The pizza oven at Pizzabella gives off a warm red glow as chef Quillan Glynn sits down to talk on a Friday afternoon. Pizza chef Joel Massey is busy halving Brussels sprouts for the dinner service — the roasted vegetables are the top-selling starter at the Crossroads restaurant. “The Brussels sprouts really took off. It was kind of a surprise…
UPDATE: The Springfield News-Leader has received an apology from Rep. Billy Long. The paper reports Long texted it to them Monday night: “Although I do believe spending 42 percent more than we take in is an addiction, I certainly meant no disrespect to Amy, her family or her fans. She was one of the few true artists to come along…
Food and eating preferences are certainly relative. The best cheese steak in Kansas City could seem like the best thing you’ve ever eaten, until you actually make it to Philadelphia. A Twinkie isn’t great, until zombies have taken over the world. Happy in Bag has introduced an interesting concept on his blog — the idea that he has graduated from…
Fort Frances’ members were friends first and band members second, and each musician respects each artist’s personal projects and aspirations. “Since we’ve all known each other outside of rehearsal rooms, load-ins and sound checks, it makes the musical side of things much easier,” says David McMillin, vocalist and guitarist for the band. Fort Frances is currently touring in support of its…
The Missouri Supreme Court says a Web-based business that connects renters and landlords is breaking the law because the people who run it aren’t licensed real-estate professionals. Kansas City Premier Apartments is a free site that allows renters to search for apartments on both sides of the state line. The company makes its money from property owners, who pay for…
On Saturday night, the garage of the Firehouse, a 90-something-year-old concrete manor formerly known as K.C.F.D. Station 31, was a male-heavy furnace of vocal distortion and guitar contortion, brimming with a brand of punk more alchemic than anarchic. Categories: Music Tags: dan neff, oils, suicide magnets, this is my condition
Fringe is all about low-stakes experimentation. It lets performer and audience take risks together. So I was prepared for hits and misses. But my weekend turned out tastier than I expected. Of the six local shows I attended, five were enjoyable, and four were solid hits. Caldwell’s Bomb is, unfortunately, all too timely, given Friday’s events in Norway. Set in…
Robert Moore’s Sonic Spectrum Tribute Series continues at RecordBar Sunday night, when the Architects, Federation of Horsepower, Faster Than Hell, and Mark Smeltzer all pay due respect to AC/DC. We asked Moore about his affection for the Aussie rock giants. The Pitch: What is it about AC/DC that you’re drawn to? Is it a childhood nostalgia thing? Moore: Nostalgia definitely…
My Morning Jacket returns to the Uptown, touring on its latest, Circuital. It’s a fine enough record, drawing on the rock, funk, soul and country sounds that MMJ has explored on previous releases, but it doesn’t — nothing could — capture the rapturous experience of its high-energy live sets. We checked in with guitarist Carl Broemel last week from his…
Prior to his death in a car accident on June 19, James Garrett suffered from emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). He also played harmonica in the blues Americana outfit Cadillac Flambe, which allowed him a respite from his illnesses. “His doctor said it was a chance for him to open his lungs and not be breathing in cigarette…
Every summer for the past 13 years, the question for Rhonda Perry has been the same: How am I going to transport and prepare 3,000 pounds of pork for a concert crowd? Perry is a co-founder of Patchwork Family Farms, a hog co-op headquartered in Columbia, Missouri. Patchwork has sold pork-chop sandwiches and ham steaks at Farm Aid shows since…
Whose idea was the name? Everybody points at Chris Fritz. The 64-year-old grins sheepishly and looks down into his lap, avoiding eye contact with his fellow organizers, who have assembled in a conference room at the Kansas Speedway offices in Kansas City, Kansas. “I wanted it to be an original word that would pop up at the top of Google…
Iceage, with Dark Ages and Mouthbreathers Four Danish kids, who wouldn’t have been able to buy cigarettes in this country a year ago, are the new saviors of punk — this according to the breathless music blogosphere. Iceage’s debut, New Brigade, is a blasting ride of hardcore and post-punk fury. But the best barometer for bands like this is the…
I’m not always eager to eat in a fast-casual restaurant — the kind where one orders at a counter — let alone write about one. But the latest venture by local entrepreneur Jim Sheridan (that’s right, the local frozen-custard mogul) is too interesting to ignore. For one thing, Sheridan’s Unforked Eats & Sweets is clearly a prototype for a franchise…
You know that friend who has a couple of drinks and acts like he’s all wild and out of control when really he’s not that much of a boozer? He just likes to have an excuse to cut loose and be a dick? Well, as it turns out, that friend is Missouri. And the rest of America is looking at…
Missouri Rep. Todd Akin has staked out his persona in the run-up to the 2012 Senate election: He’s the Michele Bachmann/Sarah Palin guy who says strange, overly broad, mildly crazy things. He’s already said that liberals have a “hatred of God.” And he had a strange rant in the program for the St. Charles County Lincoln Day in March. And…
One of the busiest dining rooms in town is also one of the biggest: the Horizon’s Buffet at the Ameristar Casino. There’s typically a long line to get into the modestly priced — and air-conditioned — buffet restaurant on weekend nights. But there was no line at 6:30 p.m. last Friday. “The hot weather has really cut into our business,”…
The Bottleneck’s Twitter feed just announced that, “due to transportation problems, HR of Bad Brains had to cancel his appearance at the Bottleneck tonight.” This comes after the opening act, Brooklyn hardcore punk band Cerebral Ballzy, announced yesterday that they had to cancel their dates in Lawrence and St. Louis. Categories: Music Tags: cancellations, Cerebral Ballzy, HR
Businessman Ted White was sentenced to 50 years in prison when he was wrongfully convicted of molesting his stepdaughter in 2001. He was freed in 2005, but those four years of his life are going to cost the city of Lee’s Summit $15.5 million. In an extremely convoluted case that the AP has a write-up of here, White’s now ex-wife…
Music may soothe the savage beast, but what do you do about out-of-control, wasted meatheads after last call? Apparently, they can be satisfied with a sucker. The Globe and Mail reported on a plan to literally pacify drunk morons in downtown Victoria, British Columbia, wherein city staff and police officers handed out red and blue lollipops to “loud and aggressive”…
For longer than I can remember, there’s been some terrified white person telling me that the immigrant hordes would come to this country, breed, and take over our democracy with either a repressive religious doctrine (Muslims) or their willingness to do hard labor for little pay (everyone who is brown). So, with this story about the Amish, I’m sure the…
The original Wheel Inn Drive-In in Sedalia, Missouri, had come and gone by the time I knew to go there from Kansas City. But while the 61-year-old institution closed in September 2007, it resurfaced at 2103 S. Limit Ave., courtesy of a former employee, Judy Clark, who purchased the name and recipes from owners John and Pat Brandkamp. And so driving…
Allow me to pat my colleagues on the back for a moment. The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies announced the winners of their annual Alternative Weekly Awards on Friday in New Orleans, and Pitch managing editor David Martin and staff writer Peter Rugg each took home first-place honors among papers with a circulation under 50,000. The AAN reviews submissions from across…
Hey, wasn’t it just four months ago that Fat City reported on a new tenant in the storefront restaurant at 11th Street and Oak — on the ground floor of the parking garage across the street from the Jackson County Courthouse? At that time, the space was the latest location of restaurateur Mekedem Belete’s Addis Ababa Cafe. Well, Addis Ababa…
