This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

Opera House “Coffee&Food Emporium” is an all-day café, bakery, restaurant and bar at 500 Walnut St on the corner of the historic River Market / City Market, on the KC Streetcar line.12 It occupies the former River Market Brewing Company space, which David Anderson and partner Kyle Getz took over in early 2012 to build what The Pitch then described as an upscale food court of three concepts — the first of which, Classic Rock Coffee, opened in March 2012.3 The Better Business Bureau records the business as started August 28, 2012 with David Anderson as owner.4 It runs counter-order fast-casual service across breakfast served all day, gyros, paninis and tacos, an in-house bakery trading as The Opera House Bakery on its own domain but from the same address and phone, and a set of $11.99 weekday specials.15 Tier 1 — owner-operated, single location; ownership currency is directory-sourced and carries a caveat.

Ownership caveat. The only source found that names a current owner is the Better Business Bureau business profile, which lists “David Anderson, Owner” and a start date of August 28, 2012.4 That is a directory record, not a first-party statement or a bylined news report. It is corroborated as to identity by The Pitch’s March 2012 reporting, which names David Anderson as a co-owner of the Opera House project with Kyle Getz.3 Neither the business’s own website nor its bakery site names any owner — the bakery site says only that a caller can “talk directly to the owner and baker,” without a name.25 Whether Anderson is still the owner in 2026, and whether Getz retains any interest, is not established: “.

Description

The Opera House is a large multi-level room in the River Market with several ordering stations rather than one — a coffee bar, a bakery case, a full kitchen and a bar. Its own About page describes it as “a well-established Breakfast/Brunch, Lunch & Dinner Restaurant & Bar” with a coffee shop, in downtown Kansas City’s River Market at the corner of the historic City Market, reachable by the KC Streetcar, and claims one of the largest spaces in the area with both indoor and outdoor seating.2

Service is fast-casual: order at the counter, seat yourself, food is run out to the table. No reservations for dine-in.1

The kitchen serves breakfast all day — eggs, benedicts, house-made buttermilk biscuits, a Farmer’s Platter — alongside a broader American menu that reaches into gyros, paninis and tacos.1 The drinks side runs espresso and specialty coffee, loose-leaf tea, Italian soda, fresh juice, smoothies, and coffee cocktails, with bottled beer and a happy hour weekdays 3–6 p.m. and a weekend morning “Walk of Shame” happy hour.1

The bakery. Baked goods are made on site and rotate: “Our menu rotates so be sure to stop in to see what’s in the bakery case each day.”5 The stated range is confections, cakes, macarons, cupcakes, muffins, butter cookies and cookies, with an emphasis on fresh, handmade preparation daily.5 The 2012 Pitch description of the space already included a glass-enclosed bakery room turning out cinnamon rolls.3

Trade name and the bakery question

The brief for this page asked two specific questions. Both are answered here, with the residue flagged.

1. Exact trade name. The business styles itself on its own homepage as Opera House “Coffee&Food Emporium” — quotation marks and closed-up ampersand included, reproduced here exactly.1 Its own About page calls the same operation Opera House Cafe.2 Third parties, including the BBB and Yelp, render it Opera House Coffee and Food Emporium or Opera House Coffee & Food Emporium.4 The Registry title uses the readable ampersand form; the exact first-party styling is preserved above.

2. Is The Opera House Bakery the same business? The evidence says the bakery is an arm of the same operation, not a separate storefront, though whether it is a separate legal entity is unresolved:

  • The bakery’s own site states it is located inside the café: it describes itself as operating “inside The Opera House Cafe” and invites customers to “stay for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner” after buying from the bakery case.5
  • It publishes the same address — 500 Walnut St — and the same phone number, (816) 888-4858, as the café.51
  • The café’s own menu page cross-links to a bakery menu (“Check our Bakery and Coffee Menus”).1

Against that, it maintains a separate domain (operahousebakery.com), separate branding as “The Opera House Bakery,” and posts different Sunday hours than the café site. A separate domain and separate hours are consistent with either a distinct legal entity or simply a marketing arm. No corporate filing was read, so the legal-entity question is “.

