In a video released on YouTube yesterday, Missouri Rep. Eric Burlison attempts to shoot a few holes in the logic behind House Bill 545, which makes it a Class C felony to “import, possess, purchase, sell, or transfer any assault weapon or large capacity magazine.” Then, Burlison has a few holes shot in a paper copy of the bill at…
Helt is a man on a coffee mission. Ben Helt knows that there’s a perfect cup of coffee out there. That’s why the 38-year-old co-owner of Benetti’s Coffee (6109 Blue Ridge Boulevard, Raytown) went to Panama in January (where he visited coffee farms and helped a friend’s bed and breakfast with its barista program). And it’s why he has spent…
Freeman is the Flywheel in Flywheel Coffee. Jon Freeman is having a premonition. On a frigid Tuesday in February, the owner of two-month-old Flywheel Coffee, the tiny shop at 548 Central in Kansas City, Kansas, surveys the traffic speeding by. “Every time I sit down with someone,” he says as he slides a chair back from one of Flywheel’s four…
Chef Joseph Clark and sous chef Crystal Cherry Powell are ready to start cooking. The last time that Fat City spoke with chef Joseph Clark, the restaurateur was hoping that the midtown restaurant he’s opening with his father, Dr. Granville Clark, and brother Robert Clark would be open in January. Joseph Clark now says he’s got a drop-dead date for…
Photo by Sabrina Staires It’s game day for Fannect. Inside a space on Grand last occupied by the clothing boutique Method, Hunter Browning, Will Coatney and their team wait for an e-mail from Apple. Six days ago, they submitted their sports app for approval. “We’re on edge,” Browning says. “I’ve got push notifications on every e-mail. I really wish people…
Photo by Sabrina Staires Name: Beth Sarver Occupation: Solutionary educator Hometown: I was an Army “brat” growing up, so … Kansas City feels like home because it’s the place I have lived more than any other and it holds within its limits my epic community of heart-centered artists, visionaries and gay men. Current neighborhood: Brookside Who or what is your…
There’s no missing Seth Johnson’s artist statement. For Centuries of Self, his fascinating solo exhibition at Rockhurst University’s Greenlease Gallery, he has put it up as a looming block of text, six white-on-black paragraphs on an 8-foot-by-8-foot panel. It’s a barricade (Johnson calls it, aptly, “monolithic”) against casual viewing of the show, demanding a pause before you look at the…
You wouldn’t imagine that something as innocuous as a Kansas City Blues Society board election could turn as jagged as a Son House song. But contentious elections have become an unfortunate annual tradition for the KCBS, a nonprofit organization that purports to exist “solely for the purpose of promotion and preservation of various forms of blues music.” And when the…
In a scene about halfway through Evan S. Connell’s novel Mrs. Bridge, the title character tells some friends about the trip from which she has just returned, a European tour of great historic cities and their grand museums. But if any of that Continental splendor truly moved her, she doesn’t say. Instead, she finally admits: “All the time we were…
In 2010, American Idol taped a segment with former winners in their hometowns — a peek at the humble beginnings of now-famous pop superstars. David Cook, who won the reality-show singing competition in 2008, grew up in Blue Springs. Where around KC did Cook cut his teeth? “This is the Riot Room,” Cook says, as the camera scans the Westport…
Toro Y Moi Chaz Bundick, the boy genius behind Toro Y Moi, has not yet made a true dance record, but he keeps inching closer. After smartly abandoning the cheap synth-pop sound (most often described, regrettably, as “chillwave”) of his debut, Bundick dropped some jaws with 2011’s Underneath the Pine, a dreamy, expertly produced mix of smooth funk and melodic…
Colby Garrelts describes his new business, Rye, as “a country restaurant in a neighborhood that used to be in the country.” That neighborhood, the retail-and-residential development called Mission Farms, was indeed open prairie not so long ago. The land here, at the southern tip of Leawood, once held little more than the Saddle and Sirloin Club, a convivial riding and…
It’s being widely reported tonight that J.J.’s Wine Bar on the County Club Plaza became engulfed in flames after a gas explosion. I was walking out of the Marsh’s Sun Fresh grocery store at the intersection of Mill Street and Southwest Trafficway about half an hour ago and saw huge plumes of smoke looking south from the parking lot. I…
The Burger Stand The elk burger at the Burger Stand at the Casbah. There are a lot of great – even fabulous – burgers in the Greater Kansas City metro, but only one was selected by Zagat Survey for its listing of “The Best Hamburgers in 25 Cities,” which was a featured story today in USA Today. I’ve got to…
What you’re doing August 4. Canadian sci-fi prog trio Rush is coming to Kansas City. The date: Sunday, August 4. The KC stop is the last on the band’s Clockwork Angels tour. Nerds: Tickets on sale next Monday, February 25, at 10 a.m. Exceptionally nerdy individuals, note: Rush is performing a mere 10 hours away, in Denver, two days before,…
Flickr: DavidLocke1 Lawmakers could be counting down the end of the next session in a very different way. A Missouri representative wants to make his stance on gun control very clear. State Rep. Mike Leara (R-St. Louis) introduced a bill yesterday that would make it a crime for another lawmaker in the Missouri Legislature to introduce gun-control legislation . The…
Facebook: Starbucks Yup, that snowman is winking at you. Starbucks lovers got an early Valentine’s Day gift this year. The Starbucks at Ranchmart South (3807 W. 95th St.) opened the day before the holiday. In addition to the standard roasts out of Seattle, it’s got a patio and a dedicated drive-through. For gardeners, Starbucks will also give you free coffee…
Twitter: glezak Lezak’s not afraid to take the weather head on. Last night on KSHB Channel 41, meteorologist Gary Lezak didn’t just talk about the climate. He talked about climate change. All in all, it was a measured discussion of the potential impact of global warming. There were lots of “likely” and “may” mixed in with the statistics. As for…
Should filling stations be for filling your belly or car? I have eaten fried chicken, hot dogs, something hot-dog-shaped called a cheeseburger bite, taquitos, sandwiches, omelets, and barbecue from gas-station eateries. I have drunk coffee, instant milkshakes, all manners of slushies and freezies, soda concoctions, soup concoctions and enough iced tea to satisfy an elephant. As a result, my stance…
flickr/DSebourn If you like your fish deep-fried and crispy, we’ve got a fish fry for you! It’s officially fish-fry season in Kansas City – and with plenty of opportunity to eat meatlessly for the next six Fridays during the Lenten season. No matter what your religious affiliation, these modestly priced meals – fish, shrimp or some other meatless alternative (usually,…
The Star’s music blog Back to Rockville reported/announced today that Middle of the Map has added a second wave of bands to its lineup. The big one is Divine Fits, the new band fronted by Spoon’s Britt Daniel that released a weirdly underrated album, A Thing Called Divine Fits, last year. I mean, this jam is kind of undeniable, am…
A celebratory drug binge led to an explosion. Two Wichita brothers just wanted to celebrate winning $75,000 in the lottery with a little pot and meth. You know, like you do. Instead, they blew their house up, the Wichita Eagle reports. The paper says the explosion was triggered when one of the brothers was trying to refill butane torches that…
