The Groove Room Is Leveling Up: Cocktails, Covers, and Taking Care of the Music
The Groove Room is about to feel different in the best way.
We’re building it out as a true late-night listening room – a place where you can grab a cocktail, shoot a few games of darts, and sit inside the kind of music that made 18th & Vine matter in the first place. Not background music. Not a random bar playlist. A real room for music lovers.
Very soon, food will be part of that downstairs experience too, so you can actually settle in, eat, and stay with the music instead of bouncing somewhere else.
As part of this shift, you’re going to see something new from us: more ticketed shows and cover charges downstairs in the Groove Room.
This isn’t about putting a velvet rope around the culture. It’s about making sure the culture can actually live here for the long run.
Why we’re moving some shows from free to ticketed
For our first year and a half, a lot of live music at Vine Street was free to walk into. That helped us build a rhythm, meet people, and prove the Groove Room could hold its own.
But free shows come with a quiet cost. Bands still need to be paid. Sound still needs to be run. Staff still needs to be taken care of. If the bar doesn’t keep up with that reality, the music ends up carrying a weight it shouldn’t have to carry.
We believe music is not just entertainment – it’s identity and infrastructure. If that’s true, then we have to treat musicians like infrastructure too. That means:
Paying artists fairly and consistently.
Giving them a room that feels intentional, not like an afterthought in the corner.
Building nights that can sustain themselves instead of burning people out.
Ticketed and cover-based shows downstairs are one of the simplest, most honest ways to do that. When you grab a ticket or pay a cover, you’re not just buying a night out – you’re directly helping keep this room alive for the next band, the next jam, the next idea.
On top of that, we’re introducing an optional Vine Street Musician Fund add-on – a simple way to chip in a few extra dollars when you’re buying a ticket or settling up at the bar. That extra support goes straight into building and protecting the kind of music programming that makes this room matter.
What stays free: Office Hours w/ Marcus Lewis
Not everything is moving to tickets.
Our weekly Office Hours w/ Marcus Lewis – the Wednesday night jazz lab upstairs – will stay free. That jam is designed to be an open doorway into the music: musicians rotating through, people listening up close, Kansas City jazz happening right in front of you.
We’ll keep paying that band out of the bar and treating Office Hours as a standing invitation. If you want a night where you can just walk in, grab a beer, and sit inside the music with no cover, that’s still here for you.
Downstairs in the Groove Room, though, we’re going to be more intentional. When a night is built around a specific artist, a curated bill, or a deeper listening experience, expect to see a ticket link or a cover at the door. That’s us taking the work seriously.
Cocktails, food, darts, and a better night out downstairs
Alongside that shift, we’re finishing the next layer of the Groove Room: a proper cocktail program built for a music-first lounge.
We’re starting with three signature cocktails, one cider, and four beers on downstairs taps, with a menu that feels like it actually belongs in this room and this district.
Food will be coming online soon as well, so you can make a whole night of it – grab a seat, order something to eat, and stay rooted in the room instead of bouncing between spots.
We’re also leaning into the simple stuff that makes the room feel like a hang, not just a stage: darts on the wall, records and playlists that fit the night, and a layout that lets you sit, listen, talk, and stay awhile.
The goal is simple: when you head downstairs, it should feel like you’ve stepped into a different, deeper part of Vine Street. Same building, same story – just a later, slower, more intentional chapter.
What this means for you
Here’s what you can expect going forward:
Some Groove Room nights will have a ticket or cover. We’ll be clear about that on our calendar, flyers, and posts.
Some nights – like Office Hours w/ Marcus Lewis upstairs – will stay free and remain walk-in friendly.
Downstairs will feel more and more like a true listening room and lounge: cocktails, food coming soon, darts, and nights built around artists instead of background noise.
You’ll also see chances to add on a few extra dollars to the Vine Street Musician Fund when you grab a ticket or close out a tab – a direct way to help us take care of the bands and keep this room doing what it’s supposed to do.
If you’ve been rocking with us since day one, nothing about our core promise is changing. Vine Street is still about music, history, place, and community – we’re just doing the work to make sure the rooms that hold that energy can actually sustain themselves.
When you buy a ticket, pay a cover, grab a cocktail, kick in a bit extra to the Vine Street Musician Fund, or stay for one more round, you’re helping keep this space alive. You’re helping us take care of the people on stage. And you’re helping make sure 18th & Vine has a living, breathing music room that can’t be copied anywhere else.
Thanks for building this with us.
