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

Peter May’s House of Kielbasa is a Polish sausage house and deli-counter grocery at 1654 Bristol Ave on Kansas City’s east side, trading from the same storefront since 1929, when Polish immigrant Peter May opened it as a neighborhood grocery.12 It is now run by his great-grandson Mike Loges, the fourth generation of the family to make the sausage, from a recipe that “can’t be found on recipe cards anywhere around the shop” — it is carried in family memory only.13 The counter sells smoked kielbasa by the pound, kielbasa sandwiches, kabanosy, Reubens built on sliced Polish sausage, and lunch-counter plates.41 In October 2025 the shop drew national attention when retired NFL center Jason Kelce filmed a visit and posted it to Instagram, calling it “an absolute gem of an establishment.”45 Tier 1 — owner-operated, single location, resident owner, four generations in one building.

Founding-date note. Two dates circulate. The Kansas City Star (October 2025) and the shop’s own page description both give 1929 as the year Peter May opened the grocery at 1654 Bristol.12 Northeast News’s 2020 profile of Mike Loges instead says the family has used “the same family recipe since 1924.”3 These are not necessarily in conflict — a recipe can predate a storefront — but no source read reconciles them, and neither is asserted over the other here.

Description

The building reads as what it was. The shop’s own description of itself is direct about it: “Peter May’s House of Kielbasa looks like an old general store from the street, because it is!”2 Peter May opened it as a neighborhood grocery in 1929, and the sausage business grew out of the grocery rather than replacing it.

What the counter sells is smoked meat, principally kielbasa — Polish smoked sausage — sold by the pound alongside other smoked meats and beef sticks.4 The made-to-order side is a short lunch counter: a kielbasa sandwich dressed with peppers, onions, pickles and mustard; a Reuben-style sandwich built on sliced Polish sausage rather than corned beef; hamburgers; turkey clubs; and kabanosy, thin Polish meat sticks.41 During Lent the shop adds fish sandwiches for customers observing Ash Wednesday.2

The sausage recipe is the asset. The Kansas City Star reported that it has been handed down generation to generation and “can’t be found on recipe cards anywhere around the shop” — it exists only in the family’s working memory.1

Ownership and history

Peter May, a Polish immigrant who came to the United States several years before he opened the shop, started the business at 1654 Bristol Avenue in 1929 as a neighborhood grocery.12 The business has never moved: the Star records it as operating “at the exact same spot where it lives now.”1

Mike Loges is May’s great-grandson and the current owner — the fourth generation to run it. He was born and raised in Northeast Kansas City. Northeast News quoted him in 2020: “I’m the fourth generation doing the exact same thing that my great grandfather did, in the same location. There’s pride in heritage in being a small business owner for almost a century.”3 Of the neighborhood he said: “It is forgotten, yet it’s the heart of the city.”3

By Loges’s own count the shop is serving its sixth and seventh generation of customers.1

October 2025 — the Kelce visit. Retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, older brother of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, visited the shop and posted about it on Instagram; the post drew more than 70,000 likes.15 A member of Kelce’s team had walked in on a quiet Friday afternoon roughly a month earlier to ask permission to film. Loges’s account to the Star: “It was totally out of the blue.”1 Kelce worked behind the counter during the visit and took orders. Loges told KCTV5: “You felt like an old friend came in. He stayed about an hour and a half, two hours, ate, personal with the customers.”5 Kelce’s post read in part: “It is an absolute gem of an establishment, with people and patrons that give it character you won’t find elsewhere. In the family for four generations, it is certainly family owned, with Momma having worked there for 76 years.”5

Names note: Peter May, Mike Loges and Jason Kelce are reproduced exactly as Northeast News, KCTV5 and the Kansas City Star print them. The “Momma” referenced in Kelce’s post — reported as having worked there 76 years — is not named in any source read, and no name is supplied here: “. No other family member, partner or employee is named in any source read.

menu_status: partial. No first-party menu with prices was located — the shop has no own website and no online-ordering page, and the aggregator sites that publish item prices for it (Zmenu, Allmenus, MenuPix, Sirved, menu-world, menuweb, Restaurantji) are either bot-blocked, plainly auto-generated, or both. No aggregator or delivery-platform prices are carried on this page. What follows is the product list as documented by Northeast News, the Kansas City Star and the business’s own posts, with prices recorded only where a first-party post or a bylined news article states one.

Counter — smoked meats sold by weight

ItemPrice
Smoked kielbasa (Polish sausage), by the pound“
Other smoked meats, by the pound“
Beef sticks“
Kabanosy (thin Polish meat sticks)“
Fresh sliced hard salami, 2 lb bag (limited run, posted 2026-02-23)$10
Fresh sliced pepperoni, 2 lb bag (limited run, posted 2026-02-23)$10
Lunch meats and cheeses“

Lunch counter

ItemPrice
Kielbasa sandwich — peppers, onions, pickles, mustard“
Double Polish sandwich — a half-pound of sausage$8
Reuben-style sandwich, sliced Polish sausage“
Hamburger“
Turkey club“
Fish sandwich (seasonal — offered during Lent)“

The $8 half-pound Double Polish is reported by the Kansas City Star in October 2025 and is a 2025 price, not a checked-today price.1 The $10 two-pound bags are quoted directly from the shop’s own February 2026 post.2

menu_price_tier: $ — on the two prices that are sourced, a half-pound sausage sandwich at $8 and two pounds of sliced salami at $10.

