Detours Magazine Summer 2017

A N E X P LO R E R ’ S G U I D E TO T H E M I D W E S T S U M M E R 2 0 1 7 VO L . 2 1 N O. 2

O U R C O V E R S TO RY

Boutique Hotels in Saint Louis

SECRET BOOKCASES AND HIDDEN KEYS An Insider’s Guide to Columbia, Missouri’s Escape Rooms

BACK ALLEY BOOZE

Kansas City Speakeasy Manifesto Brings Back the Underground Bar

TMN.TRUMAN.EDU

@TRUMANMEDIANET / @KTRM_FM / @DETOURS T R U M A N M E D I A N E T W O R K / K T R M / D E T O U R S M AG A Z I N E

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MARY TOMLINSON EXECUTIVE EDITOR MEGAN GIBBONS ART DIRECTOR ROSE LINHARES COPY EDITORS RACHEL EBRECHT, JULIANNA FOSTER, MACKENNA PALAZZA, BETHANY SPITZMILLER

CONTRIBUTORS CAROLINA BENETIZ, RACHEL FECHTER, TREVOR HAMBLIN, SARAH HICKS, AUSTIN HORNBOSTEL, GIANG LANH, HALEIGH OETTING DESIGNERS RACHEL GAROZZO, SHELBY FRAZIER, EMILY LAMARCHE ADVISOR MARILYN YAQUINTO

IN MEMORIAM ELIZABETH KOCH (1991-2012)

ADVERTISING & PUBLICITY

WEB

PUBLICITY MANAGER JULIE STASZKO

ONLINE EDITOR MEGAN GIBBONS

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER RACHEL HANNA

CONTRIBUTORS HALEIGH OETTING, CAROLINA BENETIZ

PUBLICITY MANAGER CARRIE MCKAY

VIDEOGRAPHER STEPHANIE BEST

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TA B L E OF CONTENTS SUMMER 2017

EXPLORE

22

10 SECRET BOOKCASES AND HIDDEN KEYS

An Insider’s Guide to Columbia, Missouri’s Escape Rooms

16 BEHIND THE CURTAIN

10

Take a Walk Into the Past with the Missouri Theater

22 BIG FUN IN A SMALL TOWN Casey, Illinois’s World-Record Breaking Structures Reinvigorate a Small Town

S TAY 28 THE ART OF HOSPITALITY Boutique Hotels in St. Louis

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50 16

FOOD & DRINK 38 MIDWEST BARS LEVEL UP

44

Arcade Bars Become Major Players across the Midwest

44 BACK ALLEY BOOZE

Kansas City Speakeasy Manifesto Brings Back the Underground Bar

REGULARS

28

50 PHOTO CONTEST: BOLD AND BRIGHT

This Year’s Winners Tell the Stories Behind Their Photographs

58 TOP 25: HERE’S THE SCOOP The Top 25 Ice Cream Eateries in the Midwest

70 EVENTS CALENDAR Upcoming Events in the Tristate Area

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L E T T E R F R O M T H E E D I TO R

Standing at the top of the Edinburgh Castle with the hills of Arthur’s Seat in the background

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DEAR READER,

F

rom the top of Arthur’s Seat, the main peak of a group of hills in southern Scotland, the entire city of Edinburgh unfolded before my eyes. It was the last day of a family vacation to the United Kingdom, and the bird’s-eye view of the city shone in the afternoon sunlight. I saw the gentle hills rolling to the left, the bay of the North Sea sitting idly to the right, and Edinburgh Castle rising out of the landscape, towering over the city below.

Edinburgh Castle, a Scottish stronghold since the 12th century, holds an important place in Scottish national heritage.

Once a year, the esplanade of the castle fills with over 1,000 military and musical performers parading to the theme of bagpipe music and a drummed military march. The medieval castle and the city of Edinburgh are intertwined in tradition.

But Scotland’s capital is not just a city draped in nostalgia — it’s foraging new visions while honoring old. New attractions from the last century include the Fringe Festival, the world’s largest art festival now in its 70th year, and the Royal Mile Market, a quirky artisan craft market bustling inside the 17th century Tron Kirk church. In Edinburgh, the new thrives alongside the old.

My trip to Edinburgh showed me the harmonious marriage of nostalgia and artistic innovation, and I see that same creative energy in the journeys our detours writers have taken this semester.

The youthful world of arcade games gets a boozy reboot with the arcade bar trend sweeping the Midwest. Step into the glow of Pac-Man and Space Invader games and learn how this “nostalgia bar” trend continues to level up.

The Missouri Theater in St. Joseph, Missouri, takes visitors back to the era of silent Vaudeville theater, when visiting the theater involved dressing up and being greeted by ushers adorned in outfits matching the theme of the show. This architectural gem, placed on the National Register of Historic Places, still honors its theatrical tradition by hosting performances today.

Beneath The Rieger Hotel Grill and Exchange lies an homage to Kansas City’s Prohibition past — Manifesto, a modern speakeasy creation. The hand-crafted cocktails from the creative bar-tending staff and soft lighting brings back the intimate and scandalous feeling of a 1920s speakeasy.

Among these nostalgia-filled adventures in this issue, you can also read about one man’s quest to revitalize his hometown through larger-than-life sculptures, the escape room trend that brings mystery solving to life and the Top 25 ice cream eateries in the Midwest. The “Bold and Bright” photo contest showcases the best photography from our readers in a colorful and fun fashion.

Whether your travel style takes you to seek out history and tradition, innovation and modernity, or somewhere in between, I hope this issue of detours helps you get there.

Embrace life’s detours ,

Mary Tomlinson

E D I TO R I A L P O L I C Y detours magazine

Truman State University Barnett Media Center 1600 S. Franklin Kirksville, MO 63501 Phone: 660.785.7438 Fax: 660.785.7601 editor@detoursmagazine.com

detours is a copyrighted publication, produced biannually by Truman State University students. No material can be reproduced in any form without prior written consent of the detours advisor and staff. The editor-in chief is responsible for all decisions. detours is distributed across the country, mainly in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri. Opinions expressed in detours are not necessarily the views of staff. detours is not responsible for the full cost of an advertisement if an error occurs.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES A L O O K I N TO SOME OF OUR FAVO R I T E S F R O M PA S T I S S U E S O F D E TO U R S

SUMMER 2007

A Detour Into History Alicia Collins reflects on her venture into a quiet, hidden cemetery near her home. She ventured beyond her childhood boundaries, past the point where she was allowed to venture as a child. She discovered old, unkempt graves that dated back to the 1700s.

She even spotted hitching posts nearby. All of this lay undisturbed, not updated with the rest of the changing world. She took a different path, and found a scene untouched by the passage of time.

SUMMER 2013

Edible Art Elizabeth McBride explores the life of Ghyslain Maurais, a chocolate connoisseur and owner of the “Ghyslain� chocolatier shop. Maris trained in France and Switzerland, taking care with his recipes and intricate designs. He paints with cair, making each chocolate a piece of perfection. His shop is located in Union City, a small town with a population of 3,584.

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WINTER 2003

Illinois Icon Sarah St. John writes of Carl Sandburg and his path to becoming a Pulitzer Prize winner. Sandburg, born in 1878 in Galesburg, Illinois, experienced the injustice of the time as his father worked on the railroad at 14 cents an hour. After quitting school in the eighth grade because his parents could not afford to send him to high school, Sandburg worked on various odd jobs.

ON THE COVER

He wandered around the Midwest in boxcars in 1897, then served in the Spanish-American War and returned home with the governmental promise for free college tuition. On his return, he entered Lombard college as a special student. He spent four years, and proved himself to be a fulltime student. However, he did not complete a degree. He later wrote a six-volume biography concerning Abe Lincoln, which earned him the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1940. His ashes were buried in his hometown, among his family members. The Carl Sandburg Community College now stands in Sandburg’s honor.

Sarah Hicks explores the boutique hotel scene in St. Louis and takes readers into the world of four hotels with distinct personalities and spunk. Shown here is the interior of the Chase Park Plaza, an emblem of the classic elegance and sophisticated lifestyle that goes hand in hand with the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis. Turn to page 28 to see which immersive hotel world you’ll be spending the night in next.

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EXPLORE

Bookca

Hidden STORY AND PHOTOS BY TREVOR HAMBLIN

An Insider’s Guide to Columbia, Missouri’s Escape Rooms

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EXPLORE

ases

n Keys I slipped between the shelves of the bookcase’s secret entrance once more, finding myself in that dark and foreboding backroom. I cast a glance at the refrigerator in the corner — big enough to hold a body. My brother called from the first room.

“10 seconds!”

I grabbed the vials next to me, pouring them out onto the table haphazardly.

Whatever was inside them was a clue, but I didn’t have time to question it — they had to help me reveal the next one. I picked up the object nearest to my hand — I didn’t care what it was, as long as it could mix.

“We’re out of time!”

Detective Perkins was dead.

Thankfully, she never existed in the first place.

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EXPLORE Breakout CoMo's storefront, which is conveniently located next to Lip's and Curls, a beauty salon with an attached speakeasy, the Social Room.

Epoch Escapes Perkins is a background character for Epoch Escapes’ Crime Scene Investigation Room in Columbia, Missouri, that opened last year.

Epoch is one of three escape room companies in Columbia and is riding the current trend of these live-action puzzle games, where teams “locked” in a room must follow a series of hidden clues in the room to “escape” within a time limit. I had the privilege of running the room with my twin brother, but I very quickly learned that two people are not quite enough to run through a room like this. Especially when you and that person spend 15 minutes arguing over when and how to use one of your only three hints.

Hints, for the curious, are a universal part of the escape room experience. Every room I’ve ever seen gives the players three hints they can spend whenever and however they like. However, if your group asks for more than three hints, your group’s time will start getting penalties, the exact amount of which changes from company to company.

Though we didn’t complete the room, Epoch employees Derek Wintemberg and Rob Hicks

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"Clues can be anyth i ng really.” were happy to meet with me while they reset the room. This involved undoing the hour of work my brother and I had done, including re-stocking the vials I’d used, re-locking the bookcase-door and re-locking all of the, well, locks. “[For first-timers,] I would definitely say take absolutely nothing for granted,” Wintemberg said, putting a puzzle-box back together,. “Clues can be anything really.”

