Archives: August 2015
Red Bridge Shopping Center gets more public incentives
In 2008, the owners of the Red Bridge Shopping Center wanted to spruce up the south Kansas City retail outlet. The J.C. Nichols development opened in 1965 but has since fallen on hard times. City leaders cooperated, approving a half-cent sales-tax increase on goods purchased at the shopping center at Red Bridge Road and Holmes. The CID would direct the…
Idina Menzel delivered a riveting show at Starlight last night
Idina Menzel Wednesday, August 12 Starlight Theatre, Kansas City Divas of the world, pay attention: Idina Menzel is who you should be directing your prayers to. Last night at Starlight, she proved to the audience of around 3,600 that you don’t need a half-dozen costume changes and fancy stage effects to impress. If you’re Menzel, all you need is that…
Let us now praise lettuce wraps
Every time I eat at Blue Koi for lunch, the food coma hits before I’ve even returned to work for the afternoon. My brain fills with television static, and my body feels like it’s going to melt off my chair, leaving behind a chili-spiced soy puddle. I mean this as a compliment. Friends have suggested that I eat only half…
Heavy gas fumes caused by gas station’s petroleum leak at 31st Street and Cleveland draws lawsuit from Missouri attorney general
Going all the way back to 2006, people who live near Inner City Oil, a gas station at 31st Street and Cleveland, have complained of a heavy stench of gas hanging in the air. In recent news stories, residents report the smell is sometimes so pungent that it causes them to vomit or be unable to sleep. In January, the…
Homesteader Cafe plans a September opening downtown
If you’re in the market for a perfectly good used disco ball, Megan Kendall and Jeremy Lane have one to sell. Their new restaurant, the Homesteader Cafe, isn’t going to have a dance floor. When the young restaurateurs leased the street-level corner space at 100 East Seventh Street, in the historic Western Union building, the mirror ball wasn’t the only…
Reluctantly celebrating Groundhog Day in my yard, six months late
On a steamy July morning, a three-word text from my boyfriend jarred me out of my summer daze: “Check the trap.” Before dawn, he had baited a cage with some cantaloupe and placed it just outside the garden of our East Side home. He’d been doing this for weeks but had caught only possums. That day, though, I wandered outside…
Free State 28 tap takeover at Bier Station, Lagunitas brewers table with Mary Bauer, Unico Brew Festival, 75th Street Summer Beer Fest and more
THURSDAY, AUGUST 13 Lagunitas brewers table, with head brewer Mary Bauer and tappings of Mozanga, Lil’ Sumpin Special, Gnarleywine and Pils, and food pairings from chef Derek Owen, at Flying Saucer (101 E. 13th St.), 7 p.m. Hops for Heroes with Torn Label, benefiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Kansas City, at Maker Village (606 E. 31st St.), $20, 5:30-7:30…
Chilling out in August with concretes at Andy’s Frozen Custard
Driving down Westport Road on one of the hottest days of the summer so far, I spotted a sign I couldn’t ignore. “Key lime pie concretes,” it read. I hit the brakes. I needed this not to be a mirage. I needed delicious relief from the punishing heat. Even with my car’s air conditioner at full blast, sweat wouldn’t stop…
Streetside: CrossFit, annotated by an outsider
Let me start by saying I’m not super-fit. I never have been. I never will be. I like cheeseburgers and chocolate, and my fries had better come with mayo. If my doctor saw me at a bar, she’d send me to detox. My version of a marathon involves Netflix and takeout. So when I loudly told friends — and co-workers,…
Leanne Breiby, of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, talks downtown gondolas, becoming a Jayhawk and more
Name: Leanne Breiby Occupation: Director of communications, Greater Kansas City Community Foundation Twitter handle: @LeanneBreiby Hometown: Olathe Current neighborhood: Downtown KCMO What I do: I encourage donors to give to the causes they care about through charitable-giving accounts, also known as donor-advised funds. What’s your addiction? Doing. Anything, really — concerts, sporting events, bike rides, happy hours. My friends have…
The End of the Tour: grace under pressure
A short list of the actors who have played Ernest Hemingway as various shades of glowering in filmed life stories: Stacy Keach, Clive Owen, Victor Garber. At least as convincing in a comedy: Corey Stoll, a Woody Allen-ized version of Papa in Midnight in Paris. A shorter list of all the actors who have played David Foster Wallace: Jason Segel….
