Kansas City cocktail bar will close at the end of the year: ‘Such a special place’
9th and State, a West Bottoms destination for cocktails and ping-pong, will close at the end of the year.
“It’s with mixed emotions that we announce our plans to pursue new and different opportunities — which means saying goodbye to this building and bar that you all have made such a special place,” owners Heather Hamilton and Sean Smith announced on social media Thursday.
The bar plans to keep regular hours through November, then cut back to just Fridays and Saturdays in December before closing for good.
Hamilton and Smith did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. They purchased the historic, two-story brick building at 1717 W. Ninth St. in 2020 shortly after Hamilton, then 47, received a positive gene test for Huntington’s disease, a degenerative brain disorder that commonly shortens a person’s life expectancy by roughly 20 years.
They decided to sell their house, cash out some savings, and open a bar.
“It was that feeling of, well, our retirement isn’t gonna look like what most people’s retirement will look like,” Hamilton said, “so let’s do the things we want to do now, even if it’s a ton of work.”
9th and State regularly hosts live music, trivia and karaoke, and is one of the only bars in the city with ping-pong tables.
“We have a lot to sell before the end of December,” Hamilton and Smith said in their farewell note. “Please come by for a cocktail, a hug and a souvenir.”