“Clues come in all forms,” Hicks said, though he was only stopping briefly between the interview and helping another group finish their room. “Pay attention to the small details, and if it seems like it’s placed there on purpose —” “It more than likely is,” Wintemberg finished, adjusting his glasses while finishing the puzzle box. “But also, don’t try and overthink it, either.”

The rooms at Epoch have a wider variety of props and puzzle types than I’ve seen at any other escape room company. While I can’t spoil much about the rooms, I’ve only ever seen their CSI room use mixing two substances together as a puzzle element.

The rooms also made a lot of use of the environment, meaning I missed entire puzzle segments because I thought they were props and not puzzles. We had to use a hint in order to figure out it was something we could do anything with.

EXPLORE

ESCAPE ROOM

CITY

Mastermind Room Escape

St. Louis

Escape the Room STL

St. Louis

Can You Escape?

St. Louis

Escape STL

St. Louis

No Way Out

St. Louis

Red Herring Escape Room

University City

Cracked

Saint Charles

Escape on Main

Saint Charles

Mastermind

Saint Charles

Escape From St. Louis

Maplewood

Encryption

Maryville

Breakout KC

Kansas City

Breakout CoMo

Clue Pursuit

Kansas City

While Epoch’s focus is more on puzzle difficulty, Breakout CoMo’s is more on atmosphere. As part of the Breakout family, they are affiliated with Breakout KC in Kansas City, Missouri, and have been around since spring 2016.

Escape Room Kansas City

Kansas City

The Escape Artist

Kansas City

The Exit Room

Lee’s Summit

I first experienced Breakout CoMo through their Y2K room, a room originally made by and for their partner Breakout KC. Y2K is based around New Year’s Eve in 1999. The idea is that you can only leave the room if you prevent the Y2K doomsday scenario, which can be done with a program you can find in the room. Once you prevent the doomsday scenario, you can escape the room.

Trapped Kansas City

Lee’s Summit

The Great Escape Quest

St. Joseph

The Panel Room

St. Joseph

Breakout Como

Columbia

Columbia’s Epoch Escapes

Columbia

When I heard we were doing a Y2K room, I honestly had no idea what to expect. But the room I walked into screamed late

Escape Plan

Columbia

Race 2 XCape

Springfield

Escape Artist

Springfield

Clue Pursuit

Springfield

Springfield Escape Room

Springfield

Escape Code

Branson

The Escape Branson

Branson

Cryptex Branson Escape

Branson

Room

Cape Girardeau

Escape Cape

Cape Girardeau

Talon Falls Escape

Cape Girardeau

“I’ve seen groups of friends come in and not talk to each other the entire time,” Hicks recalled. “And that’s always hilarious because then they’ll be like, ‘I figured this out!’ and they’ll be like, ‘Well, I figured that out five minutes ago.’ And they realize they just wasted, like, 10 minutes of their life.”

“But, there’s other groups of complete strangers that I’ve seen who have, very first thing they do when the walk in the room, they all introduce each other,” he continued. “And then they tell each other everything from that moment on. ‘Oh I found this.’

‘Oh I did this.’ And usually those groups work the best.”

“I like to say to the groups of first-timers that, for me, an escape room is an exercise in observation, critical thinking and cooperation,” Wintemberg summarized.

Co-Owner Jon Westhoff, left, and former employee Carter Phillips, right, work in Breakout CoMo’s control room. This is where they keep track of their rooms while they’re in progress.

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EXPLORE “Each room is different,” Westhoff explained, moving his hands out of his hoodie to gesture excitedly. “You generally come up with your story, your idea, your theme, so to speak.”

“Say you’re doing a room about Mark Twain,” he continued. “Which is the room that we kind of designed in-house, here.

[You ask yourself,] ‘What are elements that have to do with Mark Twain that we can make into puzzles,’ … And you think about what kind of historical artifacts [are associated with him]… with Mark Twain we thought about quotes and how much we love those.”

Escape Plan Escape Plan is Columbia’s final escape room company, situated off the beaten path, but with an obvious passion for their work. They also have the first room I’d ever been to. While I was there, I spoke with employees Nate Richardson and Brandon Riley who helped lay the groundwork for the company in the first place.

Epoch Escape's Front desk, where the puzzles help set the tone for their rooms.

90s decor: there were the ‘90s top hits hanging on the wall, a bookcase filled with VHSes, a giant slinky slung over the box television, and a Nintendo 64 in the little TV stand. I was particularly fond of the details, especially when one of them helped move the puzzle forward.

Breakout CoMo Co-Owner Jon Westhoff was kind enough to meet me on my second visit. We spoke about the company’s origins in their control room, a small, concrete room lined with computers from which they can monitor players and give hints or guidance when necessary.

Westoff didn’t hear about escape rooms until his bachelor party in New York City, and fell so in love the concept that when he returned home he immediately started figuring out how to make his own.

Atmosphere is the most important part of Breakout CoMo’s rooms. Aside from Y2K’s “Year 2000 Doomsday” scenario,

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I tried their 70s hotel and conspiracythemed scenario, Room 13, where you’re stuck in a 70s motel room with nothing but your wits and a VHS from the last “guest.” Where Y2K was colorful and stylishly retro, Room 13 was musty and unnerving —you could practically smell the conspiracy in the air. Breakout CoMo even has a room themed around Mark Twain, though I have yet to try it out myself. Such a variety of rooms made me wonder where they came up with these ideas.

“[Escape Plan] started with our business teacher back in, not last August, but the one before,” Richardson recalled as we sat in the building’s industrial but inviting entrance, complete with furniture made from old, recycled tire rims. “She came to us with the idea, asking for help to get it started with her.” “[The room ideas] kind of come to us,” he said, leaning forward, causing his leather necklace to swing in the air. “We just figure out what general themes are popular right now. Like our zombie room, zombies are really popular right now.

There’s tons of 007 movies … so [we made] a CIA room.”

My first experience with escape rooms was with Escape Plan’s zombie room, titled Meat Locker. Set in a hospital room

"Atmosphere is the most important part of Breakout CoMo's rooms.”

EXPLORE with a dead man on the table — another prop, don’t worry — we listened to his dying words via a video played before the start of the room.

We spent a lot of that room following red herrings, including a particularly challenging light switch puzzle that I’m still upset about.

Despite any of the frustrating challenges, I genuinely enjoyed solving the puzzles, and it really got me into the hobby.

Escape Plan’s most difficult room is Double Agent, a room with a James Bond-esque spy theme, revolving around solving a conspiracy left behind by a “real-life James Bond,” Pierce Grey. Much of the puzzles were more focused on words and their meanings rather than on numbers or keys. Of course, this doesn’t mean it was easy enough for me or my family to get out successfully.

Riley also mentioned their company is currently best geared towards corporate events and companies. He explained escape rooms are great at building teamwork, communication and critical thinking — all things that corporate leaders want to improve within their groups.

However, he mentioned they are also working toward bringing in the nightlife demographic.

“We want this place to be more of an experience than just the room,” Richardson explained, gesturing again to the custom furniture of the lobby. “We want to be the best workers here,

we want to be very personable, we want you to stay here the whole evening. We want to have a bar here. The room is the highlight, but we just want the whole experience of coming and being here to really be enjoyable.”

“What I Learned In Escape Room School Is…” Escape rooms are an experience that’s hard to truly convey in traditional mediums. It has the complexity of a puzzle box, the atmosphere of a haunted house, the adventure of a movie and the freedom of a video game. And yet, it’s none of these. Only with escape rooms can you combine these elements in real life.

Every room has stretched my critical thinking, challenged my teamwork and forced me to communicate as efficiently as possible.

There’s also an element of prioritization and compartmentalization involved — while you do one puzzle, the rest of the group will be working on others, eventually ending on the biggest puzzle of the room. It’s a very physical game and yet fully mental in execution, completely unlike any other gaming experience I’ve ever had.

It’s the most intense form of puzzle solving out there, and maybe you can be the next detective to solve Perkins’ case.

Escape Plan's Hall of Fame. Despite having the lowest success rate, Double Agent also has the fastest record time.

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EXPLORE

Behind the Curtain STORY AND PHOTOS BY HALEIGH OETTING

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Take a Walk Into the Past with the Missouri Theater

The Missouri Theater gives the community the opportunity to experience a range of performing arts.

Once a theater that showed films, the theater now hosts many live Broadway-inspired shows.

estled in between modern buildings located in the downtown area of St. Joseph, Missouri, on a bustling street is a place which will teleport you back in history. Adorned pillars run across the face of the building. Mosaic plates embellished with gold accents create a look of elegance. Multi-colored tiles checkerboard across the interior walls, with flower ornamentations spaced equally on the trim. Two sets of curving staircases mirror each other across the entrance way. Through the curtain-draped doorways of the first level, the space opens into the grand theater, with velvet blue chairs interlining the space. Carvings of a Persian sphinx reside on each side of the stage. Grandiose pillars stretch up toward the second level. Above, a plaster canopy decorates the ceiling with intricate designs. Wide, tasseled rosettes drape down evenly. Interchanging blue and green lights emit from the ceiling, dancing across the figurines carved into the walls. Though the Missouri Theater has been open for 90 years, time has not taken its toll on this masterpiece.

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EXPLORE

A WORK OF ARCHITECTURAL GENIUS The Missouri Theater, designed by the Boller Brothers and Waylande Gregory, opened in 1927. Gregory was the mastermind behind the theater’s interior.

Frank Polleck, who gives historical tours, has been working at the theater for 34 years.

He discussed the influence and success of Gregory, who was known as one of the best plaster artists in his day.

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“He felt this was the star of his career,” Polleck said.

The moldings in the theater were not all created by Gregory alone, but he did create the original carvings for the moldings. He carved all the details from walls to ceiling. The Sphinxes were carved in sections of plaster.

The canopy of the theater, however, was designed by the Boller Brothers and is one of the most grandiose articles of the theater. It is an oblong, simulated tarp which drapes down from the ceiling as if to cover the audience.

EXPLORE The canopy and ropes were intricately designed and detailed to look as realistic as possible.

The sky scene on the walls gives the appearance that the clouds are continuously moving.

THE PURPOSE OF THE CANOPY WAS TO GIVE THE IMPRESSION THAT THE AUDIENCE WAS OUTSIDE IN THE DESERT SUN.

The purpose of the canopy was to give the impression that the audience was outside in the desert sun. While the brothers created many canopies, no two were alike. A painted scene of the sky usually paired with the canopy.

