feature coverage — returned nothing beyond directory listings and the 2026 restaurant-week coverage. The route to closing this is not more desk research; it is a conversation with the family.

Legal entity name and Kansas Secretary of State registration were not searched this pass.

Links

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FastFredsMarket/

Sources

Footnotes

1. Fast Fred’s Market — Yelp business listing, updated January 2026, accessed via search index 2026-09-08. URL (Asserts: 1806 N 18th St, Kansas City, Kansas, categorised Grocery, with phone (913) 371-4124 carried alongside on Yellow Pages at yellowpages.com for the same address in ZIP 66104. Third-party aggregator listings; recorded for the address corroboration and the phone only, and not used for hours, menu or prices.) ↩

2. “KCK’s first-ever Black Restaurant Week leads into 913 Day with 11 Black-owned restaurants,” KSHB 41. URL (Asserts: the week ran 7–13 September 2026, concluding on 913 Day; Visit KCK, a local nonprofit tourism organisation, as organiser; participating establishments offering $9.13 specials; a proclamation from Mayor/CEO Christal Watson; the eleven-restaurant roster including Fast Fred’s Market; and that several participants sit in northeast KCK, which experienced devastating storm damage in mid-August 2026, with Ritz Dasgupta of Visit KCK on the week aiding recovery.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. “‘We want to do that big’: KCK celebrates first Black Restaurant Week ahead of 913 Day,” KSHB 41. URL (Asserts: Fast Fred’s Market has operated in Wyandotte County for 63 years; Anita Taylor is its family business consultant, with her quotes “Celebrate Black Restaurant Week because it is a first. We want to make sure we do that big” and “Get out to support us this week. We all need to support each other”; that the market offers homemade cakes and penny candy alongside its diverse menu and highlighted select items at $9.13 that week; Kendon McClaine as co-organiser of the week with his quote on “an emergence of Black entrepreneurship in the KCK/Wyandotte County area”; and the eleven-restaurant roster. This is the only substantive source on the business located this pass and the sole origin of the 63-year figure.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. Brandon Azim, “Kansas City, Kansas, kicks off its first Black Restaurant Week. These are the spots to try,” KCUR, 7 September 2026. URL (Asserts: Fast Fred’s Market at 1806 N 18th St., listed as a Market, as one of eleven Black-owned Kansas City, Kansas restaurants in the city’s first Black Restaurant Week, 7–13 September 2026, with many meals at $9.13 for 913 Day.) ↩