DECEMBER 2019 I FREE I THEPITCHKC.COM
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CONTENTS
THE PITCH
Publisher Stephanie Carey Editor in Chief David Hudnall Digital Editor Kelcie McKenney Staff Writer Emily Park Contributing Writers Traci Angel, Liz Cook, Riley Cowing, Karen Dillon, April Fleming, Roxie Hammill, Libby Hanssen, Deborah Hirsch, Dan Lybarger, Aaron Rhodes, Barbara Shelly, Nick Spacek Little Village Creative Services Jordan Sellergren Jav Ducker Contributing Photographers Zach Bauman, Chase Castor, Joe Carey Graphic Designers Austin Crockett, Jake Edmisten, Lacey Hawkins, Jennifer Larson, Katie McNeil, Danielle Moore, Gianfranco Ocampo, Kirsten Overby, Alex Peak, Fran Sherman Director of Marketing & Promotions Jason Dockery Senior Multimedia Specialist Steven Suarez Multimedia Specialist Becky Losey Account Manager Rebecca Watson Director of Operations Andrew Miller Multimedia Interns Hannah Strader Design Intern Jon Tinoco
CAREY MEDIA
Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Carey Chief Operating Officer Adam Carey
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National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com
34 ZACH BAUMAN
8 NEWS
Streetside What’s coming and what’s going in KC retail, food, drink, and real estate. BY DAVID HUDNALL
DISTRIBUTION
The Pitch distributes 35,000 copies a month and is available free throughout Greater Kansas City, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $5 each, payable at The Pitch’s office in advance. The Pitch may be distributed only by The Pitch’s authorized independent contractors or authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of The Pitch, take more than one copy of each week’s issue. Mail subscriptions: $22.50 for six months or $45 per year, payable in advance. Application to mail at second-class postage rates is pending at Kansas City, MO 64108.
COPYRIGHT
The contents of The Pitch are Copyright 2019 by Carey Media. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without the express written permission of the publisher. The Pitch 1627 Main St., #600, Kansas City, MO 64108 For information or to share a story tip, email tips@thepitchkc.com For advertising: stephanie@thepitchkc.com or 816-218-6702 For classifieds: steven@thepitchkc.com or 816-218-6732
10 Let the Sunshine In
In Parkville, gadflies are buzzing and state investigations are underway. BY EMILY PARK
14 Value Added
The Jackson County assessment debacle is about to get worse. BY BARBARA SHELLY
16 HOLIDAYS
24 CAFE
34 DIVERSIONS
30 FOOD
36 EAT
Hustle & Pho Adventures at Linh’s Vietnamese Cuisine, where the quirks are abundant and the banh mis firstrate. BY LIZ COOK
In-N-Out Life and death in KC food and drink in 2019. BY APRIL FLEMING
Roughing It Tossing axes, drinking White Claws, and snacking on menu items developed by a James Beard Award nominee—just like real lumberjacks do. BY LIZ COOK
Eat This Now The Croissant at 1900 Barker. BY APRIL FLEMING
32 Iron Bound
KC’s latest food hall is a collection of shipping containers in the Northland. BY APRIL FLEMING
‘Tis the Season Entertainment options for keeping your KC holidays merry and bright. BY DEBORAH HIRSCH AND HANNAH STRADER
“THE HAP-HAPPIEST SEASON OF ALL” Illustration by Kelsey Borch
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
1900 DIAMOND PARKWAY ∙ NORTH KANSAS CITY, MO 64116 MJEWELRY.COM (816) 453-1111
CONTENTS
37 DRINK
Drink This Now That’s Bonkers at Bon Bon. BY APRIL FLEMING
38 PAGES
Pop-Up Book On-the-spot artist Charlie Mylie— aka Pop Up Charlie—has just released his first children’s book, Something for You. BY EMILY COX
40 ARTS
Vocal Range Meet Cowtown Country Club, a local quartet of classical musicians marauding as country crooners. BY LIBBY HANSSEN
40
42 MUSIC
Just Kids The unearthing of a time-capsule collaboration between rappers Ron Ron and Stik Figa, local legends of the late aughts. BY AARON RHODES
44 SAVAGE LOVE
Sissy that Talk Kink-shaming, difficult foreskin, and a threesome faux pas. BY DAN SAVAGE
50 EVENTS
December Calendar Where to go and what to see this winter.
ZACH BAUMAN
Concerts are held in Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Holiday Gift Certificates Available!
(816) 471-0400 / kcsymphony.org
FUN + FESTIVE WINTER CONCERTS A Beloved Holiday Tradition
HANDEL’S MESSIAH Friday, Dec. 6 at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8 at 2 p.m.
Julian Wachner, guest conductor Kansas City Symphony Chorus, Charles Bruffy, chorus director Lauren Snouffer, soprano Melissa Attebury, mezzo-soprano Oliver Mercer, tenor Alexander Dobson, bass-baritone
Experience Handel’s Messiah, brought to life by nearly 200 musicians onstage, including our Kansas City Symphony Chorus and very special guest vocalists. Tickets from $25. Supported by the Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund. Sponsors include:
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
Isaac Stern@100 International Kickoff Event
BEETHOVEN for the GENERATIONS
Monday, Dec. 16 at 7:30 p.m. Michael Stern, conductor Yo-Yo Ma, cello Pamela Frank, violin Emanuel Ax, piano
S PECIA L CO N C E R T E V E NT !
BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in E-flat major BEETHOVEN Egmont Overture BEETHOVEN Triple Concerto A concert not to be missed! This extraordinary all-Beethoven program includes the composer’s Triple Concerto for piano, violin, cello and orchestra. Tickets start at $85. Benefits the Annette Bloch NextGen Venture Fund to build future audiences.
Yuletide Fun for Family and Friends
CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL
Film + Live Orchestra
PIRATES of the CARIBBEAN:
Friday, Dec. 20 at 8 p.m. THE CURSE OF THE BLACK Saturday, Dec. 21 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. PEARL™ IN CONCERT Sunday, Dec. 22 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 10 at 8 p.m. Monday, Dec. 23 at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 11 at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 12 at 3 p.m. Jason Seber, David T. Beals III Associate Conductor Kansas City Symphony Chorus, Charles Bruffy, chorus director Rezound! Handbell Ensemble Michael Preacely, vocals
Enjoy the Symphony’s holiday celebration filled with carols, choirs and special guests. Tickets start at $30 for adults and $15 for children. Supported by the Neighborhood
Tourist Development Fund. Sponsored by:
Jason Seber, David T. Beals III Associate Conductor Kansas City Symphony Chorus Charles Bruffy, chorus director
Come along for a swashbuckling adventure with Captain Jack Sparrow, his motley crew and the Kansas City Symphony! Tickets for the full-length film start at $40 for adults and $25 for children. Presentation licensed by Disney
Concerts. © All rights reserved.
Sponsors include:
STREETSIDE
Gordon Ramsay Steak is now open at Harrah’s North Kansas City. The salty British chef was in town in early November for the debut of his new restaurant—Ramsay’s first in the Midwest and “the only one between Baltimore and Vegas” (as opening night emcee and Kansas City Chiefs play-byplay guy Mitch Holthus informed the crowd on opening night). The lure of Ramsay’s Beef Wellington and sticky toffee pudding is evidently strong here in the hearty middle of the country: More than 3,000 reservations have already been booked, according to management.
Oddly wastes not.
DAVID HUDNALL
STREETSIDE
WHAT’S COMING AND WHAT’S GOING IN KC RETAIL, FOOD, DRINK, AND REAL ESTATE. BY DAVID HUDNALL
The Paseo will be the Paseo again. Earlier this year, the KCMO City Council voted to rename Paseo Boulevard after Martin Luther King Jr. That ordinance was sponsored by now-Mayor Quinton Lucas, and it passed, 8-4. The Paseo signs came down, and MLK signs went up. It turns out, though, that most people who actually live along the Paseo—the majority of whom are black—didn’t actually want that name change; they like the Paseo name and its historical association with black success. Those opposed to the renaming gathered enough signatures over the summer to get an initiative on the ballot that would revert MLK back to Paseo Boulevard. And in November’s municipal elections, the people
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
spoke and resoundingly rejected the original renaming. So now the city will be taking the MLK signs down and putting the old Paseo signs back up, at a cost of about $30,000 (good thing the city saved the signs). Your taxpayer dollars at work! Did you think that would be the end of this? It is not the end of this. After the election, Lucas announced a 90-day public comment period for input over how the city can best honor King. A series of community meetings will follow. (Residents can send suggestions to MLKTribute@kcmo.org.) So far, we are liking the idea to rename J.C. Nichols Parkway after King—an overdue rebuke to Nichols’ legacy of racist housing restrictions in Kansas City.
Black Dirt has closed. The much-anticipated second act of Justus Drugstore chef Jonathan Justus and his wife, Camile Eklof, opened on the South Plaza in January 2017. But in KC’s crowded fine-dining ecosystem, the New American restaurant underperformed, and Justus pulled the plug in early November. “It was a very difficult decision for us to close, but ultimately it was a business decision,” Justus said in a release. “We do have exciting plans in the works.”
Bread & Butter Concepts has filed for bankruptcy. The restaurant group, founded in 2008, has been shedding properties since the beginning of 2019. In February, it sold Taco Republic and the burger joint BRGR Kitchen + Bar to the owners of Louie’s Wine Dive, and in October it closed its Plaza concept The Oliver. In mid-November, Bread & Butter filed for bankruptcy, listing $4 million in assets versus $5 million in liabilities. No need to toss your Christmas, though: The restaurants that remain—the South Plaza steakhouse Stock Hill, the Prairie Village
bistro Urban Table, and its Plaza flagship Gram & Dun—will “continue to operate as usual with no interruptions to our service, or our continuing commitment to our customers,” the company says.
Oddly Correct has done away with paper and plastic on to-go coffee orders. The midtown coffee shop, well-known for its pourover coffee (and a reluctance to serve you cream or sugar with that coffee), has implemented a new policy: No more paper or plastic cups. From now on, if you’re taking your coffee to-go, you gotta buy a $1 jar. The jars are reusable and recyclable, and they come with a machine-washable sleeve and lid.
Yaki-Ya is out, and po’boys are in at Parlor. The Japanese street food stall Yaki-Ya closed inside the Crossroads food hall at the end of October. Replacing it is Mudbugs, a concept from Louisiana native Chris Jones. The new stall will serve five different po’boys, plus sides including gumbo, jambalaya, fried okra, red beans and rice, and more. Yaki-Ya is the second restaurant to cycle out of Parlor this year. The slider purveyor Buns Up replaced the Scandinavian fare at Vildhast in the spring.
The Jack Henry Building on the Country Club Plaza will be home to Punch Bowl Social, a two-story millennial funporium featuring craft beers, fancy cocktails and mocktails, and activities like arcade games, foosball, Yardzee, ping-pong, and private karaoke. The Denver-based company behind the concept operates 18 locations in the U.S. and expects to open the KC location in fall 2020.
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NEWS
ZACH BAUMAN
LET THE SUNSHINE IN IN PARKVILLE, GADFLIES ARE BUZZING AND STATE INVESTIGATIONS ARE UNDERWAY. BY EMILY PARK
Jason Maki doesn’t even live in Parkville, Missouri. He resides in an unincorporated part of Platte County that borders Parkville. But Maki has paid more than $10,000 for open records requests from the city in the last year. Something’s rotten, Maki believes, in this quiet river hamlet, population 6,700. Maki first detected an odor of pernicious secrecy last fall, when he learned about plans for something called the Creekside Project. The development, which includes commercial, residential, and industrial components, plus a private baseball complex, is planned for a site at the intersection of Interstate 435 and State Highway 45. It would impact not just Parkville but also nearby unincorporated neighborhoods of Platte County. Maki lives in one of those neighborhoods. The Creekside plan was to be heavily subsidized by taxpayers. The developers of the project would receive $52 million in tax breaks through the handy civic instrument known as tax increment financing, or TIF. Under a TIF deal, a developer agrees to build something new on a blighted property; in exchange, the city freezes the taxes on that property for a certain period of time (often as long as 23 years). Maki thought that was a lot of future tax revenue to be siphoning away from Northland schools toward a private developer. He was also miffed that neither he nor his unincorporated neighbors
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
were ever contacted about the development. “Three sides of my house are surrounded by Parkville,” Maki tells The Pitch. “I’m part of the Parkville community. We’re paying taxes for this development, but we don’t have any voting power, and the aldermen don’t feel like they have to listen to our concerns.” Maki was not alone in opposing the Creekside development. “Half of Platte County would be blighted if those pictures [of the proposed site] are indicative of blight,” one Parkville TIF Commissioner said of Creekside’s request at a commission meeting. Ultimately, though, the TIF Commission voted in favor of Creekside, 7-4. (Both Park Hill school board representatives opposed it.) The Parkville Board of Alderman subsequently approved it. In response, Maki formed Citizens for a Better Parkville—a political action committee that describes itself as “committed to bringing forth an accountable and transparent government.” In September 2018, Maki began sending records requests to the city under Missouri’s Sunshine Law, seeking information about the development. When he analyzed what he got back in return, he grew even more certain that something didn’t smell right. Using software that identifies incomplete email threads, Maki says he learned over 3,000 emails were missing from the
produced records. Some of the emails contained redactions with no explanation provided and were produced in a non-native, PDF format that can’t track underlying records. The records also showed that Mayor Nan Johnston and city aldermen used private email accounts to correspond, which Maki found suspicious; all elected officials have city email accounts. Maki filed a complaint with Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office in January 2019 requesting that the AG investigate Parkville’s possible violations of Sunshine Laws. An investigation into those claims is currently underway. Johnston says the city has given Maki all of the documents he requested in his early records requests, released the emails in their native format, and that it’s typical for herself and city alderman to use personal emails to communicate. “We’re a small city, and it’s not illegal for us to use our personal email, so I don’t know why he’s making such a big deal out of it,” Johnston tells The Pitch. “We are required to copy either our city manager or our city clerk on every single email we send so it gets captured on our server.” Johnston herself is also a target of Maki’s group. A letter Citizens for a Better Parkville sent in August to the Missouri Ethics Commission has sparked an investigation into Johnston’s campaign finances.
