This Kansas City business is temporarily closed. Check with them directly before you go.

The Green Lady Lounge is a red-velvet, speakeasy-style jazz lounge at 1809 Grand Blvd in the Crossroads Arts District, owned by Kansas City entrepreneur John Scott. Opened in December 2012, it stages live Kansas City jazz 365 days a year with no cover charge, and — together with its connected rooms (the downstairs Orion Room and the adjoining Black Dolphin) — has become a cornerstone of the city’s contemporary jazz revival.

| Corporate parent | None — independently, locally owned by John Scott || | Notable features | Live jazz 365 days/year; no cover charge; red-velvet 1940s speakeasy decor; Hammond B-3 organ; no televisions; two in-house stages (main room + downstairs Orion Room) plus the adjoining Black Dolphin ||

Description

The Green Lady Lounge is an exclusively-jazz cocktail lounge in Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District, a few blocks west of the historic 18th & Vine Jazz District. The room evokes a 1940s speakeasy: dim lighting, velvet-red walls, vintage oil paintings, mid-century fixtures, and a deliberate absence of televisions, so that “music, atmosphere and conversation” carry the room.1 The lounge features Kansas City jazz musicians performing in the rich Kansas City tradition, and the house policy is that Green Lady and Black Dolphin players perform their own original Kansas City jazz compositions.2

The venue’s signature claim is live Kansas City jazz 365 days a year, with no cover charge — a programming commitment that distinguishes it among American jazz rooms.2 Music is staged across multiple connected spaces: the main upstairs room (anchored by a Hammond B-3 organ), a downstairs space known as the Orion Room (more theatrical, with a grand piano), and the adjoining Black Dolphin at 1813 Grand, all under owner John Scott. Patrons can carry a single drink tab between the connected rooms.3

Ownership and history

The Green Lady Lounge is owned by John Scott, who opened it quietly in mid-December 2012 in the former Balanca’s space at 1809 Grand.4 Before entering the bar business, Scott spent roughly 17 years in Kansas City as the owner of Scott Fitness.5 He has described Green Lady as an “evangelical” jazz club — not merely playing to existing jazz fans but exposing newcomers to the music in the belief they will come to love it — and frames the venue’s programming as “his point of view.”5 Scott has cited family roots in the music: a grandmother who sang on the radio in Atchison, Kansas, and an aunt who was a longtime Kansas City jazz fan.5

At launch the lounge offered only a few nights of live music a week (early bookings included pianist Bram Wijnands’ Sunday matinees and Mark Lowrey on Fridays), with Scott stating an ambition to expand to six nights weekly.4 It grew well beyond that, eventually reaching the 365-days-a-year programming that now defines it.

In 2017, Scott expanded next door, acquiring the neighboring Tank Room and converting it into an extension of the jazz club renamed the Black Dolphin (1813 Grand Blvd).36 The lower level of the Green Lady is the Orion Room. Scott’s influence on the local scene widened further: he became general manager and booking agent for the Broadway Jazz Club, and was later reported taking over operations of the former Uptown Arts Bar.78 In 2017 the jazz blog Plastic Sax named him its “Person of the Year,” writing that his “audacious determination and visionary gumption have elevated the entirety of Kansas City’s jazz community” and crediting him with cracking the code for a profitable jazz club: no cover charge, superior service, luxurious cocktails, dim lighting, and music that rewards attentive listening but can also play as background.9

The research hint referenced a Scott-owned venue called “the Phoenix.” No source in this research corroborated a venue by that name; Scott’s documented venues are the Green Lady Lounge (with the Orion Room), the Black Dolphin, and management/booking roles at the Broadway Jazz Club and the former Uptown Arts Bar. The “Phoenix” reference is treated as unverified.

Last verified: 2026-08-13 · Source: Green Lady Lounge official online store (first-party) · URL: https://greenladylounge.com/ · Confidence: High (for the priced retail catalog below) / partial overall

⚠ No drinks or food menu is published. The site’s own “Drinks & Food Menu” page (https://greenladylounge.com/menu.html) renders with the heading “Menu” and no items, descriptions, or prices — verified on the live page 2026-08-1310 and on the Internet Archive capture of 2024-12-05, which is likewise empty11. This is a genuine first-party absence, not a scraping failure. No cocktail or beer list is published anywhere on the site.

The venue is a jazz cocktail lounge with no kitchen of its own; per the official site the draw is “music, atmosphere and conversation,” with live Kansas City jazz and no cover charge.2 ⚠ The 1809 Grand room remains temporarily closed as of 2026-08-13 (see Operating status); live jazz continues next door at the same-owner Black Dolphin, 1813 Grand.12

What the business does publish with prices is its first-party online store — recordings by house musicians, apparel, barware, gift cards, and a membership. Recorded here as the only itemized, priced first-party list.

Recordings (CDs)

  • All Green Lady / Black Dolphin house-label CDs — single catalog price across the CD category; titles include DOJO — STUDIOJO, Rod Fleeman Trio — Saturday Afternoon (Vols. 1–3), Tim Whitmer Good Time Quartet — Double Live at Black Dolphin, Wire Town — Riffin’ On Grand, Jeff Shirley Trio Live at Green Lady Lounge, Brian Baggett Trio — Nothing Left to Lose, Mike Bourne Band — Kansas City O’clock, Gerald Spaits Quartet — Sunday Night Live at Green Lady Lounge, Danny Embrey — Dues Blues, Reyes Brothers Organ Trio — Steppin’ Out at Green Lady Lounge. ($12)13

Recordings (LP / vinyl)

  • LP Guitar Elation — Double Live At Green Lady Lounge ($25)14
  • LP OJT — New Originals For The Green Lady — out of stock as of 2026-08-13. ($25)14
  • OJT Ground Level — out of stock as of 2026-08-13. ($25)14

