This Kansas City business has closed. KS.City keeps its page on the record.

Gilhouly’s (often styled Gilhouly’s Irish Pub) was a small, no-frills dive bar at 1721 W. 39th Street in Kansas City, Missouri — a fixture of the 39th Street West corridor for 29 years. It opened in 1995 and closed at midnight on July 1, 2024, after the landlord declined to renew its lease. This page is an in-memoriam record of a closed neighborhood institution; it documents what the bar was and how it ended, not a place you can still visit.12

Description

Gilhouly’s was a small (roughly 1,100-square-foot) corner dive bar on the south side of the 39th Street West restaurant-and-bar row, west of the Southwest Trafficway. Despite the Irish-pub name, it was first and foremost a neighborhood tavern — a dark, unpretentious room with a long wooden bar, a pool table, and a jukebox, the kind of place that drew regulars rather than tourists.1

Its name was a literary borrowing rather than an authentic Irish lineage: when brothers Kenny and Dennis Daub took over the space in 1995, they renamed it after a character in John Ford’s 1963 film Donovan’s Reef.1 The bar held a tavern license — relatively rare in the city — which allowed it to operate without serving food, reinforcing its identity as a drinking establishment rather than a restaurant. One of its more storied physical fixtures was a roughly 60-year-old wooden bar that owner Joe Simone refinished during his tenure.1

Ownership and history

The space that became Gilhouly’s had earlier operated as a bar called Huck Finn’s. In 1995, brothers Kenny and Dennis Daub took it over and renamed it Gilhouly’s.1

For much of its run, Gilhouly’s was, as The Pitch put it, “an Irish bar owned by Italians.” Around 2016, Joe Simone bought the business — reportedly investing roughly $200,000 — from his brother-in-law, C.J. Mandacina, and in doing so inherited the existing lease on the building.1 Simone operated the bar for its final eight years.

The building itself was owned by the Jang family, who held the real estate on that stretch of 39th Street. Simone’s primary point of contact with the ownership, Jennifer Jang, died in 2022, after which other family members took over the property holdings — a change that set up the lease dispute that ended the bar.1

Closure

Gilhouly’s served its last call at midnight on July 1, 2024, closing after 29 years.12

According to The Pitch, the closure was not the owner’s choice. After Jennifer Jang’s death in 2022, the Jang family’s remaining members and their management company (Block Real Estate) declined to renew Simone’s lease. Simone said a Block agent told him a few months before the closing that the Jangs had a new prospective tenant — also planning to open a bar — interested in the space, and that the ownership was not interested in purchasing his liquor license. “They want me out,” Simone told the paper; he said he had tried to meet with the owners to talk things over without success.1

By the bar’s final night, the pool table and jukebox had already been removed by the vending company that owned them.1 Reporting at the time indicated the incoming tenant would need to add ADA-compliant restrooms and a kitchen to the space.1

What ultimately replaced Gilhouly’s at 1721 W. 39th St is not confirmed in the sources reviewed.

Legacy

For nearly three decades, Gilhouly’s was one of the anchors of the 39th Street West nightlife strip — a genuine dive among a corridor that has trended toward restaurants and more polished bars. Its rare food-free tavern license, its cash-and-regulars character, and its longevity made it a recognizable, neighborhood-scale counterpoint to Midtown’s churn. Its 2024 closure — driven by a landlord change rather than a failing business — became a small local story about the squeeze on longtime independent operators along a redeveloping street.1

The “Irish pub owned by Italians” identity, the Donovan’s Reef name origin, and the refinished 60-year-old bar are the kinds of small institutional details that make it worth a Registry record even in memoriam.1

See also

  • Registry

Sources

Footnotes

  1. The Pitch (Kansas City), “After 29 years, this Kansas City dive bar is forced to close: ‘They want me out,’” July 1, 2024. (Founding 1995 as former Huck Finn’s; Daub brothers; Donovan’s Reef name origin; Joe Simone purchase ~2016 from C.J. Mandacina; ~$200K; 1,100 sq ft; tavern license; 60-year-old bar; Jang family ownership; Jennifer Jang death 2022; Block Real Estate non-renewal; midnight July 1, 2024 closure; ADA/kitchen replacement requirement.) Mirror accessed via Yahoo News: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/29-years-kansas-city-dive-221234068.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13

  2. Yelp — Gilhouly’s, 1721 W 39th St, Kansas City, MO (listing marked CLOSED, accessed May 2026). https://www.yelp.com/biz/gilhoulys-kansas-city ↩ ↩2

See also

  • Registry
Categories
  • Locally owned
  • Midtown