Maki (top) and Krause of Citizens for a Better Parkville. The group has aggressively sought public records from local officials. ZACH BAUMAN
In the most recent mayoral election, the Committee to Elect Nan Johnston accepted over $6,400 in monetary and in-kind contributions from for-profit corporations. One of those, a $5,000 contribution from Don Julian Builders, was given on April 4; it was missing from a report the committee filed on April 16 and undisclosed until a financial report filed on July 15. “Given the training and guidance available to the Committee’s Treasurer, as well as Nan Johnston’s political experience, she and the committee likely knew that these contributions were prohibited,” Maki wrote in a letter to the MEC.
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NEWS
Johnston acknowledges that her committee accepted the donations. “The last time I ran was three years ago,” Johnston says, “and since that time there were some changes made with elections law, and one of those that I didn’t catch was we can’t accept corporate donations. So that is my fault, I should have thought to look.” She adds that as soon as she found out the contributions were illegal, she immediately returned the donations. The Ethics Commission investigation is still ongoing. *
*
*
As discussions began about Parkville’s 20192020 strategic plan during a city board of aldermen meeting this September, Maki and Brett Krause—a Parkville resident since 2006 and an active member of Citizens for a Better Parkville—exchanged confused glances in the audience. “They started talking about the outcome of this workshop they had, and we were like, ‘Wait, they had a workshop offsite?’” says Maki. “No one—not me, not Brett or anyone in our group knew anything about [it].” They learned that Johnston, the board
“MAYBE THEY’RE DOING EVERYTHING 100 PERCENT RIGHT,” KRAUSE SAYS. “AND IF THAT’S WHAT THE AUDIT PRODUCES, I’LL BE HAPPY. BUT THERE’S ENOUGH SMOKE THERE THAT IT MAKES YOU WANT TO SEE IF THERE’S REALLY A FIRE.”
of aldermen, and other top city administrators had met a month before, on August 16, at the Platte Valley Bank, for a full day to brainstorm goals for a strategic plan involving the city’s infrastructure and public facilities, economic development, parks and recreation, and financial stability. The meeting hadn’t been publicized on the city’s website or social media pages—just a notice at City Hall and the bank where the meeting took place. When the group Sunshined the meeting minutes, all it received was a barren list of which officials were present at the meeting and when it ended. City Administrator Joe Parente says that the city typically holds the annual workshop at a remote location to get away from city hall and talk about goals for the next year. He says the offsite location is a common practice for many city governments. “[The location] wasn’t an intent to hide from the public or anything like that,” Parente says. “It was just a place to get away and focus.” Parente also points out that the strategic plan that resulted from the workshop was put on the agenda, discussed publicly, and presented to the board at a board of aldermen meeting in September (the same
meeting attended by Maki and Krause) that was noticed online. He says the city will follow the same process next year. “The only ones [meetings] we push out on social media are the ones where there is a general public interest like the planning commission or board of aldermen,” Johnston says. “We go over and above the requirement on things that we think people are more interested in. This was a one-off meeting. This was a strategic planning session that most companies perform on an annual basis to set goals and things.” But for Citizens for a Better Parkville, it was the last straw. These were big, important issues, and yet again it appeared that the city’s leadership was attempting to govern from the shadows. On October 30, the group officially began the signature gathering process to invite a state audit to the city. “The state auditor has the ability to do what’s called a performance audit, which will test for compliance with various state laws and statutes,” Maki says. “Parkville has recently made a series of decisions that impact the larger community as a whole, and the only people we’ve had to provide us assurance that these are good decisions is the city itself and consultants paid for by the city.”
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NEWS
Supporters of the audit hope it will go beyond the scope of the attorney general’s investigation. Requesting 10 areas of focus, the audit would not only answer questions of ethics and transparency, but also provide insight into the future implications of the city’s developments and tax incentive decisions. It would also evaluate how much of a voice the public has in the city’s government. Parkville city officials describe Maki as the mind and force behind Citizens for a Better Parkville, and worry that Parkville residents are being misled about the need for an audit. “The ‘group’ to whom you refer is primarily a single individual who is not a resident of Parkville,” Ward 3 Alderman Robert Lock told The Pitch in an email. “From the best I can surmise, he is unhappy with the recent development at I-435 and Highway 45. This project was approved over his objection and those of many in the surrounding properties (likely at his direction or misdirection) … But there is, to any of my knowledge, no basis to any of his concerns.” Ward 1 Alderman Phillip Wassmer referred to Maki as a “puppet master” and told The Pitch that the people who support his PAC largely consist of residents who live
in the unincorporated area of Platte County bordering Parkville. Maki doesn’t deny that many of the PAC’s financial backers are his neighbors in unincorporated Platte County, but he says many of the approximately 100 regular members who interact with Citizens for a Better Parkville are citizens of the city. Tom Hustler, a nearly lifelong resident of Parkville, Parkville business owner, and chairman of the Community Improvement District board, hopes the audit petition will gather enough signatures to bring in the state auditor. “I would like to know the ramifications of the TIFs and tax incentives that have been given to local developers,” Hustler says. “Anytime you give away large sums of tax incentives, you need to have extreme transparency. I don’t believe that the general community’s input was even considered, from my observation of the aldermen’s meetings.” Hustler also wants assurance that the city is being fully transparent and adhering to Sunshine Laws. He says the CID board has received records requests from Maki, and that they have fulfilled all of the requests within 10 days, free of charge, because the information belongs to the public.
Krause, who ran for an alderman seat earlier this year, says, “The shenanigans that the city is doing with the Sunshine laws appear to be counterproductive to transparency and accountability. Maybe they’re doing everything 100 percent right. And if that’s what the audit produces, I’ll be happy. But there’s enough smoke there that it makes you want to see if there’s really a fire.” Maki’s attorney on the AG’s office complaint, Andrew Alexander of Graves Garrett LLC, has not been involved with the effort to bring in the state auditor, but he says he’s seen enough “pretty legitimate concerns” over Parkville government to warrant a visit from Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway. “There is absolutely room for the auditor to enter the scene,” Alexander says. The city doesn’t seem to think so. A letter signed by Parente, Johnston, and the city’s 10 aldermen was sent out to residents in mid-November. It cautions that the cost of the audit could be steep and that the city already has its own auditing processes in place. Maki views the letter as an attempt from the city to thwart efforts of the ongoing petition. Johnston says it’s about priorities. “The audit could end up costing up to about $100,000,” Johnston says. “We have
a fairly small city. That is significant in our budget. We could add a couple of police officers or pave more roads. I would rather spend the money that way.” (She adds that, because Maki is not a resident of Parkville, he wouldn’t bear the burden of the cost of the audit.) Parente, Johnston, and the aldermen say that if enough signatures are collected—537 are needed to trigger the audit—the city will fully cooperate. Citizens for a Better Parkville has until October 2020 to make that happen, and Maki’s confident that the group will hit its mark, citing the fact that 662 Parkville residents voted against Johnston in the last election. Maki says the cost of an audit is nothing compared to the millions of dollars the city has already approved in tax incentives. He says he represents the voice of citizens in Parkville who are too afraid to speak out in such a small town. “At first, I was just trying to find out what was going on right next to my house,” Maki says. “Then I began to realize that there are a lot of people concerned [about Parkville government]. I started to feel obligated to get to the bottom of the truth of what’s going on.”
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thepitchkc.com | DECEMBER 2019 | THE PITCH
13
NEWS
Boley has found wild inconsistencies in valuations along Troost Avenue. ZACH BAUMAN
VALUE ADDED THE JACKSON COUNTY ASSESSMENT DEBACLE IS ABOUT TO GET WORSE. BY BARBARA SHELLY
The email from the Jackson County Assessment Department was oddly cheerful, considering it came bearing bad news. “Greetings!” it began. It went on to inform Kansas City resident Christian Cochran that the county had been willing to lower his property tax assessment, which Cochran believed was too high. But Cochran had missed his deadline for signing off on the “stipulated agreement.” So—tough luck—the deal was now off the table. The new assessment on Cochran’s home in Brookside would cause his property taxes to increase by an estimated 56 percent. Cochran was dumbfounded. What agreement? Beyond a simple acknowledgment of his appeal, he’d never received a word from Jackson County after he filed both informal and formal contests of his 2019 assessment. He’d met deadlines, paid for an appraisal on his home, and sought estimates on his leaking gutters and damage in his basement—defects he believes the county failed to take into account in its original assessment. Now, in preparation for a hearing he hopes to have before the Board of Equalization—the final arbiter of assessment disputes—Cochran has taken to obsessively photographing defects with his property. “The process is confusing to me, be-
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
cause I think I’m doing everything I can,” Cochran tells The Pitch. “I don’t know that anybody with less OCD than me would do all this stuff.” Oh, but many people are. The 2019 Jackson County assessments have turned hundreds of citizens into property valuation sleuths. They’re doing work the county didn’t do and sharing it with their neighbors. Realtors, assessors, and lawyers are helping out, often pro bono. With the exception of some Jackson County legislators and new Kansas City Councilman Brandon Ellington, most public officials have been silent about an assessment cycle that has the potential to destabilize Jackson County’s housing market for months to come. “The big names are nowhere to be found,” says Stacey Johnson-Cosby, a realtor. “But regular people are looking out for their neighbors, and that’s beautiful.” A special Missouri legislative committee did summon assessment director Gail McCann Beatty in October to explain the uproar over tax assessments in Jackson County. But the committee took no action after McCann Beatty delivered her stock explanation: Property owners in Jackson County have been getting away with low taxes for many years, and finally some people—specifically herself and County Executive Frank White—have the guts to set the
THOUSANDS OF PRELIMINARY NOTICES NEVER GOT DELIVERED DURING THE SUMMER. THEY’RE STUFFED IN A ROOM IN THE JACKSON COUNTY COURTHOUSE THAT EMPLOYEES CALL “THE VAULT.”
