If You Go...
Besides serving mouthwatering
food,
Kansas City offers an array of other great experiences to savor, no matter what time of year you visit.
Explore the past: In the 18th & Vine Jazz District are two exceptional museums, each with poignant elements. The Negro Leagues
Baseball Museum tells the amazing stories of whom many experts believe to be the best baseball players of all time. The adjacent American Jazz Museum gives extensive profiles on the four greats:
Duke Ellington,
Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Kansas City’s own Charlie Parker.
Paint the town: The Kansas City Power & Light District, an $850 million development covering eight formerly quiet blocks, is a rocking scene with dozens of bars, clubs, and restaurants. There, you’ll find Gordon Biersch, a microbrewery; Raglan Road Irish Restaurant and Pub, a rollicking Irish bar; Lucky Strike Lanes & Lounge, a hip
bowling alley with a DJ; Angel Rock Bar, a lights-out rock dance club; and Howl at the Moon, a dueling-pianos bar.
Artful pursuits: If you like the Met in New York, you’ll love the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, with its extraordinary Chinese antiquities collection, European paintings, 22- acre sculpture park, and the stunning new Bloch Building. And the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art has plenty of edgy works as well as fabulous gifts. Both are in the Country Club Plaza. The Crossroads Arts District is home to a monthly First Friday art walk, which draws huge crowds to 40 galleries and shops open in the evening.
Listen to music: Live jazz is plentiful in Kansas City. Two of the most popular venues are the Blue Room, inside the American Jazz Museum, and the Majestic Steakhouse on Broadway in downtown.
Special sipping: The Boulevard Brewing Co. has become a huge hit, and its distribution is growing around the country. Take the free tour, which offers tastings of several of the brewery’s 11 creations at the source. The Pale Ale, Irish Ale, and Bully! Porter are hard to beat.
The
Aladdin Hotel is a newly renovated art-deco showplace, a downtown boutique lodging operated by Holiday Inn. Rooms are small but very comfortable, and the staff is exceedingly hospitable.
The
Hotel Phillips is a beautifully restored 1930s gem downtown that has big, luxury rooms and a thoughtful staff.
The recently reopened
Hilton President is a 1940s downtown landmark bringing yesteryear glamour into focus; it has a cool restaurant and bar loaded with history.
More than Just Barbecue
Going to Kansas City? Prepare for a wagonload of good food beyond barbecue. Look for farmers’ names cited on menus across the city, which reflect the restaurants’ strong commitment to local, seasonal food producers. This, coupled with a youthful chef community and the earnest ingenuity that shows up on plates, makes it obvious why
James Beard Award winners are numerous in Kansas City. Here are choice picks:
Go meat: Arguably the top steak stop in town is Plaza III, the Steakhouse, in the glamorous Country Club Plaza shopping center. Their prime strip au poivre earns raves. Get it charred on the outside, with a ruby center, and be sure to have a side of homemade kettle chips topped with melted Roquefort.
Organic and vegetarian: Anyone in need of healthful options will delight in Kansas City’s generous offerings. Blue Bird Bistro is devoted to local, sustainable natural and organic foods; standouts include the house-cured salmon sandwich and the baked polenta topped with sautéed vegetables, goat cheese, and olive tapenade. Café Seed serves a robust, peppery butternut-squash soup and a hearty vegan tofu-and-cheese club sandwich. Eden Alley specializes in raw, vegan, and gluten-free plates. Their primavera is loaded with fresh baby spinach, zucchini, tomatoes, carrots, mung bean sprouts, and peppers, all in a creamy cashew-dill sauce. In the City Market, Succotash wows with breakfast dishes like hotcakes made with fresh pears and pecans.
First-class comfort: In the River Market is Le Fou Frog, a casual classic French bistro with lovely onion soup gratiné, cassoulet, and lamb shanks, plus a smart, affordable wine list. Peachtree Restaurant of Kansas City, a swanky soul-food bar-and-grill in the booming new downtown Kansas City Power & Light District, seduces with cheesy collard-greens dip with tortilla chips, a plate of meat loaf with okra and tomatoes, and a fancy cocktail menu.