Eat, Drink, Play and Shop in The RiverNorth District

RiverNorth is a coalition of two dozen locally-owned businesses located in the heart of historic downtown North Kansas City, known around here as “Northtown” where visitors can come to eat, drink, play and shop.

With so much interest lately in the City of North Kansas City and its unique locally-owned shops, restaurants and taprooms (thanks to a decade-long wave of new interest in the KC metro area), several business owners banded together to pitch a business league to the rest of the small local owners along the classic commercial corridor of Armour, Swift and Clay Streets.

Our non-profit organization not only defines the boundaries of our district and where’s it’s located among NKC’s boom of new projects (and classic landmarks),
but it also pools member business resources to pay for a combined website and marketing on social media to reach visitors in the region who are looking for day trips and evenings out within a short drive of much of the metro.

In addition to being the northern hub of a 4-mile craft beer corridor that extends across the Missouri River through the River Market and all the way down to the South Crossroads neighborhood of KCMO — a stretch of KC in which 14 breweries call home (and 5 of which you can find here) — our district is home to award-winning Kansas City BBQ, long-standing neighborhood bars, coffee shops, bakeries and multiple outdoor music stages, yoga, kombucha, a record store, a fashion boutique, a late-night burger stand, a bicycle bar and repair shop, a sports museum restaurant, a rock climbing gym, two cigar lounges, a cocktail supply shop and tasting bar, the first ever location for yard game mecca Chicken N Pickle, and the area’s highest rated movie theater– the independently-owned Screenland Armour! Northtown is home to The Rabbit Hole children’s literature museum and Explor-a-Storium, the Iron District outdoor food court, next-level apartment living at The Oxbow, and live music and comedy almost every night of the week at The RINO.

The common thread pulling all of this together over the years was independent entrepreneurs taking chances on North Kansas City, and the thousands of weekly visitors who continue to come out to support them and their district neighbors!

If you haven’t discovered it already, we’re just a quick 5-minute drive across Heart of America bridge from downtown KC. The roads here are flat and cycle-friendly, and you can easily e-bike over Heart of America pedestrian bridge to River Market’s 3rd & Grand streetcar station, using one of the dozens of BikeWalkKC e-bikes on either side of the river! Come experience the small town vibe minutes from downtown where you can eat, drink, play and shop!

The RiverNorth District is just:

-Blocks from NKC’s Macken Park, Waggin Trail Dog Park & Dagg Sprayground
-Blocks from the Rabbit Hole Explor-a-Storium
-1 mile west of the Backyard at OneNorth + Element and aLoft hotels
-2 miles north of the City Market & KC Streetcar terminal
-2 miles north of Berkley Riverfront Park + CPKC Stadium, home of the red-hot KC Current
-3 mi from the Sprint Center and Power & Light District
-3 mi from Knuckleheads Saloon + J. Rieger Distillery
-3.5 mi from The Crossroads Arts District
-4 mi from The West Bottoms and Kemper Arena
-4 mi from 18th & Vine Jazz District and The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
-4.5 mi from Kauffman Performing Arts Center & Downtown Convention District
-4.5 mi from the Kansas City Museum and Historic Northeast neighborhood
-5 mi from Penguin Park
-5 mi from Boulevard Brewing Company + The KC Wheel
-5.5 mi from Union Station, Crown Center and the National WWI Museum
-Within 6mi from 5 different casinos (Harrah’s, Ameristar, Argosy, Bally’s, 7th Street Casino)

Within 10 miles (10-15 minutes) of:
Worlds of Fun & Oceans of Fun, Westport Entertainment District, Boulevard Drive-In Theater, Metro North Crossing, Downtown Parkville & The National Golf Club, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, The Country Club Plaza & UMKC, Arrowhead Stadium & Kauffman Stadium, Zona Rosa Shopping Center, and Liberty, Missouri.

-20 min. from Sporting Park, Kansas Speedway & The Legends Shopping Center
-20 min. from Brookside neighborhood
-20 min. from The Kansas City Zoo, Swope Park & Starlight Theater

-and less than a 20 minute drive from the brand new main terminal at KCI Airport!