The day of the high-altitude restaurant is over in Kansas City You still press the “B” button on the express elevator in the lobby of the Westin Crown Center Hotel to get to the restaurant on the 19th floor. That dining room has been, for the last 17 years, a steakhouse named after artist Thomas Hart Benton; there have been…
Ponyboy. Destroy Hump Day with these Best Bets. Tonight: Ponyboy, Radkey at Replay LoungeStephen Kellogg and the Sixers, Jon McLaughlin, Graham Colton at the BottleneckBenefit show for Bill Larson with Outlaw Jim & the Whiskey Benders, Justa Billy & the Bullhaulers, Middle Creek, Levee Town, Dan Doran at KnuckleheadsFlaming Death Trap, Sleep Agents at RecordBar Categories: Music
Nicole Reinertson Will anyone boo-hoo over the loss of Cafe Roux? Bringing the cuisine of the Big Easy to the Kansas City metro just hasn’t been that easy, particularly in the Kansas suburbs where the Eddy family’s Big Easy Cafe failed several years ago, followed by Copeland’s and the short-lived Boudreaux’s Louisiana Seafood & Steaks in Leawood. Last weekend, another…
Don Harman has died. Fox 4 meteorologist Don Harman died Tuesday evening. The station confirmed Harman’s death at the top of its noon news broadcast. Harman has worked the morning news show since April 1999. He is survived by his wife, Monica, and daughter, Avery. He was 41.UPDATE: Fox 4 issued a statement on Harman’s death on its website. Fox…
Brownback is feeling the wrath of Twitter. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is so fragile. We found out last week just how delicate the Republican’s feelings are, after a teenager made a rude comment about him on the Internet. Emma Sullivan, an 18-year-old senior at Shawnee Mission East High School, grabbed headlines with a tweet directed at Brownback. She had just…
Chris Mullins Well before the Throne was Watched last night at Sprint Center, the concourse was heavy with the stench of weed and cologne. A haze of smoke hung above the jittering crowd. Everywhere you looked: tight miniskirts. A group of 19-year-old sorority girls toting Coach bags huddled together in the middle of the foot traffic, rehearsed smiles glued to…
Next time you’re lost in a gigantic mall or a baffling airport, don’t bother looking for those old-fashioned back-lit map monoliths for guidance. Instead, whip out your Android smartphone and pull up Google Maps. Having apparently conquered the terrestrial world, Google is now in the business of mapping buildings, including our own Kansas City International Airport. A Google blog post…
Chris Mullins I’m not sure that the Sprint Center has ever had to contend with the levels of swagger that it was dealt last night, but it has also never had to contend with Jay-Z and Kanye West on the same stage. The two artists (and particularly West) are often discussed in terms of ego, and everyone expected and received…
Ugly Christmas Sweater Party There will be no shortage of ugly sweaters on display next weekend. You’ve got one last shot at a dinner around El Comedor — the lacquered wood table inside the airstream trailer known as Port Fonda. And this four-course dinner is going to be special (and likely a bit raucous) because Boulevard will be providing the…
Sabrina Staires Nothing has changed at Villa Capri, and that’s the idea. Some restaurants are frozen in time, and that’s just the way the regulars like it. In this week’s print edition, Charles Ferruzza set out to uncover the secret formula that has kept Villa Capri, In-a-Tub, Don Chilito’s, Sharp’s and YJ’s Snack Bar in the hearts of Kansas Citians…
New York Grub Street Do you see these faces when you dine out? Have we lost the ability to enjoy a simple meal because we can’t stop judging what we’re eating? That’s one of the questions raised in this week’s Deadspin Funbag. As Jason laments: Since we started watching food shows, my fiancee and I suddenly turn into douchebag judges…
Pop-culture website Topless Robot has a list of “10 notable real-life superheroes (aside from Phoenix Jones),” and a former Kansas Citian is on the list. A superhero named Nyx is still doing good works, helping the homeless and underprivileged. I heard about Nyx in 2009. At the time, she was preparing a move to New York. Sounds like she’s made…
Sam Mellinger and Frankie Occupation: Sports columnist at The Kansas City Star Hometown: Lawrence, Kansas Current neighborhood: Downtown Kansas City, Missouri Who or what is your sidekick? Frankie, my pointer mix with an enormous vertical leap. No joke, she can scale a tree. Career high is maybe 12 feet off the ground. Traffic stops when we’re out on walks. What…
%{}% Flipping the Patriarchal Monotheistic Script. Grateful for One Goddess (Chaka, last week). This week I invoke the pagan Horned One with multiple male singing favorites. Sagittarius/Sagittarius Rising* (Nov 22-Dec 19): Easy to show gratitude to none other than Jimi Hendrix, left-handed Sagittarius. Wind, desert, Kansas, Voodoo and my newest favorite over the last five years: Are You Experienced? It…
Singer-songwriter (and former Drive-By Trucker) Jason Isbell is half John Prine’s age, but together they make for a smart bill when they arrive at the Midland. Both tend to write about characters whose lives are often overlooked: the families of those killed in action (Prine’s “Hello in There,” Isbell’s “Dress Blues”), the families of those vets who come back to…
The compact-disc sampler was once ubiquitous. A quick dig through a Kansas City-area clearance rack or bargain bin unearths compilations devoted to radio stations, record labels and various benefit causes. But today, digital players hold entire music libraries, with room left over for the extended edition of the complete Lord of the Rings trilogy. CDs are coasters. The CD comp…
There isn’t an address on the paint-chipped farmhouse in Nortonville, about 30 miles north of Lawrence. Across from it on this country road, the mailbox hangs limp. A muddy driveway leads past a beat-up pickup truck to a garage. An approaching car sends cats scattering. It’s the only place that Ann Kristin Neuhaus and Mike Caddell have ever owned. She…
White Rabbits White Rabbits make a strong case for Midwest rock bands decamping for the coasts. The Columbia, Missouri, kids migrated to Brooklyn sometime around 2006, and by summer 2007, Pitchfork had slapped a Recommended on their debut, Fort Nightly. That record was a brassy, rhythmic, Walkmen-inspired collection. The follow-up, 2009’s It’s Frightening, was a more pared-down affair, the handiwork…
I’m wearing black, a show of mourning for the three Kansas City restaurants scheduled to close forever December 1: Skies, the Peppercorn Duck Club and Benton’s Steakhouse. It’s always bittersweet when a restaurant that used to be a favorite ends a long and glorious run. I actually shed a tear or two when Stephenson’s Old Apple Farm Restaurant closed in…
Susan Montee’s children stood up for each other. Missouri Lt. Gov. candidate Susan Montee’s daughter and two sons were arrested after an altercation outside a bar in St. Joseph. The St. Joseph News-Press reported that the Montee children were in St. Joe for Thanksgiving with their mother, former leader of the Missouri Democratic Party and former state auditor. Police were…
The love for some restaurants just can’t be explained. The Pitch visited Villa Capri, In a Tub, Don Chilito’s, Sharp’s and YJ’s Snack Bar to try and find out why people are so crazy about these quirky institutions. Photos by Sabrina Staires.
