Boulevard Brewing Co.
Boulevard’s story starts with a vacation. In the summer of 1984, Kansas City woodworker John McDonald wandered into a Belgian beer bar in Europe and came home with a head full of ideas. Construction began in 1988 inside a turn-of-the-century brick building on Southwest Boulevard, outfitted with a vintage Bavarian brewhouse from a closed German brewery. The first beers flowed in the fall of 1989, and the first keg of Pale Ale was delivered to a neighborhood Mexican restaurant just blocks away. Three decades later, it is the largest specialty brewer in the Midwest.
Today the party centers on the Tours & Rec Center on Madison Avenue, a short walk from Union Station. Upstairs, a roughly 10,000-square-foot Beer Hall fills with long wooden tables, hanging lights and big windows, with a full kitchen to keep the pours company. Downstairs you’ll find the gift shop and a pub-style Tasting Room with games, TVs and shuffleboard. It’s an all-ages, family-friendly campus, and you don’t need to take a tour to settle in.
“Kansas City’s hometown beer, brewed in the same brick-and-smokestack neighborhood since 1989.”
Boulevard’s reputation rests on a simple range: approachable classics and bold experiments. Unfiltered Wheat, introduced in 1990, became the best-selling craft beer in the Midwest. The Smokestack Series, launched in 2007, brought Belgian-inspired depth to the lineup, including Tank 7, a farmhouse ale that began as a happy accident in fermenter number seven. More recently, the Space Camper IPA family has become a modern flagship. Boulevard has been part of Belgium’s Duvel Moortgat family since 2013, yet it still feels unmistakably Kansas City.
Come for the beer, stay for the sense of place. Boulevard offers daily brewery tours that wind through a multi-story campus and end with a tasting. Back at the Beer Hall you can pair a pint with something from the kitchen, browse the gift shop for exclusive releases available only at the Tours & Rec Center, or watch the downtown skyline from a long wooden table. With free on-site parking and easy access from downtown Kansas City, it’s one of the most welcoming brewery stops in the Midwest.