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

San Antonio Market — also trading as San Antonio Meat Market — is a family-owned Mexican grocery, butcher counter, tortilla operation and in-store taquería at 2904 Independence Ave, Kansas City, MO 64124, in the Historic Northeast. It is the second premises of the Contreras family operation, whose original store is Carniceria y Tortilleria San Antonio at 830 Kansas Ave in Armourdale, KCK; the Independence Avenue store joined the corridor in 2014, and in August 2020 the family deliberately split the two stores’ identities and recipes so each would have its own character. The manager and named owner of record is Luis Contreras (Luis Contreras Renova). Tier 1 — owner-operated, Kansas City–resident immigrant family business; the second location does not demote it.123

Description

San Antonio Market occupies 2904 Independence Ave, at the west end of the Independence Avenue commercial corridor in Kansas City’s Historic Northeast. It is a single building doing several jobs at once: a Mexican grocery, a fresh meat case, a tortilla operation pressing on-site, and a prepared-food counter serving tacos and tamales to order. The City of Kansas City’s food-permit records reflect exactly that split — the address carries two separate permits, one classed Retail Grocery/Market 3001–30000 sq. ft. and one classed Restaurant/Deli 6–9 Employees.4

Northeast News describes the store as “a family-owned Latino market and restaurant,” and its 2026 Northeast Taco Trail write-up places the food counter squarely inside the grocery: “Located inside a bustling Mexican grocery store, this is ‘no-frills’ dining at its finest. Grab a tray, choose from their legendary Al Pastor, Asada, or Carnitas, and head to the salsa bar to customize your street tacos with fresh cabbage slaw and fiery sauces. The smell of fresh tortillas being pressed on-site is the unofficial scent of Independence Avenue.”15

The Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce lists the business under Food and Drink, Grocery and Retail, with Luis Contreras as manager.2

The store sits among the corridor’s other Mexican and Latin American food businesses documented in this Registry — el-paso-del-norte at 3430 Independence Ave, elviras-cakes at 3838, frutopia-kc at 3737, kc-tacos-and-wings at 5200, and the el-mercado-fresco stores.65

Naming note

Two trade names are in simultaneous, current use and neither is stale:

  • San Antonio Market — the Facebook page (/SanAntonioMarketKCMO), the NEKC Chamber directory entry, and Northeast News’s December 2025 tamales guide.726
  • San Antonio Meat Market — the April 2025 Northeast News feature, the April 2026 Northeast Taco Trail entry, and the registered entity San Antonio Meat Market LLC.153

A third form survives in municipal records: both KCMO food permits at 2904 Independence Ave are filed under “Carniceria Y Tortilleria San Antonio (Market)” and “(Deli)” — the pre-2020 name, matching the KCK original and predating the August 2020 identity split.4 This page leads with “San Antonio Market” and carries the others as aliases. Conflict recorded, not resolved.

Ownership and history

The relationship to the two existing San Antonio pages in this Registry is sibling, not duplicate. carniceria-tortilleria-san-antonio and taqueria-san-antonio both document the original store at 830 Kansas Ave, Kansas City, Kansas (Armourdale). This page documents the second premises, at 2904 Independence Ave, Kansas City, Missouri — a different address in a different state, under a separate LLC, with deliberately different recipes. Northeast News reports the relationship directly: “San Antonio Market is the second of two locations for the Contreras family — the original located at 830 Kansas Ave. in Kansas City, Kan.”1

The Contreras family is from Chihuahua, in northern Mexico, and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1990s, settling in the Kansas City, Kansas area. The Independence Avenue store joined the corridor in 2014.1

In August 2020 the family restructured the two stores. Northeast News: “In August 2020, the Contreras made changes to each location — San Antonio Meat Market and Carniceria Y Tortilleria San Antonio — to give each store its own uniqueness.” Manager Luis Contreras “clarified that both locations are still owned by the same family, but they have different recipes for the specialty dishes served in each restaurant.”1 The Better Business Bureau’s profile for San Antonio Meat Market LLC gives a business-start date of 18 August 2020 and names Luis Contreras Renova as owner and principal contact — the LLC formation is consistent in date with the reported split, though the storefront itself has traded since 2014.3

for: the founder’s name at the 2014 opening; whether Luis Contreras Renova and the “Luis Contreras” named as manager are the same individual (the page treats them as such on the strength of the shared name, address and phone, but no source states it); and what, if anything, occupied 2904 Independence Ave before 2014.

menu_status: partial — the prepared-food counter is documented item-by-item in local press, but no first-party priced menu was located, and no aggregator prices are reproduced here (Registry policy: aggregator pricing is marked up and unreliable). All prices below are “. menu_price_tier: "$" is a category estimate for a no-frills grocery taco counter and is not verified.

Taquería / deli counter

  • Tacos al pastor — spit-grilled pork; called “shepherd style” in the 2025 feature and “legendary” in the 2026 Taco Trail entry — price15
  • Tacos de asada — price5
  • Carnitas — price15
  • Salsa bar — self-serve; fresh cabbage slaw and hot sauces to finish street tacos5

Tamales

Sold individually, by the half dozen, and by the dozen, in three varieties: pork in red chili sauce, cheese and jalapeño, and chicken in green sauce. Pork is kept available daily; chicken, cheese and jalapeño-cheese require an order placed one week in advance. Orders by phone or in person; no minimum or maximum order size; Christmas is the peak season. Advance ordering is generally advised by staff owing to demand. prices.16

Meat case (carnicería)

Stocked fresh daily with beef, pork, chicken and seafood, plus chorizo, nopal (cactus) and lengua (beef tongue). prices.1

