Archives: August 2015

Music

Drink This Now: The Fire & Ice at Char Bar

Natalie Gallagher,

It’s relatively easy to overlook the cocktail menu at Char Bar. Not that the drinks are prominently listed or anything — they are. But by the time your brain decides which delicious barbecue item will be filling your belly, more decisions about what to drink can be difficult (especially given Char Bar’s extensive beer list). Let me uncomplicate it for…
Dining, Food & Drink

Artego Pizza on 39th Street is closed after seven months

Charles Ferruzza,

The sign taped to the front door of Artego Pizza, at 900 West 39th Street, puts it this way: “Closed for kitchen repairs.” Well, it’s closed all right, but it sounds like the kitchen is the least of Artego’s problems. This evening, KSHB Channel 41 aired a story reporting that the restaurant was closed and that co-owner Brandon Carrier was…
News

Jim Brownback, the governor’s younger brother, is one of the family’s largest recipients of federal farm subsidies

Steve Vockrodt,

Jim Brownback, the heretofore anonymous younger brother of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, made his way into Sunflower State consciousness with a weekend news account of his dangerous behavior directed at neighbors. The younger Brownback was the subject of a page-turning investigative report by the Topeka Capital-Journal’s ace reporter, Tim Carpenter. The 5,000-word story is worth a read. It describes how Jim…
Dining, News

Lawrence’s Ladybird Diner reopens on Wednesday

Charles Ferruzza,

Five months ago, a fire in Biggs BBQ, the business next to Meg Heriford’s Ladybird Diner, caused enough water and smoke damage to force Heriford to close her then six-month-old business. Heriford tells The Pitch that on Wednesday, business will return, as usual, to the unique diner at 721 Massachusetts. “The doughnut case opens at 7 a.m.” Heriford says. During…
Dining, Food & Drink

Story restaurant to serve barbecue, a la française

Charles Ferruzza,

When local cookbook writers Judith Fertig and Karen Adler — the self-appointed “Barbecue Queens” of the metro — were looking for a new concept to complement their earlier The Gardener & the Grill and Patio Pizzeria, they wanted a way to make grilling “easy, uncomplicated…and French,” they say. “We wanted it to be,” Fertig says, “the culinary equivalent of the…
Music

New Music Monday: Listen to ‘Balance’ by Bonzo Madrid

Natalie Gallagher,

Welcome to a new, informal series: New Music Monday. Once a week or so, we’ll supply you with a new, local tune to jam out to. Because who needs to get work done? Not you, friend. Not you.  Kicking things off is a new track from C.J. Calhoun, aka Bonzo Madrid, called “Balance.” The song introduces itself with a rainstick…
Music

Shania Twain said goodbye to Kansas City at the Sprint Center last night

Natalie Gallagher,

Shania Twain with Gavin DeGraw Friday, August 7 Sprint Center, Kansas City, Missouri If we are to believe Shania Twain’s recent interview with Rolling Stone, then yes, her Rock This Country! tour will be her last. And as far as goodbyes go, last night’s show at the Sprint Center was top-notch. Twain hasn’t released a studio album since 2002’s Up!,…
News

Clarette Club in Mission closing — making way for the Peanut?

Charles Ferruzza,

An old Pitch favorite among metro saloons, Mission’s Clarette Club (5400 Martway), is closing in two weeks, according to an employee who answered the phone there this afternoon. The next tenant is rumored to be the Peanut, the local chain of five bars owned by Melinda Kenny. “I don’t know yet,” Kenny tells The Pitch. “I just don’t know. It’s…
Music

Westport Saloon celebrates its two-year anniversary on Saturday with music from the Kansas City Bear Fighters, Rural Grit, A.J. Gaither OMB and more

Natalie Gallagher,

Has it really been two years since the Westport Saloon came into our musical life? Why, it seems like just yesterday that we were strolling into the new Westport Saloon, its polished wooden floors ready for some boot-scuffin’ dancing, its hundreds of whiskey bottles winking suggestively at us.  Saturday night, the Westport Saloon celebrates its two years of business with…
A&E

Mills Record Co. hosts free show tonight with music from the Rey-Tones and the Thunderclaps and photos by Zach Bauman

Natalie Gallagher,

We’re sure you’ve got a lot of options for Friday-night fun — slurping margs at The Pitch’s sold-out Margarita Wars, perhaps, or twanging with Shania Twain — but we have one more (free!) activity you should make room for on your dance card: a music and photography show at Mills Record Co. (314 Westport Road) tonight at 7. One of…
Music

The Mountain Goats announce new tour, John Darnielle to perform solo at Lawrence Arts Center in September

Natalie Gallagher,

Folk-rock heroes the Mountain Goats have just announced a new fall tour, and for Lawrencians, the news gets even sweeter: Band founder, leader and recently published author (see last year’s Wolf in White Van) John Darnielle is performing a portion of the tour solo, including a concert date at the Lawrence Arts Center on Wednesday, September 9. The tour is…
News

Town fool who said he was leaving Lawrence because of Obama is still in Lawrence, still a fool

David Hudnall,

Robert Fyfe, the owner of recently closed Payless Furniture (2800 Iowa), is still hawking furniture in Lawrence, only now he’s doing it out of an old warehouse on Bullene Avenue.  This would not qualify as news — such deeply satisfying news — were it not for Fyfe’s belligerent public outburst back in May upon the closure of Payless Furniture. You may recall…
A&E, Art

On First Friday, A Universe begins — and ends — at Grand Arts

Tracy Abeln,

In less than a month, Grand Arts (1819 Grand) closes its final show, wrapping up two decades as both forward-thinking innovator and resurgent-Crossroads anchor. It’s hard to imagine what the past 20 years of KC’s art landscape would have been like without the gallery’s essential, often provocative programming. And it’s impossible to know what its absence means going forward. So…