Kansas
At these Kansas City restaurants, lemonade makes summer a whole lot sweeter
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Sweet and tart, lemonade refreshes and refuels during the hot, sticky summer months, but it’s a popular favorite all year long.
References to lemonade date back to the 12th century, yet this fresh-squeezed treat is frequently reimagined in modern flavors, offers a taste of different cultures, and reclaims the innocence of youth (you can still find new generations of kids hawking the homemade refreshment to their neighbors and friends with roadside stands).
We’ll take you on a lemonade tour of Kansas City, and introduce you to some of the best places around town to grab a refreshing drink.
The tangy treat that’s hard to beat
We think of lemonade as American as apple pie, but the drink originated across the world, where sugar cane and lemons grew native, first documented in the Middle East and then making its way to Europe by the 16th century.
A citrus flavored drink exists in many cultures, like the Vietnamese salty lemonade, called “chanh muoi,” the creamy Brazilian lemonade “limonada Suíça” (available at Fogo de Chão, which also serves a pineapple mint lemonade), or minty Turkish “limonata.”
Lemonade came to the United States by the 1700s (citrus fruits were standard fare for long ocean voyages to prevent scurvy), was advertised in the pre-Revolution colonies (it was also apparently a favorite drink of King George III) and, after the war, served by the Washingtons at the presidential residence.
The drink was available in Kansas City at least by the mid-19th century. In 1881, The Kansas City Times devoted an entire column extolling the virtues of lemonade — ”the summer beverage that everybody in Kansas City takes to” — as an option for prohibition laden Kansans. That article estimates that over 34,000 glasses were consumed a day in the city.
Kansas City still loves its lemonade — as seen in Lemonade Park, an outdoor music venue that has become a staple of the summer music scene in the last four years. It emerged from the turmoil of the global pandemic, when COVID-19 shut down businesses throughout the metro.
At first just a flatbed truck in an empty West Bottoms lot, it’s now a sought-after performance space, and has been a key location for the annual festival Make Music Kansas City. (And yes, lemonade is served at the bar, along with food prepared at next door Voltaire.)
Kansas City’s best lemonades
From a simple base — lemon juice, water, and sugar — there are hundreds of variations.
Switch out the lemon for lime: enjoy a piquant limeade. Squeeze lemon juice into icy sugar water, toss the juiced rinds in and shake it up: you’ve got the Lemon Shake-Up, a staple of the carnival and county fair. Infuse vodka with lemon peel and add simple syrup: limoncello has arrived at the party. (Kansas City’s own saxophonist supreme Bobby Watson was inspired to write this tune from his appreciation for the popular drink.)
Other popular varieties include pink (sometimes made with fruit juices like raspberry or strawberry, others just with coloring), carbonated (popular in other parts of the world, but also available in a variety of lemon-lime sodas), and mixed with iced tea, AKA the Arnold Palmer.
Many places around Kansas City have their own version of classic, fresh-squeezed lemonade, but if you thirst for a fancier option, local restaurants and bars introduce flavors from around the world. Here are a few:
Hospital Hill brunch spot Succotash is regularly mentioned by KCUR’s Up To Date. You can accompany your pork hash or pancakes with their seasonal lemonades, which are updated frequently. Coming up, they’ll offer heirloom tomato lemonade, watermelon limeade, and raspberry hibiscus lemonade.
Elixir, the soda fountain at the Kansas City Museum, serves up a sophisticated option with their “garden lemonade”: crushed ice, muddled mint, lemon juice, lavender syrup, a sweet and salty rim, and sparkling water.
Café Cà Phê, in Columbus Park, has “Summer Moments,” a line of citrus-infused drinks with innovative flavor combinations: dragon fruit and mango; chrysanthemum tea, longan, and ginger; ceylon tea, longan and limeade.
Blue Sushi Sake Grill, in Westwood, has three fancifully flavored options: Coco Hydration (coconut water and strawberry), Dragon fruit lemonade, and the Hibiscus squeeze.
Local favorite McLain’s Bakery + Markets offers homemade lemonade year round, as well as seasonal flavors. Each location crafts their own style of “special sips,” with options like Z’Green Lavender Lemonade, with matcha (Overland Park), and Berry Creamsicle Lemonade, with a blackberry sage cold foam (Waldo).
Jill Wendholt Silva
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Flatland
If you want to change things up every time you visit, Baba’s Pantry adds a twist to their “Lemonade of the Day,” featuring flavors like cucumber mint, tropical punch, guava, and more.
Jerusalem Café, with three locations (Westport, Independence, and Liberty), serves a minty fresh lemonade as well as a frozen version.
Dragonfly Tea Zone has three lemonade flavors and two limeades, plus you can add boba or flavored popping pearls for a customized order.
Aladdin Café, on 39th Street, has a rose lemonade, with rosewater and saffron, which pairs nicely with lamb dishes and their popular lentil soup.
