A Coffee Bar That Works More Like a Tasting Room in Kansas City

Gregory Kolsto prefers that customers think of Oddly Correct's coffee bar as a tasting room rather than a café. That framing goes a long way toward explaining why so much of the shop — its décor, its merchandise, its menu — is kept so spare. The bar exists to put the product on display, which is why the pour-over coffees come with no milk or sugar and the espresso drinks allow for exactly one addition: whole milk. Cafés that commit to this purist approach (critics reach for words like fundamentalist, absolutist, and snobby) don't merely risk alienating customers; they can count on it. Kolsto says that is precisely why the shop hands out a fair number of free coffees to customers who take offense.

It also wins over a fair number of people to the pleasures of black coffee.

That single-minded focus produces a bar stocked with very few items. There is no syrup, no honey, and no need for a soy-only steam pitcher. Every drink comes in one size, so there are no stacks of separated lids to maintain. The one real flourish is the pour-over service: the coffee arrives on a walnut board, half of it in a mug and the remainder in an Erlenmeyer beaker. The presentation, like the café itself, matches an aesthetic Kolsto describes as "hobbit-style" — rustic in appearance but high in quality.

Rustic in appearance but high in quality: the "hobbit-style" café.

Much like a hobbit hole, the café does not shout for attention. It occupies the corner storefront of a low-slung art deco building in Kansas City's Midtown-Westport neighborhood. The sign reads only "Oddly Correct," with a coffee bean as the sole hint of what is sold inside. The café opened in 2012, three doors down from the roastery, which began operating in 2008. Kolsto recalls that not long ago the only reason to visit the neighborhood was to take out a payday loan, but the area — and the city more broadly — has been on the rise.

Coffee in particular has changed, and over the past decade the city has developed into a Midwest stronghold of excellent roasts. That shift is part of what lets Oddly Correct take such a minimalist approach to its craft. Once a customer base has been exposed to great coffee the way Kansas City's has, people are more inclined to trust a café's decisions about milk and sugar. Or at minimum, they will let the café buy their coffee for them.

Inside Oddly Correct's Coffee Equipment and Bar Workflow

Behind the bar at Oddly Correct.

1. Brew Bar: Three single-origin coffees are on the daily lineup, brewed in Kalita waves placed on Soehnle scales and divided between a mug and a lab beaker, both resting on a walnut serving board.
2. Minimal Pastries: Oddly Correct offers only two pastries: donuts and granola bars. "When we buy coffee, we either go for super classic or super exotic," says owner Gregory Kolsto. "The donuts are super classic."
3. Art on the Walls: Paintings by Kolsto hang around the café. The one shown here, created for a fall seasonal blend called White Whale, depicts a former Oddly Correct barista adrift on a piece of wreckage, finishing his espresso before setting off after Moby Dick.
4. Fixed Sizes: Every milk drink, lattes included, comes in a prescribed size, and only flat whites (eight ounces) and lattes (twelve ounces) are available to-go. Disposable-cup clutter stays minimal.
5. Two-group Workhorse: A two-group La Marzocco Linea does the heavy lifting, though Kolsto says line slowdowns are rare.
6. Seasonal Espresso: A seasonal blend shares the Mahlkönig K30 Twin grinder with a current single-origin favorite.
7. Cold Options: Alongside a rotating cold brew, Blenheim Ginger Ale, and La Croix, the fridge holds Hop Toddy, a resinous cold brew.