Nightlife
To taste the true essence of our town, you simply must spend an evening listening to jazz. It was that syncopated, soulful, savory stew of many different musical styles, after all, that put Kansas City on the musical map.
That, and the atmosphere that surrounded it. During the Jazz Age, Kansas City earned the name “Paris of the Plains,” not so much for our wide boulevards but for the variety of vice available 24 hours a day. At one time this wide-open town was home to hundreds of nightclubs, speakeasies, cabarets, dance halls, and honky-tonks, chiefly clustered around 12th Street and Vine on the east side of town.
Along with jazz, Kansas City had another thriving entertainment option in the 1920s and 1930s: female impersonators. The city’s most popular drag club was Dante’s Inferno on Independence Avenue. The club is long gone, but its sign lives on in the front window of Retro Inferno, an ultracool vintage furniture store downtown (see more details in Shopping).
Those honky-tonk days are long gone, but on any given night and even some afternoons you can still hear jazz pouring out of clubs and restaurants, on street corners on the Country Club Plaza, and at annual festivals such as the Juneteenth Celebration and Parkville’s River Jam. (see Annual Events and Festivals for information). But today “Satin Doll” shares air space with other musical styles, including rock, R&B, zydeco, Irish folk songs, country, and reggae.
When you get enough people together to listen to music, it’s a sure bet many of them will want to get up and dance. Whether you want to scoot your boots, learn the tango, or practice your West Coast swing, you’ll find an open dance floor somewhere in town.
Night owls can also find plenty of other entertainment around here. We have our share of comedy clubs and bars and taverns, including some that serve up their own microbrewed beer. Before you head out, however, a bit of housekeeping: In both Kansas and Missouri, the legal drinking age is 21. Most of our nightlife is clustered in the downtown, Westport/midtown, and Plaza districts, and a few spots are within walking distance of one another; club-hoppers will most likely need a designatied driver.
Enough of the rules, already—let’s go! To make it easier to locate your personal predilection, we’ve divided this chapter into entertainment categories.
1. Blonde
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (816) 931-2525
Address: 100 Ward Pkwy.
Description: The bar area is crowded with pretty people, the dining area subs as a tiny dance floor with DJs spinning hip-hop to techno sounds, and the mezzanine area offers plush chairs and even a bed for lounging.Blonde introduced Kansas City to bottle service, a swanky way to entertain your group of up to 10 with premium liquor and mixers. And this blonde isn’t all about eye candy: The food is quite good. We enjoy the flats (grilled steak or chicken with tomatoes, rosemary, and cheese), the satays, and Devil Chips, which are potato chips drizzled with blue cheese. Blonde is open until 1 a.m. Mon and Tues and until 2:30 a.m. other nights including Sun.
2. Boozefish Wine Bar
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (816) 561-5995
Address: 1511 Westport Rd.
Description: Maija Diethelm created a European-style bistro on a busy midtown street, where girlfriends show up every first Wednesday of the month for Cosmos and Manicures Night, neighbors roll in for Saturday brunch, and theater-goers drop in on the way home. It’s a lively place to test this year’s beaujolais nouveau, or relax on a date night with a carefully culled list of wine over dinner or simply the fromage et saucisson. And isn’t it romantic to feed each other bites of smoked salmon while listening to jazz? Here’s something else we appreciate: a back parking lot.
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Nightlife
Address: 2000 Grand
4. Cigar Bar
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (816) 421-7222
Address: 1519 Grand Blvd.
Description: Slightly on the seedy side, this long, slender room has everything you want in a bar—a cheesy lounge singer, Al Latta, who performs at 8:30 p.m. Tues through Sat; pretty cocktail waitresses with plenty of cleavage; and a print of a naked woman smoking a cigar behind the bar. She’s the only one partaking; Missouri’s bars and restaurants are now smoke free. While old timers (and bar owners) are unhappy, even they would admit the food tastes better without the blue haze. The lasagna is fabulous, as are the rest of the mostly Italian dishes served here. That’s one of the reasons the person sitting next to you at lunch could be a titan of industry or a stripper from the club down the street. The Cigar Bar is open from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Mon through Sat and 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. Sun.
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Nightlife
Address: 1526 Walnut St.
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Nightlife
Address: 500 Westport Rd.
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Nightlife
Address: 1924 Main
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Nightlife
9. The Wine Bar
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (816) 942-8707
Address: 13657 Washington St.
Description: Hidden inside this enormous liquor supermarket really is something super: a wine bar that invites you to experience more than 90 wines plus premium ports and single-malt scotches. The technology alone is enough to make you woozy: the Enomatic, an Italian-designed wine-serving system, ensures that the vino is always fresh. And there’s always delicious fare, including small plates and lovely cheese platters, to go with your wine. Special event dinners are just that—very special.
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Nightlife
Address: 5408 W. 152st (Leawood)
11. Comedycity
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (816) 842-2744
Address: 817 Westport Rd. (in Westport Flea Marke
Description: Home of Kansas City’s original Comedy Sports, where tag teams improvise to suggestions from the audience. During the early evening performances, held Fri, Sat, and Sun, you won’t hear the “blue” language used in other clubs; this is good, clean family fun that’s appropriate for groups of all types and sizes. But the 10 p.m. Sat night show is strictly for adults when things get a little wilder. And when the audience participates and the players are on, this can be a hilarious night out. With its new digs in the back room at Westport Flea Market, you have even more reason to get tickled. The Flea is famous for its burgers and brewskis.
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Nightlife
Address: 1867 Village West Pkwy.
13. Balanca’S
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Nightlife
Address: 1809 Grand
Description: Gay, straight, singles, couples, biker chick, or accountant—well, maybe not an accountant—but everyone else will feel welcome here. In fact, owner Lori Burroughs won’t tolerate closed-minded jerks. It can get pretty rowdy here, and that’s just the way Lori likes it. The upstairs lounge is a teensy bit more chill, and here’s where you come for a game of darts or pool before heading back down to the Pyro Room, where DJs and sometimes live music get the floor crowded. The 3 a.m. closing time makes it the place plenty of folks head for a nightcap or late night snack; the kitchen stays open ’til 2. The action starts at 9 p.m. Tues through Thurs, 6 p.m. Fri and Sat. And if you were here Sat night you’d understand why it’s closed Sun and Mon. That’s when all the kitties sleep.
14. Bistro 303
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (816) 753-2303
Address: 303 Westport Rd.
Description: Talk about night and day! At noon a mix of gal pals and execs from nearby offices come here for the lobster roll or Cobb salad. The space is bright with windows and floor-to-ceiling mirrors; the fact that one of the owners is also a respected antiques dealer shows in the lavish decor. Come evening, twinkling votive candles and the city’s most sophisticated gay men are reflected in the mirrors. It can get pretty crowded, making it a challenge for the attractive servers to deliver your pommes frites with roasted garlic aioli. Breath mint, anyone? Sunday brunch is another opportunity to see and be seen while dining very well. Smokers are welcome on the back deck.
15. Missie B’S
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (816) 561-0625
Address: 805 W. 39th St.
Description: This good-time place opened its doors in April 1994 as a piano lounge, and when Belle Starr began doing Monday-night drag shows, that became its claim to fame. The region’s best female impersonators perform here five nights a week; add twice-weekly karaoke and you’ve got plenty of reasons to buy those new silver heels you’ve been eyeing. The outrageous Dirty Dorothy takes the stage, complete with a naughty Wizard of Oz getup, every Sat from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m. Closing on weeknights is 2 a.m.