- Register
- Sign In
News & Events
JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER
Sign up for our newsletter for monthly updates on the latest Kansas City happenings.
From the housing market to local events, our favorite recipes and MORE.
We're dropping the latest in your mailbox each month!
SUBSCRIBE
UPCOMING EVENTS
We host a quarterly event for our exclusive client group, "REEL" MVPs.
Upcoming:
A Special Screening of Top Gun: Maverick
June 12th @ 12:30pm
B&B Theatres Shawnee 18
Learn how to become a "REEL" MVP
I WANT TO ATTEND EVENTS
Kansas City Blogs
Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker in 2022
Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker in 2022
This Missouri metropolis, close to the border of Kansas, jump-started its moviemaking business last May after a COVID shutdown with innovative safety protocols that other film offices in the country utilized to shape their own."
MORE
Where to eat, play, and stay in Kansas City
Where to eat, play, and stay in Kansas City
"The City of Fountains offers barbecue, baseball, and Boulevard Brewing, but there's also no shortage of fine art, noteworthy restaurants, and hip hotels."
MORE
Find craft beers and diner-style burgers in the historic downtown Excelsior Springs
Find craft beers and diner-style burgers in the historic downtown Excelsior Springs
Old Waters Find craft beers and diner-style burgers in the historic downtown Excelsior Springs BY MARY HENN | PHOTOGRAPHY BY CALEB CONDIT & REBECCA NORDEN THE ATLAS SALOON Downtown Excelsior Springs is just under a ten-minute drive from Sundance Ranch, and there are many drinking, dining and shopping options—including two breweries, a wine mercantile, a diner and a museum, to name a few. Our favorites include The Atlas Saloon and Ray’s Diner, two Excelsior mainstays that have been intact for decades. Actually, The Atlas has been in the same location since 1894, making it the oldest bar in Clay County and one of the oldest in Missouri. The Atlas is, as it has been for years, a charming local dive bar, but recently brewmaster Keith Hudson has started making some extremely smooth German lagers in the back. Hudson, a retired engineer, with his longtime friend and owner of The Atlas Jim McCullough, replaced what used to be the bar kitchen with a small brewhouse. Hudson carefully brews a handful of lagers at a time, and each is named after one of the twenty-nine mineral springs that drew people from all over the country for their healing properties around the early twentieth century. Today, Hudson uses the famous waters of Excelsior Springs to brew lagers. When asked if he’s supplying to any local taps, Hudson said, “If you want our beer, you gotta come here.” Catty-corner from The Atlas is Ray’s Diner, which has served the same classic diner staples—biscuits and gravy, hamburgers, breakfast sandwiches—for many years. Stepping into Ray’s is like stepping back in time. The small diner hasn’t changed much of its interior, the service is impeccable, the food is great, and the prices have remained mostly unaffected by time, too—you can get a hamburger for $2. For the most authentic diner experience, sit at the bar, put your phone down, and chat up the locals. RAY’S DINER .st0{clip-path:url(#SVGID_00000170984173164499684210000013264868448256983183_);fill:#EF6936;} .st1{fill:#FFFFFF;} .st2{fill:none;stroke:#1A5EDB;stroke-width:0.5;stroke-linejoin:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st3{clip-path:url(#SVGID_00000111158580294515306820000011801785699993428882_);fill:none;stroke:#1A5EDB;stroke-width:0.5;stroke-linejoin:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st4{clip-path:url(#SVGID_00000111158580294515306820000011801785699993428882_);fill:#1A5EDB;} The post Find craft beers and diner-style burgers in the historic downtown Excelsior Springs appeared first on Kansas City Magazine.
