Best Charitable Event
Some of our most enjoyable events in KC are connected to our giving hearts—and seeing everyone we know having a great time. The best for the Gold is Jazzoo ’09, which this year celebrated the 100th anniversary of the zoo with 80 restaurants and 13 bars catering to 5,000 creatively dressed patrons. Tickets support the special meal needs of more than 800 animals and the Zoo Learning Fund. The Silver Award goes to the JDRF Dream Gala, at which more than 700 ‘secret agents’ committed to finding a cure for diabetes and having a great time, as they raised more than $1.1 million. The Bronze passed to Ozanam's 25th Annual Hollywood Holiday Gala with the money going to help the school’s treatment and residential programs, which have helped more than 6,000 children get their lives on track since 1948. (There’s still time to join the festivities for the 26th annual event in December.)
Best Casino
This trio of casinos sometimes change places but coming up with the Gold hand again is the Ameristar Casino Kansas City. With 3,000 slots and video poker machines, Ameristar has more games than any other casino in town and now there’s no loss limit. You could also place your bet for the Silver for Harrah’s North Kansas City or lay it down for Argosy Casino Riverside and the Bronze.
Best Theater
Yes, we like to watch, whether it’s screen or stage. Our readers voted the Gold to AMC Theatres, which has made movies more watchable with tiered seats, cup holders, and sound that envelopes you in more than 100 theaters around us. Singing and dancing its way to the Silver, Starlight Theatre retains its summer magic for thousands of visitors who enjoy some of the best talent in the industry. And year-round, people who love to eat and drink at their own table while watching amusing shows of all kinds, select the New Theatre Restaurant in Overland Park for the Bronze.
Best Family Outing Venue
No wonder the Kansas City Zoo again swung the Gold its way. The new tropical rainforest is open, there’s a new (brown and white) baby zebra, super heroes show up, safaris are available, and even Grapes with the Apes (a wine tasting later this month)—there’s always something new at our refurbished zoo. Second at bat with the Silver: our Kansas City Royals at the “K.” Yeah, maybe they’re not the winningest team around, but we love ’em anyway. And Overland Park’s gift to the metro takes the Bronze: Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead at 135th and Switzer gives thousands and thousands of families an old-time rural experience.
Best Golf Course
Both good and not-so-good golfers seem to agree: The National Golf Club of Kansas City aces the Gold again. It has also earned the designation three times as of one of the top 100 golf communities in the country by Travel+Leisure Golf Magazine—the only one in the Midwest. Shadow Glen eagles for the Silver; 20 years after the Olathe course opened in 1989. And the Bronze birdie is hit by Hallbrook Country Club, so exclusive you can’t even get into its Web site without a member login.
Best Happy Hour
Now here’s a topic to dispute: where to go for the best drinks, best food at the best time: Happy Hour. The Plaza is tops: Kona Grill is again rewarded with the Gold. This chain’s happy hour typically begins at 3 and ends at 7 p.m. and starts up again at 9 p.m.. And prices begin at $3.50 for menu items—all in all, a great deal. Just down the street, ReVerse gives them a run for the money, its Silver offerings including an opening time from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. and again, starting at 10 p.m. with live music or djs most of the week. Many drinks and appetizers are just five bucks. The Bronze is delivered to the Capital Grille, despite its lack of any specials—just being there must be enough.
Best Jazz or Blues Club
A tiny spot with a tiny kitchen but big sound and it always seems to win the Gold—it’s Jardine’s Restaurant & Jazz Club, our jazz staple, which has offered a huge array of jazz greats, live, from yesterday and today and every night of the week. The Blue Room, part of the Jazz Museum by day, plays on for the Silver, harkening back to its earlier fame in the ’30s and still well worth the jaunt to 18th and Vine on Monday and Thursdays (usually no cover charge) and Friday/Saturday nights to hear jazz of all kinds from all countries. And steaming for the Bronze? It’s BB’s Lawnside Bar BQ, which features live music Thursday through Sunday and love for barbeque may almost equal love for blues.
Best Local Entertainer
You can hear “song stylist” Ida McBeth and her remarkably varied repertoire at Jardine’s every other Saturday for the Gold, where she keeps packing the house like she’s done around the country for 35-some years. The Silvered David Basse in his signature fedora has been part of our music scene (and many others as well) for almost as long as Ida, playing the drums and singing his own special brand of smoky blues/jazz. Catch him late Saturday nights at the famous Mutual Musician's Foundation. It’s perhaps a bit easier to describe the music of The Elders, who have taken the Bronze captive but our favorite comes from their Web site: "Arse Kickin' Celtic Music from the Heartland."
Best Museum
The venerable Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art again gets the most votes for the Gold. If you’ve not commemorated the museum’s 75 years in Kansas City, go now—it’s open until 9 p.m. both Thursday and Friday nights. The new American Indian galleries open in November. And once more, the Silver rewards The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art for its ever-changing collection of fascinating new art and permanent exhibits—not to mention one of the best gift shops and restaurants in town. And for the Bronze? We move to the museum world and go to the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial, where an old war is made clearly and imaginatively relevant.
Best Day Trip
It’s interesting that all three winners here are about 40 miles away from downtown Kansas City with the closest, Weston, winning the Gold again. We guess it’s the ease, the shops, the restaurants, and the friendly inhabitants. Which is not to say our Silver host, Lawrence, Kan., doesn’t have all of those ingredients, too. But for a more bucolic and relaxing stay, drive to Powell Gardens in Kingsville and enjoy, both with your eyes and tastebuds, their spectacular new Heartland Harvest Garden for the Bronze.
Best Weekend Getaway
Willing to drive further or fly or even take a train? Still the closest for the Gold, it’s the Lake of the Ozarks—land of a many-fingered lake, big boats and parties, but also quiet coves and solitude. My kind of town, Chicago is, and it takes the Silver. Also a lake, a big ’un, but upscale shopping and eating and museums and galleries and more. Downscale that just a bit and in less than four hours you can be in Bronze-winning St. Louis, gazing upon a real river, riding up a 630-foot arch, which 4 million people visit every year. Oh yeah, there’s a lot more to do here, too.
Best Performing Arts Venue
Whether it’s for a Broadway show or a concert, Kansas City Starlight Theatre has beautifully entertained up to 8,000 people mostly on summer nights since 1950. It’s one of only two or three true outdoor theaters left in the nation—that’s what Gold means in the entertainment biz. The Silver goes to the Sprint Center, where more than 2 million visitors (so far) have seen everything from Celine Dion to first and second rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The Bronze resonates at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City to admittedly fewer fans, but ones no less ardent.
Best Sports Venue to Entertain Clients
Good grief, we’re loyal. Perhaps it’s because the action seldom interferes with the business? For the Gold, it’s the Kansas City Royals at the “K.” The Silver kicks over to our sometimes rambunctious Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium and the Bronze goes to the Kansas City T-Bones at CommunityAmerica Park in the Village West shopping area. There’s lots of action here and last year they won the 2008 Northern League Championship. It’s good to have a winning team.