KC Confidential.com

With complete confidence and accuracy I can report that just about every Irish person in Kansas City is eagerly awaiting the new deck at Kelly’s Wesport Inn.

Full disclosure: I don’t see many white people during my daily routine and I had always assumed that the term “Irish” was just another way to describe white people who weren’t Italian, which is standard nomenclature for the equally minority dominated world of boxing.

In any event, the Kelly’s deck project called Randal’s Roost is turning out to be a pretty big deal.

Here’s why:
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How best to define the Beaumont Club new Backyard in Westport: it’s not the Crossroads…

So say the Yard’s promoters, hey and they should know. But at second blush, there’s a lot to like about the area’s newest outdoor concert and event venue. There also is some rather obvious room for improvement, and organizers vow to make them prior to next spring and summer’s outdoor concert season. Continue reading

The possibility of Blanc Burgers + Bottles taking over Uno Chicago Grill on the Plaza raises the question of whether the wildly successful, upscale burger biz will soldier on at its original Westport location…

Sources say Blanc’s lease in Westport Square won’t be up for some time, so there could be an overlap. But what are the odds of firing two Blancs in such close proximity?

By my anecdotal measure, many of Blanc’s customers appear to come from Mission Hills and Kansas City suburbs Brookside and Waldo.

Why cut that customer base effectively in half by dividing them between and paying rent at two locations? 

And while Westport is no different than other areas of town where businesses have been dropping like flies, losing Starbucks on the corner of Westport and Broadway a couple years back, Blayney’s last month and Blanc if it fails to renew its lease, would be something of a triple whammy.

Speaking of Blayney’s – the prospect of it somehow reopening in Westport under new ownership appears to have dimmed with the recent dismantling of the blues bar’s Web site at www.blayneys.com.

All right, I may be crazy, and I’m certainly a bit hungover, but after a night of bar-hopping into the wee hours today, I’ve decided I know which Kansas City establishment is attracting the most beautiful women.

Is it in Westport? No. Plaza? No. A bit further north, at Martini Corner? No, although I must admit the Velvet Dog drew its share this weekend. How about Power & Light? No, but close.

It’s the Cashew.

And I don’t know if I get it. Continue reading

Don’t stop till you get enough?

When it comes to milking the you-know-what out of notable news most media never seem to get enough. Anna Nicole Smith ring any bells? And where Michael Jackson is concerned – for better and for worse – pretty much everyone has been riding his end of days train.

So there was little surprise when I ducked into Nara for some late night sushi Friday after Stevie Wonder’s blockbuster show at Starlight, and the DJ action there was all MJ. Wonder had just mounted a more than two-hour impromptu sendup to the artist some media outlets labeled Wacko Jacko.

Stevie wasn’t alone…

Across town at the new Beaumont Club in Westport, Nas and Damian Marley were forging a hip-hop salutaion of sorts.

“Nas walked out in a Michael Jackson ‘Rest in Peace’ T-shirt and the crowd went crazy,” says Hobbs fashionista Shauna Swanson. “Then he took it off and threw it into the the crowd and went into a 15 minute Michael jackson set that was un-believable. The Beaumont just went crazy. And I can’t tell you how many people were wearing Michael Jackson T-shirts. That and Heath Ledger T-shirts – it was a bizarre memorial as far as the Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson contrast.”

Missing in action at the MJ mode melee: “I didn’t see any Farrah Fawcett or Ed McMahon,” Swanson says.

The word on the street: that wildly successful Blanc Burger + Bottles in Westport may be poised to bid adieu to the midtown party zone…

Nothing official, mind you, but insiders are saying that for any number of imaginable and/or unimaginable reasons, Blanc – which recently added a second location in South Leawood at Mission Farms – is looking into a possible exit strategy from Westport.

*** There was the shooting death in Westport late last year of a 24 year-old Leawood woman.

*** The warm weather, wee hours throngs of urban youth that give pause to white bread partiers.

*** The ongoing exodus of retail businesses that have folded or migrated to hoods like Brookside.

*** Oh and three words that strike fear into the hearts of huddled, befuddled masses; crime, crime & crime

Then there are the rumors of Blanc being less than enamored with its tenant/landlord relationship.

The $64 million question: where might Blanc bolt?

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Ah, the life of a traveling mural painter…

Long days, uncertain elements, groupies. Such is the life for New Yorkers Dan Herrington and Charlie Black who laid down four king size Pabst Blue Ribbon beer artworks in Westport – three on Bill Nigro’s Federal Storage warehouse overlooking the Beaumont Club’s new backyard.

The origin of the art?

“It was a contest that Pabst ran and these are three of the winners,” Black says. “They had about 50 winners overall. We’ve been to Boise, Atlanta, Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Minneapolis.”

How long it takes to scaffold up the side of a building and lay one down?

“Well, let’s see – probably a day for each one,” Black says. “I have an artwork to paint from and we send photos of the finished art to our sales guys who forward it to Pabst or their creative agency.”

*Degree of difficulty: “It’s hard work, physically hard work” Black says. “And you know it’s a skill – it’s a muscle in your brain that tires people out – we work seven days a week, sunup to sundown until we’re done.”

*Most intense: ”The biggest was 27 stories for Delta in New York City seven years ago,” Black says.

*How it pays: “It’s an hourly rate; it’s really good pay. I’m well paid, but I don’t have any money in the bank. It all goes to bars and women.”

Wildest mural painting story? Continue reading

One of Westport’s hippest, most esteemed remaining retailers Loma Vista Hardware is poised to bail...