Not carried: several search summaries mention frozen potato-and-cheese pierogi and a jalapeño-cheddar kielbasa variety. Both are plausible, neither appears in any source this page was able to read in full, and neither is asserted: “.

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Jenna Thompson, “Inside this century-old Kansas City eatery Jason Kelce called a ‘must stop’,” Kansas City Star, October 8, 2025 (read at the Yahoo syndication) (accessed 2026-08-13). Asserts: owner Mike Loges; Loges’s great-grandfather Peter May opened the shop in 1929 at the exact same spot, 1654 Bristol Ave on Kansas City’s East Side; May immigrated to the United States from Poland several years before opening; the shop is on its sixth and seventh generation of customers; the kielbasa recipe was handed down generation to generation and “can’t be found on recipe cards anywhere around the shop”; menu items include a kielbasa sandwich with pickles, onion, mayo and mustard, a Double Polish sandwich with a half-pound of sausage for $8, hamburgers, kabanosy (Polish meat sticks), turkey clubs and Reubens; Kelce’s Instagram post drew more than 70,000 likes; Loges quote “It was totally out of the blue.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12

  2. Peter May’s House of Kielbasa — the business’s own Facebook page description and posts, read through the public mirror at findglocal.com. https://www.findglocal.com/US/Kansas-City/509806972210636/Peter-May’s-House-of-Kielbasa (accessed 2026-08-13 via the r.jina.ai text proxy; findglocal returns HTTP 403 to direct automated fetches, and Facebook itself is login-walled to automated readers, including through the proxy). Asserts: self-description “Peter May’s House of Kielbasa looks like an old general store from the street, because it is! The family run business is celebrating ninety years! Polish immigrant, Peter May opened his neighborhood grocery at 1654 Bristol, KCMO in 1929.”; address 1654 Bristol Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64126; phone +1 816-231-9850; hours Monday–Friday 8am–4pm; dated 2026 posts as quoted in Current standing (2026-02-13 card reader down then restored; 2026-02-17 fresh meats in the cooler; 2026-02-18 fish sandwiches for Ash Wednesday; 2026-02-19 closed Friday 2/20, reopening Monday 2/23; 2026-02-23 fresh sliced hard salami and pepperoni in 2 lb bags at $10 per package). Caveat: this is a third-party mirror of first-party content. The underlying Facebook posts could not be opened directly to confirm the mirror is faithful, and the mirror is cited here only for the open-status signal, hours listing, self-description and the two 2026 prices. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. “Faces Of Northeast: Mike Loges,” Northeast News, June 30, 2020 (accessed 2026-08-13 via the r.jina.ai text proxy). Asserts: Mike Loges is the fourth-generation owner of Peter May’s House of Kielbasa at 1654 Bristol Ave.; the shop has used the same family recipe since 1924; Loges was born and raised in Northeast Kansas City; quotes “I’m the fourth generation doing the exact same thing that my great grandfather did, in the same location. There’s pride in heritage in being a small business owner for almost a century.” and “It is forgotten, yet it’s the heart of the city.” An earlier Northeast News profile of Loges dated August 28, 2019 also exists and was not read. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Bryan Stalder, “Jason Kelce Shines a National Spotlight on Northeast Favorite Peter May’s House of Kielbasa,” Northeast News, October 8, 2025 (accessed 2026-08-13 via the r.jina.ai text proxy; northeastnews.net returns HTTP 403 to direct automated fetches). Asserts: Peter May’s House of Kielbasa, 1654 Bristol Ave, Kansas City, MO 64126; phone (816) 231-9850; founded over 90 years ago and family-operated for four generations; owner Mike Loges; hours Monday–Friday 7:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m., closed Sunday; specialties smoked kielbasa, kielbasa sandwiches with peppers, onions, pickles and mustard, Reuben-style sandwiches with sliced Polish sausage, beef sticks and smoked meats by the pound; Jason Kelce visited, worked behind the counter and posted to Instagram calling it “an absolute gem of an establishment”; Kelce is the older brother of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. “‘Absolute gem’: Kansas City spot so good Jason Kelce couldn’t stop talking about it,” KCTV5, October 6, 2025 (accessed 2026-08-13). Asserts: owner Mike Loges; business near E. 17th Street and Bristol Ave; family-owned for four generations with one family member having worked there 76 years; smoked meats, kielbasa and deli offerings; Kelce quote “It is an absolute gem of an establishment, with people and patrons that give it character you won’t find elsewhere.”; Loges quote “You felt like an old friend came in. He stayed about an hour and a half, two hours, ate, personal with the customers.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

See also

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/peter-mays-house-of-kielbasa · record updated 2026-08-13