Famed Kansas City country music venue is about to make a comeback in Johnson County

One-time Kansas City area favorite Guitars & Cadillacs is making a comeback.

The live country music venue and dance hall — which once had area locations in the Northland, Olathe and Westport — plans to open in a 10,000-square-foot space in Rosana Square, 7312 W. 119th St., Overland Park, on July 28.

It will host local and regional country bands on a regular basis, as well as national acts, and will offer dance lessons.

The owners also will have a separate dueling piano bar, Tequila Flats at Guitars & Cadillacs, with access through the main venue.

There will be a cover charge to enter — $5 to $10 depending on the act — and national acts will cost more. Both spaces also will be available for private events.

Two of the original Guitars & Cadillacs founders, Mitch Kerns and Jack Hanrahan, are partnering in the new operation. They started talking about bringing back the popular country music venue five years ago and were scouting locations before the pandemic.

“It is amazing how many people remember it,” Kerns said. “When I wear my Guitars & Cadillacs shirt people ask if it is returning. A teller at our bank said his parents met there.”

The menu will include macaroni and cheese jalapeno bites, loaded nachos, ahi tuna street tacos, sliders, flatbreads, desserts and waffle cones (with a choice of pulled pork, pulled chicken, burnt ends, Philly steak and peppers, or popcorn shrimp).

“We hope the waffle cones will become our signature item, kind of fun. And no fried food,” Kerns said.

It also will have a retail shop selling T-shirts, glassware, key chains, decals and hats with the Guitars & Cadillacs logo.

Hours will be 5 p.m. to midnight Wednesdays, and 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. On Sundays from 4 to 10 p.m. it will have “family night” where children can get free dance lessons.

Guitars & Cadillacs was founded in Westport in 1988. Locations later opened in the Northland, Overland Park, Branson, Springfield, Joplin, Omaha and Lincoln in Nebraska, and in Des Moines, Iowa.

“The leases were up or we sold them,” Kerns said. “But I think country music today is bigger than in 1988, more widely received, 60,000 people at Kenny Chesney. It is a feel good music, the genre works.”

Rosana Square previously had a successful entertainment district, One Block South, with country music and more. But it closed during the pandemic and didn’t reopen.

JoCo entertainment complex with four venues will not reopen after stay-in-place order