“These theaters [with canopies] were called environmental theaters,” Polleck said.

“They would put in stars on the ceiling, like the Uptown Theater in Kansas City, whereas this has clouds on the ceiling, and it was supposed to simulate clouds moving through the sky.”

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EXPLORE

BACK IN THE DAY Originally, the theater was built as a silent theater for Vaudeville — a type of theatrical act interpreted with song and dance.

“In 1927, they realized the movie industry was changing because talking pictures were coming in,” Polleck said. “It was built as a silent theater house, so it had the organ for silent movies, but quickly changed.”

Polleck explained there were several theaters located in St. Joseph at the time, but admission to the Missouri Theater was 25 cents, whereas other places were 5 to 10 cents.

He elaborated how, since it was so pricey, people only visited the theater on special occasions. This made the experience special and memorable. Banners for the movies were hand-painted, and ushers would dress up according to the theme of the movie.

“People are kind of numb to that nowadays,” Polleck said. “We don’t realize how exciting that was.”

FROM THEN TO NOW The Missouri Theater works with various performing companies, including the Performing Arts Association. The PAA was the first organization to help manage the theater before it came under the ownership of the City of St. Joseph, according to Beth Sharp, the director of the PAA. Sharp oversees bringing in national, widely-known talent to the theater. While talking about the talent, Sharp mentioned the PAA recruited

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the late Debbie Reynolds in 2006. Other notable performers include Rich Little and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. In 2009, Emmy and Tony Award winner Hal Holbrook was scheduled to perform at the theater. However, the night before the sold-out show, the piano caught fire on the stage.

“It just has a lot of history and you can feel it when you walk through it,” Sharp said. “It’s exciting on show night having people come in and getting them seated. It just always has that feeling of excitement and nervousness.”

Sharp added that within the six performances put on at the theater each season, she would like to bring in more current artists and Broadway-esque shows.

In 1979, the theater was put on the National Register of Historic Places. Kathy Brock, manager of the Missouri Theater, explained what qualifications a place needs to be eligible for the register.

“They had to redo a lot of the wiring, but everything had to stay historical,” Brock said.

“Anytime we’ve had to replace carpeting or fixtures or anything we had to … put [it] back the way it was.”

“The theater constantly needs updates,” Brock said. “With a building of this stature and this age, you’re constantly going to have [to] repair, replace, upgrade, improve, so right now we’re looking at some of the backstage things like the dressing rooms, the green room, maybe even some more sound upgrades.” The last serious renovation of the building occurred in 2002.

Another theater worker commented on the register process. Maintenance Technician Steven O’Neal added that the register officials also look at the age of the architecture, the architects involved and how prominent the establishment is in the community. Some of the upcoming projects are set to take place during 2017.

“There are individual dressing rooms without central air,” O’Neal said. “We have a boiler room, so it makes the building hot. We are looking at putting actual systems in each room, so each room will have its own control.”

A THRIVING TREASURE The Missouri Theater’s busiest season occurs between the months of September to December. Since multiple performing associations utilize the theater, different shows appear on different websites. The City of St. Joseph website contains links to all the associations.

“The architecture, the design — it’s just a gem. It’s something you can’t destroy,” Brock said. “You have to keep it alive. It’s history for the community”.

The history is in the walls of the theater, sustaining its magnificence. As the stage curtains fall and the music softens, the vivacity of the Missouri Theater remains.

EXPLORE

The seats are not the originals, but were designed to replicate them. The chandelier must be lowered from the attic to change the light bulbs. Various scene are depicted on the artistry surrounding the stage.

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EXPLORE The 46,200 pound World’s Largest Rocking Chair sits on Main Street in front of Casey City Hall.

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EXPLORE

Casey, Illinois’s world-record breaking structures reinvigorate a small town

A SMALL TOWN GROWS

TALLER

STORY AND PHOTOS BY RACHEL FECHTER

T

he World’s Largest Wind Chime gently clinks in the wind while towering 56 feet above Casey, Illinois. Its builder, Jim Bolin, has lived in Casey for all 53 years of his life. The idea popped into Bolin’s head back during 2009 after he and his family returned from a trip to Colorado, and his wife gained inspiration to open up a tea shop. Bolin told himself, “We don’t want to start a place to compete for the same customers. We’re a town of 3,000. We don’t have a lot of people.” It started with harkening back to the days of listening to his grandmother’s wind chimes. Then came a sketch. Then came the measurements. Then came the construction.

Bolin built The World’s Largest Wind Chime near his wife’s tea shop, the Whitling Whimsy Tea Shop, to bring more people off Interstate 70.

having the world record wind chime would be an asset. I felt like it would give us some recognition.”

“We set out to beat the world record with the wind chime because I thought you’d have to have the Guinness World Record to spark people to get off the interstate to see something,” Bolin said. “I felt like

The Sky’s The LImit

Bolin said his grandmother, Grandma Whitling, has inspired numerous structures he’s built in the town, including the world’s largest wind chime, crochet hook, and knitting needle.

“My grandmother had a lot of impact on my life,” Bolin said. “My grandmother is what gave me my faith in God and Jesus. She did have wind chimes. She crocheted and knitted. She taught me how to crochet when I was a kid. She was a very caring and loving person. [My grandparents] didn’t have a whole lot but it didn’t take a whole lot to make an impression on me. It was just the time and the love that she spent with me that impacted my life.”

The world-record-breaking structures did not stop with the wind chime. Bolin and his pipeline company, Bolin Enterprises, built eight more world-recordSummer 2017 detours magazine 23

EXPLORE

"More people need to know how this is working and how one person can make such a dramatic change for a community." breaking structures, seven additional big structures without a world record title, and Bolin said there are more projects to come with no end in sight.

As the town and Bolin’s creativity grows, tourists can visit and interact with the large structures in the town. A tourist can walk down Main Street and pull a rope to ring the world’s largest wind chime, mail a letter in the world’s largest mailbox, or watch the world’s largest rocking chair sway in the wind.

They can walk inside Casey Candy Depot and admire the world’s largest pair of wooden shoes or visit Casey Yarn Studio to find the world’s largest knitting needles and crochet hook. They can go to Casey Country Club and find the world’s largest golf tee, or head to Richard’s Family Restaurant and look upon the world’s largest pitch fork.

Boosting Local Businesses Jeanette Huisinga, the owner of Casey’s Yarn Studio, has Bolin’s world’s largest crochet hook and world’s largest knitting needles proudly on display inside her shop. While Huisinga’s shop has been open since January 2010, she did not receive two of the world-recordbreaking structures to put in her store’s window until 2013, which Huisinga said both saved her business from closing and also changed the direction of her shop.

The World’s Largest Wind Chime stands is 56’ tall and 42’ long and stands on Main Street next to The Whitling Whimsy Tea Shop.

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“Once Jim gave me the [knitting needles and crochet hook] he definitely launched me into a unique place, and I’m very grateful for that,” Huisinga said.

EXPLORE

One of Bolin’s projects in the process of finalization is a gavel structure. The town is currently awaiting on its application to the Guinness World Records go through, which will certify it as the World’s Largest Gavel.

After having her shop open for a year, Huisinga said she bought the building next door and joined the two to provide a larger inventory to customers. Then a year later, she expanded her merchandise selection and instead of just selling yarn, she began to also sell touristdriven merchandise such as signs with inspirational quotes on them and handmade jewelry. Huisinga said when people come off the interstate they want a chance to explore and to find something that’s one-of-a-kind.

Between the years of 2013 and 2015, when she had the knitting needles and crochet hook, she saw a steady increase in her shop’s revenue, Huisinga said. With the addition of the rocking chair to the town in 2016, the number of tourists dramatically increased in the summer months.

“I don’t have hard numbers, but I would say the number of tourists has doubled with the addition of the rocking chair,” Huisinga said.

“Honestly if it were not for the tourist traffic, I could not stay in business. We barely hang on during non-tourist months like January, February and March. I even cut back my hours during these months.”

Huisinga said she is grateful for the opportunity Bolin has given the community and how he has made her shop and other local businesses flourish. During the summer of 2016 she received lots of encouraging and positive feedback about the town. “[Bolin] loves our community, and if he wasn’t doing this, there’d be no reason for people to come to

Jim Bolin, the mastermind behind these world-record breaking structures.

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EXPLORE

Sizes of World Record Breaking Structures in Casey WOODEN SHOES Each 4'9" tall, 11'5.5" long, 5'3" wide and 2500 lbs WIND CHIME 56’ tall and 42’ long ROCKING CHAIR 56'1" tall, 32'10" wide and 46,200 lbs PITCHFORK 60’ long, 1,940 lbs MAILBOX 5,743.41 ft3 KNITTING NEEDLE 13' 0.75" long, 8.25 cm in diameter CROCHET HOOK 6' 1.5" tall, 7.6 cm in diameter, 9 lbs GOLF TEE 30' 0.5" tall, 6659 lbs Corey Foster, employee at Bolin Enterprises, poses next to a big spinning top structure in The Big Things In A Small Town Workshop.

our stoplight and our downtown, and I would be boarded up,” Huisinga said. “Jim’s given me a seed, but it’s my job to water it and make it grow. I’m going to nurture that and keep that part growing. I think more people need to know how this is working and how one person can make such a dramatic change for a community.”

Big Things in a Small Town In addition to helping local Casey businesses, Bolin has employed people like Deb Bohannon, Marketing Media and Human Resources Manager of Bolin Enterprises, to promote all the structures he’s created thus far. Bohannon said she has worked for Bolin Enterprises for five years.

Originally, Bohannon said, she and Bolin Enterprises started off promoting each structure individually before realizing it was easier to promote all the structures under the ‘Big Things In A Small Town’ umbrella than having separate campaigns for each of them. Bohannon said this decision made it easier for media to follow them as they continually added to their town.

The novelty of having so many big structures in such a small town has given Casey enough notoriety and fame to thrive.

Bolin’s upcoming projects will include the world’s largest gavel, teeter totter, barber shop pole, and ballpoint pen along with other big but non-recordbreaking structures such as a big softball bat. If anyone in town wants to see how these structures

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are produced, they can visit the Big Things In A Small Town Workshop on Main Street where all of Bolin’s structures are made.

“He’s so darn creative,” Bohannon said. “He can sit and draw something on a napkin and turn around and start building it.”

