ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE
Best Charitable Event
Not sure whether the measurement is the best time had by all or the most money raised the least painfully (maybe those are the same?) but Treads & Threads stakes its claim to Gold again this year. The cause is noble, but perhaps the lure of the Kansas Speedway, name entertainment, gourmet food and fireworks has something to do with it, as well. Jazzoo flies high with the Silver, the zoo’s education fund remaining forefront in revelers’ minds and the new SKY Safari over Africa providing the inspiration. The American Heart Association’s Festival of Wine & Food broke into the winner’s circle this year for the Bronze, proving that numerous wine samples and edible delicacies in assorted events might turn us all into heart-healthy advocates.
Best Casino
Paul Newman in The Color of Money must have been right: “Money won is twice as sweet as money earned.” For our Kansas City believers, taking the Gold action is the Argosy Casino for the first time, with more than 1,750 slot machines, and of course, all the other trappings of the $60 billion-plus casino industry. Harrah’s touts over 1,600 slots and a new Video Poker Zone among its offerings for the Silver. Rounding out this royal trio, the recently refurbished Ameristar cashes in for the Bronze, flat-out saying, and no doubt believing, it’s “more fun.”
Best Theater
Founded right here in K.C. in 1920, AMC Theatres wins the big Gold ticket—its 120 or so screens (of more than 5,000 nationwide) offering what’s newest and best from Hollywood and the world—and 3D, Imax and new Dine-In Theatre experience adding new dimensions. Theaters of a different sort were also applauded by our readers: Starlight Theatre, whose strong stage and music shows could almost out-power the weather, thunders in for a Silver award, and the New Theatre in Overland Park, with its usually humorous but always absorbing dinner-theater presentation (and excellent food), is rewarded with the Bronze.
Best Family Outing/Venue
The Kansas City Zoo remains the Gold favorite for family entertainment. There’s always something new: this year it’s the African Sky Safari, Nikita the polar bear, new gorillas, giraffes, and rhinos—goodness! The Kansas City Royals at the “K” slug it out for the Silver, proving that family entertainment doesn’t have to be about winning. And the Bronze swims over to Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun—dry or wet, something for every family.
Best Golf Course
It’s tricky to do a public vote for private entities—many of us may never know why Hallbrook Country Club again masters the Gold in its fans’ estimation. The National Golf Club of Kansas City comes next, its Ingram’s Silver honor another recognition of its designation as one of the Top 100 Golf Communities in the country by Travel + Leisure Golf Magazine. Loch Lloyd Country Club, our Bronze champion, completed its Tom Watson redesigned course in 2010 to rave reviews.
Best Happy Hour
More than just cheap(er) food and drink, a good happy hour has enthusiastic service, excellent food in decent portions (skip dinner, anyone?) and easy camaraderie. Two chain restaurants catch the first two awards: Kona Grill serves up the Gold again here with a stretch happy hour from 3–7 p.m. and 10 p.m. to midnight, plus sushi specials. McCormick & Schmick’s follows with its Silver award for its half-pound cheeseburgers and mussels, among other items, starting at just two bucks. And Westport veteran, Harry’s Bar & Tables, liberates the Bronze for the first time due to its old brick, pub-ish flair, coupled with delicious apps and more than 50 scotches and 20 martinis, whether at happy hour or 2 a.m.
Best Jazz or Blues Club
While Jardine’s maintains its Gold status yet again (the sixth consecutive year!) for showcasing Kansas City (and elsewhere) greats like Marilyn Maye, Sons of Brasil, Megan Birdsall, and Ida McBeth, The Phoenix Jazz Club scaled the Silver with regulars like Lonnie McFadden and Tim Whitmer. Jazz chimes in with the Bronze, its Kansas and Missouri locations serving up Cajun specialties and, cleverly, jazz.
Best Local Entertainer
After last year’s hiatus, Ida McBeth (above) solos for the Gold again, her unique musical style going even beyond blues, jazz, and R&B. Two “new” entertainers win the Silver, The Zeros, with their new wave and ‘80s tribute music, and the Bronze for Lonnie McFadden (again) who does it all—taps, plays (trumpet and flugelhorn), and sings, sometimes with brother Ronald for double the talent.
Best Museum
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: this perennial Gold winner, part of Kansas City since 1933, just keeps getting better and better—from the Bloch Building addition of 2007 to the innovative programming that makes every trip a new visit. The Silver is awarded to the National World War I Museum, which visitors, even if not especially interested in WWI history, find amazing. And speaking of remarkable, who would imagine that a boat stuck in a riverbed for 132 years could entice so many visitors from our area and far beyond? That’s the Bronze-winning fascination of the Steamboat Arabia Museum.
Best Art Gallery
It’s no surprise that the entity to win the best museum retains the Gold for this category, too—the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The Silver belongs to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, annually presenting 10 or more new exhibits that provoke and inspire us—not to mention a fabulous restaurant and gift store. The newer (2007) Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College collects the Bronze, its 41,000 square feet hosting 16 exhibitions annually.
Best Day Trip
Head north and a bit west to Weston for a Golden day, shopping, wining, live music, and dining. This small town, in some ways not far removed from its 1837 appeal, retains its historic flavor and treats visitors with abundant Midwestern hospitality. Rock chalk, Jayhawk: Lawrence (population 87,000) is our Silver winner, its restaurant collection, much of it conveniently lining Massachusetts Avenue, among the best in the country. And college rival, “The Athens of Missouri” Columbia gets the Bronze, the biggest city (173,000) of the three, whose university was founded in 1839.
Best Weekend Getaway
Ahhh, two, maybe three days . . . where to go, where to go? Our readers first choose the Lake of the Ozarks for the Gold, its 55,000 acres and nearly 1,200 miles of shoreline beckoning 3 million annual visitors. Branson, Missouri wins the Silver, with 53 theaters, 268 restaurants, 13 golf courses, Silver Dollar City, the Titanic and Hollywood wax museums and oh-so-much more that delights 8 million visitors every year. And Omaha seizes the Bronze for the largest indoor rainforest in the world or the first Latino art and history museum in the Midwest or maybe even Borsheim’s, America’s largest independent jewelry store, owned by—who else?—Warren Buffett.
Best Performing Arts Venue
Starlight Theatre virtually drips Gold for its Broadway productions like Little House on the Prairie and Dreamgirls and Rain, as well as its concerts like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Dylan, RUSH and many others. The Midland by AMC, built in 1927 and recently restored to pure splendor, scored the Silver for its variety, including Lady Antebellum, The Night the Buzz stole Xmas, Lyle Lovett, Norah Jones, and B.B. King. And the beautiful Lyric Theatre, home to the Lyric Opera for 41 years, lowered the curtain for the last time in the spring, but still had enough momentum to exit stage-right with the Bronze.
Best Sports Event to Entertain Clients
It must be the fact the Kansas City Chiefs won their first AFC West division title since 2003 that made it the Gold prize winner for diverting those you want to impress. Not so true for the Royals: finishing with a 67–95 record, in last place in the division for the sixth time in seven years. Nonetheless, loyal fans threw the club a Silver, perhaps because attention is seldom diverted back to the game. And Sporting Kansas City, maybe through sheer wizardry, kicks it with Bronze, while soccer devotees relishing the club’s new $200 million LiveStrong Sporting Park. 
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