At Q39, you can find a zero-proof “Berry G Basil Lemonade” with strawberry, basil, lemon juice, and simple syrup.
While lemonade is an inspiriting NA option (learn more about those with KCUR’s mocktails Adventure), hard lemonades are also popular, including Boulevard Brewing Company’s Vodka Lemonade from their line of canned craft cocktails and Hibiscus Lemonade from their Quirk hard seltzer line.
Lemonade is also a go-to cocktail ingredient, like with Jack Stack BBQ’s “KC Lemonade”: lemonade and blackberry syrup mixed with either J. Reiger’s KC Whiskey or Vodka.
Readymade ‘ade
If you aren’t in the mood to make your own lemonade, try some of the readily available options at local retailers.
James’ Lemonade, made in Kansas City, Kansas, was started in 1998 by James Anderson. The drink has a “hint of mint” and can be found around town at delis, bodegas, liquor stores, and area Quik Trips. (The product line includes James’ Fruit Punch and James’ Spiked Lemonade.)
Ruby Jean’s Juicery, on Troost Avenue and the 51st Street Whole Foods, serves RJ’s Lemonade. Ruby Jean’s mission is to serve healthy options, so their drink is sweetened with honey and flavored with mint.
Though known for their apple ciders, during spring and summer Louisburg Cider Mill makes lemonades in three flavors: old fashioned, strawberry, and blueberry, available at the Country Store and area retailers.
You can also buy lemonade to help a good cause each June during the annual Midwest Lemonade Days, a fundraiser for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) for Childhood Cancer, a partnership with area Hy-Vee grocery stores.
KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Miami County in Kansas and Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. Ryan has worked with organizations the Aude’s are involved with in the past. His connections in the Miami County community helped him get in touch with the family. They expressed extreme gratitude for those who have helped them out. Share your story idea with Ryan.
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A family of five in Osawatomie, Kansas, is receiving overwhelming community support after losing their home to a kitchen fire on Sunday.
Miami County, Kansas, rallies behind volunteer firefighter after devastating house fire
Ben Aude was lucky to make out alive after the Sunday lunch he was cooking sent their house into flames. His wife, Hannah Aude, along with their three children, were on their way home after spending some time with grandma.
Jake Weller/KSHB
A line of colorful wax-like streaks on their refrigerator from melted alphabet magnets symbolizes the memories made in the young couple’s first home. It’s where their son learned to spell his name.
“Accidents happen, it’s life,” Hannah Aude said. “Just seeing where our keys would hang, the kid’s name on the fridge, it’s just memories.”
Jake Weller/KSHB
The fire started at the stove and spread rapidly throughout the house.
Ben was making lunch when some grease in a pan on the stove caught fire. He rushed to get the burning pan outside and before he knew it, the back part of their home was in flames.
In a 2025 report from the American Red Cross, cooking fires are the number one cause of house fires and house fire injuries. Fires inside the home are more likely to start in the kitchen than any other room in the house.
Leaving cooking food unattended can often be the cause.
Jake Weller/KSHB
Heating equipment is the second-leading cause of home fires, as nearly half of all American families use alternate heating sources to stay warm. Heating equipment, wood stoves and portable space heaters are blamed for 74% of fire-related deaths.
“It was 90 seconds of ‘Wow, this was on fire, to wow my house is on fire,”‘ Ben Aude said.
Jake Weller/KSHB
The combination of colder and shorter days leads people to spend more time inside their homes and cooking more meals, according to the Red Cross.
There has been an increase in various fire department responses across the metro area over the weekend — including four people hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Kansas City, Missouri Fire Department responded to seven different fires overnight on Jan. 22, including one that killed a person inside a Northland home.
Jake Weller/KSHB
“It’s crazy,” Ben Aude said. “I was doing something I’ve done 100 times. We’ve had three kids in this house and living here every day, it’s just hard to see, just gone in an instant.”
Standing in what’s left of their home, the couple reflected on the devastation. Hannah broke down in tears as she surveyed the damage.
“I just see the memories that we built here,” Hannah Aude said.
Jake Weller/KSHB
The hardest part for Ben Aude has been not having answers for his children — the five are now staying in a hotel.
“It’s hard to look at your kids and say, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know where we’re going to live yet. I know you just got this toy for Christmas.”‘ “I don’t know yet, man. It’s been hard as a dad to look at your kids and not know any of those answers,” Ben Aude said.
Jake Weller/KSHB
The first night was particularly difficult when the children asked if they could go home.
The Aude family is deeply involved in their community. Ben serves as a local football coach and Hannah is president of the Paola Chamber of Commerce, works as a banker, and volunteers with the fire department as its administrative asssistant.
Fire Chief Aaron Sharp of the Osawatomie, Kansas Volunteer Fire Department, said Hannah is always the first to help when extra assistance is needed, whether it’s administrative duties, organizing fundraisers, or making breakfast for the firefighters.
