Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by brewcrew1000 »

Closing January 19th. The only time I ever ate food there was about 2 years ago and I thought it was horrible.
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by WSPanic »

I thought the food was OK - decent menu/concept, average execution. Deplorable service.

Guy Fierri can only get you so far.
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by Joe Smith »

Been there once. What a shithole.

Over half their beers and food listed on the menu was not available. Service was horrible. Food was really crappy. Can't believe that DDD stopped there.
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by heatherkay »

Another example of the Heatherkay Heuristic:

A restaurant never gets better.
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by Volker Dad »

heatherkay wrote:Another example of the Heatherkay Heuristic:

A restaurant never gets better.
I like this.
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by bahua »

That's a shame, but as I understand it, they mismanaged the place into the floor. I thought it had already closed.
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by bobbyhawks »

WSPanic wrote:I thought the food was OK - decent menu/concept, average execution. Deplorable service.

Guy Fierri can only get you so far.
I haven't been for a few years (prior to the Guy Fieri bump/hipster deterrent), but I thought their food was great for what it was, and the owners stocked a few great whiskey/scotch options at a really low price. I think the rationale was that most people didn't order the nicer whiskies, so they priced it at a level where the bartenders and friends could drink it on the cheap. Either my tastes are different than others here, or the quality seems to have gone downhill. They were properly smoking their own pulled pork and mostly avoiding the use of frozen ingredients when I last went. The location made it a pretty annoying destination, though.
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chrizow
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by chrizow »

i thought Swagger was pretty great when it first opened. the food was good-to-very-good for what it was (bar food), and they had a huge beer selection and, even more impressively, a large whiskey/scotch/tequila/etc selection. but they weren't pretentious about it - the place was just like any other neighborhood Waldo bar. the prices were right and, for a time, i thought the service was quite good. the bartenders and to a lesser extent the servers were excited to recommend obscure beers or spirits. but, through mismanagement or whatever, the selection was dropped (or, as others noted, the menu stayed the same but they weer always out of 90% of beer or spirits on the menu).

there was a large gap in time before i went back, but it was during the "bad time." i still thought their Taco Nite tacos were tasty (and cheap), and the service was fine. i knew better than to order some obscure beer and stuck with something basic like Blvd Pale Ale and had no issues.

i would guess that the ill-advised expansion into that huge space in Martin City siphoned away from the original location. even with mediocre management, they probably could have made the Waldo location work.
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by longviewmo »

I guess people probably didn't feel invited in, like they were to the drive-thru Jimmy John's next door.
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by WinchesterMysteryHouse »

Around Christmas, a perpetually unemployed friend of mine and I rode the bus out to Waldo to hunt for stocking stuffers at the dismal City Thrift and dismaller Red Racks out there. We walked further south to visit her sister at Jimmy John's and ended up at Swagger. I'd never been, but was surprised it had the feeling of a 'spot,' the bartender was irritatingly outgoing towards the abundantly piling in young customers. Then the coolest people in town showed up and I was surprised again. I thought it sucked, but Fric & Frac's the same way- popular and bad. This is my review. Thanks for following it to the end.
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by mean »

Swagger was really pretty good in the beginning. Anyone know what happened? The last time I went, the food was not good but I figured that was an outlier. Guess it was a trend instead. That's too bad.
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by Highlander »

mean wrote:Swagger was really pretty good in the beginning. Anyone know what happened? The last time I went, the food was not good but I figured that was an outlier. Guess it was a trend instead. That's too bad.
They could have accomplished a television first: First restaurant appearing on DDD to get bailed out by Restaurant Impossible.
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by shinatoo »

The Martin City location only lasted about 6 months.
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by mean »

Highlander wrote:
mean wrote:Swagger was really pretty good in the beginning. Anyone know what happened? The last time I went, the food was not good but I figured that was an outlier. Guess it was a trend instead. That's too bad.
They could have accomplished a television first: First restaurant appearing on DDD to get bailed out by Restaurant Impossible.
Ha! That would have actually been kind of awesome.
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by pstokely »

mean wrote:
Highlander wrote:
mean wrote:Swagger was really pretty good in the beginning. Anyone know what happened? The last time I went, the food was not good but I figured that was an outlier. Guess it was a trend instead. That's too bad.
They could have accomplished a television first: First restaurant appearing on DDD to get bailed out by Restaurant Impossible.
Ha! That would have actually been kind of awesome.
curse of reality shows
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by heatherkay »

So this is interesting. He lays the blame back at the feet of Cordish.

http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/20/47 ... shuts.html
mgsports
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by mgsports »

Could reopen.
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bahua
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Re: Swagger (8431 Wornall) -- gourmet dive bar

Post by bahua »

I suppose it could, but its distance from both the craft-drinking hipsters and wealthy suburbanites has always worked against it. They would need to work hard, and continue to do so, to get people to make the trek.
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