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Mean Mule Distilling Co. is a locally owned, family-founded craft distillery and tasting room in Kansas City’s East Crossroads, billed as America’s first all-agave distillery. Founded by Jeff and Meg Evans, it produces American agave spirits — a tequila-style spirit distilled entirely in Kansas City from 100% blue Weber agave — and pours them in its on-site Agave Lounge tasting room and bar.

Description

Mean Mule Distilling Co. is a craft distillery, tasting room, and bar in Kansas City’s East Crossroads at 1733 Locust Street. It specializes in American agave spirits — a tequila-style spirit made from 100% blue Weber agave — which it distills on-site in its Crossroads warehouse and serves in its tasting room, the Agave Lounge, alongside cocktails and private events.123

The distillery positions itself as “America’s first and largest agave distillery,” producing spirits exclusively from blue agave. The agave is imported from a family-run farm in Mexico’s Jalisco region — the heart of tequila country — but Mean Mule handles the entire process, from mashing and fermentation to distillation and bottling, in Kansas City, distinguishing its product from tequila (which by law must be produced in designated regions of Mexico).24 The portfolio centers on a Silver American Agave Spirit, which took a Gold Award at the 2021 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and has expanded to include what the company describes as the first-known vapor-distilled agave gin.45

The tasting room — open Tuesday through Sunday — pours agave-spirit cocktails made with the house product and doubles as a private event space.36

Ownership and history

Mean Mule Distilling Co. was founded by husband-and-wife team Jeff and Meg Evans, who established the distillery in the Crossroads Arts District around 2015–2016.47 Jeff Evans’s science and engineering background informed the boutique distillery’s proprietary stills and distilling process; the couple consulted with chemists to recreate the terroir characteristics of traditional Mexican agave production using agave distilled in Kansas City.27 Patrick Little joined as a partner and co-owner, and Meg’s brother, Tyler Gloe, serves as the company’s master distiller, overseeing production.24

The name carries a family heritage story: it honors Meg’s great-grandfather, Fritz Eldringhoff, who ran a moonshine still near Hermann, Missouri during Prohibition in the 1920s — an operation famously guarded from law enforcement by a temperamental mule.4 The company frames itself as the first legitimate (legal) venture in that multi-generation distilling lineage.1

After several years producing and distributing its agave spirit, Mean Mule opened its East Crossroads distillery and public tasting room and bar at 1733 Locust Street on April 12, 2019.67 The business remains independent and locally owned, with no corporate parent.14

See also

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Crossroads Community Association — “Mean Mule Distilling Co.” business listing (address 1733 Locust, KC MO 64108; agave spirits; tasting room since April 2019) — https://kccrossroads.org/explore-the-crossroads/mean-mule-distilling-co/ — accessed 2026-05-31. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Feast Magazine — “Mean Mule Distilling Co. Brings Its American Blue Agave Spirit to Kansas City” — https://www.feastmagazine.com/mean-mule-distilling-co-brings-its-american-blue-agave-spirit-to-kansas-city/article_b29c006e-5d10-11e7-bbe3-4b27f4036b70.html — accessed 2026-05-31 (agave from Jalisco family farm; full process done in KC; owners Jeff & Meg Evans and Patrick Little). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Yelp — “Mean Mule Distilling” (1733 Locust St; distillery; updated May 2026; current hours) — https://www.yelp.com/biz/mean-mule-distilling-kansas-city — accessed 2026-05-31. ↩ ↩2

  4. Feast Magazine — “Mean Mule Distilling Co.’s first agave gin is now on shelves in Kansas City” (March 2022) — https://www.feastmagazine.com/travel/kansas-city/mean-mule-distilling-co-s-first-agave-gin-is-now-on-shelves-in-kansas-city/article_5666b5d0-a948-11ec-8cb2-2f33839f9f8a.html — accessed 2026-05-31 (Jeff & Meg Evans established 2015; Tyler Gloe master distiller; Fritz Eldringhoff / Hermann, MO heritage; vapor-distilled agave gin; 2021 SF World Spirits Gold for Silver American Agave Spirit; “America’s first and largest agave distillery”). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  5. Mean Mule Distilling Co. — official site, “Our Spirits” — https://www.meanmuledistilling.co/our-spirits — accessed 2026-05-31. ↩

  6. Kansas City Magazine — “Mean Mule Distilling Co. opens tasting room and bar in East Crossroads on April 12” — https://kansascitymag.com/mean-mule-distilling-co-opens-tasting-room-and-bar-in-east-crossroads-on-april-12-1/ — accessed 2026-05-31 (1733 Locust St; opened April 12, 2019; owners Jeff Evans, Meg Evans, Patrick Little; founded 2016; agave-spirit concept distinguished from tequila). ↩ ↩2

  7. Mean Mule Distilling Co. — official site, homepage — https://www.meanmuledistilling.co/ — accessed 2026-05-31 (address 1733 Locust; 100% organic blue Weber agave “in the heart of America”; generations-of-distilling-tradition / first legitimate venture framing). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

See also

Categories
  • Locally owned
  • Crossroads