values right. That’s been the administration’s line ever since tax bill estimates were mailed out in mid-June. The Kansas City Star, which has been curiously supportive of that argument, recently reported on a county analysis showing that a quarter of taxpayers will actually pay less or the same in taxes as a result of the new assessments. That means threefourths of residential property owners will see increases, but most of those will be raises of 25 percent or less. But that reassuring broad view ignores the on-the-ground reality that every aspect of Jackson County’s 2019 assessment process is monumentally screwed up. Citizens are finding wild, inexplicable fluctuations in property values on their own blocks. Realtors are saying the assessments ignore recent trends in neighborhoods, like house flipping, gentrification, extensive remodeling, and construction of new infill housing. Besides getting so many values wrong, the county has turned the appeals process into a farce. Johnson-Cosby, who sits on the Board of Equalization as the Center School District’s representative, says many property owners are no-shows for hearings because they receive their notices on or after their scheduled dates. “Everywhere you turn, this process is just flawed,” she says. “I’ve served on the Board of Equalization for several years, but I’ve never seen anything like this.” County Legislator Crystal Williams describes the process as profoundly unjust. “They’re putting my constituents through hell,” she says. “The onus is 100 percent on the taxpayer to prove how messed up their calculations are.” Dona Boley is having no trouble coming up with evidence. Boley, a Hyde Park resident, vaulted into action after her assessment went up 45 percent. Along with appealing her own home’s valuation, she compared properties in Hyde Park and other parts of midtown. Her findings are startling. A property at 3646 Troost Avenue with boarded windows and a paved-over front yard is assessed at $270,597, an inexplicable 439 percent increase over two years ago. Two blocks to the south, at 3811 Troost, a property with an attractive house, screened-in front porch, and grassy lawn is valued at just $65,966. Those kinds of disparities—and Boley found many—reflect a basic misunderstanding of the midtown housing market, she says in a report she’s put together. “The assessments are not uniform, fair, or reflective of the Troost market,” Boley notes. Boley has also compiled extensive information on problems in Hyde Park, which some residents are using to contest their assessments. For her research, she tapped the
NEWS
“I don’t know that anybody with less OCD than me would do all this stuff,” Cochran says of the appeals process. BARB SHELLY
MLS database used by realtors, building permits, county records, and real estate listings on Zillow. She also went out and eyeballed properties. You know: all the stuff the county assessment department neglected to do. To be fair, this wasn’t Boley’s first rodeo. She also researched problems with assessments in 2005 and 2013. The difference, she said, is that in those years officials actually paid attention to her work. “They were appreciative,” Boley says. Boley attended a neighborhood meeting in the summer with McCann-Beatty and Hyde Park residents and concluded the assessment director wasn’t listening. “I have no feeling that she’s receptive at all to doing this right,” she says. All Jackson County property owners are supposed to receive their tax bills by December 1, then pay their taxes in full by the end of the year. But this year many citizens will be seeing their new assessments for the first time on December 1, because thousands of preliminary notices never got delivered during the summer and are stuffed in a room in the Jackson County courthouse that employees call “the vault.” That means even more taxpayers are likely about to notified of major increases in their tax bill. Williams, for one, dreads the weeks to come. She says some county employees even fear for their safety. “I think they’re going to be overrun,” Williams says. “It’s the most frustrating thing I’ve ever dealt with.” Calls are mounting for either White, as county executive, or the Board of Equaliza-
tion to call a halt to the entire process and go with a placeholder formula for this assessment process. Proposals range from sticking with the status quo to across-the-board increases of 6 percent, 8 percent or 14.9 percent. White’s administration contends the Board of Equalization doesn’t have the power to enact a broad-based formula. But lawyers from Legal Aid of Western Missouri and the Polsinelli law firm argue that it does. Johnson-Cosby says she tried to press BOE Chairman Christopher Smith to act at a recent meeting. He threatened to have her escorted from the room. “I know people out there who are going to lose their houses,” she says. “People are going to panic when they see those bills.” Johnson-Cosby, who also rents properties, says she fears both homeowners and landlords will walk away from properties if the high assessments stick. “We’re going to have another housing crisis created solely by an incompetent assessment department,” she says. How much of a crisis remains to be seen. But Cochran, in Brookside, says he won’t be fixing his gutters or basement if his assessment isn’t adjusted. The money he’d planned to spend on house repairs would go toward paying about $2,500 more a year in property taxes than he does now. “I’ve been in this house for 21 years,” Cochran says. “We’ve been paying the bills, paying the mortgage, trying to keep up and do the right things.” Trying to keep up and do the right things. If only Jackson County could say the same.
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HOLIDAYS
‘TIS THE SEASON ENTERTAINMENT OPTIONS FOR KEEPING YOUR KC HOLIDAYS MERRY AND BRIGHT. BY DEBORAH HIRSCH AND HANNAH STRADER
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Through December 29 The Coterie Theatre Crown Center, 2450 Grand A stage adaptation based on the television special of the same name, this Charles Schulz classic finds Charlie Brown on a mission to bring out the true spirit and meaning of Christmas. A live jazz trio plays along, and Snoopy meets up with the Red Baron in a “special encore.” thecoterie.org
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Through December 28 Theatre for Young America H&R Block City Stage Union Station, 30 West Pershing Road Adapted by Barbara Robinson from her book, this humorous Christmas show features the boisterous Herdman kids, who have their own ideas about the church Christmas pageant in which they’ve been cast. tya.org
Christmas in Song
Through December 22 Quality Hill Playhouse 303 West 10th Street Quality Hill goes the way of cabaret for its annual celebration of Christmas music. Pianist and emcee J. Kent Barnhart accompanies vocalists Lindsey McKee, LeShea Wright, and Tim Noland in a revue that spans multiple musical styles. qualityhillplayhouse.com
A Christmas Carol
Through December 29 Kansas City Repertory Theatre Spencer Theatre, 4949 Cherry It wouldn’t feel like Christmas at KC Rep without this Dickens classic, staged here at the holidays for going on decades now. This year’s extensive cast includes Gary Neal Johnson reprising his role as Ebenezer Scrooge, plus Walter Coppage, Peggy Friesen, Taylor Harlow, Shanna Jones, Victor Raider-Wexler, Matthew Rapport, John Rensenhouse, Vanessa Severo, Rusty Sneary, Jake Walker … and more. kcrep.org
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
Milking Christmas at the Living Room.
Scrooged and Marley
Through January 1 Martin City Melodrama & Vaudeville Co. 702 East Blue Ridge Extension, Grandview A comedic take on Dickens, featuring a holiday revue and something called the Water Glass Symphony. martincitymelodrama.org
Milking Christmas
Through December 23 The Living Room Theatre 1818 McGee Friend Dog Studios and Ryan McCall stage the third annual production of this musical comedy at the Living Room. It’s an upside-down Christmastown, where Macey Maid-a-Milking is seeing an increase in defective toys and a higherthan-usual amount of coal. What’s up? thelivingroomkc.com
TubaChristmas 2019
Noon, December 2; noon, December 6 Kansas City Symphony Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts 1601 Broadway Hundreds of area tuba and euphonium players band together for this free concert, a holiday-season lunchhour tradition celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. (Advance registration is required to perform, but just a reservation is needed to attend.) kcsymphony.org
BRIAN PAULETTE
Bernhardt/Hamlet
December 4-29 Unicorn Theatre 3828 Main World-famous French actress Sarah Bernhardt, of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, took on many roles in her time, including Hamlet. We learn all about that Shakespearean undertaking in this full-length comedy, a nonChristmas show at the Unicorn that gives KC audiences a decidedly different option. unicorntheatre.org
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis: Big Band Holidays
December 5 Harriman Jewell Series Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland 1228 Main, Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and his group of jazz musicians are joined by singers Denzal Sinclaire and Alexis Morrast. For this Harriman Jewell Series program, at the Midland, they’ll play original melodies along with cherished seasonal songs. hjseries.org
Kansas City Chorale “Wintersong” December 5 The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art 4525 Oak The Kansas City Chorale returns to Rozzelle Court to perform its annual Wintersong Gala Concert. kcchorale.org
KC VITA’s Festive Fundraising Gala
December 5 Simpson House 4509 Walnut New songs by contemporary composers, food, drink, a silent auction, and performances by the KC VITAs ensemble make this fundraising gala a highly anticipated holiday event. kcvitas.org
A Spectacular Christmas Show
December 5-22 Musical Theater Heritage Crown Center, 2450 Grand A few of MTH’s favorite things, according to its website, are singing, dancing, show tunes, and Christmas. This annual seasonal show promises all of these, with holiday-themed songs from the musical-theater repertoire as well as classics. musicaltheaterheritage.com
The Nutcracker Kansas City Ballet
December 5-24 Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts 1601 Broadway The ballet’s annual Nutcracker has become nearly synonymous with Christmas-season celebration. Tchaikovsky’s score, performed by the KC Symphony, accompanies the dance troupe—including the Nutcracker Prince, the Sugar Plum Fairy, and a girl named Clara—as they tell this 19thcentury story. kcballet.org
HOLIDAYS
RING IN 2020 December 5-8 Musical Theater Heritage Crown Center, 2450 Grand Zachary Stevenson returns to MTH with his Buddy Holly tribute show, filled with Holly and holiday classics. musicaltheaterheritage.com
The Soul of Santa Presents Christmas on 18th and Vine
December 6 Jazz District 1615 E 18th The Soul of Santa aims to present just that: expressing kindness and faith through soul music. Traditionally Christian or not, this one of a kind experience aims to bring holiday cheer to African American communities by embodying family and divine love. thesoulofsanta.com
KU Vespers on the Road 2019
December 6 Johnson County Community College 12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park The KU School of Music’s Holiday Vespers, featuring KU choirs and the KU symphony orchestra, take their Christmas show on the road for a free concert at JCCC’s Carlsen Center (but tickets are required). jccc.edu/carlsen-center-presents/events/
Home for the Holidays
December 6-14 Olathe Civic Theatre Association (OCTA) 500 East Loula, Olathe A family-themed musical variety show, written by Shelly Stewart Banks and
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Peter Leondedis, features an “everchanging cast,” with something a bit different every night. General admission is just $10. olathetheatre.org
Handel’s Messiah Kansas City Symphony
December 6-8 Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts 1601 Broadway This oratorio (written for orchestra and voices) premiered back in 1741. Nowadays it’s a KC Symphony holiday staple. Nearly 200 musicians, including the KC Symphony Chorus, grace the stage in Helzberg Hall for the acoustic Christmas treat. kcsymphony.org
The Nativity
December 6-8 Mesner Puppet Theater Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral 415 West 13th Street A cast of 40-plus puppets, including some that are 7 feet tall, enact this annual pageant with live music and choral singers. mesnerpuppets.org
Trans-Siberian Orchestra: Christmas Eve and Other Stories
December 7 Sprint Center 1407 Grand Progressive-rock band TSO reimagines its original show from 1999 with new staging and special effects. “Over the top,” founder Paul O’Neill calls it. sprintcenter.com
COURTESY OF MAKING MOVIES
Buddy Holly’s Jolly Christmas
Scottish Rite Temple. Always one of the city’s biggest parties, NYE at the
Temple offers a six-hour open bar, four levels, five DJs, and “the largest balloon drop in the Midwest” for $69. This one usually sells out. See nyekc.com.
Black Party at Studio Dan Meiners. A five-hour, $99 open bar with premium drinks, plus DJs and dancing. More at blackpartykc.com.
White Out at Madrigall. Bollywood and Bhangra dance remixes all night long. Wear white. $50. 1627 Oak. Topgolf. Packages include unlimited game play and a holiday buffet. See topgolf.com/us/overland-park.
Howl at the Moon in the Power & Light District. A hundred bucks gets you an open bar between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. Premium packages cost more; info at howlatthemoon.com/nye-kc.
The Truman. Local Latin rockers Making Movies will perform The Clash album Combat Rock. $27. thetrumankc.com.
New Year’s Swingin’ Eve at Union Station. Live music from Dave Stephens and the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra 7 (“KCJO7”), unlimited drinks, and plenty of sweet and salty snacks between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. for $120 ($205 for VIP). More at www.unionstation.org/events/new-years-swingin-eve Quality Hill Playhouse. Cabaret tunes from J. Kent Barnhart and his
band—jazz standards, Sixties hits, and more. Shows at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Blues Bash at B.B.’s Lawnside BBQ. Champagne, barbecue, and the Nick Schnebelen Band. $15. 1205 East 85th Street.
The View at Briarcliff. A range of options starting at $125 for a premium open bar, dancing, and live music from the cover band Private Stock. 4000 N. Mulberry Drive (located inside the Courtyard by Marriott at Briarcliff). More at theviewatbriarcliff.com.
Knuckleheads. Eighties tribute act The Zeros headlines this East
Bottoms party, with support from the Sixties-celebrating Instamatics and blues enthusiasts Stone Cutters Union and Levee Town. $40. See knuckleheadskc.com.
Uptown Theater. A five-hour well bar, Champagne, wine, five party rooms, craft beers, and snacks. $55 advance, $75 day of. See uptowntheater.com. KC Ballet’s The Nutcracker.
BRETT PRUITT AND EAST MARKET STUDIOS
thepitchkc.com | DECEMBER 2019 | THE PITCH
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HOLIDAYS
songs the old-world way, belting out British composer Benjamin Britten’s medieval-based carols in Middle English, accompanied by harp. Also on the program: “Fantasia on Christmas Carols” by Vaughan Williams. Tickets are available online at the KC Chorale website. kcchorale.org
Jingle Jamboree
December 11-28 Mesner Puppet Theater, Mesner Studio 1006 East Linwood Boulevard Chipmunk Randall P. Nutbutter is getting ready for the big Christmas jamboree. But he and his cohorts — with audience help (and some singing along) — must find out who’s making off with all the holiday decorations, cookies and presents. mesnerpuppets.org A Christmas Carol at KC Rep.