While Bolin is the mastermind behind these structures, he admits he could not do any of the projects without cooperation and support from the community, the welders, carpenters, and landscapers who work for Bolin Enterprises, and his family, who are all involved in the business.

“My brother and I, throughout our whole lives, if we’ve dreamed something or wanted to try something, our parents have always been right there supporting us every step of the way,” Bolin said.

“That’s kind of how my brother and I view each other. If there’s something one of us wants to do, we support and push on.”

Renewing Casey Steve Jenkins, Casey finance committee chair, said he has seen Casey reap the benefits of Bolin’s projects. However, Jenkins said it is too early to see financially how the structures have impacted the town by specific quantitative dollar amounts.

“It gives us an opportunity to be unique,” Jenkins said. “My hope from a city standpoint is that somebody will see this going on and say ‘Hey, I need to get in on this,’ and they might invest in our community which would create

EXPLORE

This map inside the Big Things In A Small Town Workshop allows tourists to put a pin from where they are traveling from.

more jobs for us to revive it. This is a shot to bring in outside people and a shot for inside people to take advantage of it and strengthen our community.”

attractions he’s built will help other families make their own memories and grow closer.

"If there's

“These structures, after the fact, taught me to enjoy family more,” Bolin said.

“I walk through the town on weekends, and most people don’t know me from Adam’s off — just visiting the big things — and I see them as a family doing something together and looking at “The Bolins [have] been a blessing to things. Seeing the family together doing Casey, Illinois,” Jenkins said. “How many things is just a blessing. It’s taught me people do you know that would spend what life’s all about. It’s about living my their money to revive a community? life for my family. Having a good time They’re not doing it for personal gain. is not all about buying something — it’s They’re doing it for everyone’s gain. just being able to spend time together They’re making opportunities for people.” and enjoy life, and it’s fun to see people Bolin said he hopes the tourism do that around town when they come.”

Jenkins said he hopes these projects will also bring more business into the community that will create jobs for people in the town, and he appreciates all Bolin has done for the town.

something one of us wants to do, we support and push on."

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S TAY

THE A R T of HOSPITALITY Boutique Hotels in St. Louis STORY BY SARAH HICKS PHOTOS BY SARAH HICKS, HOTEL IGNACIO & MOONRISE HOTEL

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Tables from the Baiku Sushi Lounge are set for lunch guests at Hotel Ignacio.

S TAY

f

our hotels in different parts of St. Louis celebrate the art and music of the city and let guests stay with Sherlock Holmes, transport them to the moon, interact with art and whisk them away in luxury.

From smooth jazz to bluegrass, toasted ravioli to the Arch, St. Louis has been known for its rich history of music, art and food since its founding. Especially in the last one hundred fifty years, St. Louis has celebrated and participated in creating art by supporting museums, music venues and hosting cultural events such as the Festival of Nations and Shakespeare in the Park. This immersion of art has inspired entrepreneurs to create many boutique hotels in St. Louis, celebrating the variety of artistic cultures in the community.

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S TAY

T H E C H AS E PAR K P L AZA “ C l a s s i c E l e g a n c e i n C e n t r a l We s t E n d ”

A chandelier in the main hallway at The Chase Park Plaza adds a touch of luxury to the hotel.

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S TAY

A guest bed in a one-room suite comfortably sleeps two guests.

A spiral staircase in the second lobby can been found in many wedding photos taken at The Chase.

Green plants and red furniture decorate a sitting area to the left of the lobby.

S

tanding like a mountain in the David Hume, Director of Marketing Cabanne Schlafly Howard, Chief Central West End of St. Louis, at The Chase, said the hotel resides in Executive Officer of Kaleidoscope The Chase Park Plaza Hotel is a the heart of the city. He said guests are Management, is in charge of public historical and artistic icon. Listed on within walking distance of Forest Park, relations for The Chase Park Plaza. the Historic Sites of America for its small and large-scale entertainment Howard said while the variety of influence in art and music since 1930, venues and distinctive restaurants with attractions allows The Chase Park Plaza the conjoined buildings stand together as endless pallet choices. to stand out from other hotels in St. a white skyscraper and red brick Louis, the larger number of building. The Chase is a luxury in Central West “The Chase Park Plaza has added attractions hotel in the brick building and End complements the guest to the art of St. Louis as an icon experience at the hotel. independent residences in the iconic white skyscraper. of luxury and social culture.”

“We feel we are a Boasting classic elegance destination enhanced by the from the main lobby to the guest rooms, other things you can do when you come The Chase’s details, including a spiral “You can be here for three days and for a weekend,” Howard said. staircase and a ceiling mural, add to the not leave the property,” Hume said. ambiance of the building. Walking into Their five-screen movie theater, outdoor For nine decades, The Chase Park Plaza the lobby, a glistening chandelier lights pool, three restaurants and Santé Fitness has added to the art of St. Louis as an the polished floors, lavish furniture and Center allow guests to have a new icon of luxury and social culture. large entry way. experience every day.

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S TAY

HO T E L IG NACIO “Immersive Contemporar y Ar t”

“Each room uses local art to decorate with inspiration from one of four themes: fine art, performing arts, architecture and musical instruments.”

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elcoming guests with a contemporary lounge and up-scale sushi restaurant, Hotel Ignacio celebrates the art and music of St. Louis with custom-designed rooms and hallway decor displaying local art.

The hotel is its own work of art, because no two guest rooms are the same. In one of the rooms visitors can find a large canvas of a black and white piano hanging over the low-sitting bed.

On the exposed white brick wall near the TV, a sculpted hand reaches out with one finger, ready to hold coats and purses. Each room uses local art to decorate with inspiration from one of four themes: fine art, performing arts, architecture and musical instruments.

Stacey Howlett, the General Manager for Hotel Ignacio, said what she enjoys most about the hotel is the celebration of St. Louis artists. The owners built the hotel to reflect the arts of the area.

The boutique hotel has 49 rooms and 2 suites, which is smaller than other boutique hotels in the St. Louis area.

Howlett said the modest size is how Hotel Ignacio stands out from other places to stay in St. Louis.

“The number of rooms, combined with the design of the hotel and that we are not affiliated with a chain, makes [Hotel Ignacio] the most unique,” Howlett said. The hotel’s event spaces are great examples of how the hotel’s decor is exclusive to their brand.

S TAY

The main lobby introduces a contemporary art theme used throughout the boutique hotel.

The hotel building is also connected to the Moto Museum, a venue used to display vintage motorcycles from 1900 to 1975. Hotel Ignacio partners with the museum for weddings and corporate events where guests can socialize and celebrate within a motorcycle gallery.

This experience is privileged to Hotel Ignacio.

Off to the side of the lobby, decorative instruments add to the artistic atmosphere on the main floor.

Hotel Ignacio’s boutique experience has allowed it to be a recipient of the AAA Four Diamond Award since 2012, and it will continue to strive to earn awards for its service. The Hotel Ignacio experience is uncommon because the hotel celebrates the art of St. Louis by being an immersive artistic structure, allowing guests to appreciate artists during their stay.

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S TAY

T HE CH ES HIR E “The Modern British Inn”

A sign bearing The Cheshire’s Coat of Arms hangs near the main entrance of the hotel.

R

ight in the boisterous neighborhood of the Clayton Business and Entertainment District resides a hotel right out of a British novel, The Cheshire Inn. Iconic English works of literature inspired the modern British Inn’s design, and each room is named after a different classic author.

When entering the building, two statutes of the Queen’s Guard stand at the entrance, welcoming guests into the the world of Sherlock Holmes and

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Charles Dickens. In the main lobby, there are eighteenth century antiques, fireplaces, historical fixtures and a standing, stuffed grizzly bear where guests can enjoy tea and coffee anytime.

Julia Wilmer, a guest from Iowa, recently experienced her first visit to St. Louis over New Year’s and stayed at The Cheshire. She said she was drawn to the hotel because of her love for Sherlock Holmes and British culture.

“I have been very pleased with the

S TAY

Old books decorate a table on a third floor hallway.

Hallways are decorated with photos of British royalty and antique ceiling lights to immerse guests into old British culture.

Statues of the Queen’s Guard stand protecting the entryway into the main lobby of The Cheshire.

hospitality and neighborhood,” Wilmer said. “The atmosphere is beautiful and old.”

Right next to the hotel resides a restaurant named Boundary, a “modern interpretation of comforting classics,” according to the Boundary website.

Offering fresh and local food, the menu has a variety of filling and fresh plates.

The atmosphere is comfortable and great for intimate dates or family dinners.

The architecture of The Cheshire and the Boundary’s culinary artistry adds color to St. Louis’ hospitality and cuisine. The old-world ambiance with added modern amenities makes The Cheshire experience exclusive to St. Louis.

“The old-world ambiance with added modern amenities makes The Cheshire experience exclusive to St. Louis.”

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S TAY

Guests are greeted by mood lights in the main lobby as they check in.

M OO N R IS E HO TEL “Eccentric Lunar Experience”

A

full moon always shines over St. Louis’ Delmar Loop because the Moonrise Hotel lights up the night with modern lunar-themed decor, mood lights and a rooftop bar. Gazing over St. Louis, visitors can experience fine dining and contemporary rooms in a distinctive atmosphere, which puts guests overthe-moon.

On a particularly warm evening during a St. Louis winter, Todd Barnes and his wife Kayla socialized on the Rooftop Terrace Bar as light from the large synthetic moon brightened both of

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their faces. Todd and Kayla Barnes said they enjoy traveling to the Moonrise Hotel every now and then from Chesterfield, Missouri.

As guests walk in, the stairs and walls are lit with purple, blue and orange mood lighting, immediately setting the atmosphere at the front desk.

“What really draws us here is the unique bar experience and such [an] interesting lunar theme,” Todd Barnes said. “This hotel is so special and adds so much to [St. Louis].”

Opened in 2009, the hotel reinforced the art and musical experience of the Delmar Loop. Within walking distance of The Pageant and Delmar Hall, guests are immersed in art and music during their stay. Visitors can browse display cases of space collectibles, lunar toys and jewelry. The Moonrise Hotel truly allows guests to sleep in an eccentric lunar atmosphere.

When staying at the Moonrise Hotel, guests can expect a quirky boutique hotel environment with sophistication in modern design.

S TAY A contemporary sitting area overlooks the main lobby. Moon art and circle furniture add the the lunar theme.

