Beer Stars

Our Beer Stars are your guides to Vine Street. They know the lineup, the building, and the block, and they'll help you find your beer whether it's your first visit or your fiftieth. Say hi. Ask questions. They love this stuff.

A diverse group of people gathered indoors in a rustic-style setting with stone walls and large windows, celebrating with drinks and smiling.

Meet the House

Vine Street runs on a small crew with big jobs. These are the people who keep the beer flowing, the music loud, and the building ready for you.

A young man with a beard smiling and wearing a yellow cap and a tie-dye t-shirt, standing in front of a colorful, painted wooden wall.

KEMET COLEMAN

CO-FOUNDER

Kemet is a Kansas City musician (you might know "Get Out: The Streetcar Song") who fell for craft beer in 2013 giving tours at Boulevard Brewing. A year later he snuck a camera crew into their brewhouse to shoot a music video and got fired for it. Best thing that ever happened to him. That moment lit the fuse for Vine Street: a brewery where art rules. He's the vision, the sound, and the reason there's always something happening on the calendar.

ANNIE MCGINNIS

CO-OWNER / DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Annie keeps the whole house running. Kemet recruited his former restaurant boss in 2021, and her hospitality chops gave the dream an engine. In 2026 she was named President of the National Black Brewers Association, pushing for equity across the whole industry. If something at Vine Street runs smooth, Annie probably had a hand in it.

Man with glasses wearing a purple and yellow baseball cap, smiling, in front of a rustic painted wooden wall.

WOODIE BONDS JR.

CO-FOUNDER

Woodie founded Kansas City's first hip-hop beer festival, putting homebrewers and commercial brewers in the same room. He spent 20 years at Ford Motor Company, took a bet with a coworker to try craft beer, and never looked back. Ask him about hip-hop, a wild new recipe idea, or the Dallas Cowboys. Actually, maybe skip the Cowboys.

DEZ JONES

BREWER

Dez is the one on the brewhouse floor turning grain, water, hops, and yeast into the beer in your glass, batch after batch. She also writes some of our seasonal recipes, so when a new seasonal hits the taps, there's a good chance it started with Dez. When a Vine Street beer wins, Dez's hands are all over it.

A smiling man with a beard and mustache, wearing a black baseball cap with blue embroidered text, and a black T-shirt with colorful text. He is standing against a rustic wooden wall with arms crossed.

Elliott Ivory

CO-FOUNDER / HEAD BREWER

Elliott writes the recipes. A former project manager at Honeywell, he homebrewed for years under the name Wiz Brewing before going pro. He's a runner, and you can taste that discipline in the beer: crisp, clean, consistent, and built on traditional styles. He met Woodie at a beer festival, and the rest is the brewery you're standing in. He's also on a mission to bring more Black brewers into the industry.