Jake Weller/KSHB
“If we need anything extra, Hannah is the first one to jump in,” Sharp said. “She’s as much a part of this department as the guys are holding the ends of those hoses.”
Sharp said the department’s response to the fire was business as usual until it was extinguished and Hannah was standing on the sidewalk.
It became personal for the entire department.
Jake Weller/KSHB
“Once the fire’s out, and you see her standing there on the sidewalk in tears, then it becomes a little more personal at that point,” Sharp said. “It is one of your own and you want to be there as best you can. It does affect us.”
The family lost everything in the fire, but donations have poured in locally and across the country through social media campaigns. Those include the Miami County Sheriff’s Fund, an online meal train fundraiser, and in-person donations of clothes and other household necessities.
The response has been overwhelming as the couple navigates insurance claims and finding temporary housing.
Jake Weller/KSHB
“Between insurance and finding out where we’re gonna live, it’s just been hard to get to everyone. It’s just been overwhelming,” Ben Aude said.
For Hannah Aude, who describes herself as a natural giver, accepting help has been challenging, but eye-opening.
“I’m a giver, I truly am a giver. I don’t even like accepting birthday gifts,” Hannah Aude said. “My love language is giving and receiving is so tough for me, and just seeing the community that is around us every day, giving back to us and communities we aren’t even part of, it’s just crazy.”
Jake Weller/KSHB
The experience has taught her an unexpected lesson about community and reciprocity.
“It’s a lesson I didn’t think I needed to be taught,” Hannah Aude said. “The small impacts that you make on people, the large impacts that they’ll make on you.”
Ben Aude is using this tragedy as a teaching moment for his children about the importance of being good to others.
“I’ve been trying to use this as another moment to teach the kids” he said. “This is why you try and be a good person.”
Jake Weller/KSHB
The football coach plans to incorporate this experience into future motivational speeches for his players.
“I always try and rally my football players around overcoming adversity, and one day this will be a great story in one of those pregame speeches that they’ll get from me,” he said. “The time my house burned down, we figured it out and this is what you gotta do as a man.”
Sharp believes the community’s response reflects Hannah’s years of service coming full circle.
Jake Weller/KSHB
“I’m a firm believer in we reap what we sow, and this is just everything coming full circle coming back to here for everything she already does for the community,” Sharp said.
The fire chief noted that cooking fires happen year-round, not just in winter, and encouraged people to keep fire extinguishers handy.
Jake Weller/KSHB
Winter weather does add additional challenges for firefighters responding to calls, with icy roads making it dangerous for volunteers to reach the station and get trucks out safely.
For Hannah, the house represented their first major step as a family, but she views this tragedy as another stepping stone in their journey.
“To me, it was a stepping stone,” she said. “Everything in life there’s a stepping stone. This was our first big step as a family.”
If you’d like to help the Aude family during their time of need, you can click here to donate to the Miami County Sheriff’s Fund and include “Aude Family” in the notes.
Click here, to donate to the meal train fundraiser.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Kansas Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt testified in favor of a bill to help Kansans save on some insurance costs Monday.
The bill, HB 2430, would create the Insurance Savings Account, giving Kansans a state tax-free way to save for property and casualty insurance expenses.
If the bill is passed, it would allow Kansas tax filers to open an Insurance Savings Account and make contributions up to a set amount, depending on their tax filing status.
“Insurance Savings Accounts are a sustainable way for Kansans to save state-tax free for their insurance costs,” Commissioner Schmidt said. “As the legislature works to address affordability, they should include this tool for Kansas families.”
Account holders can then use the money contributed to pay for property and casualty expenses, along with home and auto insurance and any associated deductibles.
Married couples who contribute the maximum payments to an ISA could save up to $670 on their taxes each year.
The bill was heard in the House Committee on Taxation on Monday, Jan. 26, this being the second year it’s been proposed to the Legislature.
Schmidt recently announced that the department has recovered over $202 million for Kansas policyholders since taking office in 2019.
Find the full text of the bill here: https://kslegislature.gov/.
Copyright 2026 WIBW. All rights reserved.
EL DORADO, Kan. (WIBW) – One person suffered serious injuries in a single-vehicle crash Sunday afternoon on icy Interstate 35 along the Kansas Turnpike in Butler County, authorities said.
The crash was reported at 2:35 p.m. Sunday on northbound I-35, about a mile south of El Dorado.
According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, a 2017 Hyundai Sonata was northbound on I-35 when the driver lost control of the car on the icy, snow-packed roadway.
The car then entered the east ditch and began to roll.
A passenger, Dylan Lee Hapner, 20, of Wichita, was transported to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita with serious injuries.
The driver, Ashley Nichole Seamans, 22, and another passenger, Hadleigh M. Wilson, 2, both of Wichita, also were transported to Wesley Medical Center with suspected minor injuries. The patrol said all of the car’s occupants were wearing their safety restraints.
said
Copyright 2026 WIBW. All rights reserved.
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