A standard guest room with two queen beds comfortably sleeps four people.

“Boutique hotels offer not just a bed to sleep in, but an experience.”

The Rooftop Terrace Bar is open for guests and visitors interested in socializing above Delmar Loop.

C

hain hotels are easy to find, and visitors can expect the same atmosphere and food from almost any hotel they pass by on the highway. Boutique hotels, such as The Chase Park Plaza Hotel, Hotel Ignacio, The Cheshire and The Moonrise Hotel, allow visitors to interact with the culture of the city or to be transported to a different part of the world. St. Louis’ colorful artistic and musical community has inspired many boutique and luxury hotels to flourish as they become a part of the art St. Louis prides itself for. Boutique hotels offer not just a bed to sleep in, but an experience.

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FOOD & DRINK

Midwest Bars Level Up

Neon signs and nostalgic murals punctuate the walls at Up-Down KC. Up-Down combines classic arcade gaming with a bar atmosphere, a bar trend that is sweeping the Midwest.

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FOOD & DRINK

Arcade bars become major players across the Midwest STORY BY AUSTIN HORNBOSTEL PHOTOS PROVIDED BY UP-DOWN & START BAR

t

he familiar noises of arcade screens and skee-ball machines float through the air as customers flood inside, past the bar in the center of the room. Customers can grab a slice of pizza to pair with their beer as they play some of the popular arcade games around the room — NBA Jam, Street Fighter and Pacman are just a few. On a typical weekend night, you might see a group come in and spend the night taking in the familiar experience with an adult twist — arcade bars.

UP-DOWN KC

When Up-Down KC, one arcade bar in the Midwest, had its grand opening in April of 2015, customers lined up down the block just to get inside. It wasn’t anything new to the owners — this was the second “nostalgia bar” opened in a major Midwestern city.

The concept that had people lining up and down the streets of Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District was fresh, but also nostalgic — a full arcade, complete with cabinets for classic games like Galaga and Street Fighter, and an impressive amount of local beers on tap.

The nostalgia factor is rooted in what David Hayden, Up-Down KC Marketing Manager, describes as the

golden ages of arcades — the early 1980s brought arcade classics like Donkey Kong and Pac Man — but the format wasn’t sustainable because sequels to popular games were being released at a rate that didn’t allow arcade owners to recoup the cost of less recent cabinets.

Hayden said this brief crash was followed by another explosion in popularity between 1989 and 1993, when games like Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam pulled both the generation of the original golden age and a new generation of customers back into the arcade. Yet again, arcades were wiped out by the same problem they encountered in the early 1980s.

Hayden said Up-Down KC’s business model aims to avoid the failures present in the classic, traditional arcades. Up-Down doesn’t rely solely on arcade games as its source of revenue.

Instead, most of its income is generated by food and drink, and arcade games pull people into the bar.

“It’s a paradigm shift, and it’s the reason why we think this model — and it’s exploding all across the country — will last much longer than previous arcades did,” Hayden said.

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FOOD & DRINK

Up-Down KC chooses the moniker of “nostalgia bar,” but similar bars are all over the Midwest. There are 13 arcade bars across major cities in the Midwest.

On a typical Friday night, more than half of Up-Down’s customers won’t play any of the arcade games.

Hayden said this is because with businesses of this type, the goal is to bring people in for the social aspect and the environment rather than the arcade machines themselves.

“Everything we do is built around the idea that if arcade [games] were made illegal tomorrow, would we still have a good bar?” Hayden said.

The owners service, purchase and install the games themselves to make sure they are all functional with the original parts with which the cabinets were intended to be played, Hayden said. In some cases, this means some cabinets might become Frankenstein

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games, where the owners take working parts from multiple cabinets and combine them to make one game that works. Up-Down’s owners are constantly on the lookout for games through auctions, local gaming Facebook groups, Craigslist ads, and local collectors, Hayden said.

Up-Down’s relationship with collectors has been especially important as arcade games have become a limited resource as development of new cabinets has stopped. They’ve even worked with people who have wanted to off-load one game in exchange for another. Up-Down has many more games off-site than what customers can see on the floor.

“It was bar guys who love arcade games — and being respectful of the arcade gaming community and what the cabinets were originally, being partners with them and helping to bring that back — is a huge part of our responsibility for owning these games,” Hayden said.

Entertainment Innovation

Up-Down isn’t the first bar of its kind. Emporium, in Chicago, Illinois, has been around for almost five years and is constantly reinventing its arcade bar experience.

Emporium offers a side room with a 20-foot projector screen and stage, which also allows for a larger selection of games and an additional bar, General Manager Roper Fuentes said. The bar uses this space to host live music every week along with gaming tournaments and modern gaming experiences, one being a virtual reality experience for the latest Resident Evil game for PlayStation 4.

Emporium has hosted high-profile acts such as comedian Hannibal Buress and electronic band Anamanaguchi.

“I think it’s pretty important to stay diverse in what you can offer,” Fuentes said.

FOOD & DRINK Skee ball machines give bar customers the opportunity to go for the high score.

Up-Down has a rotating lineup of nearly 50 other arcade games available.

ARCADE BARS Kansas City Up-Down KC Tapcade St. Louis Start Bar The Silver Ballroom

“

The nostalgic draw of the arcade games plus a willingness to embrace new gaming experiences contributes to the success of this bar.

“

The nostalgic draw of the arcade games plus a willingness to embrace new gaming experiences contributes to the success of this bar. Fuentes said when Emporium opened a second Chicago location, it offered a tabletop gaming environment — with games like shuffleboard, air hockey and foosball — to set itself apart from the other arcade bars that opened soon after Emporium’s first location.

The success Emporium has experienced since opening shows how nostalgic gaming has become more mainstream and accessible for people today than the arcades of the 20th century, Fuentes said. This renewed interest in gaming keeps people coming back, but Emporium’s management is focusing on providing more music and beer to avoid falling into a rut, Fuentes said.

“At some point you have to evolve,” Fuentes said. “You can only do the same

Chicago Emporium Arcade Bar Headquarters Beercade Replay Uptown Arcade FTW Des Moines Up-Down Des Moines Barcadium Cedar Rapids The Quarter Barrel Arcade and Brewery D a v e n p o rt Analog Arcade Bar Summer 2017 detours magazine 41

FOOD & DRINK

Customers mill around the bar in the center of the room at Up-Down. The “nostalgia bar� has a wide variety of beers on tap, including many from local breweries.

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FOOD & DRINK Arcade cabinets line the walls at Start Bar in St. Louis.

Start Bar is the first bar of its kind in St. Louis.

New to the Scene

While some bars — like Emporium — have enjoyed a few years of success, arcade bars in other cities have only just started to come onto the scene. Enter Start Bar of St. Louis, which is still in its first year of business and is the first of its kind in the city.

Nonetheless, Start Bar already feels well-established. When you walk in, you’re immediately hit with the typical sounds of bar music playing and bar guests chatting, but the first thing you see is the rows of colorful, eye-catching games. Even on weekday nights, Start Bar is busy and alive with activity.

Regular customer John Fields coordinates and runs weekly Wednesdaynight tournaments of an arcade game called Killer Queen with a group of active players in St. Louis. Fields said he’s glad Start Bar is supporting the competitive arcade gaming scene so much and also continues to provide prizes to tournament participants.

Fields said he’s seen more and more people showing up to his tournaments every week, and Start Bar has been great for people like him.

“[Before Start Bar] for me, the only place to go was Dave and Buster’s, which wasn’t really the scene for me that I enjoy,” Fields said. “On a typical weekday night, I was playing games at home or staying in and watching a movie, so [Start Bar] breaks up the middle of my week really nicely.”

Fields said being able to play games with friends in person at a place like Start Bar is something he’s been missing

Owner Stephen Savage said he’s found that there’s a large group that can relate to and enjoy the experience offered at an arcade bar, like Fields.

He’s seen customers of every age, from 21 to 70, come in and find something they could enjoy among all the games and pinball machines offered at Start Bar. Building on this, two more arcade bars have opened in St. Louis since Start Bar. If you walk in the doors of Start Bar next Wednesday night, you’ll be greeted almost immediately by a crowd around the Killer Queen cabinet, as teams of five try to win that week’s prize. Maybe you’ll grab a drink at the bar and settle in to spectate, or maybe you’ll go around the corner and play a game of Tekken with a friend.

The neon lights and 8-bit sounds of the room almost suck you in, like you’re reliving a memory. The nostalgic glow of the arcade screen will see to that.

“The neon lights and 8-bit sounds of the room almost suck you in, like you’re reliving a memor y.” in his life, especially in the wake of online play on modern gaming consoles.

He said it reminds him of packing up his Nintendo 64 and a copy of Goldeneye 007 and going over to a friend’s house to play.

He said places that allow people to come in, whether they love games or are new to them, and enjoy themselves is something he definitely wants to see more of.

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FOOD & DRINK Featured is a Manifesto cocktail creation named El Chapulin; a blend of Tequila Ocho Plata, Menthe, Cacao, Mole Bitters, and absinthe.

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FOOD & DRINK

BACK ALLEY

BOOZE Kansas City speakeasy Manifesto brings back the underground bar

STORY BY CAROLINA BENITEZ PHOTOS BY CAROLINA BENITEZ AND MANIFESTO Almost 100 years ago, during prohibition, large crowds secretly awaited their turn to enter an underground bar where booze and nightly excitement was highly sought after. Many people might envision booming and exciting New York City as the center of the prohibition movement, but Kansas City should not be overlooked. It was businessmen like Tom and Jim Prendergast and Alexander Rieger who helped put Kansas City on the map for famous speakeasies. In 2017, with the help of Ryan Maybee and his speakeasy, Manifesto, Kansas City residents and visitors can experience that same excitement felt so many years ago with delicious cocktails and an inviting atmosphere. To understand the purpose of Manifesto, one must first understand the historical roots laid during the prohibition era in Kansas City.

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FOOD & DRINK Open at 5 p.m. each night, Manifesto seats 40 guests at a time. The quaint space is usually dimly lit to allow for a more intimate experience.

Manifesto's entry way was renovated in April 2016 and is now part of the authenticity of the bar.

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Prohibition in Kansas City went mostly unnoticed because of the power that the Rieger family and the Prendergasts had in the city. According to Squeezebox, an online Kansas City visitor’s guide, the Prendergasts owned one of the busiest bars in town located in the West Bottoms. This area was known as the wettest block in the world for having over 200 saloons lined up one after another — approximately one for every 250 people in town.