Ownership and history

The 500 Walnut space previously housed the River Market Brewing Company.3

In early 2012, David Anderson and partner Kyle Getz took the space on with a plan for an upscale food court of three food concepts under the umbrella name the Opera House. The Pitch’s Jonathan Bender covered the first of those concepts opening on March 6, 2012 — Classic Rock Coffee, a coffee bar paired with a glass-enclosed bakery room. Bender described Anderson as “just under two weeks into the first phase of the plans” and shuttling between the bakery room and the coffee bar. The other two concepts referenced in that coverage were a paleo-focused grill and a cheese-and-wine concept.3

The Better Business Bureau records the business as having started August 28, 2012, with David Anderson as owner — a date roughly six months after the Pitch piece, consistent with the food-court plan consolidating into a single trading business later that year.4

How the operation got from a three-concept food court to the single all-day café it is now is not documented in any source read — no article, filing or first-party history covering the rebrand from “Classic Rock Coffee” to “Opera House Coffee & Food Emporium” was located. That transition, and its date, are “.

Names note: David Anderson, Kyle Getz and Jonathan Bender are reproduced exactly as The Pitch and the BBB print them. A search result surfaced a first name for the current baker; it appeared only in an unread aggregator summary and is not carried here. No other owner, partner, chef or baker is named on this page.

Building note: despite the name, no source read connects 500 Walnut to an actual historic opera house. Kansas City’s documented Coates Opera House was a different building elsewhere downtown. The name should be treated as a trade name until a building history is sourced: “.

menu_status: partial. Prices below are first-party — read from the business’s own website at operahousekc.com on 2026-08-13.1 No delivery-platform or aggregator prices are carried on this page, and the Grubhub listing that exists for this address was deliberately not opened.

Weekday specials — all $11.99, each served with a house side and a 20 oz fountain drink

DaySpecialPrice
Moo MondayGourmet burger$11.99
Taco Tuesday3 street-style tacos$11.99
Wing Wednesday6 wings$11.99
Gyro ThursdayGyro$11.99
Philly FridayPhilly cheese steak$11.99

Breakfast — served all day; eggs come with a choice of fried potatoes or fresh fruit

ItemPrice
Farmer’s Platter — 2 fresh-cracked eggs and sides$15.05
Country Benedict — fresh-cracked scrambled eggs$14.25
Classic Benedict — 2 fresh-cracked poached eggs$13.65
Bacon & Eggs — 4 bacon slices, 2 fresh-cracked eggs$13.35
Half order, house-made buttermilk biscuits$7.40

These five are the “popular dishes” block, the only part of the own-site menu that renders to an automated reader; the full menu is longer and its remaining prices are unread.

Other menu areas — items documented, prices not read

AreaItemsPrice
KitchenGyros, paninis, tacos, burgers, wings, Philly cheese steak“
Coffee barEspresso and specialty coffee drinks, loose-leaf tea, Italian soda, coffee cocktails“
Cold barFresh juices, real-fruit smoothies, whey shakes“
BarBottled beer; happy hour weekdays 3–6 p.m.“
Bakery (rotating daily)Macarons, cupcakes, cakes, muffins, butter cookies, cookies, confections“ — the bakery site publishes no prices and states the case rotates daily

menu_price_tier: $$ — breakfast plates $13–$15, specials $11.99.

