A new sign hangs where an old one used to be, except it doesn't — the faded Best Burger In KC placard from the old Green Room Burgers & Beer still greets guests walking into Greenhorn Bar & Grill, which opened on the lower level of 4010 Pennsylvania Avenue on August 21. The new owners, Matt and Tessa Ortiz, are longtime Westport regulars who bought the 7,000-square-foot complex in April to keep it out of the hands of developers who might have subdivided it, demolished it, or turned it into condos.
As reported by KCUR, the couple purchased the building specifically to preserve it as a neighborhood mainstay rather than letting it fall into corporate hands, a fear that had spread among patrons of the old Green Room. That anxiety wasn't unfounded, according to Startland News, which detailed how regulars worried the corner could be lost entirely before the Ortizes stepped in this past spring.
Tessa Ortiz described the new venue as something deeply personal rather than just a business venture. “The Greenhorn is an extension of the couple's home,” she told the outlet, and added that when the property came up for sale, “a lot of people were looking at the space.” Matt Ortiz, for his part, said the food is meant to be generous and communal — “Portions are huge and are supposed to be shareable,” he said of the menu.
A Building With Deep Westport Roots
The lower-level space Greenhorn now occupies has a long and winding history. Michael Ptacek founded Green Room Burgers & Beer there in 2012, and the building's ties to the Ptacek family go back even further — Tom and Pam Ptacek bought the building in the mid-1980s, opened Westport Coffeehouse on the upper level in 1996, and debuted Westport Coffeehouse Theater on the lower level a few months later, per the same account. Chambre Coffee now occupies that former Westport Coffeehouse space above Greenhorn, having opened there in May 2025 as a tenant of the Ortizes. The coffeehouse later closed after nearly 30 years, as the owners pursued retirement plans and put the property up for sale.
The site's history stretches back much further still. Thomas Goforth, Westport's first mayor, reportedly had a house on the site around 1850, and city records held by Missouri Valley Special Collections include a 1923 building permit for a small structure there. A 1943 Kansas City Star story reported that a manufacturing company at the address once planned to produce a refrigerator or ice box every five minutes on average, the article notes.
That frontier-era pedigree fits into a much older story. The intersection of Westport Road and Pennsylvania Avenue served as a key 1830s trading hub, where pioneer outfitters supplied wagon trains headed out on the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California trails, according to Westport KCMO. Westport itself was founded in 1833 as an independent frontier town before Kansas City annexed it in 1898, and the neighborhood still retains its original street grid bounded by 39th Street, 43rd Street, Main Street and Southwest Trafficway.
A Rocky Road to Opening Night
Getting Greenhorn open wasn't smooth. The kitchen suffered a walk-in cooler breakdown just a week before opening, a fryer breakdown, and a grease trap failure while the team was still testing its new menu, per the same account. Despite the setbacks, the restaurant opened as planned on August 21 as a bar, restaurant and live entertainment venue with a stage and main dining area that seats 98.
The headline item is the Greenhorn burger, an 8-ounce beef patty topped with Tillamook cheddar, shredded iceberg lettuce, pickles and secret sauce on a salt-and-pepper bun from Farm To Market Bread Co. The rest of the menu includes wings, breaded chicken sandwiches, an Italian sausage sandwich and an entree salad, alongside draft, bottled and canned beer and signature cocktails called the Divine Feminine and the Curtain Call. Weekend brunch plans call for pozole, chicken and waffles, breakfast tacos and American-style breakfast fare. Greenhorn is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and it also hosts live music, comedy and improv.
According to the City of Kansas City, restaurant inspection results on its website are updated daily. The Kansas City Health Department said its 2025 Food Safety Excellence Awards recognized 10% of permitted food service establishments, representing 536 local businesses.
Matt Ortiz met Tessa Ortiz through a dating app in Kansas City, and the two married in 2025. Tessa Ortiz spent seven years working in banking before earning a master's degree in urban planning from the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 2022 — a background that helps explain her focus on preserving the neighborhood's character rather than letting the corner turn over to an outside buyer.
A Burger Legacy and a Booming Local Scene
The old Green Room built its reputation on more than nostalgia. It was named Best Nerd Bar and Local Nano-brewer in 2013, followed by Best Lunch Special and Best Onion Rings honors in 2014, and served diner-style burgers, according to Our Eyes Upon Missouri. When it first opened in 2012, the bar served only cask ale with no standard draft beers before evolving into a popular nano-brewery, per Our Changing Life.
Greenhorn's debut also lands amid a broader burger boom across Kansas City. Smash-burger concept Sauced reopened in a 2,000-square-foot Crossroads dining space in July, and Disco Burger landed a second Brookside spot the same month, according to Hoodline's reporting on the trend. Greenhorn's opening comes as other burger concepts have made moves in Kansas City this summer, adding another opening to the city's burger scene.
On 6 May 2026, the City of Kansas City announced a vacant-storefront initiative offering short-term, subsidized storefront opportunities of 3–6 months and working capital grants to support build-out. The initiative sought to turn vacant spaces into vibrant hubs.
Operating in a Watchful Entertainment District
Westport's nightlife has also drawn scrutiny in recent years, reflecting the district's high profile.
Public safety has remained a live topic in the surrounding Midtown corridor. An August homicide inside a Midtown commercial establishment near 39th and Main Streets highlighted ongoing concerns even as Kansas City recorded a 20 percent year-over-year decline in homicides overall in mid-2026, Hoodline reported. The city has also been investing in pedestrian safety nearby, including permanent curb extensions at the Wyandotte Street and Westport Road intersection in 2024.
The 400 block of Pennsylvania Avenue is part of Westport's long dining and entertainment history — the same district where Greenhorn is now trying to carry an old sign, and an old reputation, into its next chapter.
