KCRag Forum

I don't think it would work because KC doesn't have the Charm or Character of a place like New Orleans

Not to be KC sacrilegious, but do people (especially people under 30) really like jazz? I hear people talking using jazz as an attraction for the city, but I don’t really know anyone who would travel to a city for trumpets and saxophones. Fire away!

I love jazz (though over 30), and think KC could and should do a lot more with it. At the very least American Jazz Museum should be more impressive than it is, from a tourism and local cultural perspective. The Mutual Musicians Foundation is one of the few true historic cultural gems here.

I think places like Green Lady prove that given the right atmosphere, a "jazz club", particularly one invoking a certain era or vibe, can thrive amongst a younger crowd. Still hoping to see something similar open on 18th & Vine.

RE: jazz tourism, New Orleans comes to mind. Too many places to list, but Jazz Fest, Preservation Hall and Snug Harbor come to find from the average visitors perspective. Musical and cultural history used as both tourist draw and relevant modern attraction for residents.

I don't think people necessarily need to love jazz or be "into" jazz to appreciate it and enjoy it for an evening. As noted above, create the right atmosphere and anything is possible.

I live in the neighborhood and rarely went to the Arts Bar. I hated the atmosphere.

I'm excited to see what Mr. Scott does with the space. Not really sure the size and layout is conducive to jazz bar, but I really like what he has done with Green Lady and Black Dolphin - great ambiance, good music and no cover. Remember, Krokstrom was the Broadway Jazz Club for a while. But I thought it had no ambiance and when they started bringing in non-Jazz acts it really went downhill.

You can't fault the building's owner for switching things up if the Uptown Arts Bar didn't make a profit in over 7 years, but it's a shame to lose a space frequented by local artists.

WSPanic wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2019 10:18 am

I live in the neighborhood and rarely went to the Arts Bar. I hated the atmosphere.

I really thought Uptown Arts bar was cool because you had all kinds of different walks of life in the place but the overall set up and atmosphere did kind of suck, there wasn't a whole lot of money put into the place. I swear that Deck they had outside was not safe and could have fallen anytime if too many people were on it.

An Uptown Arts bar kind of set up appealing to artists could probably do well in the Tower East area or somewhere on Troost.

I had kept meaning to hit their Burlesque show they had the first Saturday of each month, but I never did. I didn't see that on the list of things that will continue.

beautyfromashes wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2019 9:39 am Not to be KC sacrilegious, but do people (especially people under 30) really like jazz?

Yes, absolutely. Have you every been to Green Lady? Whenever I have been, it has been packed with people of all ages.

I haven't been in the under 30 category for a while, but when I was, I knew plenty of people into jazz. However, my sample was not typical, with most of my friends being musicians, including many jazz musicians. I haven't been to the Foundation in a long time, but that always drew a young crowd (older folks typically don't want to stay up until 6am).

I don't think people will typically travel to a city just for jazz music (unless it is a festival), but it can definitely be an additional selling point.

High Schools sometimes have a Jazz Band even today so there's lots of people aware of the genre.

For certain people it can be good for a date of a professional meeting where you want live music but don't want to worry about the type of music your date likes.

A Jazz club these days is likely to be sophisticated. It's easy to dismiss any questions with "I heard they make good drinks" and the music becomes part of the ambience that you wouldn't get if it's profanity laced music from a rock band.

Just go to green lady or black dolphin on the weekend and see for yourself

More music venues can’t be a bad thing. We tend to zone our entertainment and I can’t think of a live music venue in that area. The Riot Room and Davey’s Uptown are the closest and they’re quite a distance away and cater to a different crowd.

KC has never adequately replaced Jardine’s. Maybe this new place will do that. That would be a win.

Minibar and Madrid are both close. Westport Saloon should count if we're counting Riot Room.

And, you know... The Uptown Theater and whatever "Encore" is in that building.

KC has never adequately replaced Jardine’s

This is true - still miss it. Believe that space is still empty, as well.

There was a time that upstairs at The Point was a good jazz room in town.

Krokstrom is doing more cry's for help on social media saying they need more people to come in or they are gonna close up.

I’d imagine if the can hang on until the uptown district apartments they’d do better, but with the price point I think they might have more luck with the crossroads. I’ve spoken to a lot of people about it recently who live downtown and didn’t know it was there

Their sister restaurant, Vildhast announced that its closing up shop at Parlor on April 27th. I'm thinking if you have to put out multiple calls for help, and then close up your food hall concept that saw foot traffic of hundreds per day, it's maybe time to rethink your business model.

The old Uptown Arts Bar has a printed sign up saying that the "Moonlight Cocktail Lounge" will be open after 5 PM on Friday and Saturdays during construction. I will def be checking it out tonight and see if I can learn more about what's going to eventually be there.

Any news on Krokstrom? I still see it's open wonder if business has picked up since the message asking for help was announced.

Winter is over?

johnmatrix wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2019 10:49 am Any news on Krokstrom? I still see it's open wonder if business has picked up since the message asking for help was announced.

Why does a place like this struggle but Grunauer thrives? They are both basically offering upscale ethnic comfort food at similar price points?

Krokstrom started doing lunch during the weekday now but I don't expect that to draw a lot of people in. Mesob across the street just stopped offering lunch because of lack of business. I really think they should just revamp the menu, move locations or go simpler and drop prices.

Look at the price differences of this swedish restaurant in Chicago vs Krokstrom

http://swedishbistro.com/wp-content/upl ... r_Menu.pdf
https://klubbkrokstrom.com/dinner/

12 dollars for Swedish Meatballs at the Chicago Restaurant vs 18 at Krokstrom and its basically the same exact thing item for item - If Krokstorm offered 12 dollar Swedish Meatball, i would go much more often because its a comforting dish