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Opera House “Coffee&Food Emporium” official website, home and menu pages and operahousekc.com (accessed 2026-08-13 via the r.jina.ai text proxy; the domain returns HTTP 403 to direct automated fetches). Asserts: trade styling Opera House “Coffee&Food Emporium”; address 500 Walnut Street, Kansas City, MO 64106; phone (816) 888-4858; hours Monday–Saturday 7:00 am–8:00 pm and Sunday 8:00 am–5:00 pm; weekday specials all $11.99 — Moo Monday gourmet burger, Taco Tuesday three street-style tacos, Wing Wednesday six wings, Gyro Thursday gyro, Philly Friday Philly cheese steak, each with a house side and 20 oz fountain drink; happy hour weekdays 3pm–6pm plus “Weekend Walk of Shame” Saturday 7am–2pm and Sunday 8am–2pm; fast-casual counter ordering with food run to the table and no reservations; free delivery on orders $39 or more; OH! Rewards loyalty programme; private events and catering; American food including gyros, paninis and tacos with breakfast served all day; first-party online ordering at operahousekc.com/order and operahousekc.com/popmenu-order; social profiles facebook.com/operahousekc and instagram.com/operahousekc; menu “popular dishes” prices — Farmer’s Platter $15.05, Country Benedict $14.25, Classic Benedict $13.65, Bacon & Eggs $13.35, half order house-made buttermilk biscuits $7.40; breakfast eggs served with a choice of fried potatoes or fresh fruit; cross-reference “Check our Bakery and Coffee Menus”. Caveat: the menu page renders through a dynamic widget and only the popular-dishes block was legible; the /drinks and /bakery paths returned HTTP 404. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  2. Opera House — About page (accessed 2026-08-13). Asserts: “Opera House Cafe is a well-established Breakfast/Brunch, Lunch & Dinner Restaurant & Bar” in downtown Kansas City’s River Market at the corner of the historic City Market, with KC Streetcar access; operates as coffee shop, café, bakery and bar combined, serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert and drinks with customisable specialty coffee; claims one of the largest spaces in the area, with outdoor seating and indoor areas for relaxing or working. Asserts nothing about founding date, owners or building history — the page contains none. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Jonathan Bender, “Classic Rock Coffee House is now open in the River Market,” The Pitch, March 6, 2012 (accessed 2026-08-13). Asserts: David Anderson is a co-owner of the Opera House, with partner Kyle Getz; the venue at 500 Walnut Street in the River Market previously housed the River Market Brewing Company; the Opera House was conceived as an upscale food court of three food-related concepts, of which Classic Rock Coffee was the first to open; a glass-enclosed bakery room turning out cinnamon rolls operated alongside the coffee bar; two further planned concepts were a paleo-focused grill and a cheese-and-wine concept; Anderson was “just under two weeks into the first phase of the plans” at the time of writing. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  4. Better Business Bureau business profile — Opera House Coffee and Food Emporium, Kansas City, MO (accessed 2026-08-13). Asserts: business name Opera House Coffee and Food Emporium; address 500 Walnut, Kansas City, MO 64106; phone (816) 888-4858; website operahousekc.com; years in business 13, started August 28, 2012; business management “David Anderson, Owner”; category Coffee and Tea. Caveat: a directory record, not a first-party statement. It is the only source found naming a current owner, and its currency is unverified. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. The Opera House Bakery official website, home and contact pages and operahousebakery.com (accessed 2026-08-13; the r.jina.ai proxy returned a bot-challenge screen for this domain, so it was read by direct fetch). Asserts: business name The Opera House Bakery; located inside The Opera House Cafe in the River Market / City Market area of Kansas City, Missouri; address 500 Walnut St, Kansas City, MO 64106; phone 816.888.4858; hours Monday–Saturday 7AM–8PM and Sunday 8AM–2PM; products include confections, cakes, macarons, cupcakes, muffins, butter cookies and cookies, made fresh and handmade daily; “Our menu rotates so be sure to stop in to see what’s in the bakery case each day.”; customers can “talk directly to the owner and baker”, with “no call trees and voicemail ever” — no owner or baker is named; customers are invited to stay for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner after buying from the bakery. No prices are published. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

See also

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/opera-house-coffee · record updated 2026-08-13