MORE
Here’s what’s new in Kansas City food and drink this month
Here’s what’s new in Kansas City food and drink this month
Smoke ClearsPlowboys Barbeque closed both of its locations in mid-August as co-owners Todd Johns and Audrey Johns pivoted to a booming business in rubs and sauces. “We made the decision, the decision wasn’t made for us, and that felt good to us,” Todd says. “We’re finishing in a way that feels good. It feels good to end on our own terms.”Plowboys opened its first location in Blue Springs in 2013 and followed up with a downtown location in 2015 and a franchise in Nebraska. They also opened and closed a location in Overland Park, which is now Buck Tui.Plowboys was doing record business going into the pandemic, Todd says, with sales at the downtown location up almost thirty percent. Plowboys did “dip a little bit” and “had some ground to recover,” he says, but the plan had been to continue.Negotiations on renewing their lease for another five years sparked a deeper conversation about the future of the business, fueled in part by Todd’s reading Finish Big.“We’re all ten years older—that was a big factor,” Todd Johns says. “I was recommended a book earlier this year called Finish Big. It talks about how we, as entrepreneurs, put a lot of energy into our concept, launch and vision, and then we either hand those things off or we operate them. But we don’t put the same amount of energy into what the end looks like.”The decision was made easier by the runaway success of Plowboys’ sauces and rubs, which are available in thirty countries. Their top product, Yardbird Rub, moves a hundred thousand pounds a year.Plowboys nachos/Photo by Zach BaumanSarah’s SoldSpeaking of departures, Sarah’s on the Hill, one of our favorite spots in Strawberry Hill, has been sold to a new owner and is now Chentes on the Hill (612 N. Fifth St., KCK). The restaurant was opened by Sarah Breitenstein in 2019 and then was taken over by her brother John. Vincent Galicia of Chentes Pizza took over and plans to keep the pizza recipes the same while adding asada and chorizo Mexican pizzas.Fresh GreenThe first chef has been announced for a new downtown food hall . The Strang Chef Collective at lightwell comes from the people behind the popular food hall in downtown Overland Park.Nicole Shute is being tapped to fill one of the spaces with a concept called Verde which “will feature bold flavors, vibrant colors, fresh ingredients, and mindfully made food interpreted in an approachable way.”“The roots of Verde stem from my love of Latin American cuisine and other island flavors,” she said in a press release. Shute is a KC native who was previously chef de cuisine for the Marriot Downtown. New WifePhotography by Caleb Condit & Rebecca NordenOne of our favorite brunch spots is adding a general store. Housewife in Grandview (801 Main Street, Suite 104, Grandview) has become a destination for its scratch-made pastries, sandwiches and soups. Now it’s taking over the “cute blue house next door” to open a Truman General in October. The store’s offerings are headlined by homemade ice cream, charcuterie, new and used books, records and housewares.Be Kind, Rewind Photo courtesy of Rewind Video and Retro DiveIf you’re one of those people who deeply misses the vibes of Blockbuster Video, there is a place. The basement of the Screenland Armor Theatre in North KC has been turned into a bar called Rewind Video and Retro Dive (410 Armour Road, North Kansas City)—and the bar even plans to do video rentals. The space is decorated with old tube TVs, classic game consoles and posters for movies like Pulp Fiction and Clerks. The drink menus are in DVD cases and list the period-appropriate “Adult Capri Suns” along with hazy IPAs and kombucha (no Josta or Zima). There will soon be a rental library of VHS tapes, DVDs and Blu-rays for rent, pulled from the personal collection of co-owner Adam Roberts, who is “wrapping up cataloging the couple thousand movies into our system.” The rental system will be a flat membership fee per month, and they hope to have it active in September. Pull of GravityThe former Blue Moose in Prairie Village is now home to Gravity (4160 W. 71st St., Prairie Village), a new spot by the same owner which has a “Mediterranean-inspired” menu with an “American sensibility” (think: fried calamari, lamb chops). KC Hopps owned Blue Moose and also owns Gravity, but the inside of the Moose has been brightened and accented with abstract art by local painter Kelley Neill Carman. In a news release, KC Hopps mentions that the menu is “almost entirely gluten-free” and that almost any dish with gluten can be modified “at one’s request.”Jazz HandsA new piano bar in Midtown aims to bring both jazz standards and impromptu jams to the corner of 34th and Main streets. Uptown Lounge (3400 Main St., KCMO) hosts regular performances by standout locals like Eboni Fondren and co-owner Alan Stribling. The bar was “built for musicians, by musicians” and claims “unparalleled” acoustics from careful speaker placement and room design. The drink menu includes a handful of house cocktails as well as a nice selection of high-end spirits. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mo'Bettahs Hawaiian Style Food (@mobettahs) Is it Bettah?The long-awaited competitor to homegrown chain Hawaiian Bros has arrived. Mo’ Bettahs Hawaiian Style Restaurant is now open on both 75th Street in north Overland Park and on South Strang Line Road in Olathe. The Utah-based plate lunch spot has a similar menu to the Bros and is eyeing four locations around KC.Rising UpSpeaking of expanding chains: Rise Southern Biscuits and Righteous Chicken will arrive in south Overland Park this fall with a new spot at 7060 W. 135th Street. Rise is a North Carolina-based biscuit chain and opened a spot on Tomahawk Road in Prarie Village back in 2019. Rise’s menu is mainly buttery biscuits and buttermilk-brined chicken.The post Here’s what’s new in Kansas City food and drink this month appeared first on Kansas City Magazine.
