Images from kchistory.org
HOTEL MUEHLEBACH
Opened as part of the Hotel Muehlebach in 1915 by George Muehlebach of the Muehlebach Beer Company (open until 1956, bought by Schlitz), brands including Muehlebach Pilsener (this recipe is now used for Boulevard’s Pilsner), Muehlebach Special Beer, Muehlebach Lager Beer, Malt Liquor by Muehlebach, Kroysen and San Miquel.
Originally named Rendezvous (maybe?), but had a few names including The Haberdashery – named after Harry Truman’s (a frequent, cigar-smoking guest) hat shop.
In the 1920’s The Coon Sanders Orchestra performed on a late night radio broadcast nationwide in the basement below Voo on WDAF Radio. These pioneering broadcasts were among the first nationwide late night broadcasts. Surely they or their fans (known as Nighthawks) would swing by Rendezvous on their way out at midnight (or later).
Image from Missouri Valley Special Collections
Image from Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Ernest Hemingway, while a Cub Reporter for the Kansas City Star used to sleep in the Pressroom of the Muehlebach Hotel’s bathtub to avoid the long trolley ride home. Did his love of whiskey and good cigars get him through the doors a few times?
Truman Capote was a regular in Rendezvous and legend has it that he wrote a few chapters of In Cold Blood while sitting in one of its booths.