Saddle Up

You know you’re in for a kick-ass evening when the first question that’s asked of you after entering a bar is “Do you have any pot?”

On a recent Saturday night, we had gone to Stables Bar & Grill at 9th Street and Walnut for the after-party of the 18th Street fashion show when we were asked that question by a guy wearing what looked like pajamas. He was clad in a matching plaid shirt and shorts and had added a safari hat for that veldt-sleepwear-chic look. Sadly, we weren’t able to accommodate him, but that didn’t stop him from kicking off his mandals and frenetically dancing the rest of the night. And it certainly didn’t stop us from doing shots of cherry schnapps (yarrgh), dancing to “Billie Jean” and having a raucous good time.

So when we heard that Lovely, the skate shop on 18th Street, has been hosting Lovely Tuesdays there for the past couple of months (featuring DJs and skate videos), we eagerly returned just a few days later around 11:30 p.m. and found a much more low-key scene. Skaters were doing tricks on a portable handrail out front, and after getting vodka cranberries, we wanted to take our drinks outside to watch them — and ask if they grind on the frontside or the backside — but decided we probably shouldn’t.

“As I was driving in, I was thinking what a shitty downtown Kansas City has,” Research Assistant John later told us. “I mean, you have skateboarders in the street, then you also have the SWAT team practicing there. What other city’s downtown is so empty that they can do this?” But that’s the kind of thing we like about our little downtown — the fact that it’s not too yuppified for this kind of shit to go on.

Of course, it’s cool to see that Stables is adding some new energy to the north edge of downtown and becoming quite the scenesterific spot. We immediately liked the place; it’s a dimly lighted, medium-sized dive with office chairs on wheels, horsewhips and other equine paraphernalia hanging on the walls, and possibly one of the best dive bathrooms we’ve utilized: Behind the door labeled “mares” (with another sign that read “ladies”) was an astonishingly clean WC with a rose in a Bud Light-bottle vase and a cork-stopped glass bottle that contained Listerine. A bartender later told us that the “ladies” sign was for the benefit of the many guys who were confused about which bathroom they needed to enter. Up front, a flimsy dance floor had been duct-taped to the carpet, and after “Eye of the Tiger” inspired some high-fiving and air-guitaring among the cute skater guys, the break dancers started twisting around in improbable positions that seemed more Kama Sutra-ish, with legs splayed into the air and some guy-on-guy horizontal balancing action going on. After a couple of sets, that gave way to some open-mike rapping when a couple of guys in long shorts got up and took over.

“So … is this good?” we whispered to RA Andrew.

“No. That guy needs to stop,” he replied as the performer in question rhymed Hit a brick wall/ So fuck all y’all.

We had lost interest in the Star Search portion of the evening, so we chatted with Eric, a sound tech for the Stables and the BF of a bartender. “This is a city bar,” he said. “It’s very divey, and we get a weird cross-section of people. Sometimes you’ll see a bus driver having lunch, people from the Crossroads District, someone from the mayor’s office … if it gets popular, it’ll be ruined. We want it to stay more of a hideaway place.”

Maurice, a 36-year-old regular who had been standing alone in the back, seconded that thought. “It’s off the beaten path, and it’s a lot of old guys shooting the shit,” he said when we asked him what the bar is like when the hipsters aren’t around. “It’s the same thing, but a different generation, and the music isn’t as loud. Happy hours get the best crowd here — at that round table in front are the bankers, and the salesmen sit at the bar.”

According to Eric, on June 23 the bar is going to start a series of “reel industry” nights on Wednesdays that will feature showings of independent or Kansas City Art Institute films and plates of home-cookin’ for $6. “We’re not afraid of being different on a weekly basis,” he proclaimed. “If people come here and tell us what they want, we’ll do it.” Pot requests notwithstanding, we presume.