CORY WEAVER
Winter Soulstice
December 7 Pilgrim Chapel 3801 Gillham The Kansas City Chamber Choir presents a holiday choral performance at the intimate Pilgrim Chapel, home to a gorgeous stone exterior, stained glass, wooden pews, and exposed ceiling beams—excellent ambiance for an unforgettable winter-themed performance. A limited amount of tickets are free and available through the Eventbrite website. kcchamberchoir.com
Making Spirits Bright Heartland Men’s Chorus
December 7-8 Folly Theater 300 West 12th Street The (approximately) 150-member chorus, which has grown from 30 singers at its founding in 1986, performs a wide-ranging Christmas concert that swings from classic to contemporary. hmckc.org
The Fish Fry Holiday Extravaganza
December 8 Knuckleheads Saloon 2715 Rochester Avenue Chuck Haddix, host of KCUR 89.3’s The Fish Fry, emcees this holiday celebration featuring the Funky Butt Brass Band, a group that pays homage to the sounds of New Orleans, St. Louis, Memphis, and other American funk and soul hubs. knuckleheadskc.com
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
Musica Sacra Presents a Baroque Christmas December 8 Rockhurst University, Arrupe Hall Auditorium 5351 Forest Rockhurst’s ensemble-in-residence performs sacred works by Giacomo Puccini the Elder, plus popular Christmas carols. Timothy L. McDonald, musical director and conductor, gives program notes at 6:45 p.m. before the 7:30 p.m. concert. Admission is free, but register in advance at rockhurst.edu/ baroquechristmas. rockhurst.edu/baroquechristmas
Opus 76 Quartet Holiday Special December 8 Old Mission United Methodist Church 5519 State Park Rd, Fairway A free, family-friendly performance of holiday songs featuring the Danish String Quartet playing “Woodworks”, a piece inspired by Scandinavian folk music. No tickets necessary. opus76.org
Peace and Joy
December 8 & 9 Our Lady of Sorrows, 2552 Gillham, KCMO Village Presbyterian Church, 6641 Mission, Prairie Village This second annual Christmas concert will feature pieces by local contemporary composers, classic carols, and world premieres by Ed Frazier Davis and Geoff Wilcken. Tickets to the event are available via the Te Deum
website or online, depending on which performance you plan on attending. te-deum.org
All Star Holidays The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra
December 10 Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts 1601 Broadway The KC Jazz Orchestra swings into some seasonal tunes with the assistance of musician, singer, and dancer Lonnie McFadden, composer and trombonist Jason Goudeau, and singer Molly Hammer. kcjo.org, kauffmancenter.org
Magnificent Holidays
December 10 Old Mission United Methodist Church 5519 State Park Rd, Fairway The KC Chamber Orchestra and Musica Vocale have teamed up to present J.S. Bach’s Magnificat and Telemann’s Concerto for Oboe d’amore along with other Baroque era classics. No tickets are necessary for this event. musicavocale.org
Ceremony of Carols Kansas City Chorale
December 10 St. Paul’s Episcopal Church 11 East 40th Street December 13 Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church 9300 Nall, Overland Park December 15 Country Club United Methodist Church 400 West 57th Street The KC Chorale presents its Christmas
Straight No Chaser
December 12 Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland 1228 Main The a capella men’s choir Straight No Chaser shot to fame after a YouTube clip of the nine-vocalist act performing “The 12 Days of Christmas” went viral. The group performs popular songs of all kinds and will be doing both current and classic hits as well as favorite holiday tunes at this performance. arvestbanktheatre.com
The Tallis Scholars
December 12 Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception 12th and Broadway, KCMO Friends of Chamber Music present The Tallis Scholars, sometimes referred to as “the rockstars of Renaissance vocal music”. Directed by founder Peter Phillips in 1973, this group is considered the premiere group of Renaissance vocal music. The selections for this event will span centuries and offer a unique perspective on choral performance. chambermusic.org
Tenth Avenue North: Decade the Halls Tour December 12 Folly Theater 300 West 12th Street This Christian band from Florida performs traditional holiday favorites plus songs from its Christmas album Decade the Halls, in which it explores the popular musical styles of each decade of the past 100 years. With costumes to match. follytheater.org
HOLIDAYS
Bobby Rush’s A Very Merry Booty Christmas
December 13 Knuckleheads Saloon 2715 Rochester Avenue Rush, a Grammy-winning blues and funk singer, has been playing for nearly 70 years now. He’ll be in town with his band The Paladins and opener Vanessa Collier. knuckleheadskc.com
Sounds of the Season
December 13 & 14 Atonement Lutheran Church 99th and Metcalf, Overland Park The Kansas City Civic Orchestra presents seasonal music, carols, and a special guest conductor. Donations are always welcome, but the concert is free and open to the public. kccivic.org
Big Band Christmas 2019
December 14 Liberty Hall 644 Massachusetts, Lawrence KPR and Liberty Hall team up to host the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra for an evening of very brassy holiday cheer. libertyhall.net
Christmas Show with Wynonna and Tanya Tucker December 14 Uptown Theater 3700 Broadway Country music legends Wynonna Judd and Tanya Tucker celebrate the season with a holiday jamboree. uptowntheater.com
Central Standard Presents Holiday Harmonies Central Standard Men’s Chorus
December 14 Folly Theater 300 West 12th Street The local, 50-member a cappella choir— an official member of the Barbershop Harmony Society—brings its awardwinning vocal stylings to a Christmas concert of holiday songs. follytheater.org
Holiday Pops
Kansas City Chorale December 14 1900 Building 1900 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Mission Woods The choral group takes a lively approach to holiday favorites (“Jingle Bells,” “White Christmas,” “Silent Night,” etc.), with a light and spirited Christmas program. kcchorale.org
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
TubaChristmas at the Kauffman Center.
Messiah Singalong
December 14 Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral 415 W 13th Street Join conductor Dr. Paul Meier, featured choral soloists, and the Kansas City Baroque Consortium in their annual presentation of Handel’s Messiah. Bring your own score or purchase one online to join in the booming chorus. Admission to this event is free. kccathedral.org
Chorale Family Christmas
December 14 St. Michael the Archangel 14251 Nall Avenue, Leawood This one-hour concert features 200 high school honor choir students joining the Kansas City Chorale to sing classic holiday music. kcchorale.org
Sheku Kanneh-Mason
December 15 The Folly Theater 300 W 12th Street Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason won the 2016 BBC Young Musician of the Year award, performed on Britain’s Got Talent, and was a featured musician for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding. He’s 20. Though not holiday themed, this show offers a (free!) opportunity to see his awe-inspiring talent in person. hjseries.org
ERIC WILLIAMS
Candlelight, Carols & Cathedral
December 15 & 20 Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral, 415 W 13th Street Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 12th and Broadway The 50-voice a capella choir Festival Singers will be joined by Victoria Botero, Kansas City Bronze, Canon John Schaefer, and director Denise Trawicki for traditional carols, holiday favorites, and readings. Tickets are available through the Festival Singers website, but arrive early for the best seats. festivalsingers.org
Drag Queen Christmas—The Naughty Tour
December 17 Folly Theater 300 West 12th Street Starring contestants from VH1’s RuPaul’s Drag Race—Shea Couleé, Thorgy Thor, Latrice Royale, Lady Bunny, Manila Luzon, and Shuga Cain—and hosted by Nina West, this “extravaganza” promises stunning holiday costumes, holiday songs, backup dancers and “drag queen shenanigans.” follytheater.org
A Magical Cirque Christmas
December 17 Music Hall 301 W. 13th Street A stew of acrobatics, illusions, juggling, and dancing set to Christmas music and
themes, this show from the producers of Broadway’s “The Illusionists” promises to be one of the top spectacles of the KC holiday season. kcconvention.com
Cocktails & Candy Canes
December 18 recordBar 1520 Grand Blvd A local showcase from Center Cut Records, this celebratory performance features KC artists Calvin Arsenia, The Black Creatures, and Fritz Hutchison. therecordbar.com
Dickens Carolers in Concert
December 18-20 Chestnut Fine Arts Center 234 North Chestnut Street, Olathe A group of professional Christmas carolers offers three performances chockablock with holiday songs. chestnutfinearts.com
Handel’s Messiah Spire Chamber Ensemble and Baroque Orchestra
December 20 Grace Episcopal Cathedral 701 SW Eighth Avenue, Topeka December 21 St. Paul’s Episcopal Church 11 East 40th Street December 22 St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Parish 14251 Nall, Leawood Since 2010, this group of choral singers and musicians has come together from
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HOLIDAYS
A Charlie Brown Christmas at The Coterie Theatre.
around the country to perform musical programs in KC. For the holidays this December, they bring period instruments to candlelit churches for Handel’s Messiah. spirechamberensemble.org
A Crooner Christmas
December 20-22 Musical Theater Heritage Crown Center, 2450 Grand Les Lankhorst sings it Sinatra-style, blending holiday tunes and Sinatra standards for this three-performance Christmas show—one of three holiday options at MTH. musicaltheaterheritage.com
ERIN STRICKER
Christmas Festival Kansas City Symphony
December 20-23 Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts 1601 Broadway On the program at this annual holiday celebration, designed for the entire family, are choirs, carols and seasonal songs. Added bonuses: a special “visitor from the north” and a jewelry prize giveaway from Helzberg Diamonds. kcsymphony.org
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Lorna Kay’s One Night Stand Country Christmas
December 21 & 22 The Brick 1717 McGee A band featuring local musicians Lauren Krum, Fritz Hutchison, Claire Adams, Mike Stover, and Jon Kraft takes a honkytonk spin on holiday classics and more. thebrickkc.com
Carols of Darkness and Light
December 21 & 22 St. Peter’s Parish, 815 E Meyer Boulevard St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 6401 Wornall Terrace Focusing on imagery of light, Kantorei premieres “The Longest of Nights” and offers readings of medieval as well as modern poetry about Christmas. kantoreikc.com
Nace Brothers
December 23 Knuckleheads Saloon 2715 Rochester Avenue Local blues stalwarts the Nace Brothers perform a Christmas benefit concert for Jan Faircloth. knuckleheadskc.com
Christmas Eve with The Soul Visionaries
December 24 The Granada Theater 1020 Massachusetts Street, Lawrence A 12-piece band performs the music of Aretha, Stevie, and more soul icons. Merry Christmas, Lawrence! thegranada.com
S H A R E T H E G I F T O F C H R I S T M A S W I T H Y O U R F A M I LY. Each worship service will have beautiful music, a message of hope and the cherished tradition of passing the candlelight as we sing “Silent Night.”
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24000 W. Valley Pkwy. Olathe, KS 66061
Monday, December 23: 5 and 7 pm
Monday, December 23: 5 and 7 pm
Monday, December 23: 3 and 5 pm
Tuesday, December 24: 11 am, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 pm
Tuesday, December 24: 10 am, 3, 5 and 7 pm
Tuesday, December 24: 1, 3, 5 and 7 pm
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8412 W. 95th St. Overland Park, KS 66212
For weekend worship times, visit us online at cor.org
CAFE
grow n by h and
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816. 22 1.7 55 9 | blue bi rdbi s tro. c om 17 00 Su mmi t Street
HUSTLE & PHO ADVENTURES AT LINH’S VIETNAMESE CUISINE, WHERE THE QUIRKS ARE ABUNDANT AND THE BANH MIS FIRST-RATE. BY LIZ COOK
city rag Quick hits on KC news and events
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
Restaurants are theaters, at their core. Consider the “cast” of an average Kansas City restaurant, the flurry of waiters and backwaiters and hostesses working together like a syncopated chorus line. The set designer might be a swank design firm; the stage manager is a beleaguered general manager. The script is the menu, executed anew—with all the attendant risks of live theater—every night. At first glance, Linh’s Vietnamese Cuisine seems shy on spectacle. What it has in the way of “set design” feels perfunctory— rods of bamboo piled in front of the window like a giant’s pick-up sticks, a curio wall with dusty figurines on Plexiglass shelves. The script reads like something by Beckett. You’ll peruse a sprawling menu full of dishes that never seem to be available no matter when you visit. The crispy dumplings sound delicious—you cannot order them. Your server will direct you to the egg rolls instead. He’ll forget to put in the order. Halfway through your entree, a plate of hot, crispy egg rolls ($5.99) will burst from the kitchen like a magic trick, each roll packed with salty pork and fried until it shatters like potato chips. So Linh’s doesn’t have marquee star power. But if you pay attention, you’ll start to catch careful, practiced gestures executed with theatrical flair. You’ll spot a woman at the table next to you shucking white onions like oysters, letting their skins slough away into an enormous stainless steel bowl. You’ll
see an authoritative man with a semi-permanent scowl tipping a steaming, oil-drumsized pot of mung bean and pandan leaf tea ($3.95; milky and sweet) into a plastic tub on the floor without spilling a drop. You’ll smell the bread-y perfume of chaste little baguettes as they spin in a glass-front oven, and you’ll hear a muffled order-up bell from a kitchen that sounds impractically far away. Linh’s Vietnamese Cuisine opened in late August without much fanfare. The location, a strip mall at the corner of Independence Ave and Paseo, seemed cursed. A string of pho-centric restaurants had cycled through over the years: Pho Hoa, iPho Tower, Pho 1. The new owner, Hoang Ly, and chef, Tram Huyen, have changed the recipe. The pho at Linh’s ($8.75) isn’t the main draw, though it’s fine. The broth in my bowl was sweet with star anise and slightly cloudy, its surface honeycombed with fat. And the meat and garnishes were a cut above Linh’s predecessors. The meatballs and beef flank I tried were beautifully soft, and the garnish plate was piled with sprigs of sawtooth coriander—an underappreciated herb with elegant, deckled leaves and the sharpness of cilantro squared. But it’s the sandwiches that get top billing here. Huyen makes what may be the best banh mi in the city right now. The baguettes are baked fresh daily, and each has a crunchy crust and a soft core. They’re flaky, they’re fresh, and they’re not going to give you TMJ.
