DJ Kygo’s New Palm Tree Club Is The Latest Transformation Of Downtown Kansas City

Kansas City sits at a unique intersection of the United States–a Midwestern mainstay bordering the Plains with a sprinkle of Southern charm. That location is its superpower which contributes to its evolving identity, and the ascension of the Chiefs doesn’t hurt either.

It’s also home to the latest endeavor of the growing empire of DJ Kygo’s Palm Tree Crew, known for its lavish clubs in Miami and Vegas, and music festivals in destinations like Aspen and St. Tropez, now making its mark in the Midwest with the opening of Palm Crew Club Kansas City.

Recent changes seen in downtown Kansas City’s Power & Light District are a reflection of the deep investment in the city as a growing market with more to offer than one may assume. “We change people’s perceptions of what they think about an area and create a vibrancy,” Reed Cordish, Principal at The Cordish Companies, tells me. “There’s a pride in Kansas City that’s palpable.”

“We’ve got great restaurants and great entertainment concepts,” says Cordish, who also acts as CEO of Cordish’s Live! Hospitality and Entertainment division, including Kansas City Live!. “But [Palm Tree Club] marries the two into one venue.”

That marriage distinguishes Palm Tree Club as a new global destination for an all-inclusive vacation even in the most unassuming places. “The vibe is supposed to be relaxing, but upbeat,” Palm Tree Club co-owner Myles Shear tells me. “We try to make it feel like a tropical paradise.”

Miami Meets The Midwest

The casual luxury of Miami always makes its mark at Palm Tree Crew events around the world. That feeling is what has defined Palm Tree Crew in all its different forms.

Temperatures during opening weekend in Kansas City broke 90 degrees with sunny skies and muggy air, making it feel as if Miami itself made a cameo. Although the Indian summer will end at some point, Palm Tree Club is permanently a new getaway in downtown Kansas City.

The experience begins as you approach the corner of 14th and Main with playful greens against natural wood frames and neon pink lights–a sight that wouldn’t pop into mind right away when thinking ‘Kansas City.’ But that’s exactly the goal.

Shear has represented Kygo in his music career for the past 12 years and together they formed Palm Tree Crew, a tropical-inspired lifestyle brand that stretches music festivals, nightclubs and hospitality venues along with its management, investment and activation arms. “The first thing we started with was music festivals. That’s what we know,” Shear says. “All of a sudden, people wanted to bring that lifestyle experience to restaurants and hotels.”

Kansas City is Palm Tree’s fourth iteration of the concept, with a beach club at the MGM Grand in Vegas and a restaurant-club at Live! at The Pointe Orlando, most similar to the Kansas City venue. “In the beginning, it started by creating a brand for Kygo’s fans,” Shear says. “Now it’s a much bigger community.”

The open air feeling inside Palm Tree Club KC revolves around a blue fusion quartzite bar encasing a wavy bar-to-ceiling backbar acting as the spiral centerpiece for the entire space. Backlit in pink, it draws attention up as it bulges towards the ceiling, where the eye is met with shrubbery and more waves, here in the format of mirrors for a 360 degree visual playground.

A custom DJ booth, honoring Kygo’s own music roots, overlooks the dining room and patio with surrounding projections of paradise as the flow leads upstairs towards the lounge. But a detour showcasing photos of Kygo and his Palm Tree Crew friends leads to the other event space, the outdoor rooftop with another full bar and DJ booth where headlining events will occur. The surrounding skyscrapers envelop anyone who steps outside and looks up, reminding you you’re in Kansas City.

The design was led by Beth Bloom of Beth Bloom Designs, who also spearheaded Palm Tree Crew Orlando. “We wanted to evoke the same feeling of a never-ending summer and carry that over, but also respect the urban environment,” Bloom tells me. “We left the [external] exposed brick…but once you walk into the door we added lush botanicals, botanical tones and natural textures…It’s fun, it’s flirty. We don’t take ourselves too seriously.”

Such a concept would simply be another addition to the Miami and Vegas market energies. “But in the Midwest, sometimes that’s lacking,” Shear says. “We wanted to bring this concept to places that need a good tropical escape.”

The Palm Tree approach is to offer everything someone may desire in a night out all in one single venue, whether they be a tourist or a local. “Each city has their own thing,” Shear says. “No one was bringing a concept like this to Kansas City…with a music element, drinks and good food…an experience.”

A New Chapter In KC

Shear and his business partner, Michael Diaz, were eager to test out a Palm Tree restaurant concept, starting in Orlando. It worked, so the next goal was to find its next home. His affinity for the Chiefs helped get his eyes set on Kansas City.

“We’re not trying to go in and do things alone,” he says, which sparked his eagerness to work with The Cordish Companies, which owns Kansas City’s Power & Light District, a 10-block radius of culture, dining and business in downtown Kansas City. “The middle of a city where action’s happening is where our brand belongs.”

Palm Tree Club is adjacent to Kansas City Live!, the outdoor entertainment complex that’s played a role in drawing attention to many medium-sized American cities. “All of our Live! developments are a unique collection of interesting restaurants, food and beverage concepts and live music venues that we put into a cohesive entertainment district,” Cordish says. “It gets people feeling energized about an area that maybe they didn’t before.” Now with sports-anchored districts, hotels and casinos, Live! Entertainment properties across the country welcome 60 million visitors every year.

Palm Tree Club is more than a natural fit for the Power & Light District; it’s a statement that pushes its mission forward. “One of the roles of the District is to draw from a really wide radius to Kansas City,” Cordish says. “Palm Tree Club is another arrow in the quiver to do that because Palm Tree Crew has such a great ability to reach people that are visiting their venues.”

