On Friday, December 21, I took the day off and spent the day with my friends B and D barhopping in Eastern Jackson County, mostly along 40 Highway.
Our first stop was supposed to be Stinger's Lounge (formerly Pete's Place) in Grain Valley. I wanted to go here because I'd seen this place so often ever since it was built when I was a child yet I've never been. So the previous day I called to find out what time they opened and was told 11:00. However, B also called moments later and was told "11:00, and someone else just called asking the same thing."
Evidently our two back-to-back calls scared the bartender, because we waited until 11:30 and no one ever showed to open the place...
So, moving on, we headed west on AA (Old 40) to another place I've seen nearly all my life but had never been to...
#1: Ranch House Blue Springs, MO [
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Technically in unincorporated Jackson County, the Ranch House is believed to be the oldest bar in Eastern Jackson County, both in terms of continuous operation as the same bar and in terms of the age of the building housing it.
Our bartender was extremely friendly and helpful, giving us information about the locations of all sorts of bars in Blue Springs to help us start off our day.
#2: Gridiron Lounge Downtown, Blue Springs, MO [
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The terminus of Blue Springs' annual "World's Shortest St. Patricks Day Parade," this is another place I had seen most of my life but have never been to.
One thing that was amusing to us was the restroom. Tiny side-by-side stalls for women and men opened to a common sink. The stalls were so small that the men's stall had a notch cut in the door so that it could be closed without hitting the toilet. The toilet itself had a makeshift tank lid fabricated out of a piece of sheet metal. A true classic.
#3: Clancy's Blue Springs, MO [
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Lots of beers on tap, but nothing any of us hadn't had before so we stuck with the basics. Too clean and too big of draws for our tastes, but many consider this a Blue Springs bar staple.
#4: Trouser Mouse Bar & Grill Blue Springs, MO [
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The coin boxes on the pool tables were being emptied while we were here and I never realized how much money pool tables make. Sounded like slot machines.
#5: Twin Stroke Bar & Grill Blue Springs, MO [
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Despite how it looks in the photo, this place was pretty busy and we lucked into the last 3 open seats in the house.
#6: Special Kay's Pub & Grub Blue Springs, MO [
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When we asked for 10-oz draws our bartender asked us why we wanted such small beers. Not wanting to get into too much detail about our plans for the day we just said that we were on lunch break for work. "Where do you work?" she asked. Not wanting to get trapped, I said "Oh, we all work at different places and just decided to meet up here for a beer." With our 10-ouncers in hand, we settled down to play the trivia box.
The odd centerpiece of this bar is the televangelist-style image of (presumably) the owners, painted onto a mirror...
We headed south to Lake Lotawana because both B and I remembered there being a bar (Midway Bar & Grill) on Colbern Road, east of MO-7. The bar was gone, but as we were about to turn around, eagle-eyed B spotted beer signs in a strip mall on Lake Lotawana Road. We pulled up to the neon and found this oddity...
The door was locked, and peering in the windows B spotted a bar and barstools, but also kennels with dogs in them. Is it a bar becoming a kennel or a kennel becoming a bar?
For some reason that I'm kicking myself for we skipped Russo's on the way back and headed back up to 40 Hwy.
#7: Stick's Bar & Grill Blue Springs, MO [
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I can't remember if any pool was played or not, but I'm pretty sure we introduced D to Silver Strike here.
#8: Night Shades Blue Springs, MO [
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This bar had no sign and isn't listed in Google but we found the name on a drink special sign inside. We played the trivia box here and it was an unbelievable 50 cents a credit, but D insisted several times throughout the remainder of the day that it was worth it because the box itself looked "very sleek" and "modern". :)
#9: The Firehouse Bar Blue Springs, MO [
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We played a made-up "Foods You Will Or Will Not Eat" drinking game, then noticed some "timely" fire related decor:
#10: Wise Guy's Blue Springs, MO [
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I'd always thought this was a convenience store or liquor store, I never realized until now that it was a bar.
#11: Edge of Town Blue Springs, MO [
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B had said we'd be carded harder here than any other place, and he was right. All 3 of us were carded... sort of. The bartender changed her mind about carding me after checking D's and B's IDs. :)
One odd thing about the layout of this bar is that while the women's restroom is inside, you have to physically leave the bar to get to the men's restroom.
