Archives: March 2019

Where to eat on Central Avenue, quite possibly the most exciting culinary thoroughfare in the metro

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…

Planet Comicon cofounder Chris Jackson has been doing it for 20 years now

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…

Uptown Arts Bar has closed and been sold to John Scott

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…

The one true guide to the 2019 Kansas City mayoral primary

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…

Spring wine dinners at Affäre and Freshwater, Taco Week, spirits tastings, and more: KC’s food & drink events for March 18-24

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,…

Here’s the deal(s) on Taco Week, which starts today

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…

On Leaving Neverland and opening up about abuse

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, at the Unicorn, eerily captures modern-day anxiety

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…

Rapper Leikeli47 unmasks (sort of) ahead of Tuesday’s Encore show

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 — appearing this month at Planet Comicon — on Chucky, vampires, and Prince Humperdinck

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…

What are you doing St. Patrick’s Day weekend?

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…

How to connect all 319 square miles of Kansas City

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,…

KPR’s Bob McWilliams on 25 years of Trail Mix, ahead of Saturday’s anniversary show

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…

Capitalism, colonialism, and comedy in School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play at the KC Rep

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…

Can City Barrel distinguish itself in a Crossroads runneth over with breweries?

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…

Descendents, last night at Liberty Hall (photos, setlist)

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…

What do other priests think about St. Ann Catholic School refusing to enroll the child of a same-sex couple?

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…