Kansas City News Blog

Chris Seferyn

​ The Velvet Dog, Martini Corner's flagship establishment, will celebrate its crystal anniversary this weekend. I sat down with Chris Seferyn, owner of the VD (400 East 31st St.) and Mint Ultra Lounge (334 East 31st St.), to discuss what it takes to keep things rollin' in Midtown for 5,475 days.

​The Pitch: So what's been your secret to keeping the business going for 15 years?

Chris Seferyn: I believe that a good bar is a community service and every town needs good bars. And it's up to people like myself to pay attention to what's going on, listen to people and figure out how to design something that people will enjoy so when they go out, they have places to go.

I noticed you don't book any bands or have any regularly scheduled entertainment. Is there a reason for that?

The Velvet Dog is a lounge. A lounge could be a lot of things. It could be a torch singer. It could be a jazz band. It could be a DJ. Anything. The Dog was never really about live music, per se. The first five to seven years we were open, all the other people that played music at all the other places, hung out here when they weren't performing. It's just a chill spot with really good music, eclectic vibe, retro feel. It's not necessarily about entertainment, although we do have some DJs, and I'm going to start expanding the flow and make the Dog more of a DJ lounge. Part of this anniversary party is kind of the end of the old Dog and the beginning of the new Dog.

​Bar owners blame the smoking bans enacted in Kansas City, Missouri, and its suburbs for ruining their business and for starting World War I. (Gavrilo Princip saw a future where Serbian-Americans couldn't light up in midtown bars, so he shot the archduke of Austria.) But a study of communities in Minnesota finds that removing the ashtrays has a negligible effect on employment.

Researchers at Ohio State University and the University of Minnesota used state job data to track bar and restaurant workers over a 45-month period. Cities with comprehensive smoking bans saw a decrease of 9 workers per 10,000 residents when compared to cities with partial bans. But communities with any prohibition in place (full or partial) gained 3 workers per 10,000 residents compared to places with no bans.

Emily Klein, one of the authors, says the lack of a significant economic effect "should give us more support for maintaining the most beneficial public health policies."

Important caveat: A nonprofit group dedicated to "reducing tobacco's harm" funded the study.

via thesnuggiesutra.com

​Like the site says, it was inevitable.

via thesnuggiesutra.com

​

Springfield has considered a Brad Pitt museum

​In Brad Pitt's interview with Parade Magazine, he's quoted as saying, "In Missouri, where I come from, we don't talk about what we do--we just do it. If we talk about it, it's seen as bragging."

In actual context, he was talking about how he had to quit smoking weed, but there's gotta be a compliment in there somewhere.

Harry's Country Club and the Brooksider Bar & Grill will close for two days because of violations of Kansas City, Missouri's liquor laws.

The suspensions begin at 7 a.m. on Sunday.

Violations included the selling of alcohol to minors, according to the city's Regulated Industries Division.

Green bike and red bike, sittin' in a tree

According to a Craigslist Missed Connections post, two bikes on I-35 fell in love. But love at 55 miles per hour can't last, can it? (Lots of [sic] in the following.)

Today my big green bike seems to have fallen in love with your little red bike. I know, I was as surprised as anyone to learn that my bike is lesbian. But, it seems that she likes smaller, well built bikes and it was all I could do keep her from looking overly eager. (I hear that is bad.) We were headed to work on I-35 South, when you caught up to us and passed on the inside. Thinking back on it, your bike may have been flirting with mine the way she signaled like that and then cut back into the outside lane just one car ahead of us.

Nadia Pflaum

Troost sticker

Virtual moonwalk to whoever can name the location of this awesome, stopped-me-in-my-tracks-from-the-other-side-of-the-street Michael Jackson memorial.

Carolyn Szczepanski

Virtual high fives for whoever can name this store's location.

Ross Chapman