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Social House is an aperitivo and cocktail bar at 325 E. 31st St. in Kansas City’s Martini Corner (Tower East, midtown), opened August 1, 2026 by Brian Roberts — the entrepreneur behind The Black Pantry and Good Karma Coffee. Italian-style aperitivo format: cocktails built on Black-owned and local spirits, light bites, and pizza supplied by neighboring Orange By: Devoured. Two house rules: be social, don’t kill the vibe.

Description

Social House is an aperitivo and cocktail bar at 325 E. 31st Street in Martini Corner, the small nightlife cluster in the Tower East pocket of midtown Kansas City. It opened Saturday, August 1, 2026, a few yards from the original retail space of The Black Pantry — the Black-owned-business showcase that owner Brian Roberts founded before it moved under his Good Karma Coffee brand.12

The format is the Italian aperitivo: bitter-leaning drinks and light food in the window after work and before dinner. Roberts stocks the bar around Black-owned and local spirits — BRAY Prosecco, Lobos 1707, Uncle Nearest are the labels named in press coverage — and the food is deliberately small: pimento cheese and crackers, plus pizza supplied by neighboring Orange By: Devoured, built around sausage, assertive sauces and hot honey.12

Roberts pitches the room as a “premium neighborhood bar” aimed at customers 25 and older, principally residents of North Hyde Park and Union Hill: elevated, he says, “but not so elevated where you have to get dressed up,” with music held at a level that still lets people talk, read, or work. The century-old building was renovated in an industrial-modern register on a bootstrapped, do-it-yourself budget, with revenue reinvested into incremental improvements rather than drawn as profit.12

Programming announced at opening includes rotating monthly DJ residencies on Saturdays through the end of 2026 and planned weeknight screenings of work by independent filmmakers. The bar’s two stated house rules — be social; don’t kill the vibe — double as its marketing line.12

No first-party menu with prices has been published — the bar’s Instagram posts drinks without a priced list, and there is no standalone website. Press-reported items (cocktails built on BRAY Prosecco, Lobos 1707 and Uncle Nearest; pimento cheese and crackers; Orange By: Devoured pizza with sausage and hot honey) are recorded in the Description rather than as a menu, because Registry menu sections carry first-party prices only. menu_status: not-published — recheck once a menu is posted.

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Startland News — “Your new favorite pizza-and-cocktail spot has two house rules: Be social; don’t kill the vibe” (July 2026) — asserts: business name Social House; owner Brian Roberts; address 325 E 31st St., Kansas City, MO, Martini Corner / Tower East; debut Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026; aperitivo and cocktail bar concept; hours 4–11 p.m. as reported at opening; cocktails featuring BRAY Prosecco, Lobos 1707 and Uncle Nearest; pizza from neighboring Orange By: Devoured; pimento cheese and crackers; “premium neighborhood bar” and “elevated, but not so elevated” quotes; target customers 25 and older; conversation-level music; monthly rotating Saturday DJ residencies; planned independent-filmmaker movie nights; Roberts’ prior ventures The Black Pantry and Good Karma Coffee; Social House Instagram handle @socialhouse.bar linked from the article body. (Accessed 2026-08-13.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. KCUR 89.3 — “Kansas City’s new pizza-and-cocktail spot has two rules: ‘Be social, don’t kill the vibe’” (August 9, 2026) — asserts: Social House opened August 1, 2026 and is operating; 325 E. 31st St., midtown Kansas City’s Tower East neighborhood at Martini Corner; owner Brian Roberts; prior ventures The Black Pantry and Good Karma Coffee; aperitivo concept; Black-owned spirits program; Orange By: Devoured pizza partnership; target audience of North Hyde Park and Union Hill residents; century-old building, industrial-modern DIY renovation, revenue reinvested rather than taken as profit; hours 4–11 p.m. (Accessed 2026-08-13.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

See also

Categories

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