Apparel

  • Green Lady Lounge Unisex Bella Canvas Short Sleeve Shirt ($26)15
  • Black Dolphin Unisex Bella Canvas Short Sleeve ($26)15
  • Danny Embrey Unisex Jersey Short Sleeve Shirt ($26)15
  • OJT Unisex Jersey Short Sleeve Shirt ($26)15
  • Green Lady Lounge Classic Ball Cap ($29)15

Barware

  • 100 Black Dolphin coasters pack ($19)16
  • 100 Danny Embrey coasters pack ($19)16
  • Set of 4 Green Lady Lounge Shot Glasses ($35)16
  • Set of 4 Black Dolphin Shot Glasses ($35)16
  • Set of 2 Green Lady Lounge Brew Pub Glass ($40)16
  • Set of 2 Black Dolphin Brew Pub Glass ($40)16
  • Set of 2 Black Dolphin Stem Wine Glass ($45)16
  • Set of 2 Green Lady Lounge Stem Wine Glass — out of stock as of 2026-08-13. ($45)16
  • Set of 2 Green Lady Lounge Glencairn Scotch Glass ($45)16
  • Set of 2 Black Dolphin Glencairn Scotch Glass ($45)16

Gift cards and membership

  • Gift Card ($50)17
  • Gift Card ($100)17
  • Membership Perks Program ($195)18

Entertainment (not priced — no cover charge)

  • Live Kansas City jazz, 365 nights a year — no cover charge.2
  • Original compositions only — Green Lady and Black Dolphin musicians perform only their own original Kansas City jazz compositions.2
  • Hammond B-3 organ (main room) · grand piano (Orion Room).2

Performance schedule: greenladylounge.com

See also

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Crossroads Arts District directory — “Green Lady Lounge” — accessed 2026-05-30. (Velvet-red walls, vintage oil paintings, no TVs; two stages; listed phone 816-215-2954.) ↩ ↩2

  2. Green Lady Lounge — official site — accessed 2026-05-30. (“Live Kansas City Jazz 365 days a year”; Green Lady and Black Dolphin musicians perform only original compositions; Orion Room as alternate stage.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. The Pitch — “Tank Room closing, making way for expanded Green Lady Lounge” — accessed 2026-05-30. (Scott bought neighboring Tank Room and converted it into the Black Dolphin; connected rooms / shared tabs.) ↩ ↩2

  4. The Pitch — “Streetside: New jazz spot the Green Lady Lounge arrives in the Crossroads” (Jan. 9, 2013) — accessed 2026-05-30. (Quietly opened mid-December 2012; former Balanca’s space; owner John Scott, ex-Scott Fitness; early bookings; ambition for six nights weekly.) ↩ ↩2

  5. All About Jazz — “Green Lady Lounge: A Jazz Club With a Point of View” (John Scott, by Larry Kopitnik) — accessed 2026-05-30. (“Evangelical” jazz club; Scott’s 17 years at Scott Fitness; family musical roots; “point of view.”) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Feast Magazine — “In Kansas City, The Black Dolphin Pairs Live Music with Impressive Cocktails” — accessed 2026-05-30. (Black Dolphin opened 2017 in former Tank Room space at 1813 Grand, above/adjacent to Green Lady.) ↩

  7. The Pitch — “The Broadway Jazz Club evolves as John Scott takes over booking and management” — accessed 2026-05-30. ↩

  8. The Pitch — “Uptown Arts Bar has closed and been sold to John Scott” — accessed 2026-05-30. ↩

  9. Plastic Sax — “John Scott: The Plastic Sax Person of the Year” (Dec. 2017) — accessed 2026-05-30. (Elevating KC’s jazz community; profitable-jazz-club formula: no cover, service, cocktails, dim lighting, attentive listening.) ↩

  10. Green Lady Lounge — official “Drinks & Food Menu” page — accessed 2026-08-13. (Page renders the heading “Menu” with no items, descriptions, or prices; page source contains no menu images or PDF links.) ↩

  11. Internet Archive capture of, 2024-12-05 — web.archive.org — accessed 2026-08-13. (Archived copy is likewise empty of menu items — the venue has not published a drinks/food list on this page in at least two years.) ↩

  12. Green Lady Lounge — official site home page — accessed 2026-08-13. (“PLEASE JOIN US NEXT DOOR AT BLACK DOLPHIN 1813 GRAND”; “Green Lady Lounge is temporarily closed. You can still come enjoy live jazz next door at Black Dolphin.”) First-party confirmation that the 1809 Grand room was still closed on 2026-08-13. ↩

  13. Green Lady Lounge — official online store, CD category — accessed 2026-08-13. (All listed CDs priced $12.) ↩

  14. Green Lady Lounge — official online store, LP/Records category — accessed 2026-08-13. (Three LPs, each $25; two shown out of stock.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  15. Green Lady Lounge — official online store, Apparel category — accessed 2026-08-13. (Shirts $26; ball cap $29.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  16. Green Lady Lounge — official online store, Barware category — accessed 2026-08-13. (Coaster packs $19; shot-glass sets $35; brew pub glass sets $40; wine and Glencairn sets $45.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  17. Green Lady Lounge — official online store, Gift Cards category — accessed 2026-08-13. ($50 and $100 denominations.) ↩ ↩2

  18. Green Lady Lounge — official online store, Membership Perks Program — accessed 2026-08-13. (Single membership product, $195.) ↩

  19. Yelp — Green Lady Lounge, 1809 Grand Blvd — accessed 2026-06-23 (589 reviews, “Updated June 2026”; listed phone +1 816-215-2954). ↩

More from the Registry

In Crossroads See all →

More Bar in KC See all →

See also

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/green-lady-lounge · record updated 2026-08-13