O'Malley's Pub

German immigrant John Georgian was one of many Kansans in the mid-1800s to open a brewery along the banks of the Missouri River. Most employed local geology to aid in brewing, utilizing natural cave formations and river ice to manufacture suitable brewing and storage conditions. Georgian, however, had no cave. He dug his own cellars more than 50 feet underground, home in modern times to the oldest bar in Missouri.

Georgian’s brewery enjoyed some success before Prohibition, producing 20,000 barrels a year, but shuttered by the 1920s. Following the repeal, the subterranean brewery changed hands several times, falling mostly into disrepair until the current owners purchased the space in 2005.

Today, the largest of the five brewery cellars is O’Malley’s Pub, selling Weston Brewing beer on tap from just upstairs. The domed, limestone cellar was built without cement, using the weight of each rock below it to support two- to three-foot thick walls. The story behind a tunnel running from the cellar to Georgian’s former home—today the Weston Brewing offices—is that he didn’t like to walk to work in inclement weather. 

Luckily, the weather is always the same underground, which is to say a little chilly. Once you’ve had a couple of Weston’s famous cream ales and a local band gets going, you’ll hardly notice.