A pro wrestler and an Air Force veteran walk into a bar … and open one in KC area

Depending on how you draw the boundaries of the neighborhood, Strawberry Hill is home to roughly eight bars. Just about every one could be described as a dive, or at least dive-adjacent.

The Davenport, which opened a few weeks ago at 401 N. Sixth St., doesn’t aim to replicate that aesthetic. Sunlight pours in through the big front windows. A half-dozen large TVs hang on the brick walls. There’s a bottle of prosecco on the menu.

“There are already a lot of dark and divey places over here, which is great,” said Mike Howard, co-owner. “But we’re trying to be more of a happy hour and early evening type of place. It’s a neighborhood spot where you can come chill out, feel safe and comfortable, and then get on home to your family — or to another bar.”

Which is not to say that Howard and Davenport co-owner Justin Appleberry couldn’t pass for KCK dive-bar regulars. Both men are 50, bald and burly. Appleberry is a former professional wrestler (he went by the name Michael Strider) who now owns Central States Wrestling, which puts on local wrestling events.

Howard is an Air Force veteran who has worked in bars on and off for about 20 years, he said, in Las Vegas and the Lake of the Ozarks. He also worked in the finance department of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, which is how he got to know the neighborhood. He met Appleberry while working at Digital Ally, a Lenexa company that makes body cameras for police departments.

On a visit last year to The Shop Cigar Lounge, at 407 N. Sixth St., they learned that the owners were looking for a more upscale place in the neighborhood to send non-members. (The Shop doesn’t have a traditional liquor license, but paying members are allowed to drink.) They thought maybe they could open a place that would serve some of those customers.

“We called about the old Mockingbird (Lounge) space at first, but it was already under contract,” Appleberry said. “Then we realized this place was open right next door to (The Shop).”

The space was most recently Over Under, a sports betting lounge, and before that it was home to Manor Records, a record shop and music venue.

They named it The Davenport after the lead character in the “Prey Series,” a collection of detective novels by the writer John Sandford. (Appleberry is a big fan.)

The bar has a man-cave quality, with paintings of local sports heroes (Travis Kelce, Alex Gordon, Salvador Perez) and a room in back with lounge chairs plopped on a rug in front of a TV. The menu offers seven bottles of wine and five signature cocktails with names like the Walk-Off and the John Daly Approved Cherry Limeade. You can get a hot dog and a bag of Guy’s chips for $6 during happy hour (3 to 6 p.m. weekdays), but that’s the extent of the food.

Hours will revolve around the football season, Howard and Appleberry said. For now, they’re open 3 to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 3 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Once the NFL cranks back up, they’ll be open Monday and later on Sunday.

“We had a Google review I saw the other day where the guy said he took his date here after dinner and she said it was the type of sports bar she’d be happy to watch a game in,” Appleberry said. “That’s what we’re going for. We want this to feel like an extension of your living room.”

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