Life on Tap: Tales from Maloneys - Ep. 2
The DOP Social Club (An origin story)
Episode Two: The DOP Social Club (An origin story)
It was July 11th, 2022. My friend Steve (“Re-memory Steve,” ep. one) had texted me that morning to wish me a happy birthday and confirm that night’s plans:
Walking into Maloneys on autopilot, I headed toward the bar, then paused and awkwardly redirected myself to the rooftop stairs. It felt unnatural.
When the bar had expanded to two stories, I became a staunch “downstairs” girl. Steve even nicknamed me “DW3”: Downstairs only, always enters from the West side, prefers 3:00 pm Chiefs’ games.
It’s a different vibe upstairs; the tin ceiling and garage doors amplify light and sound. Downstairs, the ambiance is more subdued, like me. But our bartender friend Madison was working upstairs that night, so I climbed all 32 steps to see her.
Pausing to catch my breath at the top (it’s a steep incline, okay!), I rounded the corner and spotted Steve at the bar, saving me a seat. We were exchanging our standard chatter about the day when our friend Samir appeared. What a nice surprise, I thought. It’s not unusual to run into friends on any given night. That’s one of the benefits of being a regular.
“Weird seeing you upstairs!” Samir said. Unlike me, he isn’t particular about where he hangs out.
“The things we do for friends,” I joked, nodding toward Madison.
Not long after, our friends Kate and Tony emerged from around the corner.
I was surprised to see them. “What are the chances!”
Steve tilted his head sideways and gave me his Come on, Amy look.
“Ohhh,” I exclaimed slowly. “You came out for my birthday!”
We all have our blind spots. Honestly, it had not occurred to me. I’d known Steve for years, but I’d just met everyone else recently. The only time I’d hung out with the group outside of Maloneys had been a few months earlier when we went axe-throwing for Samir’s birthday.
Despite being newbie-nervous, I had been excited and grateful for being brought closer into the fold. We had bookended the night at Maloneys, starting there, then returning for a nightcap and a final toast to Samir. We always find our way back to home base.
It was becoming a tradition to gather for each of our birthdays. It had started for Steve’s in April, when Ryan, one of the managers, ordered five pork chops to recreate our beloved dinner special.
For three years running, Kate’s July 19th birthday has coincided with the summer’s biggest blockbuster release—Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Barbie (2023), and Twisters (2024). Samir, the consummate planner, transformed our space with themed decorations each time. Dustin, another manager, blasted “Danger Zone” as Kate walked into her Top Gun party. Madison created a special weather-themed, eight-shot menu for the Twisters birthday with concoctions like Firenado, Mudslide, and Black Ice. It’s not often you find a group of friends—and staff—who put this much heart into celebrating one another.
Equally epic are the spontaneous nights this motley crew often stumbles into, like that July evening in 2022. While gathering for my birthday wasn’t exactly spontaneous, what came out of it was the start of something special.
It began like any other casual evening—chatting, eating, drinking. Then Kate mentioned a phone call she’d recently had with her mom.
“Seems like you’re always at the bar,” her mom had remarked, with a hint of concern.
“It’s not like that,” Kate reassured her. “It’s not about drinking your troubles away. It’s so much more—we eat together, we drink together, we converse together. It’s not your average bar.”
“Oh, so more like…a social club?” her mom replied, relieved.
“Exactly,” Kate agreed.
“Yeah!” We exclaimed when she finished her story. “We’re a social club!”
“The Downtown Overland Park Social Club,” Samir proposed.
“That’s a mouthful,” said Steve.
“How about we shorten it to The DOP Social Club?” suggested Kate.
“Yes!” We all yelled, and with that, a round of shots marked the birth and first officially unofficial meeting of The DOP Social Club.
As if on cue, the song of the summer, Little Big Town’s Wine, Beer, Whisky played over the bar’s sound system, turning the moment into impromptu karaoke:
The wine, the beer, the whiskey
Yeah, I got all my friends here with me
I'm not saying it's a problem
I can stop it if I wanna
But who would wanna?
(The last sung, of course, with a unified D.O.P. pose: shoulders shrugged, arms out, palms up.)“Our theme song,” Tony declared, earning cheers and another solidifying shot.
Sensing where this night was heading, Samir said, “We should be writing this down.”
Without missing a beat, Madison tossed Kate a notepad and a pen, appointing her de facto secretary.
Kate started writing but made a mistake, so ripped off the page and began again. Each of us, being perfectionists, understood. Steve, ever the fidgeter, grabbed the discarded piece of paper and rolled it into a compact little snowball. Tony picked it up and lobbed it at the metal bottle cap catcher underneath the counter behind the bar. It was a close shot, ricocheting off the edge.
In addition to being perfectionists, we are all former athletes and highly competitive—and thus, a game was instantly invented. We each made our own paper balls and started taking shots.
Maybe it was because it was my birthday and I was aiming with extra mojo, but I was the first to sink one. “That calls for a shot!” I suggested, to unanimous consent.
As we raised our cups to toast each other, we looked around to see if anyone had anything profound to say.
“Make a shot, take a shot?” I offered. “That’s all I got.”
“Yes!” everyone exclaimed.
“Rule number one, Kate” said Steve. “Write that down.”
“Rules? Sounds like we’re becoming a DOP-ocracy,” I said, prompting the term to become an important part of our notes:
We closed the bar down that night. While my meetings the next morning at work were rough, it had been more than worth it. This crew was on a trajectory to becoming good friends, and that night accelerated the path.
Over the years, we've built a found family—not just at Maloneys, but during backyard movie nights, garage bar karaoke, and other spontaneous meetups elsewhere.
So, yeah, Kate’s mom—we are at the bar a lot. And we wouldn’t have it any other way. Cheers to the DOP Social Club!
I think every crazy night I’ve had started with a “can’t get crazy tonight” text. So good!
Love it! Great memory with your friends!!And now it’s forever remembered…