XO HiFi

XO HiFi is Kansas City’s first Japanese-inspired “listening bar” — an all-seated Westside room at 709 W 17th St where the sound system is the point: vinyl records played straight through on horn-driven, high-efficiency speakers, paired with Japanese-inspired cocktails, natural wine, and small snacks. Opened June 2024 by a local independent team, walk-in only, no reservations. Owner-operated, single-location, independent — Tier 1.¹²

Description

XO HiFi is a Japanese-style listening bar on Kansas City’s Westside, at 709 W 17th St. Billed as the city’s first venue of its kind, it is built around the ritual of high-fidelity playback — records are sourced from the owners’ and community members’ personal collections and, in the listening-bar tradition, an album is allowed to play through rather than cut between tracks.¹² The room is all-seated: “We’re an all-seated bar — no standing room inside,” co-owner Jordan Hubner told The Pitch, with roughly 66 seats across the interior and patio.²

The drink program pairs Japanese-inspired cocktails — including zero-proof and low-ABV builds — with natural wine, overseen by wine director Richard Garcia, who previously owned the Kansas City natural-wine shop Big Mood.² The food is a short menu of Japanese-leaning snacks made for sharing, developed by James Beard-nominated chef Johnny Leach of The Town Company: pork katsu, a nori egg-salad sandwich, rotating rice bowls, and mochi chocolate cookies.¹ Music runs exclusively from vinyl — jazz, soul, rock — with guest DJs on a recurring weeknight.¹² Seating is first-come, first-served; no reservations.³

Ownership and history

XO opened the weekend of June 15, 2024.¹ The principals are Mitchell Foster, Will Minter (who serves as music director), and Jordan Hubner (director of operations), with Noah Manos owning the building that houses the bar.¹ The concept grew out of the founders’ interest in the Japanese listening-bar tradition; Foster framed the origin to Kansas City magazine: “Back in the ’60s, the Japanese were very isolationists… these listening bars were where people could come in and hear music from all over the world.”¹

The venture is stitched from established Kansas City hospitality hands: wine director Richard Garcia previously owned Big Mood Natural Wines in KC, and the food menu was built by Johnny Leach, the James Beard-nominated chef also associated with The Town Company.²¹ It is an independent, single-location operation with no chain or national-brand parent.¹

The specific KC birthplace/roots of each principal are not spelled out in the available sources (“), but the ownership group is a local, owner-operated independent with visible ties to the KC food-and-drink scene (Big Mood, The Town Company) — see the Tier note below.

Menu

Last verified: 2026-07-16 · Source: kansascitymag.com¹; The Pitch²; xohifi.com³ · Confidence: Medium (signatures confirmed; full current menu at xohifi.com)

Japanese-inspired listening bar. Vinyl-only music program. All-seated, walk-in only.²

Food — snacks (chef Johnny Leach):¹

• Pork katsu¹
• Nori egg-salad sandwich¹
• Rotating rice bowls¹
• Mochi chocolate cookies¹

Drink:²

• Japanese-inspired cocktails (incl. zero-proof / low-ABV)²
• Natural wine (wine director Richard Garcia)²

Full menu: xohifi.com

Links

• Website: https://www.xohifi.com/[^site]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xo.hifi/
• Phone: (816) 603-1644³
• Email: xoxo.kcmo@gmail.com³

Hours

Sun–Thu 4:00 PM–11:00 PM; Fri–Sat 4:00 PM–12:00 AM; occasional weekend daytime service 11:00 AM–3:00 PM. Walk-in only, no reservations.³

See also

• Registry

Sources

Disputes

None at this time. (Note: an early source snippet paired XO with a Denver bar “esp”; the direct KC coverage — Pitch, KC magazine — describes XO as an independent KC venture with no named sibling/parent, so the local-independent reading is used here. “ if a formal sibling relationship is later confirmed.)

Footnotes

1. “Opening This Weekend: A Japanese-Inspired Hifi Cocktail Lounge” — Kansas City magazine, https://kansascitymag.com/opening-this-weekend-a-japanese-inspired-hifi-cocktail-lounge/ (accessed 2026-07-16) — Confirms: opened weekend of June 15, 2024; principals Mitchell Foster, William Minter, Jordan Hubner, and building owner Noah Manos; KC’s first Japanese-style listening bar; chef Johnny Leach (James Beard-nominated, The Town Co.) menu (pork katsu, nori egg salad sandwich, rotating rice bowls, mochi chocolate cookies); vinyl-only jazz/soul/rock; Foster quote on Japanese listening-bar history. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

2. “Westside bar XO HiFi pairs music to cocktails for a first class listening experience” — The Pitch KC, https://www.thepitchkc.com/westside-bar-xo-hifi-pairs-music-to-cocktails-for-a-first-class-listening-experience/ (accessed 2026-07-16) — Confirms: co-owner Jordan Hubner (director of operations), Will Minter (music director); wine director Richard Garcia (formerly owned Big Mood Natural Wines); chef Johnny Leach (The Town Company) built the food menu; all-seated, ~66 seats indoor+patio; horn-driven high-efficiency speakers; Japanese-inspired cocktails incl. zero-proof/low-ABV, natural wine, Japanese snacks; Westside; “no standing room inside”; guest DJs. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

3. XO HiFi — official site, https://www.xohifi.com/ (accessed 2026-07-16) — Confirms: 709 W 17th St, Kansas City, MO; all-seated bar/restaurant, first-come first-served, no reservations; hours (Sun–Thu 4–11, Fri–Sat 4–12, floating weekend 11–3); phone (816) 603-1644; email xoxo.kcmo@gmail.com. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