Kansas City wants to keep a convention center consultant’s report buried
Just before the Kansas City, Missouri, City Council’s July 23 vote to approve a $311 million downtown convention hotel, Mayor Sly James made a point about including experts and facts in political discussions. “As a trial lawyer, I will tell you straight up: If I wanted to prove a certain point or make a certain statement and get an affidavit…
Music Forecast 8.13-8.19: My Morning Jacket, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Miguel, Lake Street Dive
My Morning Jacket In April, My Morning Jacket released The Waterfall, the first album by the Louisville, Kentucky, band in four years. And though the tracks unfurl with guns blazing — a triumphant return to form for the band — the album feels like an extended vacation, with mystical riffs and a hazy, trippy reverb coating such songs as “Tropics…
Jazz Beat: Mark Lowrey and La Fonda All Stars, at Take Five Coffee + Bar
Take Five Coffee + Bar closes Saturday, succumbing to structural issues with its space and minimal foot traffic. But it goes out with class — and Afro-Cuban jazz by Mark Lowrey and La Fonda All Stars (named for the Southwest Boulevard restaurant where they rehearse). Pianist Lowrey, percussionist Juan-Carlos Chaurand (from the ensemble Making Movies), drummer John Kizilarmut and bassist…
Britt Adair expands her summer punk festival
Last year, the now-defunct venue Vandals was home to the inaugural Summer Kamp Fest — a three-day punk blowout featuring more than 30 local and regional acts. Britt Adair, then the booker at Vandals, was the principal Summer Kamp Fest organizer, and she had every intention of making it a recurring event. But Vandals shuttered in March, and Adair had…
Allison Rose Williams and Brandon Thomas experiment with a new Pheromone
The Riot Room’s calendar still lists Allison Rose Williams as Monday’s first performer, but the singer tells me to expect something else that night, a new project: Pheromone. There is no online presence for this act, she adds with a smile — no Bandcamp page, no SoundCloud link, no social media. Pheromone’s music isn’t ready to live on those platforms…
Del Kimball, Sam Furseth and other online payday lenders are still doing big business — in court
In June, a three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals issued an unusual opinion in the case of Erica Hollins v. Capital Solutions Investments Inc. In 2006, Hollins took out a $100 loan from CSI, a consumer installment lender. She made only one payment on the loan, then stopped responding to CSI’s requests for further payment. The balance quickly…
Martin City Brewing Co.’s masterminds send their Belgian beers to market
A few weeks back, Matt Moore returned to Martin City Brewing Co. after a tasting in Lawrence. The company’s co-owner and founder walked into the dark brewhouse after 9 p.m. Korn videos were playing on a television. Brewmaster Nick Vaughn was standing behind the bar, scribbling notes on a whiteboard. “Nick, what are you doing?” Moore asked. “Coming up with…
Independence City Council fires city manager Robert Heacock
The Independence City Council quietly voted to dismiss longtime city manager Robert Heacock on Monday. During a council meeting that was not widely publicized — no notice of the Monday meeting was posted on the city’s website, although all others are advertised there — a 5-2 majority of the council jettisoned Heacock. Heacock had been city manager since 2004, serving…
Papa Keno’s returns to Westport next month
Seven years after the Papa Keno’s pizzeria closed at 415 Westport Road, a duo of new owners — David Hawley and Tyler Parker — is ready to bring the popular shop back to the same location. Hawley, who also owns the Papa Keno’s in Lawrence, says the projected opening date for the Westport restaurant is September 1. Hawley and two…
Snack bar vendor in Kansas Capitol building closing, can’t compete with free food from lobbyists
Don Wistuba has served concessions in the Kansas Statehouse since 1976. On August 31, he’ll be closing his business for good. The reason? His customer base — Kansas lawmakers — get too much free food from lobbyists. From the Lawrence Journal-World: “It takes customers to keep this thing going,” he said. “When 90 percent of the people get in the…
Torn Label Brewing Co.’s first bottle release — out this week — is a Kansas exclusive
The Kansas side of the state line is getting something Missouri won’t: Torn Label Brewing Co.’s first bottle release, KC P’Rye’d. Due to Missouri’s backed-up label-approval process, the red-rye ale with Simcoe will be released this week in bomber bottles exclusively in the Sunflower State. “I would love to be able to release it in Missouri,” Torn Label’s Rafi Chaudry…
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