Drink >>

• Best New Bar
  Czar Bar
  The local music scene held its breath last year when Anodyne Records owner John Hulston got into the bar business. After months of remodeling, Hulston and his partners presented the location, formerly known as Late Night Theater, as the classy but rock-charged Czar Bar. Positioned on the fringes... More >>
• Best Speakeasy
  Manifesto
  Let's face it: Prohibition has been over for a long time. But there's an undeniable romance in the notion of the clandestine drink. The New York Times-lauded Manifesto is truly underground — it occupies the dungeonlike space beneath the restaurant 1924 Main. In keeping with the speakeasy... More >>
• Best Hotel Lounge
  M.I. Greatroom
  In ultra-cosmopolitan San Francisco or Los Angeles, celebrities, trendsetters and nightlife connoisseurs flock to hotel lounges. In Kansas City, out-of-towners staying in large hotels tend to stampede whatever entertainment district is nearby, leaving hotel bars virtually empty. The Plaza... More >>
• Best Sports Bar
  Amerisports Brew Pub at Ameristar Casino
  People who are serious about watching sports in bars will tell you that a good sports bar must have these things: plenty of screens with multiple games, including news and score updates; attentive servers or bartenders; good beer at low prices; decent food; and an atmosphere amenable to you... More >>
• Best Happy Hour
  La Bodega
  Around the world, the word sangria is synonymous with Spain, except in Kansas City, where that sweet concoction of fresh fruit and wine instead calls to mind a low-slung stucco building on Southwest Boulevard: La Bodega. With its menu of sensual small plates made to be shared, its beautiful... More >>
• Best Reverse Happy Hour
  Re:Verse
  Its deep-red and slate interior, see-and-be-seen outdoor seating, slinky rosewater martinis and luscious desserts have helped this popular Plaza restaurant corner the local market on sexiness. But these hard times have provided a new reason to rediscover this chichi corner joint: From 10 p.m.... More >>
• Best Smoking Patio
  Foundry at McCoy's
  The citywide smoking ban instituted last year forced bars in Kansas City, Missouri, to get proactive about attracting nicotine enthusiasts who may no longer puff inside an establishment, no matter how right a cigarette tastes with a beer. The Foundry always had an ample patio overlooking the... More >>
• Best Place You Can Still Smoke
  The Daily Double Lounge
  It's often taken for granted as Independence's walleyed little sister, but smokers ought to appreciate Raytown's local flavor (if they can still smell) all the more since September 8, when the Raytown Board of Aldermen smacked down a proposed smoking ordinance. With that, Raytown became one of... More >>
• Best Biker Bar
  Fathead and Braindead's Saloon and Steakhouse
  Open for two and a half years, this Grandview bar, owned by Danielle and Gary Ross, has become a haven for area motorcyclists of all stripes, though the orange-and-black décor betrays a partiality to Harley-Davidsons. Live bands play on Saturday nights, and the regular Bike Night and... More >>
• Best Dive Bar (1 Comment)
  Flo's Polka Dot Lounge
  The first time you go to Flo's Polka Dot Lounge (and don't confuse it with the drag cabaret in the Crossroads District), you might assume that you're wandering through a fever dream. It takes a little while to get your bearings here. There's the name, which sounds too sunny for the worn... More >>
• Best Bar Game
  Ring on a String
  No official bar-games body has sanctioned — or even named, as far as we can tell — what we know as "Ring on a String," the mysterious rope-and-steel-hook attraction that hangs from the ceiling just outside the Lava Room's restroom. We don't know how it even got there. But at some... More >>
• Best Trivia Night
  Smackdown Trivia
  Andy Morton has lived the rock dream (with beloved Lawrence band Danger Bob, reuniting this month), and he has lived the trivia dream (as one-third of a team that got to the quarterfinals of the World Series of Pop Culture). The VH1 series of the same name has gone away, but Morton's brain is... More >>
• Best Martini
  The Eye Opener
  The best martini in the city has no olives. It is served not in glass but in metal, and it has the bite of vinegar and the fire of peppers. Shaken and poured at your table, the eye opener at the Grand Street Café, just east of the Plaza, shames the mere bloody mary by serving it up... More >>
• Best Cocktails
  R Bar and Restaurant
  It's been more than a century since the service industry truly flourished in the West Bottoms, but the R Bar and Restaurant promises to restore cool and class to the stockyards. The former Sutera's restaurant is now a seductive saloon, with exposed brick walls and a 37-foot bar made of antique... More >>
