IMPACT

5 Black-Owned Businesses in KC You’ll Love

By

Michelle Marie Wallace

– VOL. 10

From wellness to wine, home goods and gourmet food, Black-owned businesses are thriving in Kansas City right now, no doubt in part because each is as invested in contributing to the community they serve as they are to their own success.

Margaret Bai employs a team of four stylists at Bai the Way, a salon in the heart of Midtown, KC.

Bai The Way Beauty and Barber Spa

3568 Broadway Boulevard, Kansas City, MO

Bai The Way Beauty and Barber Spa has managed to prosper during the pandemic and is expanding into a new space in March. But unexpectedly flourishing is typical of Margaret Bai, the founder of Bai The Way Beauty And Barber Spa. She never expected that her love for hair would grow into the thriving business it is today. Bai started doing hair in her native land of Monrovia, Liberia, before she relocated to the U.S. because of the civil war. Once in the U.S., Bai braided and styled her friends’ and family’s hair and eventually decided to get her professional license and turn her passion into a career.

Her salon offers a wide range of services: nails, waxing, hair and beauty, but the biggest selling point just might be Margaret’s vibrant energy. Want to check it out? Make an appointment at the new location or stop by at the grand opening party, open to all, at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 6.

Margaret and her team of stylists pose in her salon on Broadway as it undergoes construction.

The Laya Center

1814 Oak Street, Kansas City, MO

The Laya Center is more than your average relax and recharge spa visit (although they are excellent for this as well); they take wellness to the next level, specializing in chronic illness management and injury recovery. Founder Toyia Mays studied herbalism after exploring nutrition, herbs, and various treatments as her husband sought to heal his chronic pain and heal from his NFL career without using opioids and other prescription drugs. Mays knows that the same thing won’t work for everyone so The Laya Center offers a multitude of approaches, from traditional spa services–massage, facials and waxing to newer technologies like Cryotherapy and Hyberbaric Oxygen therapy, as well as supporting and healing the female reproductive system.

The heart, however, of The Laya Center’s offerings are Mays’ interpretations and blending of ancient healing modalities–Ayurveda, Yoruba, Traditional Chinese Medicine system–into her healing creations: the Genees System, her Afrivedic techniques, and her herbal blends. What Mays offers incorporates physical and energetic healing that aims to bring the whole person into balance, so that they maintain balance and naturally ward off illness.

Mays is dedicated to fostering wellness within her community, and is especially committed to those with chronic illnesses. While The Laya Center specializes in serving this population, it is set up to guide everyone on their wellness journey.

A collection of products at Black Pantry, a boutique and general store that sells exclusively black-made goods.

The Black Pantry

325 E. 31st Street, Kansas City, MO

The Black Pantry is a Black-owned boutique shop that exclusively sells items by Black creators—By Design magazine, Black Drip coffee, books by Black authors, home goods and skin care and snacks and clothes. It’s a general store of Black excellence, originally started by Brian Roberts out of a trailer he took to locations around Kansas City. His goal was to make it easy to shop for Black-owned products in a city where Black creators weren’t well-represented. The pop-up shop did so well that he opened a shared retail space with Made in KC. Roberts takes time to find Black-created products that he’d like to sell, always testing the products first to assess the quality. The result is a store that, by showcasing Black creators, is a hub of contemporary Black culture.

La’Nesha Frazier, founder of Bliss Books + Wine, is pictured here with one of her favorite recent reads: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

Bliss Books & Wine

The sisters behind Bliss Books + Wine have turned a normally solitary activity into a semi-social one: their reading lounge–combination wine bar and bookstore–where folks can come and slip into a good book with a glass of wine surrounded by other people who love books.

La’Nesha Frazier and La’Nae Robinson love books, wine and community and started Bliss Books & Wine as a way to bring people together, develop the literary community, and give people a sweet space to enjoy the seemingly contradictory pairing of having a social drink out and reading a book.

They host events, from author readings and an ongoing book club to truly inventive gatherings, like their Valentine’s Day Blind Date With A Book, where attendees bought a book without knowing its contents, then picked it up in-person, wrapped up and tucked into a bag, just before Valentine’s Day.

The Combine’s name reflects its purpose – it’s a bit of everything offering an event space, a restaurant, and bar. And really good pizza.

The Combine

2999 Troost Avenue, Kansas City, MO

Alan Kneeland, Jason Pryor, and Charles Peach dreamed up The Combine, an event space and restaurant where they want people from all neighborhoods of Kansas City to feel welcome to come as they are and enjoy a beer, a slice of pizza, and each other. With The Combine, they acknowledge the racial and social divisions across Kansas City and contribute to building the community they want to see and be a part of: good food, good drinks, good people, no matter where they are from.

Their menu is made up of staples: hearty sandwiches, loaded pizzas and a full bar, served at two event spaces, including their rooftop area with a view of Kansas City’s skyline.