Heading further west, our next stop was an American Legion.
Unfortunately what would have been my 8th American Legion instead became the first American Legion to ever deny us entry.
#12: Tool Shed Lounge Knobtown, Kansas City, MO [
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Another place I had seen most of my life and never been to. It was my turn to buy so B & D went to use the restroom while I ordered us three beers. The bartender poured the drinks, returned to where I was standing with my hand outstretched with money, and said "Where did he go? Did he order three beers and walk out?" The customer next to me started laughing and said "He's right here!" "Good thing she's cute, huh?" he leaned in towards me to say.
The walls of the men's room were white, but I'm told that they used to be covered with centerfolds that someone had meticulously cut out and glued to the walls.
Now, despite what many may think, this bar is technically inside Kansas City rather than Independence, and therefore is not subject to a smoking ban. This is noteworthy because this bar was very busy, something that can't be said for many of the places further down the road.
#13: Doc Holliday'sKnobtown, Kansas City, MO [
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Just down the road from Tool Shed, this place is also technically in Kansas City (just barely) and was very busy.
Realizing we hadn't eaten all day we got ourselves an appetizer of fried pepper jack balls and they were really good.
#14: Hot Shots Noland Fashion Square, Independence, MO [
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This bar was just a few hundred feet west of Doc Holliday's but located in Independence. If laws prohibiting smoking in bars is good for business it wasn't apparent here -- this was a big place but the three of us made up half the patrons present. We played the trivia box (which D complained wasn't as cool looking as the one back at Night Shades) and considered another appetizer but didn't see anything on the menu we wanted.
#15: Secrets Lounge Independence, MO [
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Several minutes after our arrival, the architecturally-observant D noted that he thought this place might have formerly been a Pizza Hut.
#16: Time Out Lounge Independence, MO [
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I believe we played some Silver Strike here. I think this was also the place with an interesting men's room. A toilet and urinal were positioned side-by-side, which isn't unusual in dive bars. Was
was unusual, though, was the bar stool positioned in the corner behind them, as if offering a place to wait and watch for an opening.
B decided that this stool was actually a challenge to see if your stream could reach the bowl from the chair. It's almost unfortunate that I wasn't present to record the semi-successful effort.
#17: Harvey's Tavern Independence, MO [
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The place with a fireplace and stuffed deer heads in the back room. After enjoying the warmth of the fire for a while we played some more Silver Strike.
#18: Bamboo Hut Independence, MO [
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A quick walk from Harvey's. Our bartender didn't seem veery receptive to us at first but quickly warmed up to us a few minutes later after the only other customers in the place had left.
Independence's ban on smoking in bars
sure is great for Friday night business!
#19: Sandbar Independence, MO [
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We took turns playing pool and hanging out with the stuffed-and-mounted residents.
After I sent the cue ball flying across the room I decided to let D take over for me in the game I was playing against B.
#20: R G's Independence, MO [
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This was confusing because the marquee sign had me convinced this was a Chinese restaurant, but inside it was all bar. We played darts, surprisingly well for after 20 beers. A case of the hiccups frustrated me early in the game but I overcame them shortly.
D noticed this claw machine and we realized we had seen about 4 of them during the day. Kind of an odd thing to see in a bar.
We wanted to go to one more place to end the day at 7 rounds apiece. We chose Neighbor's, diagonally across the street (and tricky to get to) next to a laundromat. When we got inside B recognized the bartender from a previous visit and greeted her by name, exuberantly. Perhaps too exuberantly, because she didn't recognize him, and she said we looked too much like a Liquor Patrol sting operation and so would not serve us.
Being big supporters of the rights of bar owners to protect their businesses, so we thanked her and left without argument. Neighbors will have to be saved for another day.
The last barhopping excursion of 2007 ended up being a pretty good time, probably one of the more memorable for me. My liver and I are looking forward to what 2008 has in store!
I have information from two reliable sources that there is a hidden surprise embedded in KC's plan to raise the cost of parking meters to a dollar an hour.
