Midnight Owl Partnering With Mendel Segal to Turn Kitchen and Brewery Into Kosher Operation

Midnight Owl owners Rosemary Mudry and Joel Warger Credit: Douglas Trattner

Joel Warger and Mendel Segal have gotten to know each other pretty well over the last two years and through a wall.

As Warger was getting Midnight Owl Brewing ready to open in Shaker, Segal was already slinging kosher barbecue next door at Mendel’s Kansas City BBQ.

Recently, the two began talking about a partnership that will soon see Segal and his team take over the kitchen at the brewery for a fully kosher menu and Warger brewing exclusively kosher certified beer.

“It’s both a partnership and collaboration,” Warger told Scene. “It’s a different concept than what the orthodox community has now, and it allows us to move into that community with our beer as well.”

The newly kosher kitchen will still offer current items like smashburgers and empanadas, but will also include new additions like wings, bar bites and tacos, Segal said.

“They brew incredible beer, and my experience is on the restaurant operation side,” he said of the natural partnership.

The new Midnight Owl kitchen won’t be open from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown in observance of Shabbat, but Warger and Segal plan on enlisting food trucks and other pop-ups to keep patrons fed.

As for the brewing process, not much at all will change to make kosher certified beers.

What will change, at least a little, is Midnight’s interior, which will get a refresh over the next two weeks before the new operation debuts.

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