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Recently, an African-American friend of mine called in a tizzy because he felt he'd been treated less than graciously at one of the restaurants in the Power & Light District. I had a news flash for him: I've endured some seriously uppity attitude from several employees in the same haute bourgeois entertainment district — and I'm a honky.
Just try, I told him, getting one of those young valet parking attendants to park your car at 5:55 p.m. "Sorry," one of them told me, almost laughing in my face after I pulled in front of Maker's Mark Bourbon House & Lounge. "I can't park cars until 6 p.m. It's policy."
So I parked the car myself in that dreaded, dimly lighted facility underneath the H&R Block Building. The garage is typically an Alice in Wonderland maze of orange cones blocking access routes and cars veering at you from all angles. Then there's the Bataan Death March up all those stairs — four flights! I was gasping for oxygen before I reached the Grand Street exit. All this to eat one damn meal?
After climbing even more stairs to reach the hostess desk at Maker's Mark, my friends and I were welcomed with a withering look from one of the beautiful but frosty fembots who work the seating chart. I smiled half-heartedly at the head hostess, but I could practically see the wheels turning in her pretty little head: "Which horrible table can I take this group to?"
She didn't get a chance because I suddenly came to my senses and took control of the situation. "We'll sit here," I said, standing in front of a four-top. It's a lesson I'd learned from many years in the restaurant business: Once a hostess starts walking toward the kitchen, the bathroom or the section also known as Siberia, I stop her and make one thing perfectly clear. She's not in charge of the seating arrangements — I am. If we have to negotiate, I won't think twice about going somewhere else to eat.
And don't give me that "one bad apple" theory. A few days later, I returned for Sunday brunch and walked up to the hostess lectern as that shift's fembot was in the middle of a personal phone call. She kept me standing there for a few minutes and finally lowered the phone to her chin and said, curtly, "Is there something I can help you with?"
Hello? Is that the way that any customer deserves to be treated? White, black or Martian? I flashed my best Joan Crawford glare, and she had that phone down faster than you can say scrambled eggs and bacon. Miss Fembot got real friendly, real fast. And the dining room was nearly empty, so we picked the table.
"Joe Gilbert is turning in his grave," my friend Bob said, referring to Kansas City's most legendary and gracious restaurateur of the 20th century.
If there isn't some attitude adjustment at Maker's Mark, this extremely pretty dining room — all blond wood and shiny leatherette upholstery — may turn into a morgue. Despite a promising concept, the Sunday brunch was deadly dull. When this restaurant started serving brunch more than a month ago, it was from a limited but appealing menu of seven dishes. I never got to taste any of those original dishes because the brunch soon became a buffet set up in the private-dining Ambassador Room, where a chef makes omelets and thick waffles or slices ham. The pastries were third-rate, the sausage gravy served with the lukewarm biscuits was disturbingly watery and the cupcake-sized salmon croquettes were so dry that I could have used one for a cleaning sponge. And it was expensive!
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Maker's Mark is a bit in love with itself, the wait staff all seem to act like they ready for a shift change in about 10 minute. I sat at the bar one evening before a concert, had some mediocre appetizers and overpriced drinks served quitely weakly by the standing around doing nothing but won't acknowledge guests staff.
Please drop the poor oppressed black crap though, they treat everyone poorly there - they don't discriminate. My money says they are one of the first shops to close up in the P & L. KC is known for great local steaks and some pretty damn good chains are making here too.....Makers Mark will not.
I do get a little tired of all the black whining about the P & W district. If you don't like it - start your own business and cater to the ghetto thug, blunt smokin, bagging drawer, do-rag wearing, 9 slinging crowd. See how long that lasts......if there was money in it everyone would be doing it....including the P & W district.
Or you could just go hang out over on Paseo in the parking lot by the liquor store with your homies where crying about your oppression rained down by the "man" will get you at least 3 "ya got dat right's"
Maker's Mark is a bit in love with itself, the wait staff all seem to act like they ready for a shift change in about 10 minute. I sat at the bar one evening before a concert, had some mediocre appetizers and overpriced drinks served quitely weakly by the standing around doing nothing but won't acknowledge guests staff. Please drop the poor oppressed black crap though, they treat everyone poorly there - they don't discriminate. My money says they are one of the first shops to close up in the P & L. KC is known for great local steaks and some pretty damn good chains are making here too.....Makers Mark will not. I do get a little tired of all the black whining about the P & W district. If you don't like it - start your own business and cater to the ghetto thug, blunt smokin, bagging drawer, do-rag wearing, 9 slinging crowd. See how long that lasts......if there was money in it everyone would be doing it....including the P & W district. Or you could just go hang out over on Paseo in the parking lot by the liquor store with your homies where crying about your oppression rained down by the "man" will get you at least 3 "ya got dat right's"
some people sho be hatin at the P and W. i'm a spendin my green in the hood and maybe at the new peachtree if they have an all you can eat buffet.
some people sho be hatin at the P and W. i'm a spendin my green in the hood and maybe at the new peachtree if they have an all you can eat buffet.
Honestly, if you live in KC, and you go to the freaking Maker's Mark restaurant in the P&L district to get a BBQ pork sandwich, you're getting what you deserve. Gosh, I wonder if there's anyplace local where you could go to get something like that?
Also, Maker's Mark bourbon sucks.
Honestly, if you live in KC, and you go to the freaking Maker's Mark restaurant in the P&L district to get a BBQ pork sandwich, you're getting what you deserve. Gosh, I wonder if there's anyplace local where you could go to get something like that? Also, Maker's Mark bourbon sucks.
Power and White? I keep hearing this comment but it usually comes from the so called "oppressed african-americans" of Kansas City. Grow up. The reason the Power and LIGHT district is set with the guidelines it has is for a reason. To keep the trash out. White and Black. No sagging pants is for the blacks and no work boots is for the whites. Get over it. Not everything has to do with race. Everyone has gotten bad service before. It's not because you are black. It's because everyone knows that nine times out of ten an african-american or some hillbilly white guy are not going to know how to act in a place like p&l.
Power and White? I keep hearing this comment but it usually comes from the so called "oppressed african-americans" of Kansas City. Grow up. The reason the Power and LIGHT district is set with the guidelines it has is for a reason. To keep the trash out. White and Black. No sagging pants is for the blacks and no work boots is for the whites. Get over it. Not everything has to do with race. Everyone has gotten bad service before. It's not because you are black. It's because everyone knows that nine times out of ten an african-american or some hillbilly white guy are not going to know how to act in a place like p&l.
oh child you laid some righteous mojo on those mugs over at the makers mark. they all need to get some getright at the "power and white". i'm spending my green at niece's and uncle jj's where you can always fresh catfish to make yo mama moan in delite...
oh child you laid some righteous mojo on those mugs over at the makers mark. they all need to get some getright at the "power and white". i'm spending my green at niece's and uncle jj's where you can always fresh catfish to make yo mama moan in delite...
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