Entry No. 22 — the Kansas City file — filed under: speakeasy
The Common Tiger
Up front, it's a neighborhood pizzeria, but giving the cashier the correct password unlocks a heavy steel door disguised as an ice cooler. Inside, you'll find a secret, dimly lit cocktail lounge adorned with velvet couches and creeping foliage.
The story
Pulling up to a suburban strip mall on Johnson Drive in Mission, Kansas, you would swear you're just picking up a weeknight takeout pizza. Up front, it presents as a straightforward neighborhood parlor selling 12-inch flatbreads. But the venue—conceived by Abby Hans, who named it after an obscure nickname for the monarch butterfly—hides a second life built directly into the kitchen architecture.
If you know what to say, you don't stay in the pizza room. Hand over the secret password—'detour'—to the cashier, and they will unlatch a heavy steel door engineered to look precisely like a commercial ice cooler. Stepping through the frame drops you straight into a low-lit, foliage-draped cocktail cavern lined with velvet seating and anchored by a spinning disco ball.
What it's like
Order your flatbread in the brightly lit front parlor before dropping the password to clear the cooler door. Inside, the lounge swaps strip-mall overheads for moody velvet, crawling vines, and drinks like the house 'Tiger's Blood' cocktail. Because the back room is deliberately compact, seating fills up rapidly on Friday and Saturday nights—arrive early or expect a wait at the pizza counter.
The move: Order a couple of artisan 12-inch flatbreads in the front parlor, then drop the secret password 'detour' to slip past the ice cooler door for a 'Tiger's Blood' cocktail under the spinning disco ball.
- 📍 Mission, KS
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 5616 Johnson Dr, Mission, KS 66202
Hours: Added 2026-07-21 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Drastic Measures — Double down on Kansas-side secret drinking spots by heading three miles west to this James Beard-nominated cocktail den housed in an unmarked medical clinic.
- Boulevard Drive-In Theatre — Pair pizza and back-room drinks with an outdoor double feature at a historic 1950s drive-in less than ten minutes away.
- Clendening History of Medicine Museum — Balance the velvet-and-cocktails evening vibe with a daylight trip to explore 100,000 historical medical artifacts just three miles north.
Good to know
Where is The Common Tiger located?
It's located at 5616 Johnson Dr in Mission, Kansas, roughly a 15-minute drive from downtown Kansas City.
How do you get into the secret lounge?
Give the cashier in the front pizza parlor the current secret password ('detour') to be let through the steel ice-cooler door.
Why is it named The Common Tiger?
Owner Abby Hans named the venue after 'the common tiger,' an alternative nickname for the monarch butterfly.
What kind of food and drink do they serve?
The front parlor serves artisan 12-inch flatbread pizzas, while the back lounge pours house craft cocktails like the Tiger's Blood.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: the-common-tiger.square.site · kansascity.com
last checked: 2026-07-21