Living Room at the Power & Light

A friend of mine, Buttery Nipple, threw a hastily planned birthday celebration for his wife. It really was hastily planned, I got an email Wednesday afternoon and it didn't have a location other than the KCP&L district. Through a series of IM's and emails Nipple decided we should all just meet up at the Living Room in KC Live.

For those that don't know, the Living Room is a collection of couches and comfy chairs surrounding a fire pit and bordered by an outdoor bar. This time of year they also have the heat lamps out so you don't have to wear a coat or anything, you should prolly wear a jacket though.

I got over there and met up with some of my work crew that was already drinking. It was about 4:30 and plenty of people were milling about. The Gordon-Biersch patio was packed and Raglan Road (where I picked up my first beer) didn't have any open seats at the bar. My main complaint about the Power & Light district (aside from the massive taxpayer subsidies) is that beer is friggin' expensive. My BlackSmith (Guinness and Smithwicks) was 7 bones with tip and I'm cheaper than Meesha.

My friends all stumbled in like a pack of hobos until about 5:30 when we had a nice group of about 15. The Living Room is perfect for a crowd like that since you can move the chairs around however you want and there is plenty of room to move around. I noticed that Fuego (an outdoor bar offshoot of Tengo Sed Cantina) had Hoegaarden on tap, I had a new bar for the evening. It wasn't quite warm enough to really enjoy Hoegaarden, but I went with it anyway. I even did some selling to my friends to get them to try a Hoegaarden instead of a Boulevard Wheat. I don't really understand why Fuego has both Hoegaarden and Blue Moon (a copycat Coors beer) on tap. Choose one and put something dark on tap.


One of my friends was gawking at the girls in short skirts and wondered aloud why they would wear such skimpy clothes on a 40 degree night. I told him that tramps are like polar bears, they're impervious to the cold. I was talking to a girl that works with me, Abbey Ale, but I'd never met her before, and she started making KU slurs. I love nothing more than KU slurs so I joined in. Abbey Ale (she had earrings made from a New Belgium bottle cap). mentioned that she went to Wichita State (you know, the best school in KS) and I unzipped my Ireland jacket and revealed my Wichita State t-shirt (which is the most poorly designed shirt in history, I'm still suffering from a chafed left nipple). So then the convo turned to all thing Wichita, including Mort's, Crazy Mike and the BTK (every Wichitan has a BTK story and most of us at one time or another have thought that one of our relatives was the BTK). Abbey Ale also told me that Wes' drink at Mort's is a Dillatini not a Pickletini, no matter the name it's still gross.

Over the course of the evening some guy was walking around with free samples of pizza from one of the restaurants on the block, I'm unsure of which one. I got a slice of an anchovy and caper pizza, I tried to get a slice of a Margherita pizza but I didn't get to it in time. Stella texted me from home and told me to get some fried artichokes from Gordon-Biersch on my way home.

About 7 the place started getting lousy with Jayhawks upping the douche ratio to an almost unacceptable level. Abbey Ale introduced herself to a couple of Jayhawks with a very nice Jayhawk slur that made everyone laugh. I called in my order to Gordon-Biersch and went and settled my tab with Josh, the super friendly Fuego bartender who always remembered I was the guy with the Hoegaarden (how great would it be to have a ho garden, would that make me Flava Flav?).

The bartenders at Gordon-Biersch apparently lost the order so I had to wait foooooooever. The guy sitting next to me at the bar asked me where Grand was and I pointed it out. It turns out he was asking me directions to Temptations where he was meeting his buddies for a bachelor party. He was in town for his friend's wedding. He was real interested in the permissiveness of the strip clubs in the area. I am truly not knowledgeable about the workings of strip clubs in KC, but I seemed to remember that you can't drink in them, so I told him to drink at The Cigar Box next door. I also told him that there was a strip club on Main next door to a superior bar, The Bulldog. Bull E. Vard should be on the tourism board.

I finally got my fried artichokes and I went across the street to get some carnitas tacos from Chipotle and I made my way home. Overall, it's pretty cool to hang out at the Living Room. You have plenty of choices of where to buy a drink (don't get your drinks from McFadden's, their go cups are smaller and you pay the same price as everywhere else) and have plenty of choices of places to pick up some food. It is pretty expensive though, so if you're going to drink a lot you might be better off going elsewhere.

Other Popular Posts on KC Beer Blog