Linh’s bakes crusty-soft baguettes fresh daily for its banh mi. ZACH BAUMAN
LINH’S VIETNAMESE CUISINE 1447 Independence Avenue, Suite 135. (816) 298-7552
Hours: Monday–Tuesday 8 a.m.–9 p.m. Thursday–Sunday 8 a.m.–9 p.m.
Prices: Appetizers: $3.99–$7.99 Entrées: $8.75–$12.99 Sandwiches: $4.99
Best bet: Dining in: the bun thit nuong with sliced egg rolls. Carry out: a tray of the “special combination” banh mi to make fast friends at a party.
CAFE
Tender meatballs and frilly flank steak set the beef pho apart. ZACH BAUMAN
You can order your banh mi with barbecue beef or scrambled egg, but my pick’s the “special combination” ($4.99), which piles on tender slices of pork with a vibrant red rind as garish as a flame decal on
a sports car. The other elements are in perfect balance: a swipe of rich, fatty mayo, a bell-like tang of pickled carrot and daikon, a luxurious flex of livery pâté. The sandwich is a studied balance of flavors and textures
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(and sturdy enough for carry-out). If I were cool enough to be invited to parties, I would bring a tray of these as a hostess gift. The success of that banh mi made me puzzle over some obvious missteps. The
banh bao ($3), a fist-sized pork bun, was fluffy but bland, with little to liven the porkand-quail-egg filling. The chunky spring rolls ($3.99) were packed with cold cuts and confetti squiggles of vermicelli but served with a flatly sweet peanut-and-hoisin dipping sauce. And the hu tieu Long An ($8.75)—a clear, seafood-laden soup—had a pleasantly acidic broth but tough, rubbery rings of squid. Still, there are more hits here than misses. The menu stretches two pages in small, crowded print, but most of the offerings are just variations on a few base dishes, most of which feature chicken. You can order a few different riffs on chicken with sticky rice, including the xoi ga chien nuoc mam ($10.99): a puck of glutinous rice topped with crispfried chicken pieces coated in a sticky-sweet sauce. Linh’s also offers a few different presentations of chao ga, a neutral chicken congee that seems tailor-made to power you through cold and flu season. Indecisive eaters should order the chao goi ga ($10.99), which pairs the steaming, scallion-mossed porridge with a cold chicken salad. My plate was stacked with tender shreds of cabbage and huge slashes of poached chicken, each kissed with a clean-tasting dressing and
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thepitchkc.com | DECEMBER 2019 | THE PITCH
25
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Top: Service is swift in Linh’s casual dining room. Below: Chubby shrimp and pork slices test the tensile strength of the spring rolls. ZACH BAUMAN
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
topped with bronze chips of fried shallots. A cup of a cold and sweet crushed-ginger sauce came alongside for dipping—our server brought me a fresh cup when she noticed I’d swiped it clean. There’s a broad section of noodle dishes, too, like the bun bo xao ($8.75), tender frills of stir-fried beef painted with lemongrass. But if you’re venturing beyond pho and banh mi for the first time, I’d strongly urge you toward the bun thit nuong cha gio ($8.75), a rice-noodle salad topped crispedged barbecue pork and thick slices of fried egg rolls. The other toppings add textures and flavors like splash cymbals on a drum kit: crispy fried shallots, oily peanut halves, snappy pickled vegetables, and a cup of sweet and sour nuoc cham for dunking. Despite a couple beer signs in the dining room, alcohol’s not on the menu. But you can choose from a few different housemade beverages. The pennywort juice proved elusive—I tried to order it on three visits and was foiled every time (if you’re able to try it, report back). Instead, I can recommend
the iced coffee with condensed milk ($3.95), which was as sweet and rich as any six-syllable Starbucks drink but with a more astringent coffee presence. I also liked the pressed sugarcane juice ($4.95), which was fresh and frothy and livened with citrus zest. If a top-dollar tasting room is like a Broadway musical, Linh’s Vietnamese Cuisine might be a quiet, naturalistic drama. It’s a low-budget production—the restaurant is still using branded iPhoTower plates for some of its dishes—but Ly and Huyen know how to stretch resources where it counts. Every employee seems to pitch in on every task. No one ever stops moving. But they also never seem frantic or too busy to connect with customers. On one visit, a server dropped a little bowl of toasted bread brushed in a sticky syrup on our table. “Try it,” she commanded. We did. On another visit, a server apologized for the delay when I went to the register to pay. It had been unusually busy, she said. We had received our food four minutes after ordering.
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LIFE AND DEATH IN KC FOOD AND DRINK IN 2019. BY APRIL FLEMING
For diners, 2019 has been a generous, heaping plateful of a year. Tons of interesting restaurants and bars—too many to name them all here—opened across the metro, offering everything from handcrafted pasta to vegan burgers to CBD cocktails to Burmese food. We even bagged a couple of celebrity chefs: Gordon Ramsay, whose fine-dining palace at Harrah’s Casino caters to high-rollers, and Guy Fieri, whose Power & Light taco joint appeals to … people who like Guy Fieri. For many progressive and high-end restaurants, though, 2019 was also a difficult year for restaurant owners, and industry trends suggest it’s not likely to get any easier. The central question is one of saturation: Are there enough diners—or, more to the point, enough diners with enough disposable income—to support all these wonderful new restaurants? A 2020 thinning of the herd feels inevitable, with or without a recession, and given some of the closings (and the November bankruptcies of two local restaurant groups) we’ve seen toward the end of this year, that process may have already begun. In the meantime, let us pay tribute below to the newly born and the dearly departed in KC food and drink this past year.
HELLO
Two of the buzziest openings of the year were Michael Smith’s Farina and Vaughn Good’s Fox & Pearl. Both offer rustic fare—fresh pastas presented simply; hearty chops—with Smith’s leaning in the Italian direction, and Good with his feet firmly planted in the protein-loving Midwest. Chef
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
Carlos Falcon of KCK’s Mexican seafood spot Jarocho opened Sayachi Sushi and Oyster Bar in Brookside, and Alex Pope moved his operations to the City Market, where the chef and butcher sells enormous burgers and sandwiches at Pigwich, the eatery that adjoins his much-loved butcher shop Local Pig. Speaking of dead animals: Harp Barbecue, which began popping up on Saturday afternoons earlier this year at Raytown’s Crane Brewing Co., has officially—well, technically unofficially—become the most-talked-about BBQ in town. (Get there early—real early.) We also welcomed back Laura Norris’ much-missed homestyle Italian restaurant Ragazza, which relocated from its cozy (too tiny) spot on Westport Road to a bigger space at 43rd and Main. After a fire destroyed its original Brookside location in 2017, Plate also returned, to swankier Brookside digs a few blocks east. On 18th and Vine, Anita Moore recently opened Soiree Steak and Oyster House (try getting a seat there on a Saturday—not easy). Zaid Consuegra and Lydia Palma are experimenting with the city’s first plant-based burger diner in the Crossroads with Pirate’s Bone, while just a few blocks away, Grad School is serving up Springfield-style cashew chicken along with burgers and other crowd-pleasers. In Westport, Mickey’s Hideaway has replaced McCoy’s, ditching the old brewery but holding on to a few of McCoy’s former menu items. As for drinking: It’s been a good year for beer, with strong showings from newcomers like Alma Mader and Rochester Brewing and Roasting Co. in the Crossroads;
Servaes Brewing Company in Shawnee (head brewer and owner Courtney Servaes brewed a remarkable 100 unique beers this year on her own); and, in Lawrence, Black Stag Brewing Company and Fields & Ivy. In The sprawling booze paradise J. Rieger & Co. added a couple of bars (and a 40-foot slide) to the East Bottoms, and Mean Mule Distilling Company brought us local agave spirits (agave is the preferred name for tequilas not made in Mexico).
GOODBYE
We’re still a little tender about the October closing of Krokstrom, the delightful midtown Scandinavian comfort food destination. Owner and chef Katee McLean had been remarkably open over the past three years about struggling to keep a restaurant afloat during KC’s long winters and crowded restaurant landscape, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise when the news hit. But, damn: We will miss that Copenhagen Street Dog. More surprising was the November exit of Jonathan Justus and Camille Eklof ’s Black Dirt, though the two have hinted at something exciting to come in the near future (dare we hope for a reborn Justus Drugstore?). A proper Jewish deli in the Crossroads, Broadway Deli also closed its doors, blaming a lack of parking. And in Westport, Californo’s served its last dish after 30-plus years in Westport. (Yes, Californo’s was still open.) Finally, Buddies, the long-running Main Street gay bar, closed in June, following the death of its owner. A “For Lease” sign is still up on the building, if you’re interested in opening a proper midtown dive bar.
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FOOD
IRON BOUND KC’S LATEST FOOD HALL IS A COLLECTION OF SHIPPING CONTAINERS IN THE NORTHLAND. BY APRIL FLEMING
It’s a golden age for the sorta-upscale, fast-casual hubs known as food halls—fancy food courts, as many describe them. That’s true all across the U.S., and especially so lately in Kansas City, where every few months seems to bring news of a new hall opening somewhere in the metro. The best-known of these halls, Parlor, has been a Crossroads hit, offering everything from Detroit-style pizza to Korean comfort food to Louisiana po’boys in its stalls. Then there’s the Lenexa Public Market (which, in a somewhat unusual arrangement, is actually owned by the city of Lenexa); Strang Hall, a downtown Overland Park food hall slash business incubator concept from Freightquote founder Tim Barton; and a hall at Mission Gateway that will purportedly be curated by Top Chef ’s Tom Colicchio (though after a decade of empty promises, we have a hard time believing anything will ever again sprout out of the ground at Mission Gateway). Not exactly a food hall, but close, is the Iron District, which unassumingly opened in mid-October on what had long been a vacant lot at East 16th Avenue and Iron Street in North Kansas City. (It’s just around the corner from the rock-climbing destination ROKC and about a ten-minute walk from Chicken N Pickle.) Founded and owned by Kansas Citians Rachel Kennedy and Zach Taylor, the Iron District is unique in that it’s actually a collection of new and repurposed shipping containers. “We wanted to create a collective space for vendors to be able to test out concepts— both food and retail—and create a group think-tank to help ourselves as individual businesses and as a group,” Kennedy says. Kennedy is a familiar face in the KC food industry; for the last five years, she’s been the owner of Plantain District, a Cuban food truck and catering business. She’d been thinking for a while that she wanted to offer customers a reliable place to find Plantain District, and the idea of an outdoor food mall kept bouncing around in her head. Finally, she fleshed out the idea and took it to Zach Taylor, a mechanical contractor specializing in commercial kitchens who also owns the land the Iron District now occupies. He liked the idea. Taylor started managing a buildout, and Freeman set about recruiting businesses and meeting with city officials to get the process started. Like many other food halls, the Iron
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
APRIL FLEMING
District provides equipment, kitchen space, and the retail space itself in exchange for rent and a small portion of sales. (An additional bonus: Kennedy offers entrepreneurship training and classes to tenants through Adrienne Haynes of SEED Law, an entrepreneur-focused firm.) The model quickly attracted several vendors, including Philip and Jonelle Jones of Kind Food, a plant-based vegan concept serving burgers, sandwiches, wraps, nachos, and daily kombuchas. “We had been brainstorming ways to enter the local food scene without risking hundreds of thousands of dollars on a full brick-and-mortar space right out of the gate,” Jonelle says. The fact that kitchens and basic equipment were part of the deal at the Iron District—plus the option of a shortterm lease—sealed it for the Joneses. They opened Kind Food in an Iron District shipping container last month. In addition to Kind Food and Kennedy’s Plantain District, the Iron District includes the avocado-centric kitchen Avobite, which specializes in rice bowls and salads heaped with fresh salsas and generous scoops of fresh avocado; B’Rad’s, which offers burgers, tacos, noodle bowls, and sandwiches; allergy-free baked goods and desserts from Safe Bakes; and soft-serve and other frozen treats from Ice Cream Bae. For drinkers, there’s also Tika Huna, a rum-centric concept from Cinder Block Brewery bartender Trent Kesterson. Tika Huna is big on premium rum tiki cocktails made with fresh-squeezed juices, housemade shrubs, and various herbs. (Sample cocktail: the potent, sweet. and perhaps-too-drinkable Blackbeard’s Revenge, which features Plantation Rum’s Barbados 5 Year Rum, Clément’s Rhum Blanc Agricole,
IRON DISTRICT 1599 Iron Street, North Kansas City irondistrictnorthkc.com
AMONG THE FOOD CONCEPTS ARE AN AVOCADO BAR, AN ALLERGYFRIENDLY BAKE SHOP, AND AN ENTIRELY PLANT-BASED OPERATION.
