@Voltaire
Welcome, {{secret_name | Secret Reader}}
You've been skipping the best course of the night for years. We'll get to that. First, here's Kansas City, August 20 through 23.
🍸 The Weekend
Amber "Flutienastiness" Underwood @ The Ship · Thursday / 7 PM
Flute-forward jazz in the West Bottoms. Early set, tight bar, walkable to nothing — which is the point.
→ The Ship
Kevin "Church" Johnson @ The 1909 Club · Friday / 7 PM
The underrated Lee's Summit jazz room, working a straight three-hour set.
→ The 1909 Club
Steve Cardenas @ Ted's Taproom · Friday / 8 PM
KC-raised guitarist and Paul Motian alumnus, home for the night. J Love Band warms the room at 5.
→ Ted's Taproom
Late Night with Trib · Saturday / 10 PM
Rob Tribitt's rotating band — jazz, blues and soul played by people who can actually play. Runs LATE.
→ Uptown Lounge
Freddie Mercury Tribute
A night built around the Queen frontman's catalog.
→ Facebook Event Page
Chiefs Watch Party · Coca-Cola Game Day
Outdoor watch party in the Power & Light District — big screen, full block, no cover.
→ Power & Light District
Curlz of Oz · Sunday / 10 AM–2 PM
Brunch set at The Phoenix, four hours long. The soft landing after a hard weekend.
→ The Phoenix
🥂 Date Nights
Jackie Myers Duo @ Chaz · Thursday / 6–10 PM
Vocal-led piano jazz in the Raphael's lobby bar. Plaza views, dinner-club pacing. Excellent staff.
→ Chaz at the Raphael
Wicked · Thursday–Sunday
The Oz prequel on tour, in residence at Music Hall through August 30. Two shows Saturday, two Sunday. Runs two hours forty-five with one intermission — build the drink in afterward, not before.
→ Music Hall
Pottery & Pinot
BYOB wheel-throwing night at House of Clay. All skill levels, no experience assumed. You bring the bottle, they bring the clay.
→ House of Clay
👨👩👧👦 Family Friendly
47th Ethnic Enrichment Festival · Friday / 6 PM
Dozens of community booths cooking their own food, folkloric performances on the bandstand all night. $5 adults, free under 12, free parking. Runs through Sunday.
→ Swope Park Bandstand
Heart of America Hot Dog Festival · Saturday / 3 PM
Annual fundraiser for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Zapp, Con Funk Shun and Christopher Williams headline.
→ National WWI Museum and Memorial
Parkville Days
The annual festival that takes over historic, picturesque downtown Parkville — riverfront, Main Street, the whole grid.
→ Downtown Parkville
Planet Anime
Kansas City's anime convention — panels, artist alley, cosplay, vendor floor.
→ Planet Anime
From the Bar
Two things happen in Kansas City at the end of August — Football comes back. And The Bird has a birthday.
Saturday the Chiefs are in Tampa for the second preseason game, 6:30, and the Power & Light District will run the Coca-Cola Game Day watch party. But the real thing is September 14. Denver, at Arrowhead, Monday Night Football — the first time this team has opened a season on a Monday since 2010, and the second straight primetime home game to start the year. Three weeks out. You've only got one thing to remember... "Not the Broncos."
Charlie Parker was born August 29, 1920, and Spotlight: Charlie Parker is in its fourteenth year of refusing to let that be a footnote. KC Jazz ALIVE has been running it all summer — walking tours through 18th & Vine with Chuck Haddix, panels, jam sessions, and it all comes down to next Saturday night at the Folly with the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra playing the capstone concert on Bird's actual birthday.
Two weeks ago I made a whole thing out of Louis Armstrong being a Leo. Born August 4, ruled by the Sun, the only sign in the zodiac that gets a star instead of a rock. Bird misses it by a week. August 29 puts him in Virgo. Precision, analysis, obsessive technical control, the compulsion to take a thing apart and rebuild it faster and cleaner than anyone.
The city that made him is still working the same territory. Steve Cardenas is at Ted's Taproom Friday night, KC-raised, Paul Motian's guitarist, home for a set. Sons of Brazil Saturday in the same room. Kevin "Church" Johnson down in Lee's Summit at the 1909 Club. Amber Underwood in the West Bottoms Thursday with a flute, which is not the instrument many of us expect to carry in a jazz room; get ready. And Swope Park has the 47th Ethnic Enrichment Festival running Friday through Sunday, dozens of community booths, every one of them cooking their own food, performances on the bandstand until the light goes.
— I’ll see you at the bar ☾
Jay, SecretKC editor
🥃 The Can’t Miss List
Hotel Bar · Evening
Bar Stillwell
Grown-ass bar energy. The best place to begin and end adventures.
Cocktails · Evening
The Monarch Bar
Serious cocktails, serious energy. A clean handoff between dinner and the night.
Cleo Club
Velvet booths above The Rockhill Grille. No food, no pretense
Café · Day or Night
Café Corazón
Indigenous-owned Latin American café. Specialty coffee, yerba mate, empanadas, tamales. Not just some coffee shop. 3 locations.
Last Call
@Chaz on the Plaza
Watch a table when the dessert menu arrives. Somebody says I couldn't possibly. Somebody else says we'll split one, which is a negotiated surrender. Somebody asks if anyone else wants anything, which isn't a real question; nobody wants to be the one who orders alone. The whole ritual is a group of adults trying to want something without being the one who admitted it first!
Restaurants know this. It's why the dessert menu arrives after the plates are cleared and never with the entrées. It's why servers describe the tart instead of handing you a card. It's why the coffee gets offered in the same breath — coffee is the socially acceptable excuse to stay seated ten more minutes, and ten more minutes is how long it takes for I couldn't possibly to become actually, you know what…
Wisdom says: order the entrée smaller than you want or share. Not because of restraint — because of arithmetic. Or: order first. Say the words before anyone else can start the negotiation. Half the table wanted it, and none of them were going to move. Me, I get mine to go!
Shout-out to Chaz on the Plaza, which has overdelivered on desserts tonight. The Raphael's been standing since 1928, there's live jazz coming out of the lounge every night, and the last course there is worth the seat you're already sitting in.
—Proost! 🍸
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