It’s been a long six months for Laura Norris. The original plan was to seamlessly transition her beloved Westport Italian restaurant, Ragazza, into a bigger space at 43rd and Main, without ever really closing for business. Due to a variety of construction issues with the new location, though, that didn’t happen, and since last fall, we’ve had no Ragazza. As…
Cruise down the seventeen or so blocks that make up Central Avenue, near downtown Kansas City, and you’ll see what can happen when an immigrant community finds a welcoming home. This commercial stretch is largely free from the dull and oppressive hand of corporate influence. Instead, you find dress shops overflowing with tulle and sequins, the customers excitedly anticipating quinceañeras…
Like Spider-Man and some of the other characters Planet Comicon celebrates, the convention itself has modest origins. According to co-founder and CEO Chris Jackson, its rise over the last 20 years has less to do with being bitten by a radioactive spider and more to do with hard work and fan loyalty.During that time, it has attracted Aquaman himself, Jason…
The Uptown Arts Bar opened in 2012 with grand ambitions.”It will be a community bar,” owner Greg Patterson told us at the time, “presenting, celebrating and supporting the performing arts in Kansas City.”Patterson added: “It will become Kansas City’s first real artists hangout.” In a lot of ways, Uptown Arts Bar accomplished those goals. In recent years, its upstairs club Niche…
If previous Kansas City elections are any indication, turnout in this year’s mayoral primary will be abysmal. Just 50,000 people could be bothered to come out for the last competitive mayoral primary, in 2011, and only slightly more (57,000) dragged their asses to the polls in 2007. This year, 11 candidates are jockeying for votes, hoping to be the one to…
Monday, March 18It’s now officially The Pitch’s Taco Week! Get half off select tacos all week long at the following spots: the Ainsworth, Mission Taco Joint (both KC locations), Big Whiskey, Brew Lab, Charlie Hooper’s, Drunken Worm, EJ’s Urban Eatery, El Fogon, El Patron, Lew’s, Ted’s Cafe Escondido, Unforked, the Well and Mesob Restaurant. Did we say half off? Get more information,…
The Pitch’s Taco Week begins today — Monday, March 18 — and runs through Sunday, March 24. What that means: half-price tacos at multiple locations across the Kansas City metro. What places? What kinds of tacos? Reader, the information you seek can be found by tapping or clicking upon this spot. And tag your taco accomplishments on Twitter and Instagram at…
Dear Dan: My grandfather was a pillar of the community and beloved by his family. He was also sexually abusive. He died when I was a child. I remember only one incident happening to me — during a cuddle session, he encouraged me to put my mouth on his penis, and then told me to let it be our little…
The Humans, now showing at the Unicorn, is rife with passive-aggressive sniping, persistent nagging, underhanded criticism, rivulets of tension — the kind of family get-together about which jokes are so often made. But this particular Thanksgiving gathering possesses much more.The play, an intricately and richly written one-act by Stephen Karam, won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2016. The…
Though rapper and producer Leikeli47 might opt to keep her personal identity under wraps by masking herself behind balaclavas and bandanas, she’s far from anonymous. Her music videos are a visual delight, playing with styles and genres as fluidly as her lyrical delivery and beats. And despite having shied away from interviews in the past, she’s effusive and open about…
Chris Sarandon has 104 IMDB credits and has played everything from Frankenstein’s monster to Abraham Lincoln to Al Pacino’s pre-operative transgender wife in the groundbreaking and nail-biting hostage drama Dog Day Afternoon, a role for which he earned an Academy Award nomination. Sarandon is perhaps best known, though, for helping bring a skeleton to life for Tim Burton. He provided the…
Beer, bagpipes, and a sea of green: St. Patrick’s Day festivities kick off this weekend. Whether you’re celebrating your Irish heritage or (and let’s be real) looking for an excuse to day-drink tinted beer and get a little rowdy, here are some events for you.ParadesSt. Patrick’s Day parades can be family-friendly and/or hangover-inducing, depending on which you prefer. Brookside hosts…
Comparing poetry to song lyrics is lazy, so I’m reluctant to mention to Lawrence poet Danny Caine that the way he’s organized his new collection, Continental Breakfast (Mason Jar Press), reminds me of the way a band or a musician might track-list an album. The front half of the book is a collection of poems that examine the idea of place…
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been speaking with Kansas City mayoral candidates about how they’d use the office to approach the biggest challenges facing Kansas City. (Pick up our March issue, out now, for a preview of the race.) Kansas City spans 319 square miles. (By comparison, St. Louis lies within 66 square miles.) Downtown, the East Side, the Northland,…
Since its first broadcast on September 11, 1994, the Kansas Public Radio program, Trail Mix – bringing listeners “the best in yesterday’s and today’s singer-songwriters, spiced with Americana, alternative country, folk-rock, bluegrass, traditional folk, and Celtic music” – has undergone quite a few changes. When it first started, longtime host Bob McWilliams had been hosting jazz on KPR – then…
A tight ensemble cast with serious comic chops freshens the Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play. Jocelyn Bioh’s crackling one-act follows a squad of young women at the Aburi Girls’ Senior High School jockeying for a chance to represent Ghana in the “Miss Global Universe” pageant. The obvious frontrunner is Paulina Sarpong (Bri Woods), a…
City Barrel Brewing has something to say to anyone who thinks the Crossroads has reached Peak Beer. In late February, the 15-barrel brewery and restaurant opened on 1740 Holmes, just a stone’s throw from five other microbreweries — Torn Label, Border, Brewery Emperial, Double Shift, and Casual Animal. But co-founder James Stutsman doesn’t see them as competition.“Honestly, it’s become this…
Monday, March 11Pirate’s Bone, the vegan coffee cafe at 645 East 59th Street, is hosting its last Meatless Monday tonight before closing its test kitchen (an Indiegogo campaign is in the works for what potentially might be a new location for Pirate’s Bone). Tonight you can still pick up beet or black bean burgers, both with tortilla chips and salsa,…
Descendents with Pears and Ultimate Fakebook Liberty Hall // Sunday, March 10 It’d been nearly 22 years since pop-punk legends Descendents last played Lawrence, so an enthusiastic crowd greeted the band when they took the stage at Liberty Hall last night. After a brief reminisce regarding their long absence from frontman Milo Aukerman, guitarist Stephen Egerton spoke the words “I want…
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Thirty years ago, B-Real was one half of the hip-hop group Cypress Hill and — if the group’s lyrical content is to be trusted — a weed dealer. Today, B-Real is a globetrotting stoner rap icon with many irons in many fires. Cypress Hill is about to head out on a co-headlining tour of America with Hollywood Undead on the heels of…
Dear Dan: Let’s say my kink is edging and I edge myself for a few days leading up to a date. Is it my responsibility to tell my potential partner? There are a few variables here that are important to note. This is a first/Tinder date, and it’s just a coffee date, BUT she and I have talked about our…
Hundreds are protesting a Prairie Village Catholic school for denying the enrollment of a same-sex couple’s child. Signed by nearly 1,000 people, a petition on behalf of the members of St. Ann Catholic School urges leaders of the church to allow the student’s admission.“Respectfully, we believe that the decision to deny a child of God access to such a wonderful…
