Best of Kansas City, Pitch

Last chance to vote in The Pitch's Best of Kansas City readers' choice poll

Justin Kendall — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:28:00 -0500

Time is running out to vote in this year's readers' poll for the Best of Kansas City. If you haven't voted, here's the link to the ballot.…

Minnesota travel writer hypes Broadway Café, Nikita the polar bear

David Martin — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 10:00:00 -0600

Reading or listening to an outsider's assessment of Kansas City can be excruciating. The Show-Me State showed me lot of a hot barbecue and cool jazz!

So credit Brian Lambert, a contributor to Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, for recognizing Kansas City as something more than a plate of burnt ends and a place where Charlie Parker developed a taste for narcotics.…

Best of Kansas City 2010: We geek out over our hometown, you call us insane. Everyone wins!

Joe Tone — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 11:00:00 -0500

Sometime today our kindly circulation guy will drop several pounds of fawning inside your favorite bar or restaurant, a thick ream of love ready for you to shred with disagreement. We gush over Waldo Pizza; you compare their pies to hockey pucks or frisbees or some other sporting implement.…

Clay Chastain: anti-hero?

Justin Kendall — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:39:28 -0500

Clay Chastain called last week to talk about his latest light rail plan, which he'll kick off at Union Station on October 14 at "high noon."

"We're going to try to repeat the political miracle of 2006," Chastain told me.

Chastain said he'll pimp his latest plan on the 14th with a short speech, answer some questions from

the media and then hit the streets to start his

latest petition drive -- or as he put it, "gallop to a new green horizon."

Chastain sounded like he's been watching a lot of old westerns, talking about "drama on the plains."…

Best Of Extra: Kevin Klinkenberg works to make people happy in Blue Springs

David Martin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:37:51 -0500

Kevin Klinkenberg, an architect who is passionate about cities, received a Best Thinker award in last week's Best Of Kansas City issue.

One place that's been receptive to Klinkenberg's new urbanist ideas is Blue Springs. Klinkenberg's firm, 180º Design Studio, did a master plan for the suburb's downtown in 2006.…

Best Of Extra: The 'samurai guy in Westport'

Justin Kendall — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:15:03 -0500

You guys picked the largest mayor in the land Mark Funkhouser as the the Best Anti-hero Of 2009 in The Pitch's Best Of 2009 edition.

A fair share of you also voted for the mayor's wife, Gloria Squitiro. Also getting votes, everyone from Fred Phelps to Larry Johnson to Larry Moore (Larry Moore?)…

Best Of Extra: Prep football players catch passes, attention

David Martin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0500

College football coaches and Pitch readers agree: There is some skill at the wide receiver position at area high schools.

Justin McCay of Bishop Miege and Keeston Terry of Blue Springs tied in the readers' vote for Best High-School Athlete. McCay, a 6-foot-3 senior, has committed to play at the University of Oklahoma.…

Best Of Extra: Bowling with Ollie Harbin

Casey Lyons — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:00:00 -0500

In July, 81-year-old Lee's Summit bowler Ollie Harbin became the oldest American woman to roll a perfect 300 in a sanctioned game. She also rolled her way into our Best Of Kansas City awards as Best Bowler.

Harbin has been a bowler off and on for 30 years, and when she's on, she's on.…

Best Of Extra: A Latina drag queen slideshow

CJ Janovy — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:00:38 -0500

Angie, Victoria, Laura and Thalia were regular performers on Saturday nights at Bar Azul, this year's Best Of Kansas City winner for Best Drag Shows.

Photographer Michael McClure caught their beauty ritual at a tiny salon in Kansas City, Kansas.…

Best of Extra: We like Jason Rosenbaum ... even if he's a Bucks fan

Justin Kendall — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:00:09 -0500

We picked Jason Rosenbaum as Best Blogger in the Best Of Kansas City 2009. Rosenbaum's Capitol Calling is one of the foremost resources for political news from Jeff City.…

Best Of Extra: Jingle award lands 2.5 miles off course

David Martin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:00:36 -0500

And the winner is... Oh, we wait.…

Best Of Extra: Commerce as art

Casey Lyons — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:00:02 -0500

It takes more than perspective and execution to gain our approval as Best Outsider Art Gallery. Levitate a truck, though, and it's pretty much in the bag.

Click this video to watch trucks fly and hear Mo Dickens, gallery assistant for the Belger Arts Center, explain what makes the center's permanent and rotating exhibits an arts-scene fixture.

Best of Extra: Commerce as Art from casey lyons on Vimeo.…

Best Of Extra: Get your autographed Gary Lezak photo

Justin Kendall — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:05:52 -0500

Catching up with the Best of Kansas City 2009 Readers' Choices over lunch, you guys' choice of Best Media Personality -- KSHB Channel 41 meteorologist Gary Lezak -- struck me. Lezak's worthy of the honor (we picked Twitter machine and KMBC Channel 9 morning anchor Kris Ketz) and hard to dislike.

Plus, I remembered my tour of Weird Stuff Antiques last week when I stumbled across an autographed photo of Lezak -- and his old weather hound Windy.…

Welcome to The Pitch's Best Of Kansas City 2009: We love Matt Hawkins

CJ Janovy — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:00:54 -0500

The scene on the cover of this year's Best of Kansas City issue was created by 34-year-old Matt Hawkins.

A Shawnee Mission North High School grad, Hawkins went on to work at Hallmark -- where he eventually got bored and started building toys out of paper.

These days, he works at C-3, an Overland Park company that designs kids' meal toys for national restaurants, and he has freelanced for Disney. A new book, Urban Paper, collects work by Hawkins and other paper artists.…