City: Kansas City, MO

Category: Nightlife

Telephone: (816) 561-0635

Address: 500 Westport Rd.

Description: History buffs might like to know that Kelly’s is the oldest building in Kansas City. Well, at least they have a bronze plaque saying it is. Even the owners aren’t sure. What they do know is that this corner establishment was once a grocery store run by Daniel Boone’s grandson and became a saloon by 1933. Since then it’s been where a cross section of the city—lawyers, salespeople, real estate agents, and artists—meets for lunch on Friday and never seems to make it back to the office. By evening the crowd is younger and rowdier and, in summer, barely dressed. Kelly’s is such a tradition on St. Paddy’s Day that in 1989 they closed the doors for fear that the floors would cave in. On weekends those wooden floors are wall-to-wall with returning college kids and boomers who make regular pilgrimages to their favorite hangout.