Author Archives: admin

Never say never, right?

Well, almost never. But what’s left of the ship of state that was once Kansas City’s finest jazz club – Jardine’s – appears poised to tumble off a cliff from which there will likely be no return.

Sources say the club’s last and most-prized assets – it’s 3 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. liquor licenses – are poised to expire between now and July. And should they expire, liquor industry insiders say, it will be nare but impossible to replace Jardine’s all-important, 3 a.m. liquor license.

"I think one (license) expires at the end of June and one in July," says former Jardine’s co-owner and manager Pat Hanrahan. "I don’t remember which is which."

As for the prospect of someone buying the club and maybe – just maybe – reopening it as a jazz joint, "I talked to Beena a couple times earlier this week and there’s a couple of people who have looked at the space recently," Hanrahan says. "And I know one guy is still interested, (he’s) from out of town. I think they still have a few weeks to go on the liquor license. And I know American Century has shown it to five or six different people."

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Nothing like a little hyperbole in the headline to get things rolling, right?

That said, let’s move on to the issue raised by Jack Poessiger and the head of Alamo Drafthouse about texting in movie theaters. Because while I agree with the Gentle German that in the most extreme cases he likes to cite texting can be rude. However two wrongs don’t make a right, right?

And kicking people out of movies without refunding their money because they looked at their cellphone is wrong.

First let’s have some fun.

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Remember the Alamo?

You will soon. However, any number of prickly questions remain unanswered regarding the changing of the guard at AMC’s Mainstreet downtown. A switch from hometown exhibitor AMC to Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse.

Chief among the questions: what will become of the Mainstreet’s three large downstairs auditoriums once Alamo unveils its elaborate food and drink menu? A menu that puts AMC’s meager Cinema Suites and Fork & Screen offerings to shame.

With more than a dozen appetizers, more than a half dozen pizzas and a wide array of salads, wraps, burgers, sandwiches and entrees, the $64 million question is, how will Alamo deliver its goods to moviegoers jammed into the larger, downstairs auditoriums with traditional stadium seating?

It’s one thing to pass a hotdog or beer down the aisle at Arrowhead, quite another to try and balance a serving of Spaghetti Squash and Pomodoro Sauce and a pitcher of Skinny Girl Sangria while trying not to step on anybody’s toes.

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Talk about a whirlwind two weeks…

One minute I’m standing on a beach along the Pacific Ocean in Cabo saying, "I do" to a judge marrying me in Spanish while butchering my first name…a week later I’m masterminding the sale and a move from my home in Prairie Village to Lawrence via Topeka. That’s a lot to love, especially given it was squeezed into not much more than the space of a single week.

But you know they say about distance lending perspective.

So when I called the Kansas City Star on Friday afternoon at the height of my chaotic moving experience, the least of my worries was when and if I’d be able to transfer my newspaper subscription to T-Town. Not that the nice woman from South America or wherever the Star has outsourced such matters had a clue. All she knew was that the transfer would require someone at a higher pay grade to determine if I would be allowed to continue receiving the physical newspaper long distance. Or be relegated to reading the paper’s Web site free-of-charge like most of you – as Tony might say, dirtbags – probably do.

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