Tortillería

Tortillas pressed on-site. No first-party detail located on corn vs. flour, pack sizes, or retail sale for takeaway..5

Grocery

General Mexican grocery, permitted as a retail market of 3,001–30,000 sq. ft. No first-party product list located..4

Sources

Footnotes

  1. “Hispanic Grocery Store Enters Second Decade of Serving Northeast Families,” Northeast News (Advertising / Independence Avenue CID), 10 April 2025 (accessed 2026-08-13; full article body retrieved). Asserts: “San Antonio Meat Market, located at 2904 Independence Blvd., is a family-owned Latino market and restaurant, which joined the Independence Avenue business community in 2014”; “The Contreras family hails from Chihuahua, a northwestern province of Mexico. Their family immigrated to the U.S. in the mid 1990s, settling in the Kansas City, Kan., area”; “San Antonio Market is the second of two locations for the Contreras family — the original located at 830 Kansas Ave. in Kansas City, Kan.”; “In August 2020, the Contreras made changes to each location — San Antonio Meat Market and Carniceria Y Tortilleria San Antonio — to give each store its own uniqueness”; “San Antonio Meat Market Manager, Luis Contreras clarified that both locations are still owned by the same family, but they have different recipes for the specialty dishes served in each restaurant”; specialties include tacos al pastor (“shepherd style, made with spit-grilled pork”), carnitas and tamales; tamales available by the dozen, half dozen or individually in pork in red chili sauce, cheese and jalapeño, and chicken in green sauce; advance tamale ordering advised by staff due to demand; fresh meat case “stocked fresh daily with beef, pork, chicken and seafood, as well as chorizo, nopal — or cactus — and lengua, or beef tongue.” Note: this piece is filed under the Independence Avenue CID sponsored-content category but carries direct quotation from the named manager. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  2. “San Antonio Market,” Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce business directory (accessed 2026-08-13). Asserts: listing name “San Antonio Market”; description field “Luis Contreras, Manager”; address 2904 Independence Ave, Kansas City, MO 64124; phone (816) 214-5929; email sanantoniokcmo@gmail.com; categories Food and Drink, Grocery, Retail; location Kansas City, Missouri. Undated listing — used for contact details and manager name, not as a trading signal. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. “San Antonio Meat Market LLC,” Better Business Bureau business profile, Kansas City, MO (accessed 2026-08-13; full profile body retrieved). Asserts: entity name San Antonio Meat Market LLC; category Grocery Store; phone (816) 214-5929; “Business Started: 8/18/2020”; “Type of Entity: Limited Liability Company (LLC)”; “Business Management: Luis Contreras Renova, Owner”; principal and customer contact both “Luis Contreras Renova, Owner”; “Years in Business: 5”; business is NOT BBB Accredited. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. City of Kansas City, Missouri — “KCMO Food Permits” open dataset, Socrata resource sz9c-c5ux. Records — dataset landing page: data.kcmo.org (accessed 2026-08-13). Asserts: two food-permit facilities at 2904 Independence Ave., Kansas City, MO 64124 — permit 107418, establishment “Carniceria Y Tortilleria San Antonio (Market),” facility type “Retail Grocery/Market 3001-30000 sq. ft.,” permit type “Retail Grocery/Market,” business status “Open,” operational status “Operational”; and permit 107419, establishment “Carniceria Y Tortilleria San Antonio (Deli),” facility type “Restaurant/Deli 6-9 Employees,” permit type “Restaurant/Deli,” business status “Open,” operational status “Operational.” Both records carry coordinates 39.106149, −94.546539. Dataset metadata records rowsUpdatedAt = 2017-02-13, so the “Open” flags are a circa-2017 snapshot and are not used here as current-trading evidence. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. “The Northeast Taco Trail,” Northeast News (Food and Drink / Independence Avenue CID / Sponsored Content), 8 April 2026 (accessed 2026-08-13; full article body retrieved). Asserts: “San Antonio Meat Market / 2904 Independence Ave” described in the present tense — “Located inside a bustling Mexican grocery store, this is ‘no-frills’ dining at its finest. Grab a tray, choose from their legendary Al Pastor, Asada, or Carnitas, and head to the salsa bar to customize your street tacos with fresh cabbage slaw and fiery sauces. The smell of fresh tortillas being pressed on-site is the unofficial scent of Independence Avenue.” Co-listed corridor businesses include Taqueria Mexico 2 (5920 Independence Ave) and El Paso Del Norte (3430 Independence Ave). District sponsored content — used here as a dated operating signal and for dish categories, not as independent review. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  6. “Where to Order Tamales Along Independence Avenue This Holiday Season,” Northeast News, 16 December 2025 (accessed 2026-08-13; full article body retrieved). Asserts: “San Antonio Market / 2904 Independence Avenue • (816) 214-5929”; “San Antonio Market keeps pork tamales available daily, but those looking for chicken, cheese, or jalapeño-cheese options will want to place an order one week in advance. All orders can be made in person or over the phone”; “no minimum or maximum order size”; “While Thanksgiving brings its share of tamale traffic, Christmas is their peak season every year.” Co-listed: Elvira’s Bakery (3838 Independence Avenue), Frutopia (3737 Independence Avenue), El Paso Del Norte (3430 Independence Avenue). No prices given for any business. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. San Antonio Market — Facebook page (accessed 2026-08-13; content behind Meta’s login/anti-bot wall on this pass; findglocal.com mirror also blocked). Asserts: existence of the business’s primary social presence under the trade name “San Antonio Market” at the vanity path SanAntonioMarketKCMO. No first-party hours, ownership, menu or post content was retrievable. ↩

See also

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/san-antonio-market · record updated 2026-08-13