Coffee shop owned by KC Current veterans relocating to riverfront neighborhood near stadium

Pitchside Coffee’s new location will be just a goal kick away from CPKC Stadium, said co-owner and retired women’s soccer standout Kristen Hamilton, brewing plans to relocate the popular coffee shop to the heart of Kansas City Current game days.

Pitchside Coffee’s Crossroads location at 1819 Grand Blvd, Kansas City; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

Owned by six current and former Current players, Pitchside is moving from its original fixed location in the Crossroads to Current Landing — the new $1 billion riverfront residential and entertainment district anchored by the Missouri River and CPKC Stadium.

An opening date is expected in early November, Hamilton said, noting the new shop is well-positioned along a popular walkway that connects fans to Current Central Plaza and the stadium — offering added exposure and making the business part of game day itself.

“The investment that they’ve put into building that area up in general is awesome,” she continued. “It’s adding another really cool spot to Kansas City for people to explore and experience.”

The sports complex’s status as the first stadium in the world purpose-built for a women’s professional sports team gives the project extra relevance, Hamilton said.

“It’s exciting to be part of something new, but that is already becoming so well-known,” she said of the stadium. “We’re ready to bring our coffee and drinks to fans and other people there, and just be an extension of what’s happening on the field.”

Kristen Hamilton, co-owner of Pitchside Coffee, inside the brand’s Crossroads location; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

Pitchside’s mobile coffee trailer — which debuted in 2024 before the Crossroads space — is expected to be open Tuesday, Sept. 8 for regular hours at the Current Landing Plaza area, just outside the gates of CPKC Stadium. The Crossroads location won’t close until Sept. 27, continuing to fuel Pitchside regulars and keep staff employed for more of the gap before reopening at the riverfront.

KC Current-branded cones stand near a construction area at Current Landing; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

“It’s just so cool to be so close to the stadium,” Hamilton said, noting the ownership team behind the business dreamed of opening their coffee shop in a brick-and-mortar spot within the emerging neighborhood as early as the first week of Pitchside’s planning. “We ended up talking about the trailer and going that direction, but it was always our goal like, ‘How cool would this be for us to have our location down by the stadium and down on the riverfront?’”

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While the new Pitchside location at Current Landing will continue to serve its popular coffee offerings, the new menu will add alcoholic drinks and a new wellness performance category, along with extended hours.

“We’re trying to think of it more as a drink destination rather than just strictly a coffee shop, but coffee will still be at the forefront of everything we do,” Hamilton explained, adding that the Pitchside team’s signature coffee blend is already available at six Sam’s Club locations in the Kansas City area.

“The energy is insane, especially game days,” she added of the riverfront area. “With our workers, we were like, ‘Be prepared for it to be literally insane.’ It’s awesome to be right there, feeling the energy of game days.”

A rendering shows the master vision for the Current Landing mixed-use district on Kansas City’s riverfront; rendering courtesy of the Kansas City Current

Founded in 2024 by Hamilton, Elizabeth Ball, Vanessa DiBernardo, Hailie Mace, Desiree Scott, and Mallory Weber, Pitchside was the first player-owned vendor to be permanently featured inside a National Women’s Soccer League or women’s sports venue and was the only food or beverage vendor in an American professional sports venue owned and founded by currently active professional athletes.

A promotional image featuring the co-founders of Pitchside Coffee with their original mobile coffee truck outside CPKC Stadium; courtesy image

“The growth of the league and specifically women’s soccer in the U.S. has been awesome,” said Hamilton, who retired after the 2025 season and is now a player agent. “But for the Current’s owners to build this stadium for just the women’s team — in our backyard — and then for them to give us so much support in starting a business, it’s just incredible.”

Coffee and soccer naturally go hand in hand, Hamilton said, noting that when she and her Pitchside co-founders were traveling as players, the first thing they’d often look for along the way was a good coffee shop.

“It just became this culture of coffee everywhere we went,” she described. “Three of us actually played in Australia, as well, and their coffee culture is massive. That’s where I learned about really good coffee.”

“It was 2024 preseason and we’re all just sitting at a coffee shop like normal,” Hamilton recalled, “We’re like, ‘Gosh, it would be so cool to have a coffee shop of our own’ and it really just spiraled from there. It just happened to be the right group of people at the right time.”

Making the leap from their original coffee trailer — which will be available for event rental after the Current Landing location opens — to the first brick-and-mortar was a learning experience, she said. The players had to transition from running the small, popup operation as baristas on their own schedules to training staff for everyday hours in the Crossroads.

Closing that chapter will be bittersweet, Hamilton noted.

“Being in the heart of Kansas City has been so cool,” she said of the Crossroads spot. “It’s a little bit of a bummer that we have to leave because we have regulars and we have people who we see every day here. And we worked hard to build that up and to bring in daily sales. The space itself is beautiful. The size of it, the feeling, the vibe, everything about this location is obviously sentimental because it was our first.”

“It’s exactly what we wanted to build,” Hamilton continued. “It’s a community space for people to come and just enjoy coffee, each other, and community. It’s also helped me to stay connected to the soccer community while entering the retirement scene and not just be cut off fully from it.”

Ongoing construction at one of Current Landing’s residential buildings near CPKC Stadium along the riverfront; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

Pitchside has become a great place for the players to network, she added, noting that friendly rivals from visiting teams often stay near the shop and stop by.

“We get to chat and hang and talk about this space, talk about what we built, and the entrepreneurship journey as they start to think about post-career,” Hamilton continued.

Although the new space in Current Landing will be smaller, at about 900 square feet, outdoor seating will allow customers to take their drinks with them inside the containment area, she said, plus the Pitchside team will have more freedom to plan events like Christmas popups.

“We’re gonna pride ourselves on having cheap beers on game day and make it a place that the players want to come after the game with their families to hang out and grab a drink, grab a bite of food,” Hamilton added. “It’ll be an elevated extension of what we’re doing in the Crossroads.”