MORE
Hollywood Comedy Thriller filmed in KC: “It’s Fargo on Steroids”
Hollywood Comedy Thriller filmed in KC: “It’s Fargo on Steroids”
By David HodesOnce upon a time a few decades ago, Kansas City was enjoying its starring role as a Hollywood movie making hotspot.In the 1990s, academy-award winning actors, rising Hollywood stars, world-famous entertainers and legendary directors all found that filming their stories among the easy-to-please residents and story-defining locations of Kansas City was a great way to manage their smallish budgets. There were a series of films shot in and around Kansas City then, including “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge,” “Article 99,” “Kansas City,” “Ride With the Devil,” among others. Ellen Burstyn, who won an academy award as best actress for her portrayal of a widow seeking a better life in the 1974 Martin Scorsese film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” could be seen shopping at Whole Foods in Mission. Kristin Davis, the villain of the nighttime soap opera “Melrose Place” and soon to become a major television and film star as Charlotte York in the HBO romantic comedy series “Sex in the City,” stayed in a hotel downtown using a fake name because her fans were stalking her.What the jaded west coast dreammakers didn’t expect was the available pool of minor part actors and experienced crew members who lived and worked here, all hungry for connecting with a Hollywood production, all digging in and doing their best version of Midwest work ethic. Hollywood loved it. Word got out about the good help here, charging cheap day rates that low budget producers needed to make their films, in a city that gave them virtually everything they wanted – in one case shutting down I-670 and blocking off I-35 downtown to film a U2 music video in May, 1997.Now, because of the reauthorization of an expired tax credit law in Missouri that expired in 2013, the city and surrounding areas have once again become a magnet for movie-making money men. First up: “Boris is Dead,” an independent dark comedy thriller that completed principal production in Kansas City in late November. It was shot mostly in an abandoned local Ethiopian restaurant. The actors Dane Cook, best known as a stand-up comedian who has done some critically-acclaimed work in television and feature films over the last few years; and Hana Mae Lee, an actress, singer and model best known for “The Babysitter: Killer Queen” franchise.Dane Cook“It’s an action-comedy-thriller piece that started out as more of a comedy,” the lead producer, Sasha Yelaun, says. “Now it feels very kind of Tarantino-esque. It revolves around a café. There’s a lot of violence and killing, but there’s all these nuances and things that happen that are also kind of funny at the same time. It feels like there could be a cult following behind this one.” “The idea for the film initially started from a restaurant where my twin sister and I worked,” says Kerry Donelli, who co-wrote the screenplay with her sister Jacqueline. They are both producers. They play the same waitress character in the film, Gabby. “The lead character (Derek, played by Cook) was someone my character had dated. Then we added characters that we worked with in the restaurant industry, and made it larger than life.”She said that once they came up with the story, they changed it a few times. “We did rewrites. It was a heist film at first, just different characters that did it. And then we added a mafia piece in at the 11th hour.”Chris Mulkey, a veteran actor of over 100 films and dozens of TV series appearances, plays the owner of the restaurant, Ross. He picks up the story from there. “My character owes 300 large to the mob from betting,” he says. “When I finally get all the money together in my restaurant, the staff who found out that I was cheating them out of their money, want to steal all my money. So that’s the conflict. It’s basically ‘Fargo’ on steroids, a sort of crime comedy.”The journey to the movie began for Cook when the director, James Cullen Bressack, reached out to him through a direct message in Instagram. “I caught his message, and it was really just very direct. But something stood out,” he says. “I wrote him back and said ‘I’d love to read it. I’m on a tour for the rest of the year (he is just wrapping up a 30-plus city tour). I don’t imagine I’d be able to participate, but could I read it?’ So I read it, met him for lunch, and told him, ‘Man, I really did love this. And it harkens back to some of the films that I loved growing up.’”Cook is also an executive producer of the film under his company banner SuperFinger Ent. Bressack said he had looked at Cook’s tour schedule and that they baked it in so that he could fly in and out of Kansas City for weekend dates. Then they’d shoot him for four or five days here – which would be an exhausting schedule for Cook. “I said as long as it works for the character, I am ready to be exhausted for you.”What Cook liked about his character, Derek, a struggling waiter who gets involved in a violent heist gone wrong, was that his character’s angst reminded him of his entire 1990s, where he was not only struggling and lost but still trying to “find his metal.” “Where is the fire burning inside of me?” Cook says. “And how can I make that meet all the prep with stand-up? Will I be able to meet a certain lean-in confidence that I still didn’t quite have? That’s where this character’s jumping off point is. Because through a curious set of circumstances that we lived through with the character, he finally figures out, with a little bit of lady luck as well, how to get through something.”The movie is in the edit stage now through February, with a completed film expected by May. Yelaun says that they are aiming to premiere it at the Toronto Film Festival in September, 2025, where such notable films as “American Beauty,” “Black Swan,” and “The Fabelmans” have all premiered.The post Hollywood Comedy Thriller filmed in KC: “It’s Fargo on Steroids” appeared first on Kansas City Magazine.
MORE
Harold’s Drive-In to close
Harold’s Drive-In to close
After nearly 70 years of serving up smashburgers, malts and onion rings just east of downtown, Harold’s Drive-In (1337 Admiral Blvd.) will close 2024 out by closing its doors.Owner Deb Walker said the landlord wanted to raise her rent and they couldn’t work out an agreement. “I’ve been struggling to pay what he wants anyway and when you start doing that it is time to go,” she said. “It’s hard. Change is hard and it’s very emotional.”Harold’s serves breakfast all day including sausage and egg sandwiches, and biscuits and gravy.It also has cheeseburgers, pork tenderloins, hand-breaded-daily Italian steak sandwiches, fish sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, chili dogs, onion rings, fries, tots, malts and shakes, and soft serve ice cream. The end of business Dec. 31 will be its last day. Walker hopes to say farewell to regulars and “sell out of everything.”Until then, hours are 7 am to 2 pm, Mondays through Fridays. It is closed Saturdays and Sundays. Harold’s is one of only a few 1950-1960s era drive-ins still operating in the metro, including Mugs Up Drive In in Independence, Humdinger Drive-In, Paul’s Drive In and Christy’s Tasty Queen in Kansas City, Kansas. According to Walker, Harold and Pat McBain started selling ice cream and hot dogs in the space in 1958 under the Harold’s Dairy Supreme banner. Nancy Smith worked there from about 1986 to 1989, then returned in 1998. A year later Harold turned to her, asking if she was ready to buy the place. He was tired. She was ready and soon changed the name to Harold’s Drive-In. Walker had worked at Walmart for 16 years before joining Harold’s in 2003. She took it over in 2020, right before the pandemic.“We were closed for six weeks. It was bad. I was just trying to keep Harold’s going,” she said. “Sometimes people will just come by for a hug, a smile or a ‘You look nice.’ I look back and I learned a lot working there. Just from people in general. I’ve learned empathy, that I’m no better than anyone else walking around out there.”The landlord couldn’t be reached for comment. But the 609-square-foot building (circa 1949), five blocks east of the downtown loop, is now listed for sale for $425,000, including equipment and a parking lot with 10 spaces. It is by the Hope Faith Homeless Assistance Campus and the Rodeway Inn.The post Harold’s Drive-In to close appeared first on Kansas City Magazine.
MORE