With the Prendergasts’ bar and Rieger’s Whiskey Distillery, the trio became the most famous distributors of liquor in the city — Tom Prendergast in particular was known for smuggling liquor into

the city. By the time prohibition ended, it was as if Kansas City residents had never gone without alcohol.

Manifesto could be located in any city and remain successful, but the history rooted in this city and the lasting establishments like the Rieger Hotel from the 1920s, the current location of Manifesto, is what truly makes it a hidden treasure. In April 2009, Ryan Maybee recreated the prohibition era when he opened Manifesto in the historic Crossroads District.

Maybee’s interest in the prohibition era and ultimately his dream of opening a bar sparked from his previous work endeavours. Maybee

FOOD & DRINK

“Each cocktail is specially crafted with high-quality ingredients, while staying true to the makeup of a classic cocktail.” began his career bartending at Pierpont located in Union Station.

“Pierpont is beautiful,” Maybee said. “When I was working there I became fascinated with learning about classic cocktails from the 1860s and developed an appreciation for the prohibition era.”

While Maybee said he enjoyed his work at Pierpont, his goal had always been to open a cozy, highend bar that paid tribute to the prohibition era. He said he shopped around looking for bar venues until he got a call from the owner of the Rieger Hotel Grill and Exchange, who offered to partner with him by renting him the basement of his restaurant. The timing was just right for both of them. The 100-year-old basement was the perfect location and size, and even had an entrance through the back alley.

Each aspect of Manifesto brings one back to the prohibition era.

Guests enter the bar through the back alley of The Rieger Hotel Grill and Exchange after five p.m. Then they follow arrows for Manifesto leading to an enclosed, steep stairwell that spills into a dark hallway. At the far end of the hallway, guests will see a glimpse of light indicating they have reached the bar. Once inside, Manifesto is lit with lanterns and candles, creating a cozy, intimate environment. The bar has a capacity of 48 persons, to which Manifesto strictly adheres to. Maybee said the size of his bar had to be small for the number of cocktails they serve and the level of expertise they exert into each cocktail. Manifesto also caters to a wide variety of clientele throughout the year, from working professionals seeking a calm happy hour after a long day, to young

adults going for a night out with their friends.

“Manifesto is a mixture between 1940s meets modern world,” Ana Ximena, a first time guest, said.

“It’s quiet and cozy, and allows me to have a conversation with the people I came with and enjoy my surroundings. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of options the menu features and the unusualness of the cocktails, because I know I am getting an experience I can’t get elsewhere.”

The quaint, dimly-lit basement is not an ordinary bar. Each cocktail is specially crafted with highquality ingredients, while staying true to the makeup of a classic cocktail. Each month the staff gets together and brainstorms new ideas for cocktails. In the past they have tried incorporating mascarpone cheese into a drink. Maybee said it takes a lot of trial and error until they are ready to feature a new drink. The menu features 35 drinks at a time, rotating every three to four months to highlight the temporal seasons inspirations.

In the colder months, the staff has experimented with vegetable stock to create a hot drink. In the spring, The J. Rieger & Co. Whiskey Distillery mural was the first thing visitors saw upon arrival to Kansas city in the 1920s by train.

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FOOD & DRINK

Manifesto offers a wide selection of fine liquors, taking pride in the variety they offer to guests.

“The cocktail names are fun and unusual, which add to the distinctiveness of Manifesto.” the menu features flavors like lemon, lime and pineapple.

Maybee and his staff also seek inspiration from Kansas City whenever possible. Many cocktails are smoke infused, staying true to the city of famous barbecue. The staff tries to use local ingredients whenever possible because Maybee has spent a great deal of time and effort forming relationships with local farmers to ensure quality ingredients.

Taking a glance at the menu, one will find unusual ingredients such as egg whites, butternut squash and chamomile. Maybee said that while egg whites might seem unusual for

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those who do not know much about bartending, egg whites actually contribute a certain foamy texture needed for specific drinks. Similarly, the concept of chamomile is to extract a desired aroma.

“What we really try to get to the bottom of when creating new menus is, ‘What are people not expecting?’”

Maybee said.

Manifesto bartender, Rob Mayes, described Manifesto as the perfect place to gain knowledge and become a better bartender.

“We once had a staff competition where we had to use ginger liqueur to create

FOOD & DRINK

a drink,” Mayes said. “I knew from my experience with cooking that sesame oil and ginger went well together, so I decided to combine them to create a drink. The first time, it was definitely not good. I had to refine it a couple times until it was perfect.”

The cocktail names are fun and unusual, which add to the distinctiveness of Manifesto. The names include Zombie Apocalypse, Thunder on the Mountain, and The Man with the Golden Aeroplane. If guests are curious what the names represent, they should feel free to ask the staff, who are always willing to tell their story.

Maybee said his favorite drink depends on what mood he’s in. He said the great thing about Manifesto is that the menu features great diversity. While there are other speakeasies in town, such as Cave or O‘Malleys, Maybee said he is not worried about competition because

he knows there is no other experience in Kansas City like the one Manifesto offers. Much of what Maybee and his staff have worked towards creating has garnered attention from many professional outlets. Manifesto has been featured on CNN, Esquire Magazine, Feast Magazine in the Midwest and many others.

Maybee not only successfully recreated the prohibition era in Kansas City, but he also managed to bring back the Rieger Whiskey Distillery that was once so meaningful to Kansas City and the Rieger Family. Nearly 100 years after the distillery was forced to close, guests can now visit J. Rieger Co. for a guided tour of the distillery on select Saturdays. The area’s rich history is well worth taking a trip to Kansas City to experience these historical treasures for oneself. For a remarkable experience and a chance to learn about quality cocktails, head to Manifesto. Cheers!

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REGULARS

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REGULARS

S U M M E R 2 017 P H OT O C O N T E S T

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F I R S T P L AC E W I N N E R BLUE BOAT

by Rachel Garozzo Chuit, Chile “This particular picture was taken while I was visiting the island of Chuit, which is a very small island within the Chiloé archipelago. The island is home to only 120 people and we were the first non-Chilean visitors to ever go to the island, which was an extraordinary feeling.”

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SECOND PL ACE PLAYING WITH FIRE

by Sarah Hicks Kirksville, Missouri

"This photo was created by lighting steel wool on fire and spinning it around in a whisk. As a growing photographer, I am always looking for new ideas to make my portfolio stand out, and I happened upon steel wool spinning photos as I browsed Instagram one day. I loved the look and took up the challenge to try it out in an abandoned street next to my house. I love capturing images most people have not seen before, and this is why "Playing with Fire" is a current favorite in my portfolio."

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“The park this photo was taken in is a favorite of mine. I have shot countless of photos in Towne Park because of how beautiful it is. When I was out on this particular shoot, I was taking couple photos for a friend and I was in love with her dress and the golden field she was standing in. This photo was completely candid, but it has become one of my favorite photos ever taken. This photo is called ‘Soul Searching’ because I always seem take photos in Towne Park that unintentionally display a part of my imagination”

THIRD PL ACE SOUL SEARCHING

by Sarah Hicks Foristell, Missouri

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F O U RT H P L A C E FASHION SHOW ON A CRUISE

by Anh Tran New York, New York “This fashion show is super unique since it was hosted on a cruise; the runway was the upper deck of ship where you can see the skyline of Manhattan. It was my first time shooting for a fashion show. I am not a professional photographer, so it was such an honor to be invited to J Autumn Fashion Show. It was such a challenge for me since the runway is not straight, but rather a curved one. I found a perfect spot at the middle of the runway, where it starts curving. With the spectacular NYC skyline, blue clear sky, the model with a long, layered, fluffy dress appears to be an angle wandering around. I was lucky to capture this moment!”

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FIFTH PL ACE QUEBEC COAST

by Damian Soane Quebec City, Canada “My mom, sister and I drove up the coast in Quebec and enjoyed the beautiful landscapes Canada has to offer.”

FA C E B O O K FA N FAV O R I T E COLOR ROCKS

by Rachel Garozzo Chuit, Chile

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s ’ e r e H p o o c S STORY BY GIANG LANH & MARY TOMLINSON Photo provided by Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Summer 2017 detours magazine 59

ILLINOIS Black Dog Gelato CHICAGO

Black Dog Gelato — an Italian style ice cream shop in Chicago — made it on Time Out Chicago’s “100 Best Things We Ate and Drank in 2016.” They never use flavored syrups, but roast their nuts, make their own fruit purees and use organic bittersweet chocolate. With the traditional technique of ice cream making and basic ingredients — milk, cream, sugar, eggs — the owner Jessica Oloroso combines unusual seasonings such as curry powder, peppercorns, thyme and roasted red peppers with common ice cream flavors. Her inspiration comes from recipes, grocery shopping and experimentation. While describing her Coconut Thyme Gelato she said, “Things have accidentally been mixed together when they were not supposed to, and they have actually turned out really well.”

Photo courtesy of Black Dog Gelato

The Spotted Cow PEORIA

The Spotted Cow was the one of the first restaurants to make its own ice cream in Peoria.

The owner, Frank Abdnour, started the business by selling ice cream in front of Bradley University, after baking waffle cones the night before. Many cow photos and black and white decorations adorn the restaurant. The store also has a memorial for the space where former Vice President Joe Biden used to eat ice cream, and it has become many customers’ favorite place to sit. Moreover, Abdnour welcomes his customers to bring their own food products and use them to create special ice cream flavors.

Photo courtesy of the Spotted Cow

Bobtail Ice Cream CHICAGO

From Jeff Wilcoxon’s Grandpa’s ice cream truck to their modern business, Bobtail Ice Cream uses three family generations’ recipes, creating a sense of authenticity by still using their grandpa’s recipes. With 19 different flavors, customers have many choices such as Signature Sunset — merlot ice cream with dark chocolate chips, Daley Addiction — vanilla ice cream and butter fudge swirl, and Turtle Sundaes — vanilla ice cream, homemade chocolate syrup, caramel and pecans. Some of the ice cream recipes contain alcohol such as Guinness Draught in Bobtail Soda Fountain or Jack Daniel’s in Lakeview Barhopper. The front view of the store faces Lake Michigan, the Chicago skyline and Millennium Park.

