I spend two weeks every summer teaching in Kansas City, which I discovered is a fascinating town where East, West, North and South meet in a unique blend of cultures and tastes. (In fact, it’s not too far from the belly button of the country. The exact center of the contiguous U.S., geographically speaking, is near Lebanon, Kansas, about 250 miles west of K.C.)
I always enjoy hanging out and sampling anything local in the many bars and restaurants that dot this lively, pleasant burgh. Over the last few years of midsummer visits, this is what I’ve learned about the city’s drinkscape:
K.C. is going through the same craft beer craze that has swept many cities around the country. I count 22 breweries on the Kansas City craft beer map, with six more in the planning stages. Local watering holes, especially the concentration of beer bars in hipster-ish Westport, have an impressive choice of local brews on tap.
By far the most popular of the local beer makers is Boulevard Brewing, which is the granddaddy of them all – it’s been around since 1989 – and is an emerging player in the national scene. You can find Boulevard beers in Southern California at Total Wine & More, BevMo! and other deep-inventory retailers.
Boulevard recently opened a beer hall dedicated to all things Boulevard, and it showcases a huge selection of regular run, limited release, and special test brews. Not surprisingly, the hefeweisen and other German-style beers are superb here, in a part of the country with a strong German heritage. Free public tours of Boulevard’s facilities are conducted daily on a first-come first-serve basis.
I ran into some local wine on the list at several restaurants in the very upscale Country Club Plaza shopping and restaurant district. Local wine, you ask? In fact, Missouri enjoys a long history of grape growing and wine-making. In the 1870s, Missouri and Kansas together constituted the second-largest grape growing and wine-making region in the U.S.
Although Prohibition almost completely killed the industry, within the last few years both Missouri and Kansas have returned to their pre-Prohibition winery numbers. There are now more than 100 local wineries producing reds and whites on both sides of the Missouri-Kansas line, which runs through the west side of town. I recently enjoyed a bottle of Citrine, a decent dry Riesling made by Pirtle (founded in 1978, it’s one of the oldest wineries of the modern era).
With a vibrant local economy, K.C. is home to quite a few quality wine retailers and wine bars. And a few bars and restaurants have wine lists that are as extensive as any I’ve seen in Southern California. JJs Restaurant near Country Club Plaza has an 1,800-bottle wine list that Wine Spectator called “one of the best in the world.” Louie’s Wine Dive in Waldo was named by USA Today as one of “10 great restaurants with stellar wine lists.”
A few blocks west of the University of Missouri campus, a regular haunt of mine, Osteria Il Centro, is a charming, Mediterranean-style bistro that dishes up great Italian food at prices you’ll never see in O.C. Don’t let the quiet, nondescript neighborhood or modest storefront fool you. Behind the old stone façade you’ll find 18 consecutive Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence plaques. Its global reserve wine list contains more than 10,000 bottles.
If a classy craft cocktail is what you’re hankering for, Kansas City is heavily into the mixology movement, too. Over the last few years I’ve been impressed by the Julep Cocktail Club, The Rieger, The Westport Café and Bar and Tom’s Town. And I’ve heard great things about SoT on Grand in the ultra-trendy Power and Light District. I’ll try to find my way there before leaving town later this week.
The best thing about K.C.’s rich culinary/cocktail/beer/wine universe? You can get from anywhere in town to anywhere else in 30 minutes, tops. And I didn’t mention anything about its other charms: the shopping, the world-class art museum, the barbecue, the beef, the great live-music scene, the ballet company, the elegant Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts that opened in 2011. There’s plenty to do here after Happy Hour is over.
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