Is this Kansas City area’s most exclusive club? It’s owned by Patrick Mahomes’ barber

You may have driven right past it.

It’s easy to miss. There’s no sign above its doors, no website, no thumping bass rattling its windows, no 20-somethings carrying heels and sparkly clutches. A red pop-up on Google Maps calls the space “permanently closed.”

The only indication of its existence — to the public, at least — is a gold emblem stuck to the window:

The MOL.

It feels buried, like an underground shelter. Like a tunnel dug by moles.

A hand-selected group of attorneys, city officials, Chiefs players, even, see the Members Only Lounge as their hideaway in Overland Park. Inside the club at 11932 W. 119th St., men clink glasses and toss poker chips on tables.

Their key to enter: They must be influential. And they must be approved by the group.

“Anyone and everyone who’s in here is trusted,” says DeJuan Bonds, sunk in a leather chair and holding a box of cigars.

Bonds is best known as the barber of Kansas City Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes. He’s the man who perfected Mahomes’ high-and-tight, curly and faded on the sides.

But he’s also cut hair for other notable Kansas Citians: former client Travis Kelce, other Chiefs players and Royals players. Yet of the dozens who enter his shop, few know about the private club next door.

His barber shop, Purple Label, is for everyone. The MOL is not.

To enter, members must go behind the building, scan their key card and pull open the back door. Through a hallway of lockers — provided for members to store whatever they need — is a bar where they pour themselves drinks from the bottles they’ve brought in. Members must bring their own drinks and snacks, but they’re charged a monthly fee of $150. After the $3,300 initiation price, that is.

Bonds steps behind the bar and clears off a glass.

“A member must have been here,” he says.

He has about 30 members, and while they range in age, race, occupation, etc., they all must have some sort of sphere of influence: no Joe Schmos or automatic entry for friends. This is for networking, and to create a space for “like minded” individuals, Bonds says. He’s looking for a few other members — they’ll max out at 50.

He’s seen the benefits of the group already: men meeting future co-workers, bouncing off ideas of big projects in the private sanctuary.

Members chat about anything: fatherhood, religion, corporate affairs, the Chiefs’ next Super Bowl win. It’s a prime spot for watching football games, taking phone calls, really whatever they want. Some men come just to have time away from their wife and kids.

Near the bar, a sitting room is filled with leather chairs and paintings. In the next room, a place to play poker and shuffleboard has a wall of photos: a lion, Matthew McConaughey and Mahomes himself.

Yes, Bonds says, Mahomes has been inside. He comes over before haircuts “a lot,” he adds. But he’s not a member.

“Mahomes ain’t got time,” Bonds says. “He’s definitely part of team no sleep.”

The MOL began next door at Bonds’ barbershop. After cutting hair for 26 years, he’s established a rapport with many regulars, as they have with one another.

These relationships turned into early morning barbershop meetings with the “breakfast club,” which turned into monthly meetings over pizza and wings. They were the first people Bonds invited into the MOL when he took over the space in 2020.

It’s grown since then. Members have suggested names of other prominent men. And if Bonds and the other guys feel they fit the bill, they’re in.

Bonds suggests The Star call a member who’s “high up” in Kansas City. Tracey Lewis, the chief executive officer of the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City, picks up.

“I was really surprised when I saw your text message saying you wanted to talk about it. I didn’t know DeJuan would be comfortable with it,” Lewis says.

What doesn’t surprise Lewis, however, is that Bonds would create something like the MOL. The two have known each other for decades, and Bonds has always been the social type.

“It’s a country club ideology,” Lewis says. “You join it for the other people. His ability to bring people together is the reason we all joined the club.”

There are other private clubs in the Kansas City area, like Final Final in Overland Park at 12687 Metcalf Ave. And the River Club, 611 W. Eighth St., has hosted a fine-dining club for the area’s most prestigious citizens since 1948.

But Bonds says his club’s rigorous onboarding process and “hand-selection” of members might make it the most exclusive.

Plus, Bonds’ club is just for men. Men need other men, he says.

“It’s an opportunity to encourage each other. We all go through similar struggles,” Bond says. “We’ve gotten deep in relationships, in how to handle our children, and to help hold each other accountable, as well.”

Sometimes the men drink and chat on the lounge’s patio. People walking along the sidewalk notice the mysterious building without a sign and ask “What is that?” and “How can I get in there?”

“Well,” Bonds says. “You can’t.”

“If everybody’s a part of something, then it takes away that exclusivity and privacy that you can have.”