I'm going to Kansas City with a friend
 

We want some real down to earth Kansas City street stuff. We want original bbq, we want original jazz or blues lounges with wooden floors and cigar smoke and whiskey, we want hole in the wall, Anthony Bourdain adventures. Nothing trendy, nothing upscale, no rotating restaurants, no Hallmark stores, no bullshit.

Whatdaya gots?

Jazz - the Phoenix downtown...great place, authentic music, good atmosphere

BBQ - Arthur Bryants on Paseo...the original one

See that's what I like about you Jilly. You step up when people need answers. No bullshit, just step right up and lay it down.

I'm a people pleaser.

www.knuckleheadskc.com

^^^ Great Honky Tonk and Blues Bar

the Blue Room on 19th or 18th? and Vine is good too....more blues then jazz

Arthur bryants for BBQ i personally dont think you can beat it and for jazz go to THE JAZZ louisiana kitchen theres one in kck and i think one on the missouri side to.

Walk down Prospect or Troost about 2am with $20 bills hanging out of your pockets.
You'll get some action...

The best place to get that kind of authentic experience is at kansascityland, a new destination within Epcot Center in Orlando.

BB's LAWNSIDE AND BBQ 83rd street. Greatest harpes in the world

hole bars that don't include blues/jazz, in case you get tired of it:

the Velvet Dog - not a dive bar really, but a great place nonetheless
Charlie Hoopers - just an average bar, but good food, great selection of beer, and lots of tv's....they also have shuffle board
dive bars - what is it? the Red Balloon or something in OP, KS? total dive, but great karaoke

Restaurants, not BBQ:

Funhouse Pizza (40hwy) in Independence...it's historic, great mullet watching, excellent pizza, totally rugged place

LMAO

ALL YOU PEOPLE GET REP FROM ME TODAY

oh and if you want to see the stadiums a great place near them that Harry S Truman ate at, called Dixon's chili. It looks so shitty, but the food is so awesome. All you can eat tacos there....for like $5.50....plus, good chili. It's a weird kind of chili, but good nonetheless.

I went down to some upscale jazz club (the Blue Note?) one time downtime. Seems like it was about 7 or 8 blocks off the Plaza. Anyway, we met some people there, and they invited us back to some little house in a rundown section of town where there was an after hours jazz session playing in the basement. It was one of the weirder and more cool experiences I've had while traveling. It was like we had stepped back in time to a prohibition-ear speakeasy. Lots of white hipsters, but also lots of soulful, old black dudes in attendance. It felt very organic and authentic. Anyway, I never figured out if it was some regular thing that happens down there or what, but it was definitely cool.

Edit: The place we started at was the Blue Room. I remember now. It also doubles as a jazz museum.