Paris of the Plains

When we started our day in the Country Club Plaza District, situated just across Brush Creek from our hotel and developed in 1922 as the country's first automobile accessible shopping area, we were delighted to see the Spanish architecture and learn about how J.C. Nichols* shaped the city with his vision, once derisively called "Nichols' Folly" to create a self-sufficient residential area just outside of the city core. When we entered a shop stocked with only items made in the local area, Daniel was particularly intrigued by a shirt that indicated New York, Los Angeles and Kansas City were cities of comparable identity, while I chuckled at a sticker proclaiming KC the "Paris of the Plains."  By the time we were settling into our hotel to watch The King of Staten Island (available now for rental ;), we had a much better understanding of how KC has earned such distinctions.

While we did not intentionally set out on a tour of "black history in the heartland," we have been gratified to discover that the states dismissively called "flyover country" have not only the kind and unpretentious Midwest character we have come to value so throughout our travels, but often more sophistication and sensitivity regarding diversity than their east and west coast counterparts.  The area I had been most excited to visit was the famed 18th and Vine District, where the American Jazz Museum and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum sit side by side, but both were still closed due to the virus.  Because the city's leaders turned a blind eye to the sale of alcohol during Prohibition, jazz musicians, locals such as Charlie Parker, as well as the greats from all over, came here to play.  Local history expert Erik Stafford says, "New Orleans may have created jazz, but Kansas City is where it was perfected."  Though the area was quiet on a Friday morning, we enjoyed walking the jazz walk of fame, looking into windows of noted jazz clubs and taking in the colorful murals.  We were hopeful we might be able to check out the Blue Note for some music, but it, too, is still closed due to the virus.  As we left the area, a local tv crew was setting up to film a story - which I haven't yet been able to track down, but we're sure hoping it had to due with the grand reopening of this wonderful part of the city.

Since we had no idea how long a wait we might have at Jones BBQ, the spot we all had been eager to visit since seeing an episode of Queer Eye that focused on the lovely sisters who own and operate it, we headed there just after 11:30 and were lucky to find a spot available at one of the outside tables and only two people in front of us in line.  As we sat enjoying the delicious sauce and ambience but baking in the very hot overhead sun, we watched as local after local (along with some other Queer Eye fans) took their spot in line to get their no frills lunch before the food sold out.  This short local news clip will give you a quick sense of "Shorty" Jones and the impact the show had on the sisters' restaurant.  If you're inspired to watch the whole episode, you can find it here (season 3, episode 3).  Dana has watched maybe two and a half episodes in total and this was one of them.  If you've never seen the "Fab Five" in action, give it a try.  As one of the only (and surely the most successful) BBQ joints owned by women, this unpretentious and off the beaten track Kansas City, Kansas restaurant is quickly becoming an institution all its own.

 Our other stops for the day - Union Station, the Nelson-Atkins Museum and the River Market District - revealed more sides of this city whose citizens' civic pride practically bursts.  It was eerie to walk around a nearly empty grand old train station.  It felt as if we were part of a film crew just waiting for the cast to show up so we could start filming.  The player piano belted out one song after another, while we and a few other intrepid souls wandered around the 1914 building that had escaped demolishment a few times in the 80's before finally being restored and reopened in 1999.  You can once again catch a train here, though now it's an Amtrak.  While the museum is still closed, we were able to drive around and note both the architecture and its iconic sculptures.

By 3:00, we were drained from walking around in the heat, so we headed back to our hotel for an afternoon siesta, watched the powerful short special Dave Chapelle dropped yesterday morning, and rested and thought and talked.  In our brief time here, KC has struck me as one of the more racially diverse and integrated cities I have ever visited, so I did a bit of digging and learned that, yes, today, it is more integrated than 26 other cities with populations over 1 million and is one of two cities to have made huge leaps in that direction over the past 20 years.  Certainly that is worth celebrating.  As is the fact that recent protests have put a spotlight on that very same JC Nichols whose vision for a beautiful and gracious area just outside the city was, perhaps not surprisingly, coupled with racist housing practices that kept Kansas City segregated for far too long.

As we drove through the gorgeous neighborhoods surrounding Loose Park heading to our dinner spot, the famed Jess & Jim's Steakhouse (which Calvin Trillin put on the national map when he wrote about it in Playboy magazine in the early 70's), we marveled at the beautiful houses, the people playing music and taking wedding photos in the park and the Civil War history all within a several mile stretch of road.  I don't know if Kansas City is the "Paris of the Plains," but it certainly is an extraordinary American city.