7300 West 119th Street, Overland Park
913-451-0444 | oneblocksouthkc.com
Late last year, JoCo nightlife baron Shawn McClenney announced that he would be closing Raoul's Velvet Room in the Rosana Square Shopping Center. The decision was a long time coming. "I opened Raoul's in 1999, and it should have been reconcepted in 2006," McClenney explains. "But at the time, nightlife on the Plaza was booming. Whatever you did in Johnson County, you weren't going to be able to pull from that momentum." So he waited. Finally, this year, he made his move. He bought the Schmitt Music space and opened Kanza Hall, a live-music venue and two-step hall that holds 1,000 people. Then he downsized Fuel — his "American Made Bar and Grill" — and opened Red 8, an upscale pool hall in the center space. Another location, Milieu, will open in the complex by year's end. He christened the whole shebang One Block South. "My gamble was that nightlife was going to come back south," McClenney says. Repackaged in the southern hub of Overland Park, One Block South proves that you don't have to go downtown for a something-for-everyone party.