It’s been 14 years since the old-fashioned hardware, antiques, skateboard and high end fashion boutique ventured into the midtown ‘hood. It replaced the highly-regarded, departing Broadway Hardware Co. Loma Vista retained Broadway’s charm, the musty wood floors, old-fashioned nuts-and-bolts bins, shopworn fixtures and the like.

However that was just the tip of Loma Vista’s business strategy iceberg.

Hardware and antique store owners Chuck and Shirley Dean’s son Todd had other ideas and supplemented the hardware store’s offerings by catering to the burgeoning skateboard culture and introducing cutting edge, nosebleed high-fashion like Vivienne Westwood handbags ($500 to $2,000) to the mix.

Remember when Fox 4 sports dude Frank Boal went middle age fashion crazy in the late 1990s? Loma Vista was Boal’s hip haberdashery of choice for his over-the-top wardrobe selections. That is until I outed his wife as being the one who was picking out his getups.  Haven’t seen him since those stories broke, Dean dishes.

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Chalk another one up for the Almighty Buck…

The switch from downtown Kansas City to midtown by Kansas City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade was hailed as a family-friendly nod to Kansas City’s Irish community.

Horse hockey, says former parade organizer Mary Nestel – who now heads Martin City’s St. Patrick’s Parade & Irishpalooza . It was about saving money, pure and simple.

“That’s why they moved it, they didn’t want to have to pay for those barricades,” Nestel says.

Lining Grand with ‘cades can run upwards of $25,000. And with a “first class” parade costing $50,000 to $60,000 to produce and as much as $70,000 to $80,000, that’s a significant savings, Nestel says. Especially with the economy being like it is.

So how did organizers skate on the barricades requirement in midtown?

“That’s a good question,” Nestel says. “I would think it’s a safety issue no matter where they went. Yes, I know it’s a financial burden, but it’s a safety issue and everybody should be required to do it. They still had a block of barricades from Westport Road to the old fire station, but…” Continue reading

Horse Hockey: Gotta watch your step

Baggy pants wearing inner city youth went mostly missing at this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Midtown, according to media and eyewitness reports….

Hey and they didn’t even dial in a discriminatory dress code.

Some Westporters were wondering if the large numbers of school-skipping African-American youth that have regularly attended the downtown parade would follow it to Westport. You may recall that Westport has wrestled for years with the issue of kids hanging in the street outside bars in the wee hours on summer Saturdays.

Didn’t happen, says Westport businessman Bill Nigro.

“It was huge, the number of people that came to the parade was just huge,” Nigro says. “And the number of families that came was huge, but the number of inner city people was less than in recent years – it was a really good-looking crowd.”

For the most part, Nigro characterizes the parade and post parade action in Westport as tranquil.

“This was the first time in recent years they didn’t have any major incidents at the parade, none,” he says. “And Westport didn’t have any incidents all night even. At 2 a.m. our security staff said they had no incidents other than they told a few drunks to go home. That was it. No fights, just a couple of drunk shoving things.”

Which is not to say that the day went entirely problem-free… Continue reading

Kobe Burger, fries and float: $15 all in at Dempsey's

Atop the local slagheap of world class,  exceedingly-expensive burgers stands Blanc Burgers + Bottles.

Without question, Blanc has carved out a niche – starting in Westport and now in South Leawood at Mission Farms – that until it opened last year, nobody knew existed. Not around these parts anyway.

Enter a formidable new contender – albeit in Lawrence – for the local gourmet burger joint hall of fame;

The Burger Stand At Dempsey’s is the name and gourmet burgers are the game – albeit at budget prices.

“We’re not paying any rent, nor are we paying any utilities, so we can afford to sell things cheaper,” says co-proprietor Robert Krause of vaunted Lawrence eatery Krause Dining.

It works out to about 25 percent lower prices than Blanc, Krause says. Continue reading

The single largest St. Patrick’s Day party in Kansas City: would you believe Lew’s Irish Hooley in Waldo?

Think of it as a full-blown four-leaf clover refuge for Johnson Countians and South Kansas Citians w/o the crude consequences sometimes associated with Westport and the Power & Light District downtown.

“We’re the single largest St. Patrick’s day party in Kansas city for just one bar,” says Lew’s co-owner Chris Lewellen. “And I don’t know of any other major party that went on after 5 p.m. last St. Patrick’s day – even the Power & Light District closed down early.”

If the weather’s good, Lewellen expects another 4,000 to 5,000 attendees at the nonstop entertainment all day shamrock-athon with Disco Dick going on at 8 p.m.

“What we do different is we have a thermally controlled tent like they use for weddings, food, tons of bars, three bands and a DJ,” Lewellen says. “And our specialty is we have more porta-potties than the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. We’ve even taken it to another level with an attendant who keeps everything clean and working.”

Hey and who knows: might even be tame enuff for Tony’s KC to claw his way out of that cellar and attend.

Jeff Fortier & new Beaumont to host Hank III, Missy Higgins, more

A new, improved Beaumont Club in Westport shuddered to life for its shakedown cruise Friday with one of the town’s top-tier bands – Republic Tigers – leading the charge.

Hey and guess what? The joint was packed.

Cleaner, meaner with improvements/amenities to come, concert promoter Jeff Fortier says.

“The stage is a little different these day,” he says nonchalantly, with a nod toward a stage and sound system rumored to be in the quarter million dollar-plus neighborhood.

Let’s see, major cleanup, new paint, tiled entry, spruced up bathrooms you can stand being inside of, mechanical bull out-to-pasture, real deal backstage with dressing rooms and a soon-to-be grassed-covered backyard.

The single most memorable, dramatic thing to go down during the redo? Continue reading