• Best Wine Tasting
  Wine
  Andrea Bough doesn't want her shop's events to be formal or intimidating. At her year-old Brookside boutique, the efficiently named Wine, the point is comfort. "We just want people to be able to sit around a table and talk and then get up and go to the bar to try a wine when they're ready," says... More >>
• Best Girly Drink
  French Martini
  Mixing a girly drink is something of an underappreciated art. Of course, you have to include something sweet and inoffensive to the palate, but that's only half the battle. Anyone can throw together a sugary libation, after all. The real trick is finding just the right flavor, with just the... More >>
• Best Manly Drinking
  Maker's Mark Lounge
  The atmosphere at Maker's Mark doesn't seem to invite manly philosophizing, the kind of hard truth seeking that must be done alone at the bottom of an empty glass. The bar's lighting is too soft. The servers are too pretty, too at ease with themselves. Still, torturous introspection demands good... More >>
• Best Beer Selection
  Barley's Brewhaus
  The soul has many moods. And for every mood, a beer. When you feel lost, a crisp, Kansas-brewed Tallgrass IPA points the hoppy way. For the person who hath many rivers to cross, a bitter but balanced draft of Grand Teton Bitch Creek ESB from Idaho fords the stream. For the loner whose needs have... More >>
• Best Local Beer
  Bob's '47 Oktoberfest
  Bob's '47 Oktoberfest is available just two delicious months a year. The malty, medium-bodied brew arrives in September and leaves at the end of October. The name of Boulevard's only lager pays tribute to former Muehlebach Brewery brewmaster Bob Werkowitch, a 1947 graduate of the United States... More >>
• Best Cocktail Recipe
  KC Tea
  If his rap career ever began to go south, Tech N9ne would make a great bartender. He does, after all, come up with some mind-numbing original concoctions. First there was the Caribou Lou (Bacardi 151 rum, pineapple juice and Malibu coconut rum), served up on 2006's Everready. With this year's... More >>
• Best Karaoke Host
  Kelly Allen
  Singing karaoke with Kelly Allen is like being in one of those Finnish disco videos from the '70s on YouTube. Stars descend, a mirror ball comes into focus, bubbles float past alien-ship portholes, backup dancers clad in cheerleading outfits appear, and a man named Hannu with feathered blond... More >>
• Best Bartender
  Marcy Etter
  Marcy Etter is the kind of bartender from whom we'd like to order drinks anywhere. Etter keeps the drinks coming, without a fuss and always with a smile. She knows the difference between good service and showboating, but don't mistake her down-to-earth style for laziness — Marcy can mix a... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar: North (3 Comments)
  The Office Bar & Grill
  If going to the office every day were like going to the Gladstone tavern called the Office, life would be filled with $2.50 domestic bottles, Silver Strike Bowling, really cheap chili dogs, open-mic nights, cover bands and foosball. The Office Bar & Grill, which reopened this past winter,... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar: South
  Bobby Baker's Lounge
  Oh, Waldo, you're all grown-up now! With your two-story bars, annual pub crawls and wide-open garage doors, we can see how scrubbed-up and trendy you've become. We can even understand why many of those south of Brookside want you to be the other Westport. We applaud your endeavors, but please,... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar: East
  Big John's Corner Bar
  Upon bellying up to John's Corner Bar, you can't help but notice that folks around here are big fans of President Harry S. Truman. The 33rd president's historic home is just four blocks away. Owner John Norton was 9 years old when he ran into the very man himself, accompanied by the Secret... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar: West
  Breit's Stein & Deli
  Breit's Stein & Deli is the kind of neighborhood bar that makes you consider moving to that neighborhood. In a two-story red-brick building on a corner overlooking the foot of Strawberry Hill, in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, Breit's would surely make the cover of The Children's Picture Book... More >>
• Best Place to Break Up With Someone
  Gilhouly's
  When it's time for the relationship to end, the humble neighborhood bar at the corner of 39th Street and Bell can be a comforting place. It ain't fancy, but a last date doesn't need to be. Gilhouly's serves cheap drinks and employs bartenders who won't flinch at jilted lovers' tears and shouts.... More >>