Ferruzza, Pitch

Famous but dead Kansas City native gets bad review

Charles Ferruzza — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:49:18 -0500

Poor Virgil Thomson. The famous, award-winning composer -- he lived from 1896 to 1989 -- from midtown Kansas City hardly gets any respect in his home town and to add insult to injury, a new musical play about him in New York City just got a bad review in the New York Times.

It's not Virgil's fault that the show got panned -- it's the show!…

The Golden Ox is OK

Justin Kendall — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:07:49 -0500

The Golden Ox got a little smoky yesterday, but the 60-year-old steakhouse didn't burn down.

Pitch food critic Charles Ferruzza reports over on Fat City that firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze and the Golden Ox suffered little damage and could be open as soon as Wednesday.…

Cafe Trio headed to the old Frondizi's

CJ Janovy — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:00:00 -0500

By CHARLES FERRUZZA

Café Trio, officially turns four years old this month — if you don’t count the several months that Chris Youngers and Tai Nguyen spent operating their midtown restaurant as Pappagallo, the previous tenant at 3535 Broadway which Youngers and Nguyen bought out in 2003.

But instead of celebrating that birthday with a bang, the young bistro owners are in a frenzy of orchestrating their move to a bigger venue.…

Hello Debbie, Goodbye Tommy

CJ Janovy — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:59:58 -0500

By CHARLES FERRUZZA

There’s been some significant movement in Kansas City’s restaurant scene this week.

After failing to keep her Overland Park restaurant 40 Sardines open as the sole chef-owner, Debbie Gold is bouncing back from her divorce from chef Michael Smith (who has remarried and now runs his own namesake restaurant at 1900 Main Street with his wife Nancy).…

Hot Waiters and Waitresses

CJ Janovy — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:45:00 -0500

By CHARLES FERRUZZA

As an ex-waiter, I still have the occasional server’s nightmare: In my dream, I’m standing in the middle of a well-appointed dining room of a restaurant that I’ve never seen before. It’s a Saturday night, every table is full and I don’t see another waiter in the joint.…

Pop Off

CJ Janovy — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:36:04 -0500

By CHARLES FERRUZZA

My fellow reporter Jen Chen tipped me off to the recent obituary of James Winters Wilkerson, 89, of Mission Hills, who passed away on May 22. Among the late Mr. Wilkerson’s many accomplishments: As president of Merritt Foods, he patented the Bomb Pop.…

Now, Voyager

Eric Barton — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 06:31:25 -0500

It was a very good omen, I thought, when the Cordish Company announced it had snagged a local outpost of the popular Bice (pronounced bee-chay), a stylish Italian restaurant on New York City’s East Side, for the Power & Light District. The Bice Restaurant Group will open three concepts – a bistro, a café and a lounge -- in the two-story restaurant.…

The Return of Paul Lovelace

Eric Barton — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 12:58:02 -0500

A dozen years ago or so, a Johnson County teenager named Paul Lovelace would occasionally accompany his father, Jack, then editor of the Overland Park-based Sun Newspapers, to press junkets in New York City. Young Lovelace saw firsthand how Hollywood would wine, dine and schmooze reporters from all over the country in order to earn positive media coverage for big-budget films.…

The Best Local Clothing Designer You Haven't Heard Of

Eric Barton — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:34:34 -0500

One of the high points of last weekend’s Ethnic Enrichment Festival at Swope Park was a dazzling fashion show featuring the couture creations of young Vietnamese-American designer Nhut Trang. His name may be a lot more difficult to pronounce than, say, Mark Jacobs or Alexander McQueen, but the Ho Chi Minh City native, who immigrated to the United States in 1992, has the same passion for creating beautiful clothes.…

Bollywood's Back, But Don't Ask Why It Left

Eric Barton — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 06:06:07 -0500

On the glass counter near the entrance of the Bollywood Indian Bistro (20100 East Jackson, Independence) are a dish of hard candies and a box with cream-colored paper fliers announcing that the month of August is the “Grand Opening” of the restaurant. The restaurant actually opened well over a year ago and for all I know, the fliers are leftovers from last summer.…

One Angry Mango

CJ Janovy — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 14:48:57 -0500

Restaurateur Thelma Oliver is three times hotter than the fiery peppers she uses in her green chili pork. The owner of the two-year-old Mango Room at 1111 Main Street has had about all she can take of downtown construction hurting her business.…

Will the Real Tommy Rall Please Two-Step Up

Eric Barton — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 06:35:01 -0500

real Rall." />

It’s not unusual to hear about people impersonating celebrities.…

Happy Birthday, Madame

Eric Barton — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 06:36:46 -0500

There’s a kind of irony that just one day after national headlines reported that former University of Pittsburgh star and NFL first-round draft pick Bob Buczkowski pleaded guilty to helping operate an estimated million-dollar prostitution ring – out of his mom and dad’s house, no less – that we celebrate the birthday (here at the Pitch, anyway) of Kansas City’s most famous brothel keeper of a different century.

Today marks the 164th anniversary of the birth of Kansas City’s most famous madam, Annie Chambers.…

A Tribute to the Smart Twin Oaks

Eric Barton — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:33:15 -0500

Now that the Twin Oaks apartments at 50th and Oak have been reduced – after nearly five months of demolition – to a mound of rubble, it’s time for a fond farewell to the two 11-story residential towers. But not a sad adieu to the memory of the buildings at the unattractive end of their 60-year life, but in the flush of the glamorous early years, back when Twin Oaks was considered the address for sophisticated Kansas Citians.…

Queens and Cowboys

Eric Barton — Thu, 17 May 2007 06:42:20 -0500

Next month, the 2007 Tony Awards – named for the late actress and director Antoinette Perry (1888-1946) – will be presented at the historic Radio City Music Hall and aired on CBS. The event honors excellence in New York City’s theater community.…

KC Made Billie Into Joan

Eric Barton — Thu, 10 May 2007 05:59:02 -0500

Thirty years ago today – May 10, 1977 – the big story on most of the morning TV shows was the announcement that one of Hollywood’s most legendary movie stars, Joan Crawford, had died at age 72. Although Crawford was technically a native of San Antonio, Texas (she was born there as Lucille Fay LeSueur in 1905), Kansas City claimed her as a hometown girl since she arrived in town as a 10-year-old with her mother, her brother and her stepfather.…