Archives: July 2015
Drink This Now: Summer Pimm’s Cup and Rajasthani Royale at Bluestem
This week’s Drink This Now is a twofer: After chatting with Andrew Olsen last week about his new position as the bar manager at Bluestem, I knew I needed to go sample one of the Pimm’s Cups he mentioned. (Well worth it. More on that after the jump.) But Olsen, back behind the bar after a four-month dry spell as…
Amore Dolci Bakery opens at 3709 Southwest Trafficway
Mallory Omundson was perfectly happy working as a pastry chef for the Pig & Finch restaurant in Leawood when, she says, “an opportunity just fell into my lap.” That opportunity was a storefront that the 26-year-old entrepreneur could lease, inexpensively, to open a new bakery at 3709 Southwest Trafficway. After a $10,000 renovation of the former tattoo parlor (including new…
The night before the fireworks, July’s First Friday boom
In May, some Kansas City artists traveled to one of the poorest, most homicide-stricken countries on Earth. With Karen Spring, of the Honduras Solidarity Network, they’d gone to meet activists working against what the Cross-Border Network for Justice & Solidarity calls “ruthless globalization” — the privatization of higher education and other social programs, the union-busting nationalization of Honduras’ power grid,…
Kansas Court of Appeals says Mission’s “driveway tax” is illegal
In the eyes of many businesses and residents of Mission, the so-called “driveway tax” is a nuisance. In the eyes of Mission policymakers, what they prefer to call the transportation utility fee an essential revenue stream to cover transportation costs In the eyes of judges on the Kansas Court of Appeals, it’s an illegal moneymaking scheme for the city. The…
Gogol Bordello, Crossroads Summer Block Party and more: Planning your 4th of July weekend in music
If you’re sticking around town this weekend (as opposed to, say, diving into a lake somewhere), you won’t be lacking any opportunities for entertainment. Forget fireworks – America will only turn 239 years old once, and you should boogie in her honor. FRIDAY, JULY 3 Gogol Bordello — Crossroads KC at Grinders Ukrainian-born Eugene Hütz is the best kind of…
Columbus Park Ramen Shop hosts ramen-and-beer dinner on July 9
The walls are finally being erected inside the former garage structure behind Happy Gillis Café & Hangout, at 549 Gillis in Columbus Park. The new restaurant envisioned by Josh and Abbey-Jo Eans, Columbus Park Ramen Shop, is getting closer to an early autumn opening date. As a “practice run” for Columbus Park Ramen Shop, the couple have once again announced…
Bier Station and Martin City Brewing Co. collaborate on Station to Station Berliner Weisse; tapping set for July 24
John Couture is excited, and he should be. Couture, the owner of Bier Station, is a few weeks away from tapping his bottle shop and beer hall’s first collaboration brew. At 5 p.m. Friday, July 24, Bier Station (120 East Gregory Boulevard) is scheduled to tap Station to Station Berliner Weisse, a collaboration brew with Martin City Brewing Co. “It’s really tart,”…
Bartender’s Notebook: At Rye, Julie Ohno masterminds more than just drinks
Some people call Julie Ohno “the bitters girl,” but that has nothing to do with her disposition. When I meet her at Rye, the Leawood restaurant where she works, she greets me from behind the bar with a bright smile. She’s eager to talk about what’s really behind that nickname: the seemingly endless recipe book she’s assembling for her burgeoning…
Northland squirrels have turned against humanity
You thought squirrels were harmless little creatures that nibble on nuts all day? Think AGAIN. They’ve gone rogue in the Northland. A disturbing report today from Gladstone, where a walker was attacked by a wild squirrel in Happy Rock Park — a place where most or possibly even all of the rocks are happy, or maybe there’s just one big,…
Throwback Thursday: Go back to the future with this live clip from the Primetime Heroes
Topeka pop-punk foursome the Primetime Heroes were supposed to play last weekend’s Field Day Fest, but were quietly replaced without an explanation. Given that these guys were once one of the area’s biggest bands, it’s kind of a bummer to see that they couldn’t get together for their first Lawrence show in almost a decade. The quartet has played several reunion…
Pig roast and New Belgium Eric’s Ale at Julian, Boulevard vertical dinner at Collection and more beer events
THURSDAY, JULY 2 Beer and brats with $10 21-ounce Gordon Biersch beers and brats, at Gordon Biersch (11652 Ash, Leawood) New Belgium brewery of the month tappings, with 1554 Black Lager, Snapshot wheat beer, Ranger IPA and Hop Tart American sour ale, at Waldo Pizza (7433 Broadway) Green Flash Silva Stout, at Flying Saucer (101 E. 13th St.), 7 p.m….