The Cordish Companies now owns and operates 13 Live! Entertainment centers across the country, beginning 25 years ago in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor with Power Plant Live!. The Cordish family invests, develops and operates each (with the exception of LA Live!) which have helped turn around struggling economic centers in cities like Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Louisville, and is also credited for creating Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center and renovating the Kansas City Convention Center. “We’re able to develop to a really high quality and invest heavily because we have a long-term horizon to get our return on investment,” Cordish says.

With 18 million visitors every year, the Power & Light District has become one of the most visited attractions in the Midwest, contributing to the growing economy of Kansas City as a whole. “We know we’ve done our job well when we start seeing cranes around us that are not ours,” Cordish says. “If you can create that heartbeat, you can really transform the whole area.”

There are now new hotels, renovated historic theaters, and luxury high-rise residences, including One Light, the first high-rise residential construction in downtown Kansas City in 50 years, and its siblings Two Light and Three Light. These residences are dedicated to providing elaborate high-end amenities for its residents and create a significant draw for locals to move downtown and for others to move to Kansas City altogether. “From the beginning, our vision was to create one of the most entertaining and walkable destinations in the country, and the momentum downtown today reflects that,” President of Kansas City’s Power & Light District, John Moncke, tells me, pointing to the 30,000 new apartment units in downtown Kansas City in the past several years. “That growth has redefined what it means to live downtown. Palm Tree Club is the next step forward, giving residents and visitors a world-class venue right outside their front door.”

More excitement is on the way in Kansas City with Noble 33 hospitality group’s 1587 Prime steakhouse, owned by Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, also opening this month.

“Palm Tree Crew certainly could have said Kansas City is not for us,” Cordish says. “But they’re thoughtful…While we’re creating a community in downtown Kansas City, they’re creating a global community that believes in their lifestyle.”

Elevated Food & Drink Experience

As Cordish says about Palm Tree Clubs across the country, “their dogmatic principle is that the food and beverage experience has to be exceptional.”

Palm Tree Club KC defines itself through its food and beverage program that feels like approachable luxury. It’s a distinct program that understands its identity of providing some sort of ‘wow’ factor through presentation, but the dishes and cocktails themselves are even more impressive than the means in which they’re served.

“The thought process was Palm Tree Club, but bigger and badder,” chef Joe Shirley, associate VP of culinary at Live! Hospitality, tells me. “It’s all approachable, simple food, but we use the world’s best ingredients.”

Shirley, a Kansas City native, is also a former teppanyaki chef, so the menu boasts a sushi program to complement other Asian-inspired dishes. The A5 wagyu garlic-ginger dumplings with a charred scallion dashi dipping sauce are a best-seller at Palm Tree’s Orlando counterpart, so naturally made their way to Kansas City as well. Edamame hummus topped with ‘crunchies and yum-yums,’ as Shirley says, including pickled fresnos, shallots, cucumber, and wasabi peas is served alongside a scorched scarpetta bread sprinkled with furikake for a smokey motif meshed into the dipping vessel.

While the cuisine isn’t fusion per se, there are also many Italian and Mediterranean highlights, like fresh housemade pastas and a Neapolitan pizza program. Every restaurant with a ‘casual’ descriptor needs a comforting pasta specialty, making way for the al dente mezze rigatoni in a calabrian chili vodka sauce garnished with small basil leaves.

Palm Tree’s version of fries are a standout, with a heavily-fried crust cut into thick, geometric bricks topped with finely-shaved black truffle and a creme fraiche for dipping, as are the salmon crudo with yuzu kosho aioli, shiso oil, mandarin confit and a pickled shallot presented under a smoke-filled glass cloche.

“We add to the fine dining scene..but it’s a little more casual,” Shirley says. “We’re bringing something to Kansas City that’s typically seen in bigger markets.”

Many ingredients in those dishes, like yuzu and caviar, complement the beverage program, curated by Emily Lenderman, Live! Hospitality’s director of beverage, who also leads the programs at the Power & Light District’s nearby Mosaic and Besos y Abrazos venues.

The caviar martini, a favorite in Orlando, makes its way to Kansas City, and is adorned in Sasanian Russian osetra caviar-stuffed olives, while the liquid arrives chilled on ice in a sidecar, allowing you to pour as much as you want into the chilled cocktail glass, the rest remaining cold throughout the drinking experience. The watermelon paloma adds fresh-pressed watermelon juice to a classic paloma, with a particularly spicy tajin rim and a dehydrated lime wedge as garnish.

Unique to Palm Tree Club KC is the spritz flight, available at the upstairs lounge area, including two lavender hugo spritzes and two elderflower aperol spritzes. VIP champagne bottle service is also an option during meals or during events in the lounge.

“We wanted to focus on classics, like old fashioneds, but make it our way by incorporating different unique flavors,” Lenderman says.

The old fashioned she’s referring to is the smoked Caribbean old fashioned, made with Santa Teresa 1796 triple-aged rum and a housemade demerara allspice syrup on a rock of Palm Tree-branded clear ice. It’s presented in a treasure chest with smoke protruding as the chest opens, slowly displaying the cocktail itself as the smoke billows into the patron’s face, preparing their nostrils for the smokey aroma ahead.

Weekend brunch service will be a major draw for the Kansas City market, including loaded bloody marys with pickle spears, cheddar cheese cubes pepperoncini, and dishes like matcha french toast with white chocolate, strawberry and pistachio granola.

Dessert includes a Dubai chocolate tiramisu–with sweet marsala sabayon, bitter espresso-soaked lady fingers with a pistachio and kataifi crunch–and a pink peppercorn pavlova– with passionfruit sorbet, vanilla creme and black pepper shortbread.

Palm Tree Club KC is proof of concept that our second-tier markets have the ability to reinvent themselves and compete however they may desire with our larger cities. “My philosophy has always been having the best party,” Shear says. “When you have the best party, everybody comes.”