Swordfish Tom's, the speakeasy hidden down a Crossroads alley, put pizza on its summer menu in cocktail form: gin infused with real pepperoni slices.

Why it matters: The bar has made playful, inventive cocktails its signature, and this one delivers a beloved comfort food by the glass.

Zoom in: Longtime KC bartender Brett Pitner created the limited-time cocktail, Pizza My Heart ($15), which pairs the pizza-infused Hayman's Old Tom Gin with Meletti Amaro, an Italian herbal liqueur.

• The drink is topped with pepperoni — or at least it looks like it. It's reduced Campari and isomalt, a sugar substitute, disguised to look the part.

What they're saying: "I had a dream about fat washing gin with pepperoni pizza. So I did it. Then I was like, 'What the hell am I going to do with this?!'" Pitner tells Axios.

How it works: Pitner uses a technique called fat washing, which steeps a spirit in something fatty — in this case, pizza — then freezes it and filters out the grease, leaving only the flavor.

• He drops three slices of pepperoni pizza from Buffalo State Pizza into three bottles' worth of gin, weighs the slices down and lets everything sit at room temperature for a day.
• He then presses the slices, freezes the infusion and strains it through a coffee filter twice.
• Pitner said he was tempted to try the gin-soaked pizza but thought better of eating days-old, soggy pizza.

Flashback: When Travis and I brought our visiting Axios editors by, Pitner poured us Holiday Blues, a blue cheese old fashioned that none of us expected to love.

• "I never imagined I'd enjoy blue cheese in an old fashioned. Once I got past the initial offense, I was surprised by how well it worked," managing editor Delano Massey said.
• "If you're going to be adventurous with your liquor, this is the place to do it," editor Chloe Gonzales said.

💭 Abbey's thought bubble: I'm a sour cocktail girl, but I set my beloved Exorcism aside and walked away a believer in savory cocktails.

• Pizza in a glass has no business being this good.

If you go: Swordfish Tom's opens at 4pm Tuesday through Saturday. Cash only, no reservations. Knock when the light glows green.

Have you tried this cocktail? Let us know your thoughts!

A product local leaders and law enforcement call "gas station heroin" is now illegal in Kansas — and the federal government may soon make it illegal nationwide.

Why it matters: Possessing kratom or its derivative, 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), became a felony in Kansas on July 1, splitting the rules in a metro that's home to the Midwest's largest 7-OH producer.

Context: Kratom comes from a Southeast Asian tree whose leaves naturally carry trace amounts of 7-OH, the compound behind its opioid-like effects.

• Companies concentrate or synthesize it into tablets, gummies and drinks sold over the counter at gas stations and smoke shops.

State of play: Kansas' new law bans kratom and 7-OH outright. Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe says possession is now a Level 4 felony and selling is a Level 3.

• Missouri lawmakers debated a statewide ban this spring but adjourned without passing one, leaving both legal under state law.

Zoom in: Kansas City, Independence and Blue Springs ban synthetic 7-OH anyway.

• KC businesses caught selling it face fines of up to $1,000 a day.

Threat level: Johnson County chief medical examiner Diane Peterson said that 7-OH had factored into six deaths there over the previous six weeks, roughly mid-May through June, up from one in all of 2025.

• "It's just as dangerous, if not more, than fentanyl," she said.

The other side: The founder of CBD American Shaman has called local bans disheartening, arguing the products help people manage pain and addiction and should be regulated, not banned.

Keep reading

⚽️ KC's final World Cup match will be Argentina vs. Switzerland on Saturday at 8pm. (KC2026)

⚾️ A Royals affiliate purchased the former Blue KC office building and parking lot next to Washington Square Park. (Kansas City Business Journal)

🚍 Jackson County is hosting listening sessions in Blue Springs, Raytown and Oak Grove over a new half-cent sales tax proposal to fund bus services. (KCUR)

🤖 De Soto residents are frustrated after a data center called Project Pilot more than doubled in size from its original plans, now totaling 2.9 million square feet. (Johnson County Post)

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Missouri has some of the lowest alcohol tax rates of any state, followed closely by Kansas.

Why it matters: Alcohol taxes vary dramatically from state to state, meaning the same can of beer, glass of wine or fancy cocktail can cost significantly more depending on where you order it.

Missouri taxes beer at only 6 cents per gallon — the second lowest rate in the country after Wyoming, according to the Tax Foundation, an independent policy research organization.

• Liquor is $2 per gallon (third lowest), and wine is $0.42 per gallon.

Kansas beats Missouri in wine tax at a rate of $0.30 per gallon (10th lowest), but taxes slightly more for liquor ($2.50) and beer ($0.18).

Zoom out: Legendary beer-producing states like Missouri, Wisconsin and Colorado — think Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors, respectively — are among the least beer-taxed states, while California and its wine country have the lowest wine tax rate.

• But you'd hate to buy spirits in Washington, which is taxed at $36.68 per gallon compared to the median state spirits tax of $5.98.

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