McLain's Bakery

a Kansas City heritage bakery operating in Waldo since October 1945, now in its third ownership era under the locally-rooted Hirleman family (acquired 2014), which has grown the original neighborhood bakehouse into a metro-wide bakery + café brand with its own Sway Coffee Roasters house roastery.

Description

McLain’s Bakery has been a fixture of the Waldo neighborhood since October 1945, originally located on Wornall just north of 75th Street before relocating to its current flagship at the corner of Gregory and Grand — 201 E Gregory Blvd.¹² It is one of Kansas City’s longest-tenured continuously-operating bakeries.

The bakery still makes its classics — butter rolls, cinnamon rolls, Danish, twists, birthday and wedding cakes, and the signature “chocolate cupcookie” — from recipes carried forward through its ownership eras.¹³ Under the current owners it has expanded into a full bakery-and-café format (“a bakery, cakery, and coffee shop”) serving fresh breakfast, lunch, and a full coffee bar, with bread and even salad dressings made in-house daily.²³

McLain’s has grown from the single Waldo bakehouse into a multi-location metro brand spanning Kansas City, Overland Park, Stanley/South Overland Park, Shawnee, Lawrence, and North Kansas City, with 100+ employees across sites.³⁴⁵ Coffee across the locations is supplied by the company’s own roastery, Sway Coffee Roasters, which also runs wholesale accounts.²

Ownership and history

Year	Event
October 1945	McLain’s Bakery opens in Waldo, on Wornall just north of 75th Street, under the founding McLain family.12
~1945-2001	McLain family operates the bakery for roughly three generations / ~60 years.1
2001	Ownership passes from the McLain family to a second local owner.1 (second-owner identity)
Dec 2013 - March 2014	The Hirleman family — siblings Mollie (Hirleman) Lothman and Jeff Hirleman, who grew up visiting the bakery — learn the business is for sale (late Dec 2013) and complete the purchase as the third owners (March 2014). Mollie’s interest in a bakery + Jeff’s interest in a coffee shop drove the acquisition.134
2014 → present	Hirleman ownership relocates/expands the flagship to 201 E Gregory Blvd and grows McLain’s into a multi-location bakery + café brand; launches Sway Coffee Roasters as the in-house roastery.23
Oct 2016	First sister store opens — McLain’s Market, Overland Park (10695 Roe Ave).4
June 2020	Shawnee location opens in the historic “OK Garage” at Johnson Drive + Nieman Road.46

Note on founding year: widely reported as 1945 by the company and independent KC press. Some sources phrase the current business era around the 2013-2014 Hirleman acquisition; this is the ownership change, not the founding. The KS.City master record’s “2010s” founding is therefore incorrect — see Verification status detail.

Links

• Website: https://mclainsbakerykc.com (301-redirects to the canonical site https://www.mclainskc.com)
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mclainsbakerykc/
• Phone: (816) 523-9911 — current Waldo number per the official site, Yelp, and Visit KC. (The seed-provided (816) 444-2899 could not be confirmed as the active line —.)

See also

• waldo
• Registry

Sources

Footnotes

1. Inside Brookside (And Waldo) — “McLain’s Bakery: A Waldo Classic, Updated for Today’s Tastes.” Published 2019-05-28. https://insidebrookside.com/2019/05/28/mclains-bakery-a-waldo-classic-updated-for-todays-tastes/. Asserts: 1945 founding on Wornall north of 75th; McLain family ~3 generations; Mollie Lothman + Jeff Hirleman as third owners purchasing 2014; relocation to 201 E Gregory; signature butter-roll dough + custom cakes. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. McLain’s official site — Story + Waldo location pages. https://www.mclainskc.com/story and https://www.mclainskc.com/waldo. Asserts: established October 1945; Hirleman acquisition Dec 2013-March 2014; “bakery, cakery, coffee shop”; Sway Coffee Roasters house roastery; 201 E Gregory Blvd, KC MO 64114; daily 7:00 am-2:30 pm; (816) 523-9911. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. Johnson County Post — “McLain’s Market looking to open bakery and restaurant in downtown Shawnee.” Published 2019-07-19. https://johnsoncountypost.com/2019/07/19/mclains-market-looking-to-open-bakery-and-restaurant-in-downtown-shawnee-81171/. Corroborates 1945 founding, Hirleman ownership, expansion to multiple metro locations, 100+ employees. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. KCParent — “McLain’s Markets – Various Locations.” https://kcparent.com/venue/mclain-s-markets-various-locations/. Corroborates location roster and openings (Overland Park Oct 2016; Shawnee June 2020; Stanley; North Kansas City). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Visit KC — McLain’s Bakery listing. https://www.visitkc.com/listings/mclains-bakery/. Corroborates Waldo address 201 E Gregory Blvd and phone (816) 523-9911. ↩

6. Yelp — McLain’s Bakery, 201 E Gregory Blvd, Kansas City, MO. https://www.yelp.com/biz/mclains-bakery-kansas-city. Corroborates address + phone (816) 523-9911. ↩