A new country-themed bar opened its doors Friday inside The Horseshoe, the sprawling Westport nightlife complex that owner Brett Allred says is the largest bar in Kansas City, with room for up to 2,800 patrons across roughly 80,000 square feet. The bar debuted at the start of Halloween weekend, giving visitors free belt buckles with bottle-service purchases and a wooden dance floor built for line dancing.
The country bar is the sixth connected concept at The Horseshoe, joining Bar Rec, The Landing, Jungalow, Uncle Jim's and The Patio, according to kansascity.com. The property sits at 4124 Pennsylvania Ave. in the horseshoe-shaped shopping center that once housed Californos, the restaurant that closed in 2019 after 31 years in business. Allred has described the project's goal simply as offering something for everybody.
The new space sits at the center of the grounds, physically connecting Allred's earlier projects. It includes a downstairs country bar with bottle-service seating, a stage for live music that will likely feature country acts and DJs, multiple TVs, and an upstairs cocktail lounge serving classics like an old fashioned and a Moscow mule. High-top tables and open floor space allow for line dancing, and wall-length booths are available for bottle-service guests, per Allred.
A Years-Long Project That Stalled and Restarted
Allred began mulling the mega-bar concept back in 2019, the same year Californos shut down. He put those plans on hold, citing the COVID-19 pandemic's disruption of nightlife along with safety issues in Westport at the time. He also put the property up for sale for about two years, during which construction stopped, before changing course in 2024 and telling The Kansas City Star he was moving forward with the project.
That earlier reporting described a different scale than what opened this week. A prior Star report had described a 900-capacity space formerly occupied by the main level of Californos, while a separate KMBC report put Allred's adjoining buildings at roughly 60,000 to 65,000 square feet — figures tied to earlier phases of the plan rather than the roughly 80,000-square-foot, 2,800-person complex now operating. The Horseshoe's current capacity, Allred has said, exceeds the seating capacity of the Uptown Theater.
What's Already Open Around The Horseshoe
Uncle Jim's, a pool hall located downstairs from the Horseshoe bar, also opened this year. The Landing, a nightclub upstairs from Jungalow, is what Allred calls probably the most popular of the concepts, while Jungalow itself operates as a tiki bar beneath it. The Patio connects to Jungalow as an outdoor bar space, and Bar Rec — an arcade bar a short walk from The Landing that also has a second location in Waldo — rounds out the lineup. Guests can carry drinks between the connected concepts rather than starting fresh at each stop.
Opening weekend festivities lean into the Halloween timing, with bars across the property hosting a costume contest offering hundreds of dollars in cash prizes for the top three finishers. Allred ordered 50 cases of vodka ahead of opening weekend, though he expects Busch Light to be the predominant drink order once the crowds settle in.
Food, A Dog Park And What Might Come Next
One thing missing so far: food. The Horseshoe currently has bar space but nowhere for guests to grab a bite, though Allred may add food from Bar & Rec's kitchen on game days. He's also floated adding a coffee shop and a dog park to the property, possibly in collaboration with the owners of the now-closed dog bar Bar K. He plans to further develop the cocktail lounge's menu and make the upstairs space available to rent for private parties.
Part Of A Bigger Westport Build-Out
The Horseshoe's expansion is one piece of a larger push in Westport. KMBC reports the district was set to add seven new late-night venues along Westport Road and the horseshoe-shaped parking lot off Pennsylvania Avenue, a build-out expected to boost the district's overall capacity by more than 3,500 patrons and create 250 new jobs, with additional venues slated to debut over the following year. Westport Landing and The Patio had each been previously reported as opening on July 19, with Westport Landing planned as a 450-person dance club featuring DJs, according to the Star's earlier coverage.
As the district grows, security and police presence remains part of the picture; KMBC has reported that officers typically monitor the area and block it to through traffic on weekend nights. Allred also owns Bar + Rec and the Latin-centric club Lotus, giving him a hand in several of the district's nightlife offerings beyond The Horseshoe itself.