Leopold Bros. Rocky Mountain Blackberry Liqueur, fresh passion fruit, lemon juice, maple syrup, and Angostura bitters.) If rum isn’t your thing, Kesterson also stocks local spirits, local canned beers, yard beers, and Amigoni wine. The Iron District isn’t open all-day everyday; the idea is to focus on hours when the businesses are most likely to attract customers. A breakfast restaurant, Morning Day Cafe, opens at 7 a.m. every Monday through Friday, serving hearty breakfast fare and coffee. When 11 a.m. rolls around, the other food vendors open for lunch, then close up shop at 2 p.m. On Fridays and Saturdays, the stalls reopen at 4 p.m. for happy hour and dinner services (some stalls also offer an earlier-morning brunch option on Saturdays). On those weekend nights, live bands and DJs will often join in. Kennedy says she isn’t sure at this point whether the Iron District may ultimately become a seasonal operation; because it’s outdoor, closing in the winter might make sense. For now, she’s just observing customer reactions and trying to get the word out. “We are treating these next few months as our soft opening,” Kennedy says. “It’ll give us time to get into our flow, and get ready for our 2020 season.”
LA BODEGA
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DIVERSIONS
BLADE & TIMBER 1303 Baltimore Ave 816-343-8489 bladeandtimber.com
ZACH BAUMAN
ROUGHING IT TOSSING AXES, DRINKING WHITE CLAWS, AND SNACKING ON MENU ITEMS DEVELOPED BY A JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE— JUST LIKE REAL LUMBERJACKS DO. BY LIZ COOK
You can throw axes in the Power & Light District now because irony is dead and we have killed it. In August, Blade & Timber, Kansas City’s first “axe-throwing experience,” moved from its ancestral home in the West Bottoms to a glossy storefront at 13th and Baltimore. The concept hasn’t changed. For $20 per person, you can spend an hour and a half chucking hand axes into your own private pinewood bullseye. But now, you can do it in high style—and with beer. In some ways, recreational axe-throwing feels like a perfect fit for Kansas City, a town where seemingly every middle-class Millennial owns a buffalo-plaid flannel and a brown-glass jar of “beard oil” they’re not sure how to use. Blade & Timber’s rapid expansion seems to support that. Co-founders Matt Baysinger and Ryan Henrich opened the first Blade & Timber in 2017 and have already grown to six locations, including one in Leawood. But what’s driving the Paul Bunyan aesthetic? I’ve long been fascinated by this question, which I’ve thus far chalked up to a combination of pride in our Midwestern farm roots and insecurity about our learned helplessness in the digital age. We all want to believe we could walk into the woods tomorrow and successfully Live Off The Land. None of us want to admit we’d shit ourselves to death from giardia long before we had a
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
chance to skin a chipmunk with an improvised stone knife. So I set off to the new Blade & Timber to trace our collective lumberjack fantasy to its logical and inevitable homebase: the Power & Light District, that hallowed, unspoiled wilderness where 40-year-olds go to buy 20-year-olds Jell-O shots. Do not make my mistake and navigate to the wrong location. Know before you go: Blade & Timber is four blocks away from a “craft drinkery” named Oak & Steel and two blocks from the old Cleaver & Cork (now Guy Fieri’s Dive & Taco Joint). I thought about all that Wood & Metal while I booked a lane and scanned a very long legal waiver granting Blade & Timber plenary indulgences for my death or dismemberment. For all the waivers, the experience itself seemed pretty foolproof. My party of six was assigned a private lane with a friendly coach named Bryson who guided each of us through a few practice throws before cutting us loose. I looked around. All the lanes seemed to have their own Brysons. The one in the lane next to us had a tidy man bun and the beard of a Civil War general. Like all the coaches, he was wearing a hunter-orange Blade & Timber tee. Our alcohol consumption was strictly regimented, too. Each member of my party was granted a neon-green wristband with three little ax symbols, denoting the maxi-
mum number of beers we were allowed to order. When I ordered my first round, a bartender used a hole punch to mark it off my wristband. (I feel the need to point out here that all of my punches were hanging chads, which the Supreme Court has roundly decided do not count.) That structure’s essential to keeping patrons safe—and making Blade & Timber an appropriate destination for “corporate groups” and “team building,” as the website promotes. But it also started to feel a little weird. Almost exactly five minutes before our time was up, our checks hit the table unbidden. Exactly an hour and a half after we arrived, we were (politely! gently!) ushered out. Other lumberjacks were waiting for their turn. I ought to be the target audience for this sport. I love darts, beer, and sanctioned property destruction. I passed a pleasant evening recently shooting a friend’s .22 pistol at the side of an old grain bin by the light of a literal trashcan fire. But leaving Blade & Timber, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had just done something truly strange, like buying the hotel bathrobe or drinking at an Applebee’s. Part of it may be that the brisk time slots and automatic check delivery make Blade & Timber less of a destination than a waystation. After 90 minutes, I wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to my friends, but none of us
really wanted to linger in the empty bar area, which was lit like a stadium. Plus, we were out of punches. But it might also be that the experience is suffused with odd little luxuries. You can take a sassy group photo beneath a neon sign that reads “LET’S THROW SOME AXES” (on my visit, only the bottom half of the sign was lit, so it just read “SOME AXES”). You can order lacy-edged sweet potato waffle fries ($4) from a compact food menu developed by James Beard Award nominee Taylor Petrehn and inspired by “meals shared around the campfire.” You can buy branded orange beer koozies and Blade & Timber t-shirts. If you want, you can buy the chewed-up target from your lane and mount it in your living room like a trophy buck. There’s this book called Hatchet that just about everyone who went to public school in the ‘90s had to read in fifth grade. In it, a 13-year-old boy learns to survive in the wilderness with nothing but his hatchet. The book is catnip to preteens—who wouldn’t want to peace out of school and wait out puberty alone in a cave? Who doesn’t long to prove that parents and teachers and authorities are just window-dressing, that all we need is a hatchet and an iron will to make it on our own? Blade & Timber offers something similarly appealing to adults: an excuse to cosplay rugged individualism, to spend an hour and a half convincing ourselves we could “hack it” like our imaginary ancestors. Crucially, we get to go home after. Fantasy doesn’t work if we get too uncomfortable. I don’t want to sound sour about the nostalgia industrial complex. There’s nothing wrong with hurling Middle-Age war weapons down a lane of AstroTurf in a slickly branded urban playground in the same way that there was nothing wrong with Henry David Thoreau outsourcing his laundry so he could spend more time thinking Deep Thoughts in the Deep Woods. It’s just incongruous. It’s not the posture of grit that feels off, it’s the anesthetizing glamor. It’s not the beard—it’s the beard oil. There’s another option, of course: You can decide not to take it all so fucking seriously. You can spend $20, hurl an axe down the lane like a fastball, and have a pretty good time trying to get back to a place you never were.
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EAT
Eat ThisNow The Croissant at 1900 Barker
Still in his twenties, Taylor Petrahn of Lawrence’s 1900 Barker has already earned two James Beard Award nominations. We’ll eat anything he prepares at the bakery and cafe, from his rustic breads (roasted garlic and salt sourdough, Danish-style seeded rye) to his daily focaccia pizzas, which feature fresh, seasonal ingredients grown in Lawrence. But perhaps the greatest testament to Petrahn’s skills is his humble croissant. If you’ve never attempted to make one, you may be unaware that proper croissants take days. The dough must rest and rise, and the laminating process involves layering butter over the dough, then folding and rolling it out several times so that when the pastry is baked, the butter creates steam and lifts the layers apart—creating the airy, flaky goodness we all expect from a croissant. Petrahn’s creations are expertly made, and you can tell what makes them special simply by examining the dozens upon dozens of impossibly thin layers of pastry, all nested within each other like some miniature vision of the divine. Cut into it, and behold the wondrous honeycomb within. (Then eat one; they’re delicious.) --April Fleming 1900 Barker. 1900 Barker Avenue, Lawrence. APRIL FLEMING
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
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DRINK
Drink This Now That’s Bonkers at Bon Bon
Do we praise Bon Bon too often here at The Pitch? We concede it is a possibility. When it debuted two years ago, the East Lawrence restaurant won us over with its innovative, Asian-adjacent Midwest dishes and its warm-and-friendly vibes. Little has changed since; if anything, each visit seems to deepen our love of the place. The food gets the most attention (hello, new daily tasting menu) but Bon Bon’s cocktail program, led by bar manager Steph Goetz, is also worthy of recognition. We especially recommend That’s Bonkers, a cocktail in which Goetz blends fruity, light Milagro Blanco tequila with a creamy, Key lime-flavored clarified milk punch. She then adds a dash of yellow chartreuse and drops in an ice cube made from the red, tart flesh of the prickly pear cactus. It is a super-weird drink. But it works: The drink’s warm floral and honey notes soften as the ice melts, or you can just drink the cocktail quickly and savor the prickly pear cube on its own. Either way, this one’s spectacular. --April Fleming Bon Bon. 804 Pennsylvania, Lawrence. APRIL FLEMING
Something extra special.
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thepitchkc.com | DECEMBER 2019 | THE PITCH
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PAGES
GET OUT
Party For You, a fundraiser for the Rabbit Hole. Friday, December 6, 8 p.m. Rabbit Hole, 919 E 14th Ave, North Kansas City.
ZACH BAUMAN
POP-UP BOOK
ON-THE-SPOT ARTIST CHARLIE MYLIE—AKA POP UP CHARLIE—HAS JUST RELEASED HIS FIRST CHILDREN’S BOOK. BY EMILY COX
It was Deb Pettid, co-owner of the long beloved (and now closed) Brookside children’s bookstore the Reading Reptile, that gave Charlie Mylie the idea for the name Pop Up Charlie. This was six years ago now. Mylie was a recent Kansas City Art Institute graduate, working a landscaping job, trying to figure out what to do next. “At the time, I was drawing a lot,” Mylie says, “and [my boss] was like, ‘You love to draw—you should just go, like, draw for people at the bank or something like that.’ And I was like, ‘OK.’” Mylie got a meeting with Missouri Bank and asked them if he could become their artist-in-residence. Somehow, the bank said yes. So Mylie started showing up at events around town and creating on-the-spot ink and watercolor drawings of whatever people asked for. Early on, he stopped by the Reading Reptile and told Pettid about his general idea, to which she said: “So, you’re like a pop-up Charlie?” “That’s the story that I tell myself,” Mylie says. “That’s the myth.” Pop Up Charlie was a hit. Mylie—who often arrived at his pop-ups wearing a gold, conical, wizard’s hat—had a talent for transforming people’s requests into witty, playful, strange, and occasionally tender drawings. It led to a variety of new opportunities, like becoming artist-in-residence at the architecture firm BNIM, designing a mural for Swope Health Center, and illustrating a Snickers ad. “I’ve had a chance to do those things because someone saw me doing Pop Up Charlie and was like, ‘Um, can you do this?’”
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
He blinks rapidly. “‘Yeah, sure.’ And I just pretend like I have an idea.” Mylie went on tour as Pop Up Charlie in 2017, with the goal of drawing in all 50 states. He brought along no personal means of transportation and ended up (through hitchhiking and other bits of happenstance) making it to 26 states in all. For a few years, he’d been thinking about book ideas, but nothing was sticking. But while on tour, a sturdy idea swirled into focus. He drew a story of a mouse trying to find just the right gift to bring to another mouse friend who is sick. Mylie sent the drawings home to his now-wife, Sondy. These drawings, of a mouse venturing out into a hard world and thinking of a loved one at home, became Something for You—Mylie’s first children’s book, published November 26. Mylie is settled back in Kansas City these days, with Sondy; their new child, Misha; and a job at the Rabbit Hole, the forthcoming Northland interactive children’s book museum being spearheaded by Pettid and her Reading Reptile partner Pete Cowdin. He says meeting Pettid and Cowdin and spending time at their old bookshop was pivotal to his path in this direction. “I wanted to write a kids’ book shortly after spending time in the Reading Reptile,” Mylie says. “I one hundred percent owe my excitement and education about children’s books to Pete and Deb, to the Reading Reptile and the Rabbit Hole.” A breakthrough moment was stumbling upon William Steig’s Abel’s Island, a 1976 children’s book about a mouse stranded on an island. “There’s all these, like, existential, al-
“I SAW HOW MUCH INCREDIBLE ACTUAL LITERATURE IS MADE FOR CHILDREN,” MYLIE SAYS, “AND I WANTED TO PARTICIPATE IN THAT.”
Storytime reading of Something For You and live drawings by Mylie at the Kansas City Public Library. Tuesday, December 10, 10 a.m. Central branch, 14 W. 10th. most mystical asides that appear in a lot of his [Steig’s] books,” Mylie says. “That was my gateway drug. I saw how much incredible actual literature is made for children, and I wanted to participate in that.” After landing an agent (and experiencing the ego boost that comes from receiving three offers for your debut book), Mylie signed a two-book deal with the prestigious publishing house Farrar, Straus and Giroux, the same publisher that put out Steig’s work. (As we sit talking—Misha grinning on Mylie’s lap—a framed Steig poster is visible on the dining room wall above Mylie’s head.) His second book, Anything For You, is in his editor’s hands and will see release in 2020. And he’s already busy pitching a third. “I have five ideas in my head all the time,” Mylie says. The pop-up thing informed Mylie’s approach to books in both good ways and bad, he says. “I have skills such as being able to ideate and draw quickly, to not become too attached, to try to find humor and accessibility,” Mylie says, adding with a laugh, “But I wasn’t prepared for revision. For constructive criticism.” Still, the local support system and the “little micro relationships” that grew out of Mylie’s public drawing experiences have been invaluable, he says. “Pop Up Charlie let me stay tapped into my community,” he says. “People were like ‘Go, go, go, go,’ you know, the entire way. And that absolutely helped. Having all of those advocates has been the only way that anything has ever happened for me, artistically.”