‘Weird Al’ Yankovic took everyone at the Midland to nerd church last night
“Weird Al” Yankovic The Midland, Kansas City Tuesday, June 30 When you go see “Weird Al” Yankovic, you know what you’re going to get: parodies of pop songs, filtered through the rubber-limbed accordion maestro’s sense of humor, along with a few genre pastiches and at least one serious bout of polka. What you don’t know is who you’re going to…
Alisha Templeton, Techstars program director, talks KC’s need for grab-and-go cold-pressed juice and NYC-style bagels, being a big and more
Name: Alisha Templeton Occupation: Program director for Techstars at the Sprint Accelerator Hometown: Olathe Current neighborhood: Columbus Park. Moving soon to River Market. What I do: I run a mentorship-driven startup accelerator that helps tech entrepreneurs grow their companies and receive funding from investors. What’s your addiction? Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, Instagram, GroupMe, Slack and sometimes Snapchat What’s your game? Connect…
The Overnight
It feels strange to report that The Overnight, a small-premise marital sketch stretched into a long-seeming 78-minute sex farce, doesn’t have enough dick jokes, but there it is. Cheerfully juvenile double entendres that telegraph the plot in the early going, yes, but nowhere close to the correct tally of cock-centric lines and looks for a comedy this dependent on male…
Movies form a literal escape in the surprising doc The Wolfpack
The Wolfpack, Crystal Moselle’s constantly surprising, occasionally troubling documentary, follows a family of kids raised in almost complete isolation in a New York City apartment. The Angulo kids’ father, a once-aspiring musician from Peru whose devotion to Krishna led him to the not entirely logical conclusion that NYC would corrupt and contaminate his family, forbade them from wandering out of…
Grab a beer and take a tour through Kansas City-area breweries
Over this month’s 31 days, Kansas City will see another new brewery open and a cozy taproom debut at Torn Label. And when the calendar turns over to August, The Pitch puts on the first City Market Beer Festival (free to attend, with the beer sold very affordably). In the coming weeks, look for more coverage here, including a guide…
Music Forecast 7.2-7.8: Gogol Bordello, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Kristeen Young, Rev Gusto, Crossroads Summer Block Party and more
Gogol Bordello Ukrainian-born Eugene Hütz is the best kind of madman, and he makes the most of his craziness in his multicultural eight-member troupe, Gogol Bordello, which merges the traditional sounds of Eastern European music with punk and electronica. Pura Vida Conspiracy, the band’s most recent album, is Exhibit A. It’s Gogol Bordello’s most sophisticated collection yet. Polkas entangle with…
Jazz Beat: Steve Cardenas Trio, at Take Five Coffee + Bar
Guitarist Steve Cardenas left Kansas City 20 years ago for New York, where, with his rich sound and compelling improvisations, he has performed and recorded with some top talent, including Charlie Haden, Paul Motian and Steve Swallow. Cardenas has also released four albums of his own, each replete with his distinctive, modern sound. This week, he returns to his hometown…
The Union’s Mistake Mondays are error-free nights out
When Sonya Walker tells me that one of the things she loves about managing the Union of Westport is its “family environment,” she’s not talking about its being kid-friendly. What she’s talking about is her nighclub’s spirit of comfortable inclusion. Each of the six nights a week that the Union is open, the place puts on highly varied entertainment for…
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