Photo courtesy of Bobtail Ice Cream

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Scoop Du Jour CHATHAM

Scoop Du Jour is an ice cream store in the Village of Chatham, founded by Shannon McAuley and Fran Abbott in 2015.

With the new business, they want to maximize customers’ enjoyment as much as they can by providing free Wi-Fi, delivery service and coupon promotions. Inside the store, there are green and blue lanterns shining on the bright green, dark purple and blue walls. The store has 35 flavors and the favorites include Superman, After Dinner Mint, chocolate chip cookie dough, Shipwrecked and Lady Bug. They also have sugar-free and fat-free options. The store supports local schools and organizations by fundraising, exhibiting artwork and organizing open mic nights that feature local youth.

Las Delicias

PEORIA

Las Delicias was founded in 2013 in Peoria. The interior features a wall mural with a girl, house, road and sun which have ice cream cones throughout the image. The store sells homemade Mexican popsicles and banana split ice cream.

They make popsicles by blending fresh fruit with yogurt and then freezing it. They have fruit bowls, made of pineapple or watermelon, where they hollow out the fruit and place ice cream inside, topped with mango, pineapple, pear, candy and a special Mexican red salt.

Photo courtesy of Las Delicias

26th Street Sugar Shack

CHICAGO

26th Street Sugar Shack is a place for homemade Italian and hand-scooped ice cream. The Italian ice cream flavors include lemon, strawberry, lime, mango, blue raspberry and cherry. For the hand-scooped, customers do not get charged for sprinkles or plain and sugar cones. Sugar Shack gives customers three vanilla ice cream scoops, whipped cream and a cherry, along with a choice of one “wet” topping such as caramel sauce, chocolate or peanut butter and one “dry” topping such as various cereals, chopped pecans and candy, all set atop a piping hot funnel cake. The store sometimes has live acoustic music, and it only opens for the season.

Photo courtesy of 26th Street Sugar Shack

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ILLINOIS

Batavia Creamery BATAVIA

Batavia Creamery was established in 2006 in Batavia

by Kirk Jansons. The store provides 44 flavors at a time, but has more than 100 flavors to rotate including non-dairy options. Each week, they rotate 5 flavors so customers have a variety of choices. “We try to have very exotic flavors and things you can’t find,” Jansons said. There are some main ice cream flavors such as mocha almond fudge — coffee ice cream loaded with roasted almonds and a fudge swirl, Mackinac Island Fudge — creamy vanilla ice cream with a butter fudge swirl and chewy fudge pieces, or Cinna-Graham swirl — delicious pound cake ice cream with a cinnamon graham streusel swirl and loaded with pound cake pieces.

They have non-dairy options which include kiwistrawberry, watermelon and lemon Italian sorbet.

The Whole Scoop GRAFTON

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The Whole Scoop is a complex business selling ice cream, homegrown veggies and renting an apartment. Customers can write their name and their favorite ice cream in hand-decorated ice cream spoons, and they are hung on the walls for decoration. The picnic tables out front provide seating for large families or groups.

Specialties include blueberry cheesecake and vanilla ice cream with Oreo crust.

Photo courtesy of The Whole Scoop

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IOWA

Bauder Pharmacy DES MOINES

Thanks to the premium quality, Bauder’s Fresh Strawberry was awarded as the best ice cream in the country in 1984 by People Magazine. Moreover, its signature Bauder Peppermint Bar has become a representative for the store in the Iowa State Fair from 1986 until now. It is also mentioned in Gourmet magazine twice as a must-try food. It includes an Oreo crust, two inches of ice cream sandwiches, topped with hot fudge. The store brings forth the sense of nostalgia because it maintains the 1950s pharmacy style that looks the same as its first opening with the wood panelling, vintage neon, marble counter and an old-fashioned Coke machine.

Photo courtesy of Bauder Pharmacy

Paleteria La Michoacana DES MOINES

Paleteria La Michoacana is a Mexican dessert shoppe and was the first Hispanic company to exhibit their ice cream in the frozen food section in American stores. The ice cream distributions reached over 10,000 locations in America. The Mexican popsicles combine ice cream and natural fruit, including 14 flavors such as cucumber with chili, bubble gum, rice pudding and guava. The store’s signature paletas are a twist of chocolate and berry, or chocolate and vanilla. Paleteria La Michoacana’s Vice President said, “We have seen wonderful progress throughout the U.S. Southwest as more chains have requested distribution.”

Lagomarcino’s MOLINE & DAVENPORT

Italian immigrant Angelo Lagomarcino opened Lagomarcino’s in 1908 and its operation now belongs to the fourth generation. Lagomarcino’s changed with America. In 1918, after equipping the store with a chocolate candy-making machine and furniture, Lagomarcino’s almost ran out of money. However, the owner bought the recipe for their hot fudge sundaes from a peddler during 1918 for $25 with a promise that Lagomarcino’s would be the only one owning it. Luckily, it became Lagomarcino’s signature recipe. Because of devotion to America’s ice cream culture, Lagomarcino’s was awarded the James Beard in 2006.

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IOWA Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor and Museum LE MARS

The Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor and Museum is a familyfriendly place where people can enjoy ice cream and learn about its history. It was founded by Fred Wells in 1913. It provides 40 ice cream flavors in a bowl, a cone, a sandwich, or a bar. The store has bunny stickers and a large, white stuffed bunny on one wall, a small museum, a grand staircase, antique soda fountain, and marble ice cream counter that create a sense of 1920s old-fashioned style parlor. Customers can have hard-dip cones and dishes of specialty sundaes such as crispy bacon, brown derby or dream puff.

Photo courtesy of Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor and Museum

De Scoop PELLA

The owner of De Scoop gave the Well Resources Center, a local non-profit organization, their store to solve the Center’s financial crisis. The store’s specialties include Dirt Sundae — vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate syrup, topped with Oreos and gummy worms and Rocky Road Sundae — chocolate ice cream covered with chocolate syrup marshmallow topping, glazed candied pecans and whipped cream. Customers can also enjoy a warm or cold option — Apple Pie Sundae with the warm apple pie, vanilla ice cream, hot caramel fudge, pecans and whipped cream.

Photo courtesy of De Scoop

Whitey’s Ice Cream

MOLINE

Whitey’s Ice Cream was founded in 1933 in Moline by Chester Lindgren. He later sold the store to Bob Tunberg in 1953, and his family maintains the business. Whitey’s ice cream is extra thick because of the use of high-powered malt machines. They create the ice cream without adding sugar but use Splenda sweetener instead. The store’s signature dish is Whitey’s Novelties. This includes two homemade chocolate chip cookies with chocolate chip ice cream in the middle. Also, they have a secret menu that comes from customers’ ideas. For its innovation, Whitey’s has been honored various awards such as the “Best in the Midwest” by readers of Midwest Living Magazine, the “Best Ice Cream Shops in the World” by Conde Nast Traveler readers, and the “Best Ice Cream” in the Quad City Times Reader’s Choice Awards.

Photo courtesy of Whitey’s Ice Cream

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MISSOURI Snow Factory STL ST. LOUIS

At Snow Factory, ice cream doesn’t come in scoops — it comes in aesthetically pleasing rolls, perfectly scraped off the below-freezing hibachi grill. The rolls are then placed vertically into a cup and topped with fruits, pretzels, candies and even macarons, making for an Instagram-worthy dessert. The playful treats are mirrored in the decor, which includes walls covered in neon-colored notes with customer comments. Owner and college student Van Liu doesn’t want to stop innovating with the Thai-rolled ice cream. He’s already added egg waffle ice cream — a full sized waffle wrapped around ice cream in a tall cup — and plans to add rose ice cream, where scoops of ice cream are styled to look like a rose.

Ice Plain & Fancy ST. LOUIS

Move over Dippin’ Dots, there’s a new ice cream of the future — Ices Plain & Fancy, St. Louis’s nitro ice cream.

Menu items are made-to-order, and guests can oogle as the ice cream ingredients mix with the liquid nitrogen — a chilly -320 degrees Fahrenheit. After the puff of smoke clears away, you have a decadent treat in flavors such as chocolate, cherry cordial and salted dulce de leche. Make sure to grab your treat quickly — if you take a bite right when it comes out, smoke from the icy process will float right out of your mouth.

Photo courtesy of Ice Plain & Fancy

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MISSOURI Ted Drewes ST. LOUIS

Ask any St. Louisan where to satisfy a sweet tooth on a hot summer night, and “Ted Drewes Frozen Custard” will be their confident response. Ted Drewes Sr., a St. Louis tennis champion, opened his first frozen custard store in Florida in 1929, but came back to the Lou’ to open the South Grand and Chippewa locations that remain today. The signature “concrete” — a frozen custard malt or shake — comes with a dizzying variety of mix-ins. To show how thick the custard is, staff will flip the concrete upside when the order is ready.

Central Dairy JEFFERSON CITY

Take a step back in time beneath the red and white awning of Central Dairy and get a taste of the ice cream recipe that hasn’t changed for the past 80 years. After its founding in Columbia, Missouri by Dot Sappington and Clyde Shepard, the parlor moved to Jefferson City and has become a favorite of locals and visitors. The parlor keeps prices reasonable, with a hefty scoop for just two dollars. Even when the line gets long, the staff keeps service moving quickly, so you can snag a booth after a long day of touring Missouri’s capital.

Photo courtesy of Central Dairy

Sparky’s Homemade Ice Cream COLUMBIA

If you think the art lining the walls of Sparky’s is outlandish, wait until you see the flavors inside the cooler. The shop concocted a cicada flavor in 2011 and rotates funky flavors daily. A handful of options come from collaborations with local food and drink producers such as Patric Chocolate and Boone Olive Oil Co. After making the difficult choice between Lavender Honey, Puppy Chow or MapleLemonade Cayenne, grab a seat inside and admire the funky acrylic portraits of puppies, eagles, and a woman and her lion.

Glace Artisan Ice Cream

KANSAS CITY

Before Christopher Elbow dove into the world of ice cream, he traveled the world, working alongside renowned chefs such as Emeril Lagasse and Jean Joho. When Elbow returned to Kansas City, he perfected his chocolate-making skills and opened Glace Artisan Ice Cream. Each batch of ice cream uses milk from Missouri cows, and the culinary team constantly churns out new flavors.

The website posts new flavors each week, from butternut squash and maple to cream cheese and spiced dark chocolate. Customers can even see which flavors are available at each location on the website and walk in knowing exactly which inventive flavor to get.