Full Page DECEMBER?- 9.75 X 11.5.qxp_Layout 1 11/14/19 11:10 AM Page 1
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thepitchkc.com | DECEMBER 2019 | THE PITCH
39
MUSIC
“Greg [Gagnon] was the first other composer that I met who was like, ‘So, Dolly Parton, what a great songwriter, right?’” Sproul Pulatie says. ZACH BAUMAN
VOCAL RANGE MEET COWTOWN COUNTRY CLUB, A LOCAL QUARTET OF CLASSICAL MUSICIANS MARAUDING AS COUNTRY CROONERS. BY LIBBY HANSSEN
Country music, it seems, is back. Ken Burns’ new eight-part documentary on the genre is streaming into homes across the country, Kacey Musgraves won the 2019 Grammy for Best Album, the country supergroup the Highwomen (Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, and Amanda Shires) has been lauded for addressing societal issues in its music (how far we’ve come from the Dixie Chicks drama of 2003!), and Dolly Parton is the star of a recent hit podcast and an upcoming Netflix show. And that’s all before we even get to “Old Town Road.” Add the local group Cowtown Country Club to that list—sort of. The foursome comes at its honky-tonk from an odd—almost oxymoronic, even—angle: They’re a bunch of classical musicians. “There’s a saying that country music is just three chords and the truth,” says singer and guitarist Leah Sproul Pulatie. “We have more than three chords.” Based on her résumé, Sproul Pulatie wouldn’t seem to be the type to sing inside beer-and-a-shot dives. Her background is decidedly highbrow, with great-great grandparents—Ottley and Louie Crans-
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
ton—who were English opera singers that came to the United States around the turn of the nineteenth century as part of a touring production of Richard Wagner’s “Parsifal.” They decided to stay in Kansas City and start the Kansas City Grand Opera Company. Sproul Pulatie herself earned a doctorate in composition from the UMKC Conservatory in 2015 and currently serves as president of newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. But she’s always been drawn to vocal music. “When I was in music school at the Conservatory and studying composition, some things you are a little hesitant to bring up or express that you enjoy—like country music,” Sproul Pulatie says. “Greg was the first other composer that I met who was like, ‘So, Dolly Parton, what a great songwriter, right?’” That’s Greg Gagnon, her fellow guitarist in the band, who’s also a trained composer. In 2011, Sproul Pulatie, Gagnon, and Gagnon’s wife, Jessica Salley, had created a country and western skit called “The Donnie and Darla Show” for Fringe Fest. In 2017, post-Conservatory, they re-
turned to the idea. “We spent so many years bashing our heads against a wall with the composition stuff, we thought, ‘Let’s have fun,’” Sproul Pulatie says. They enticed Brian Werner to join on upright bass and Salley to lend not just her operatic soprano voice to the mix, but also handle percussion duties. “It took her a minute to sing in the style,” says Sproul Pulatie. “And at the same time we are asking her to do that— to ruin her beautiful pear-shaped tone— Greg sticks some drums in front of her and says, ‘Have at it.’ She took it in stride.” The music of Cowtown Country Club is a mix of classic western swing, originals, and unexpected covers from the likes of Wilco, Whitney Houston, and TLC—performed by a quartet that’s fond of fourpart harmonies and outfitted in a rhinestone cowboy look, all sequins and chain stitching and embellishments. (Think Porter Wagoner.) The group released its eponymous debut album earlier this year and has been touring a bit (Colorado this summer) and playing more often around KC. Last month, Cowtown Country Club played an all-acoustic set in Warrensburg at the Concerts in the Courthouse series. At the un-electrified venue, candles and mirrors lit up the stage, adding sparkle to those rhinestone suits, and their vocal harmonies thrilled the audience. It seems that having the Cowtown
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outlet has been good for Sproul Pulatie’s other musical interests as well; after a bit of a hiatus, she’s back to capital-C composing. “It took me a while to come back to writing art music again,” she says. “Writing songs for Cowtown helped, as did programming and listening to works for newEar. I think I needed that space between school and now to figure out what my musical life and identity was going to look and feel like.” A bit of twang, it seems, goes a long way.
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MUSIC
JUST KIDS A TIME-CAPSULE COLLABORATION BETWEEN TWO LOCAL LEGENDS OF THE LATE AUGHTS IS UNEARTHED. BY AARON RHODES
Back in the heady days of the late aughts, Kansas City hip-hop could accurately be described as divided into two camps. “It felt like there were two types of rap in the city: east of Troost and west of Troost rap,” Stik Figa says. “If you were east of Troost, it was all street shit. If you were west of Troost, it was all backpack or conscious nerd rap or shit.” Stik was west of Troost. Way west: Topeka. These days, he’s living in Texas. But ten years ago Stik was a regular at The Riot Room and other hip-hop-friendly venues in and around Westport. He was rightly regarded as one of the area’s foremost lyricists, a guy who electrified crowds with his elastic flows, confident delivery, and clever observations from Top City. While Stik was making inroads among the backpack crowd, the East Side rapper Ron Ron’s dirty-macking g-funk anthem “Hey Honey” was just catching on. The song eventually made its way onto the Hot 8 At 8 on Hot 103 Jamz—a rare feat, as the segment rarely features hometown acts. Stik was impressed. “The city finally found somebody they can rally behind that was actually from the city, had the experiences, had all the bona fides—and he had more than that, though, because he had talent,” Stik recalls of Ron Ron. “The songwriting was on point.” The admiration went both ways. Grant Rice, a local rapper and one-time member of Yukmouth’s supergroup The Regime (which notably featured Tech N9ne) heard one of
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
Stik’s early records and passed along a CD to Ron Ron, who dug it. Eventually, Ron’s manager, Rich, reached out to Stik on Ron’s behalf to arrange a meetup. (“The dude from the radio?” Stik remembers asking during Rich’s initial phone call.) Ron proved to be an elusive figure at first (and occasionally still is; he was unavailable to be interviewed for this piece), but eventually the two began linking up when Stik was in the city. Then Ron pitched him on an idea: a collaboration called Wiz Kidz that would bridge the eastwest rap gap while showcasing Ron’s street smarts and Stik’s “conscious nerd rap” credentials. “It was all symbiotic,” Stik says. “His label was called Brainiak. Everything worked together. His whole thing was about being smart in a way that’s fly.” Early on in their partnership, Ron suggested that he do a remix on Stik’s Greg Enemy-produced “Caked Up.” The track, which featured a new verse from Stik on the remix (he’d been inspired by the work Ron put into his verse) was their first collaborative effort to be released. The Pitch called it the Best Song of 2009, and it was performed at that year’s Pitch Music Awards, where the duo was joined by Greg, Dutch Newman, Les Izmore, and Ubi of Ces Cru on stage. A similarly star-studded music video for the song—which stars Stik as a pizza delivery man assisted by a more stoic Ron and his mean-muggin’ crew—also illustrates this beautifully dorky moment of local hip-hop unity.
SHOWCASING RON’S STREET SMARTS AND STIK’S “CONSCIOUS NERD RAP” CREDENTIALS, WIZ KIDZ WAS CONCEIVED AS A BRIDIGNG OF THE LOCAL EAST-WEST RAP GAP.
“I think they’re very intellectually similar,” Enemy says. “They don’t really speak about the exact same things, but the way they approach shit is very similar without trying.” Following the success of “Caked Up” came “No Good,” a point-by-point smackdown of the duo’s detractors featuring another playful Greg Enemy beat and a hook utilizing Ron’s distinctive drawl. By then, Ron and Stik were plotting out studio time dedicated to a full project at Black Lodge Recording in Eudora, Kansas; they got a solid rate from Stik’s friend, engineer Josh Browning. But the studio—so often championed by punk and emo bands from the area—brought Ron a certain anxiety. “I remember driving out there and [Ron] was like, “Man, I fuckin’ hate coming out to the country,’” Stik says, laughing. “It was a real desolate vibe out there … It’s like if you go to jail, that’s [the type of town] where they drop you.” Recording for the project occurred sporadically until 2012 when … it just kind of stopped. Ron Ron has been largely inactive since 2014, owing in part due to legal troubles. Stik moved away. The momentum was lost. Recently, though, Stik rediscovered many of the recordings on a hard drive. “I’m a bit of a romantic, so I get nostalgic easy,” he says. After receiving the green light from Ron (to Stik’s surprise), Stik approached Jesse Brown and the rapper Gee Watts (something of a latter day, one-man eastand-west-of-Troost connector himself) of Kansas City label Caviart about releasing the project. Packaged with a colorful piece of album artwork featuring cartoons of Stik and Ron shooting over the hump of a sky-high rollercoaster (courtesy of illustrator and director Kendu The Stampede), Wiz Kidz has finally been released, roughly 10 years after the idea for it was hatched. While it certainly plays more like the compilation it is than the Earth-shifting album it once aimed to be, Wiz Kidz is one hell of a time capsule. The friendly, back-andforth one upmanship of “The Mic” should make any fan of classic hip-hop smile, and had it been released closer to the time of its recording, “The Dope” surely could have been a gritty Kansas City hood-soul classic. Throughout, Stik and Ron rap like nobody else but the wise emcees they are, repping nowhere else but their respective cities. During our talk, Stik alluded to the countless hip-hop albums fans have been deprived of over the years: the Ice Cube and Dr. Dre collab, Jay Electronica’s debut. This holiday season, we’re thankful that Stik, Ron, and friends gifted us this one. Wiz Kidz is available now on all major streaming platforms.
