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PLAY
Kansas City has long been called “The City of Fountains,” but its art scene in the Crossroads District is where you should begin your exploration. The neighborhood is full of art galleries, including Weinberger Fine Art, Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, and Blue Gallery. Across town, in the West Bottoms neighborhood, head to Haw Contemporary, a large gallery with an impressive body of work that pulls from local, national, and international artists. There are also several museums worth checking out. You can easily spend an entire day exploring the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, which houses a collection of art that spans 5,000 years and includes a sculpture garden with 84 works, including the iconic Shuttlecocks. The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art has an expansive collection of modern and contemporary art. The American Jazz Museum has permanent exhibits that feature artifacts, artwork, and even a sequin gown worn by Ella Fitzgerald, as well as an impressive lineup of live jazz concerts. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is the only museum dedicated to preserve and celebrate African-American baseball; in addition to its exhibits, there are educational programs for kids and adults. And if you have an interest in architecture, don’t miss Union Station, which was built in 1914 and has three 3,500-pound chandeliers in its 95-foot Grand Hall, as well as the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
Photography by Jen Roberts
Oddly Correct
EAT
Start your morning at Broadway Café, an icon on the Kansas City coffee scene since 1992, where you can pair your latte with a classic coffee cake. Oddly Correct is in a new location, on Troost Avenue, but it's serving up the same strong coffee and made-to-order biscuits. For lunch, Vietnam Café offers a variety of pho. If you’re craving a hearty sandwich, Pigwich serves cheesesteak, Nashville hot fried chicken, and pork brisket, among other options. Bon Appetit named The Antler Room—the intimate restaurant near Crown Center that's known for a seasonal menu of traditional Midwest dishes with Mediterranean and East Asian flare—one of the country’s best in 2017. Corvino is a supper club, the only tasting room in the city, and perhaps one of the few places you can find caviar and fried chicken on the same menu. Boulevard Brewing is an obvious go-to for beer, but if you want something less known, head to Torn Label Brewing Company or Big Rip Brewing Company. And, of course, you can’t visit K.C. without checking out its barbecue scene. Some claim that Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que is the best in town, though other options like Q39, Slap’s BBQ, and Porkey’s Blazin, to name just a few, have popped up alongside such staples as Arthur Bryant's, Gates, and Jack Stack.
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STAY
Crossroads Hotel offers a chic, industrial take on the boutique hotel experience. Located in the former Pabst Brewing Depot, the hotel has become a staple in the Crossroads Arts District. Crossroads showcases Kansas City residents with its furnishings, coffee, and the artists hosted in residencies. In addition to XR cafe and bar, located on the first floor, and Lazia restaurant (with a light focaccia baguette that is to die for), there's a rooftop bar (slated to reopen in spring). Hotel Kansas City is located in an 1882 building that once housed the Kansas City Club, the premier social club of its time. The hotel is decadent, with glass chandeliers from Paris in the Lobby Bar and a two-story stained glass window that’s now used as a backdrop for weddings and other special occasions. For Art Deco charm, head to Hotel Phillips, which dates back to the 1930s and keeps with the era, complete with a speakeasy in the basement and the Goddess of Dawn statue in the lobby.
