Oto Gillen Tonight in Westport Part of me thinks that Bill Callahan is a ghost. Few in the RecordBar crowd, last time he was in town, seemed to even notice that he had taken the stage; the set started both abruptly and unassumingly. After the last song, he thanked the crowd, put down his guitar and walked right out the…
Growing up so fast! Smith Westerns released its video for “Varsity” today – it’s a bit of lush guitar pop from the Chicago crew’s upcoming album, Soft Will. (That record, the band’s third, is out June 25.) Smith Westerns also announced some tour dates today, including one in Kansas City, at the Riot Room, on Monday, August 5. Nice! Categories:…
Gavin Stark allegedly had a long night. Mizzou first baseman Gavin Stark is not having a very good season. The Lee’s Summit native has started just four games (down from 17 the previous year), and he’s hitting just .091. And now he has been suspended from the team and is facing felony charges after allegedly going a little nuts Monday…
Havercroft is happy to be in business for himself. “The fanciest it gets here might be aioli,” Nathan Havercroft says on a Thursday afternoon as he watches the lunch crowd at his new restaurant. “And we could call that garlic mayo, but the truth is, we just need to give people good food at a fair price.” The food at…
Teresa Johnson Name: Teresa Johnson Occupation: Executive director and chief lifesaving officer at the Kansas City Pet Project. My organization operates the largest and only open-admission animal shelter in Kansas City, which includes the KCMO Animal Shelter (behind the stadiums on Raytown Road) and a new Pet Adoption Center in Zona Rosa. We are committed to operating Kansas City’s animal…
Whiting, catfish and tilapia are all on the menu at the new Lutfi’s Fried Fish on 63rd Street. Ten months ago, local fried-fish mogul Lutfi Khalifa opened his flagship restaurant, his biggest venue to date, at 3037 Main. Two months ago, Khalifa moved his East Side location at 5932 Prospect into a shiny storefront in the newly remodeled Pener Plaza…
Conor Oberst is best known for his (now-almost-legendary?) emo-folk outfit Bright Eyes and his recent solo work, but back in the early ’00s, he also fronted the politically charged Omaha punk group Desaparecidos. He put the band back together last year for a couple of new songs and some tour dates, and today comes word that Desaparecidos will embark on…
Angela C. Bond Cutting the ribbon on Hollywood Casino helped Kansas earn its keep on gaming money. A gambler’s bad luck and a new casino have caused Kansas’ gaming revenue to surge more than 600 percent over the previous year. The American Gaming Association’s report on 2012 state-by-state gambling finances shows that spending at Kansas’ three casinos increased six times…
No matter how full your car is, don’t put a kid in the trunk. Sometimes child care requires improvisation. That on-your-feet thinking, however, should never lead to your saying, “Hey, let’s put the kid in the trunk.” Police say two grandparents in Jefferson City were doing a little shopping at a hardware store over the weekend, and the car filled…
Flickr: owenwbrown Do you feel the love for tots? When someone talks about tater tots, it’s hard not to think about a set of mashed taters in the side pocket of some cargo pants (give me some tots, Napoleon). But if the Internet is to be believed, tater tots have climbed the side-dish mountain to take their rightful place alongside…
Facebook: Bluestem Colby and Megan Garrelts had plenty to celebrate Monday night. Colby Garrelts will be returning to Kansas City with a medal around his neck. Garrelts, the co-owner of Bluestem and Rye who has been nominated for a James Beard Award seven times, was named the JBA’s Best Chef: Midwest Monday night. “I obviously brought my wife up here,”…
Jaimie Warren There’s only one Golden Ox: the 64-year-old original in the West Bottoms. Ten years ago, before veteran restaurateurs Steve Greer and Bill Teel had purchased the iconic Golden Ox in the West Bottoms (1600 Genessee, 816-842-2866), the venue’s then-owner, Jerry Rauschelbach, opened a short-lived outpost of Kansas City’s oldest steakhouse in the vacant Houston’s location at 95th Street…
I caught Trapper Schoepp (who is 22 years old) and his band, the Shades, a couple of months back in Austin, during South by Southwest. The Milwaukee group was playing poppy country-rock tunes – a little bit Exile on Main Street, a little bit Lucero – on a makeshift stage on the patio of a barbecue joint called Freedmen’s. At…
The MLS all-stars are coming to Kansas City. For the second summer in a row, Kansas City is hosting an all-star game. Sporting Park, home of Sporting Kansas City, will the be site of the Major League All-Star game July 31. Major League Soccer hasn’t announced who the league’s best players will take on in the game (last year the…
Photo by Sabrina Staires Stretch might be smiling today with a court decision in his favor. Stretch can stop flipping over couch cushions – he won’t have to find money to help pony up a $20 million bond to keep his lawsuit against the Kansas City streetcar going. An appeals court judge late Friday issued a ruling that flicked away…
Facebook: Three Pigs Always follow a hand-lettered sign. Some of the finest smoke in Blue Springs, Missouri, is in the parking lot of a cigar shop. A hand-lettered white sign that says “BBQ” and has a red arrow will point you to Three Pigs BBQ, which is regularly parked in the lot outside the Cigar Merchant at 809 N.W. Highway…
Facebook: The Big Biscuit The Northland is getting a Big Biscuit. There will soon be some new biscuits and gravy in town, Northlanders. The Big Biscuit is busy remodeling the former Chubby’s space at 6332 N.W. Barry Road in the hopes of opening by the end of the month. Eggs and pancakes headline the breakfast menu, while burgers, soups and…
Stuffed cabbage rolls, golambki, will be on the menu tomorrow for Polski Day. The weather report for Saturday: rainy. But Cathy Kolenda-Smith, the longtime chairwoman of the annual Polski Day in Kansas City, Kansas, isn’t concerned. “It’s my first rainy festival in 10 years,” she says. “But I’m not worried about tomorrow. Some people wait all year for this festival.”…
Peanches is still taking reservations, but you don’t always need one. Chef-restaurateur Ray “Pete” Peterman’s decision to limit service in his midtown restaurant, Peanches (900 West 39th Street, 816-709-3032), to patrons with reservations proved controversial from the beginning. But Peterman, perhaps the most iconclastic – and sometimes combative – chef in Kansas City, stuck to his principles for months. Now…