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
Dear Dan: My boyfriend and I met online to explore our kinks. We’d both been in relationships with kink-shaming people who screwed with our heads. Since we weren’t thinking it was more than a hookup, we put all our baggage on the table early and wound up becoming friends. Eventually we realized we had a real connection and started a relationship where we supported our desire to explore. I’ve never been happier. The only issue is how he gets down on himself if I get more attention than he does. After the first kink party we went to, he would not stop trying to convince me that no one looked at him all evening. I tried to boost his confidence, and I also brought up things like “You were on a leash, so maybe people assumed you were off-limits.” No dice. I couldn’t get him to even entertain the notion that anyone even looked at him. He’s a cross-dressing sissy who loves to be used by men—heterosuckual—and he has a lot of baggage with every last one of his exes citing his cross-dressing as a reason to leave him for a “real” man. To make things worse, we have had issues with guys coming over for him, finding out there’s a Domme female in the picture, and switching focus to me. I feel like I wind up avoiding kinky sexual situations (which I love!) because I’m so concerned about protecting his ego. I’ve tried using my words and we generally communicate well, but he is unwilling to entertain any interpretations that don’t mesh with his theory that he’s obviously undesirable. The breaking point for me was this past weekend. He encouraged me to go to a swingers party with a friend, and I had a blast. It was super-empowering, and all I wanted to do was tell him every detail—the way he will when he services cock— and he was so jealous that I was able to effortlessly get so much attention, he wasn’t ready to hear it. It made me feel the same sex shame I felt with my ex. It also made me feel like he was insinuating how could I get so lucky, which hit all my chubby girl self-conscious places hard. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated! Seeking Insightful Stress Solution, Yup Dear SISSY: Tell that sissy to get over herself. Your boyfriend is making you feel guilty about something you have no control over: Women get more attention at mixed-gender sex/ play parties than men do. And as far as your respective kinks go, SISSY, there are always going to be more people out there who want to get with Domme women than guys who want to get with/be serviced by submissive heterosuckual cross-dressers. Your boyfriend will always attract less interest than you do at a kink party, just as someone who goes to a BDSM play party hoping to do a little knife play will attract less interest than someone who’s looking for a little light bondage. Instead of counting the number of guys who approach you at
a party and then trying to ruin your night for getting more attention than he does, your boyfriend has to make the most of every opportunity that comes his way. And if some guy approaches him at a play party only to realize he’s on a leash, SISSY, isn’t that guy supposed to turn his attention to the Dominant partner? If your boyfriend could resist the urge to spiral down at those moments—if he could resist the urge to make himself the center of negative attention—those men would probably turn their attention back to him at some point, particularly if you encouraged/gave them permission to do so. (You could and perhaps should also make it clear to anyone who approaches you at some-if-not-all kink parties that you’re a package deal: You play together or you don’t play at all. But even then, your boyfriend has to accept that you’ll be leveraging your desirability on both your behalves and be at peace with it. Usually when I advise readers to “use their words,” it’s about making sexual needs clear, i.e., asking for what we want with the understanding that we may not always get what we want. But what you need (and you need to use your words to get), SISSY, is for your boyfriend to knock this petty, hypocritical slut-shaming shit off. (He’s essentially shaming you for being the slut he’d like to be.) It might help if you got him to recognize and grieve and accept not just the reality of the situation—women with more mainstream kinks are more in demand at mixed-gender kink parties than men with niche kinks—but also the risk he’s running here: His insecurities are sabotaging your relationship. Him setting traps for you—like encouraging you to go out and play only to make you feel terrible about it afterward— and making hurting insinuations about your attractiveness is making this relationship untenable. Tell him that you’re going to dump him if he can’t get a grip. And then ask him what will be worse—being partnered with someone who gets more attention than he does in kink and swinger spaces or being a single male in those spaces. (It’s a trick question, at least partly, as many of those spaces don’t allow single males.) Dear Dan: Straight woman here with a penis question: My current partner is uncircumcised, which I am completely fine with. However, his foreskin is so tight that it can’t be pulled back over the head of his penis. I did my research and discovered the issue is phimosis. I asked him about it, and he said it’s always been this way and that sometimes it is painful. None of his doctors have seemed to notice it during exams, and he’s never brought it up. Oddly enough, this is something that I’ve come across with two dif-
ferent partners—and in both situations, they had issues with maintaining an erection. Is this a thing? My Boyfriend’s Penis Dear MBP: Phimosis is definitely a thing, and when it makes erections a painful thing, as it often does, then erections are going to be harder to obtain and sustain. And unless a doctor was examining your boyfriend’s erect penis, it’s not something a doctor would notice. A good doctor will ask their patients about their sexual health and function, but—based on the mail I get—it seems very few people have good doctors. Looking on the bright side: Phimosis is easily treated, if you can persuade your boyfriend to ask his doctor about it. Smearing a steroid cream on his cock could stretch and loosen the foreskin. And if the cream doesn’t work, then a full or partial circumcision will do the trick. Dear Dan: I love my boyfriend, and he knows I like women, too. Our sex life was okay, a little boring and routine and always “doggy style.” And he hardly ever goes down on me—like, at all. I can count on one hand the number of times he’s done it in four years! So I agreed to have a threesome to spice things up, and we bought condoms. When we got down with another woman, he decided to have sex with her after me and he also decided to go down on her. You know, the thing he never does for me. I’m so upset now, I can’t even have sex with him. I feel like it was a betrayal of my trust for him to eat out a woman he barely knows when he won’t do that for me. He also didn’t use the condoms— he says he “didn’t have time.” He said it meant nothing. But it’s really got me upset. Now Overlooking My Need Of Munching Dear NOMNOM: Not only would I have been upset during that threesome, I would have been single very shortly after it. Dude doesn’t eat pussy—dude doesn’t eat your pussy—and can’t find the time to put a condom on when he wants to (gets to!) have sex with another woman in front of you? DTMFA. Question for Dan? E-mail him at mail@savagelove.net. On Twitter at @fakedansavage.
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EVENTS
DECEMBER EVENTS For more events, visit thepitchkc.com/calendar.
Christmas Party
DECEMBER 1
DECEMBER 6
Cautious Clay, The Riot Room
Louis The Child, Uptown Theater Holiday Bricktacular, LEGOLAND Camp, The Rhino
ALEXANDREMOORS
“Celebration!” First Friday, Buttonwood Art Space Ron Funches, The Comedy Club of Kansas City
Potted Potter, Folly Theater K. Flay & Meg Meyers, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland
DECEMBER 2 Pet Photo Night, Oak Park Mall
DECEMBER 3 Snails, The Truman
DECEMBER 4
DECEMBER 7 Waterparks, The Truman 1001 Arabian Nights, Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club Black Christmas Party, Coven KC Krampusnacht Market, Noir Arts and Oddities Masquerade Ball, Union Station The Phil Collins Experience–The Ultimate Tribute, Knuckleheads Saloon COURTESY OF RACEDAY EVENTS
Kim Petras, The Truman
Fashion Forward, KC Style, Kansas City Museum Acoustic Christmas, Voodoo Lounge
Playmates and soul mates...
Knock Kneed Sally, Knuckleheads Saloon Michael Martin Murphey, Uptown Theater
DECEMBER 5 Cultural Heritage At Risk, The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art Kalo, Knuckleheads Saloon Kansas City:
816-841-1521 46
THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
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Street Sects, The Riot Room
Westport Santa Dash 5K, Westport Crawling in a Winter Onesie-land Bar Crawl, Westport Ale House
EVENTS
DECEMBER 8
DECEMBER 13
Bad Luck, The Riot Room
Boombox Cartel, Voodoo Lounge
The L Word Premiere Launch Party, Stray Cat Film Center
Liverpool, Star Pavillion
Comedy Night, Lounge 42
Ghost Stories of Creepmas’s Past, Noir Arts and Oddities
John Legend Tribute Show, The Buffalo Room
DECEMBER 14
DECEMBER 9
Wine Oh! Festival, KCI Expo Center
Christmas Craft Party, Turner Community Library
DECEMBER 10 All Star Holiday, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Keith Harkin, Drexel Hall People’s Market, Revolution Records The Messthetics, recordBar
DECEMBER 11
KC Foodie Festival, iWerx Almost Kiss and The Who Generation, Ameristar Casino
COURTESY OF TECH N9NE
CeeLo Green, Knuckleheads Saloon
Tech N9ne, Silverstein Eye Centers Arena Blackalicious, recordBar
You Belong At...
Here’s The Thing: Lora Vogt, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art Hot Club of Cowtown, Knuckleheads Saloon Sleepy Gaucho, miniBar
DECEMBER 12 Straight No Chaser, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland Tim Gaither, The Comedy Club of Kansas City Tenth Avenue North, Folly Theater Psychology of Hip Hop, Historic Lincoln Building Ugly Sweater Party and Toy Drive, KC Wineworks
JOAN FISHER
“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Kansas City Improv
Start your new Medical Assisting career in 12 months! 12 Bars of Charity, KC Live Block
The Dead South, The Truman Santa Ball, Leinenkugel’s KC
DECEMBER 15 Steel Panther, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland E-40, VooDoo Lounge
DECEMBER 16 Yo-Yo Ma, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Heyrocco with Reality Something, The Rino
Degree & Certificate Programs in: · Medical Assisting · Massage Therapy · Fitness & Nutrition
*Average placement rate for all three programs.
86%
JOB PLACEMENT RATE* Campuses in Kansas City, Wichita, Lawrence, & Springfield
1.866.443.9140 WellSpring.edu thepitchkc.com | DECEMBER 2019 | THE PITCH
47
EVENTS
DECEMBER 17
DECEMBER 20
Cover Me KC, recordBar
Cold War Kids, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland
Downtown Neighborhood Holiday Party, The Clubhouse Experience
RADKEY, recordBar
DECEMBER 18
The Widdler, Encore at Uptown Theater
The Piano Guys, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland
Yules Eve Viking Bash, Pawn and Pint
Cocktails and Candy Canes, recordBar Inanimate Existence, The Riot Room
DECEMBER 19 Angels & Airwaves, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland Women Who Rock, Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club SSION and Bath Consolidated, recordBar Storyteller Five, The Brick
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
DECEMBER 21 Jackyl, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland SantaCon KC, Westport Bohemian Cult Revival, The Black Box Jeezy: The Snowman, Uptown Theater One Year Anniversary and Holiday Party, La Cultura Cigar & Social
DECEMBER 23
DECEMBER 27
The Nace Brothers, Knuckleheads Saloon
Chris Tucker, Uptown Theater
DECEMBER 24 Christmas at the Savoy, The Savoy at 21c
DECEMBER 26 Way Too Famous, Knuckleheads Saloon
New Year’s Rodeo Stampede, American Royal Hale Arena Goliath, The Stage Door Ali Saddiq, Improv Comedy Club Fake New Years 2, recordBar
EVENTS
DECEMBER 28
DECEMBER 30
Jingle Jams 19’, The Rino
Spine Showcases “Best Of” Live Taping, Capsule
Schwervon!, The Brick A Timey-Wimey Holiday Party, Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club Midnight Rodeo, Hollywood Casino
DECEMBER 29
Making Movies, The Truman NYE Live!, KC Live Block New Year’s Swingin’ Eve, Union Station
True Lions, The Rino Let’s Roam Kansas City Scavenger Hunt, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Ho Yams, Taps on Main
DECEMBER 31
New Year’s Eve Bash, The Uptown Theater KC NYE Bar Crawl, Various NYE Celebration with Dolewite, VooDoo Lounge Revel II —The NYE Spectacular, Westin Crown Center
Baccalá RECENTLY REMODELED NEW Players Lounge NEW Bottle Service Available NEW Big Screens Come watch your favorite sports Come see our beautiful NEW girls MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL SPECIALS
Don’t Miss Our Christmas Party Tuesday Dec. 17th
4704 Independence Ave. KCMO 64124 (816) 231-3150 | Hours Mon-Sat 7pm - 3am thepitchkc.com | DECEMBER 2019 | THE PITCH
49
MARKETPLACE LOCAL 1000
REAL ESTATE/RENTALS
VALENTINE NEIGHBORHOOD $400-$850 Rent 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments & 3 Bedroom HOMES.
816-753-5576
Colliers International. EHO
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Clinical Specialist – On-site consulting for MDs/OR staff to maximize IGS product efficiency/usage; resolve product issues; assist Radiology staff w pre-surgery scans; edu- cate MDs, OR, Radiology, Central Sterile Processing, Biomed and IT staff on IGS products/services; training for hospital staff; primary customer liaison, assessing satisfaction/ usage and working to increase revenue; work w Sr. App Consultant, Area Acct Mgr, Key Acct Mgr and Marketing Mgr on market transparency, upgrade initiatives, R&D; contribute to quality process by recommending product modifications; trade shows to promote IGS products/services; keep abreast of Brainlab and competitive IGS products/services via training and research. Reqd: BS in Biomed Eng, Elec Eng, Biomech Eng, Bio-Eng, Clinical Eng, or Nursing; 1 year exp in tech support role, preferably for healthcare provider; and perm US work auth. Home worksite (Kansas City area). Send cvr ltr and resume to N Bandukwala, HR, Brainlab, Inc., 5 Westbrook Corporate Center, Suite 1000, Westchester, IL 60154.
Classifieds
steven@thepitchkc.com 816-218-6732
BACCALA’ STRIP CLUB NOW HIRING DANCERS Contact Frank 7pm-3am Mon-Sat 816-231-3150
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county, this 15th day of November 2019. Lee’s Summit, Missouri Jackson County. File Number: 1112659000020. Date filed 10/21/2019. Status; Active / Good Standing.
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Public Notice of Registered Assumed Name Missouri, Lee’s Summit Jackson County Please be advised that Randle, Anthony Lamar, living at 326 NE Timbercreek Court, Lee’s Summit, Missouri [64086], is the Executor / Beneficiary / Name Holder of the business now being carried on at the 326 NE Timbercreek Court, Lee’s Summit, Missouri 64086 in the following assumed name, to wit; ANTHONY LAMAR RANDLE; and the nature of the said business is commerce. This statement is to be filed with the clerk of Superior Court of this
Piano, Voice, and Guitar lessons Available from professional musician and instructor. Instructor teaches in a fun and meaningful context from ages 4 to the young at heart. Sessions are 1⁄2 hour and 1 hour. Students who mention “The Pitch” will receive $5 off For more info Please call/text Kathleen 913-206-2151 or Email: klmamuric@yahoo.com
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Armour Flats Midtown Kansas City • 3457 Holmes
Units currently available!
Very spacious one bedroom for $550 and studio for $450 in an historical bldg. on the corner of Armour blvd. and Holmes. Located on the bus stop and 10 min. from Westport. Secure bldg. with in house managment.
call Jamie @ 816-560-0715
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DO YOU HAVE FOMO?
Go to thepitchkc.com/tickets to find the hottest events in KC.
A WEDDING EVENT FOR EVERY WEDDING
JANUARY 26 UPTOWN THEATER Do you need a ticket platform for an upcoming event? E-mail us at stephanie@thepitchkc.com.
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THE PITCH | DECEMBER 2019 | thepitchkc.com
GET OUT Check out more events at
thepitchkc.com/calendar
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19301 East Eastland Center Court | Independence, MO 64055 eastlandcourt@clovergroupinc.com thepitchkc.com | DECEMBER 2019 | THE PITCH
51
B OOMB OX CARTEL
9 5.7 T H E V I BE P R E S E N TS D O L E WH I TE
DECEMBER 13 *18+ SHOW
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Know When To Stop Before You Start.® Gambling Problem? Call 1-888-BETSOFF. Must have valid ID to enter VooDoo. Must be 21 or older to gamble or obtain a Caesars Rewards® card. ©2019, Caesars License Company, LLC.