Over the Fourth of July weekend we took a road trip to Kansas City, Missouri. We had been tossing the idea around for awhile since we wanted to go check out some of the barbecue places in the area.
We stopped at a Maid Rite in Ankeny, Iowa for a quick meal.
Sorry for the partially eaten sandwich photo. The sandwich wasn't bad, just a bit bland.
We stayed at a Residence Inn in Downtown Kansas City near the convention center and the Power and Light District. It was an interesting hotel in that the same building also housed a Courtyard by Marriott. We used Marriott points and got a very large room.
The trolley ran down the street just behind our hotel and it was free to ride and ran quite frequently, so we used that quite a bit to get around short distances.
Tom's Town Distilling Co. was just a couple blocks from the hotel, so we went over there for a drink after we arrived and unpacked a bit.
Interior of Union Station in Kansas City. A nicely restored building that apparently sat unused for some time. The trolley started and ended here.
We had breakfast at Harvey's inside Union Station. The food was great and so was the service.
Our planned activity for the day was to go to Kauffman Stadium for a baseball game. It was raining, so the game started a couple hours late. Luckily, our seats were near a covered area with a server, so they seated us out of the rain. We had a $20 food and beverage credit with our tickets, which was nice.
We took an Uber to and from the game. A nice guy gave us a ride on a golf cart from the stadium exit to the ride share pickup area. It would have been a bit of a hike through the huge parking lots.
We decided on dinner at Jack Stack Barbecue. They had a long wait, but we managed to score seats at the bar after just a few minutes.
We shared Jack's best dinner with crown prime beef rib, baby back ribs, and beef burnt ends. I didn't love the burnt ends, they were dry. The crown beef rib was just OK also.
We stopped at Up Down, a video game bar on our walk from Jack Stack back to the hotel and spent some time playing games and enjoying beverages.
John had never been to a Waffle House, so went to a Waffle House for breakfast. It was good breakfast food at affordable prices, as all Waffle Houses are. The service was fast and efficient.
Larry the Cable guy has a whole line of foodstuffs. Fascinating!
We spent some time visiting the Word War I museum near downtown Kansas City. We could not go into the tower as it was closed due to rain. The museum was interesting and had a good overview of the war.
To enter the museum you walk over a glass bridge with poppy fields beneath. It is very pretty in person, but did not photograph very well.
We stopped a Boulevard Brewing for a beverage. They had a lot of interesting types of beer available that we were not even aware they brewed. The tap room was very spacious.
We had lunch at County Road Ice House in the Power and Light District. We were told this was the same barbecue you can get at Oklahoma Joe's, which is the BBQ place in a gas station. We drove by the gas station location and the line was gigantic even at 2pm in the afternoon, so we checked out the Power and Light location instead. The ribs were good and the brisket was very good.
We did a trolley tour of the city which began and ended at Union Station. It was a decent tour, but not quite as interesting as I had hoped. We did get to see the dog park/bar/restaurant down by the river and the Country Club Plaza area, with a neat outdoor mall.
We had dinner at Q39. We had made a reservation in advance, which was a good thing, because there were ton of people waiting for tables. I had the brisket BBQ plate.
John had the ribs BBQ plate. Both were quite good. A lot of the barbecue sauce in Kansas City is of the ketchup and molasses variety, which makes it a sweet sauce oftentimes. I'm not sure we love a ketchup based BBQ sauce it turns out.
We found the only tiki bar in Kansas City. It is in the basement of a Hop Cat. Luckily, we arrived somewhat early, so we were able to get in without a reservation and we got a spot right at the bar.
The drinks were very good quality and some were rather fun. The tiki glasses were not too exiting, so I did not get one.
monkey picture in the Tiki Cat bathroom
We stopped at Torn Label Brewing before calling it a night.
I got my Cracker Barrel fix! Yes, I have a secret love of Cracker Barrel. We stopped at one outside of Kansas City for breakfast. It was solid food, just as I remembered.
We drove through the western edge of Iowa and up to Okoboji, Iowa to visit our friends Kristin and Chris on the way home. We stayed with them on Saturday night and drive the rest of the way home on Sunday.