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Betty Rae’s Ice Cream KANSAS CITY

David Friesen and Mary Nguyen met working at Sparky’s Homemade Ice Cream in Columbia, Missouri. Today, these dessertcrossed lovers run Betty Rae’s Ice Cream, which Bloomberg recently named among the Best New Ice Cream Shops in the U.S. The shop, named after David’s grandmother, whips up favorites like made-from-scratch waffle cones that are more soft than crunchy, and unexpected flavor combinations, which have included chicken and waffles and pineapple Thai basil. The location used to house a frozen yogurt shop, but has transformed the yogurt dispensers spaces into activity areas for kids, making for a kid-friendly experience.

Photo courtesy of Betty Rae’s Ice Cream

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MISSOURI Paleterias Tropicana KANSAS CITY

The Valdez family brought Michoacan style ice cream to Kansas City with their first location of Paleterias Tropicana, and have since expanded to four locations in Kansas and Missouri. Their signature popsicles, or palatas in Spanish, consist of a simple mixture of fruit, sugar and water, making a healthy and refreshing treat. More decadent desserts include “tropichuro,” a fried dough pastry filled with tropical fruit, and “fruitti tacos,” three fruit tortillas filled with assorted fruit, peanuts and chamoy sauce.

Miami Ice KANSAS CITY

Decked out in bright pink, blue and green neon lights reminiscent of a 1980s Florida summer, Miami Ice dishes out colorfullyflavored snow cones. Behind the counter, an array of flavors from birthday cake to kiwi to watermelon are yours to choose, and mixing flavors to make your own creative concoction is encouraged. For a truly outlandish combo, try the Miami Ice signature — a snow cone with custard at the bottom. The creaminess of the custard blends surprisingly well with the shaved ice and is a local favorite.

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MIDWESTERN

FRANCHISES Andy’s Frozen Custard MISSOURI | ARIZONA | ARKANSAS | COLORADO | ILLINOIS | KANSAS | NORTH CAROLINA | OKLAHOMA | TENNESSEE | TEXAS The giant red and silver building housing Andy’s Frozen Custard looks reminiscent of the drive-through era, and the frozen custard served is just as classic. The franchise began in 1986 when John and Carol Kuntz brought frozen custard to Osage Beach. Their treats became a hit at the Lake of the Ozarks, and expansion followed quickly after. The franchise has since expanded to 7 states with more than 40 locations open or under construction. Locations are open year-round, and seasonal treats in the summer include blackberry, peach and key lime pie concretes.

Photo courtesy of Andy’s Frozen Custard

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams OHIO | TENNESSEE | ILLINOIS | GEORGIA | SOUTH CAROLINA | CALIFORNIA | MISSOURI Jeni Britton Bauer is no stranger to the world of ice cream — she’s been churning out frozen treats for two decades. The flagship location of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams came on the scene in 2002 and has since expanded to seven states, with locations in Chicago, St. Louis and as far as Los Angeles.

Her cookbook, “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams At Home,” allows customers to make their own frozen favorites and earned Jeni a James Beard Award in 2012. The newest flavors at the shop include gooey butter cake and goat cheese with red cherries, and they sit alongside fun flavors such as Thai curry pumpkin and sweet corn and black raspberries.

Photo courtesy of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream

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Tea with Nancy Aurora, Illinois May 6-7

Dogwood Festival Kewanee, Illinois May 6-7

Art Fair at Laumeier St. Louis, Missouri May 12-14

Enjoy sipping tea with Nancy, taking care to dress up and enjoy good company on May 6-7. Nancy is the second wife of the governor of Missouri. Reenactors will serve tea to guests at the governor’s home.

Come join the annual Dogwood festival in Quincy, Illinois on May 6-7. Enjoy the sights and sound of the parade at 9:30 a.m., and peruse the different vendors after the streets clear. Admission is free for all who would like to attend.

Looking for a fun fair? One can visit the art fair at Laumeier, involving a highlycompetitive show. Many applicants compete in many different art forms.

Food is not far away, residing beside the art with different vendors. Children and adults can enjoy activities and demonstrations, respectively.

Wined-Up Thursday Cambridge, Iowa May 18

St. Louis Fine Print, Rare Book & Paper Arts Fair St. Louis, Missouri May 6-7 Take time to be a dealer. An art dealer, that is. The St. Louis Fine Print, Rare Book & Paper Arts Fair is a hot spot where book dealers offer rare first editions and illustrated books. Proceeds from the event will provide the Library support for future literary acquisitions.

Participate in the white oak cellars bi-weekly event, Wined-Up Thursday, for a chance to listen to a great band. Take advantage of the wine special to try their cold climate locally grown wine.

A sandwich meal will be on sale on site, and craft beer and other food items will be available for purchase. On the 18th, the Cellar will feature Hot Tamale and the Red Hots with their R&B and jazz.

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WHAT’S HAPPENING

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Blues on the Fox Aurora, Illinois June 16-17

Chocolate Festival Long Grove, Illinois May 21

At Aurora’s Leland Hotel, John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson, Tampa Red, Big Bill Broonzy changed blues music forever, and over 80 years later, Blues on the Fox honors that tradition with a legendary music festival. This year’s lineup includes Grammy Award-winner Mavis Staples and Blues Hall of Fame inductee Elvin Bishop, and the performances take place in the picturesque RiverEdge Park.

Get ready for delectable delights at the Chocolate Festival in Long Grove, Illinois.

Don’t worry, there is a chocolate fountain for dipping delicacies. In addition, one can join in on the chocolate scavenger hunt or watch the chocolate pie eating contest. Why not try chocolate sauce on burgers with chocolate beer?

Tunes at Twilight Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Party in the Park Charles City, Iowa May 26

Sit back and relax under the stars while listening to some great music. Tunes at Twilight is a free outdoor concert series hosted on Friday nights, for six weeks in the spring and fall. On the 19th, visitors will hear the tunes of Dennis Stroughmatt et l’Esprit Creole. As they gaze upon the stars, they can reminisce listening to the Celtic, Canadian and Old Time blend of music, more than 300 years old.

If you visit Charles City on May 26, you’ll get a spot in the Party in the Park series.

Playing from 5-7:30 p.m. are The Chocolate Crackers, followed at 8-11 p.m. by Coyote Wild. The series are part of the Charles City community revitalization.

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NCAA Golf Tournament Sugar Grove, Illinois May 19-31

Cherokee PRCA Rodeo Cherokee, Iowa June 1-3

Superman Celebration Metropolis, Illinois June 8-11

Passionate sports fans can visit the Men’s and Women’s 2017 Golf tournament hosted by Northern Illinois University.

The tournament will proceed on Rich Harvest farms, an elegant landscape with wetlands and trees, sprouted up on once corn fields. Now, the sloping hills and natural streams provide the perfect challenge for the competitive golfers.

Take a wild ride in Cherokee, Iowa at the PRCA Rodeo, a tradition that’s been riding strong for 51 years. This three-day event features a family night with free pony rides and a petting zoo, rodeo performances every night, Western barbeque concessions and live music. Rodeo performances range from bareback riding, tie down roping, steer wrestling and barrel racing, ensuring a weekend of rousing entertainment.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane — it’s the Superman Celebration! As the designated “Home of Superman,” Metropolis, Illinois puts on a super festival weekend honoring all things Superman. Pull out your best hero or villain costume for the costume contest, snag a Superman celebrity autograph and some tickets for the carnival. For the comic enthusiast, comic artists from Marvel and DC Comics will be featured on Artists Alley.

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America’s River Festival Dubuque, Iowa June 9-10 A rock and country outdoor concert combines with a craft beer event at America’s River Festival.

Three nights of music with headliners such as The Guess Who, Styx and Old Dominion make for a rocking weekend, and the Thursday night performance of the Nitty Gritty Dirty Band is free.

The craft beer event — The Tappening — offers patrons more than 100 brews from more than 25 different brewers to enjoy along the banks of the Mississippi River.

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Hog Capital BBQ Challenge Kewanee, Illinois June 16-17

Cathedral Cave Night Tours Leasburg, Missouri June 24

Laura Day Celebration Burr Oak, Iowa June 24

In proudly carrying the name of “Hog Capital of the World,” Kewanee celebrates their pork-filled heritage with a weekend of barbeque. Professional teams will compete in the main competition, whose winners can go onto the American Royal World Series of Barbeque and win a $6,000 prize. But the cooking isn’t just up to the professionals — amateurs and kids can give barbecuing a shot, all to the delight of hungry festival goers.

The beauty of Cathedral Cave grows more mysterious at night during the Onondaga Cave State Park night tours. By the glow of your flashlights, admire the Cathedral Bell flowstone and try to spot a cave-adapted blind salamander on this underground trek. A seismic station is also set up within Cathedral Cave, giving hikers a glimpse into the earthquake monitoring process. Spots are first-come, first-serve on the tour and can be reserved online or over the phone.

The enchanting world of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of “Little House on the Prairie,” comes to life at Laura Days Celebration. Volunteers dress in traditional prairie garb, demonstrate traditional crafts and games such as candle making and basket weaving. True “Little House on the Prairie” fans can dress up and participate in the Little Miss Laura and Young Almanzo contests.

Kayak Clinic at Current River State Park Salem, Missouri June 30 Missouri State Parks teams up with the Ozark National Scenic Riverways for a kayak clinic. Sessions will be held at Current River State Park, tucked away in the rugged Ozark woods. All equipment will be provided but space is limited.

National Tom Sawyer Days Hannibal, Missouri June 30-July 4 What started as the first Tom Sawyer fence painting contest in 1956 has evolved into a full-on Fourth of July weekend celebration in Hannibal, the home of Mark Twain. Other contests include the frog-jump contest, the Tom & Becky Contest and the horseshoe tournament. The daily carnival rides and live music in the beer garden lead up to the grand finale of fireworks over the Mississippi River on the Fourth of July.

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We’re a summer vacation’s best friend.

An easier trip to just about anywhere starts with a fast flight to St. Louis for convenient connections. It’s affordable and parking is free at most airports, too.

Kirksville Kirksville

Quincy Quincy

St. Louis

St. Louis

Ft. Leonard Wood

Marion Marion Owensboro Cape Girardeau Owensboro Cape Girardeau

Ft. Leonard Wood

Enjoy the ride.

capeair.com

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