B&B Mainstreet Theater

[ignatius]

Was downtown this weekend to see Super8... the movie was a bit disappointing but the evening was great.  That is maturing into one helluva theater.  The new lounge upgrade is great.  The appetizers are actually good.  The sweet potato fries - good, the veggie tempura is surprisingly well prepared.. batter is made with club soda, which is how I do it.  The lounge was packed when we were there.  I'd expect music/dance nights would work - haven't tried it yet. I was impressed with the lounge improvements - felt comfortable.  Is worth paying $12 for a movie... is a night out.

The theater was packed, nearly sold out.  Another movie was also sold out.  

Perused P&L afterwards and was impressed how busy it was given no Sprint/Midland events that night. All lanes at Lucky Strike were busy. The clubs were busy by 9:30.  I figured P&L could only be busy if there were events.  Seems it's able to attract from the suburbs on its own now.  While P&L is a district that caters to homogenized white people, this is the kind of addition that helps complete a downtown.  There are plenty of other districts/vibes to serve other interests - add CC, Xroads and City Market and downtown is nearly complete.  More residents and more retail would allow it to run on all cylinders - it's the natural next step and the formula is there to keep it going.

BTW, went down to Grinders for bfast next morning... was surprised how many people were walking/jogging around Xroads at 10AM.  Just great to see downtown come to this after being dead for a few decades.

[GRID]

I miss the AMC Midland.  Nothing even close to that around here.

[chrizow]

While P&L is a district that caters to homogenized white people,

the P&L is what it is, but i don't think it's "white."  as others have pointed out, the nightlife component of the P&L at least is probably one of the more diverse nightlife areas of the metro.  save yourself the money and hassle and check out some of INK magazine's party pics from the P&L bars if you don't believe me.  if anything, the Xroads is the "white" destination. 

[KCPowercat]

Yeah I dont think there is any doubt the p&l bars have the most diversity of actual customers. Maybe not pbr bar

[KC-wildcat]

Ignatius, thanks for sharing the positive reviews.  Seems like some people are intent on only sharing their P&L horror stories.  Very nice and refreshing to hear somebody post about a great all around experience downtown.

FWIW, as a downtown resident, i'm beginning to feel something's amiss when P&L/SC isn't buzzing with activity these days.  I'm sure a lot of it's the summer crowd and college kids home from school, but it just feels like that place is churning out a much more consistent level of activity then it did when it first opened. 

Anybody else notice this? 

[mean]

The Mainstreet is a great building, but I pretty much never go there since Cinemark is now literally half price.

[kboish]

Anybody else notice this

I have...it seems like there is much more street activity in the downtown PnL area compared to even just a year ago.  Whenever I do see people out walking throughout the district I'm always wondering in my head "wonder what convention/event is going on tonight".  I'm often surprised there is nothing...just a good amount of activity.

On a similar note...Saturday I took a bike ride from neighborhood in Columbus Park down to Brookside and the city felt SO alive.  Rivermarket was hoppin (as always), PnL was setting up their skate thing with good amount of people about, 18th street was setting up their fashion show, CC had some sorta antique? thing going on so the street was shut down, midtown/westport always has people milling about, the plaza was the plaza on a nice afternoon, and then brookside had its farmers market...awesome day for cruising around and seeing the city.

Hope KC connects rivermarket to plaza with bike paths/lanes someday...will be way nicer, though I gotta admit city mountain bikin'/making your own way is a fun way to get the old heart rate up

[mean]

The main thing I notice is the large volume of people wearing Ed Hardy tees and swim trunks when I'm at the grocery store.

[chrizow]

[KCPowercat]

Loving the constant buzz. I thought of the Jones haters here when I was down there on Saturday and saw two bombed shirtless dudes stumbling around at 3pm.

I pay more for mainstreet for 3 reasons. I can walk, I can drink while watching the movie, I don't deal with kids.

[mean]

Yeah, I might hit the Mainstreet if I could walk.

[chingon]

.

Hope KC connects rivermarket to plaza with bike paths/lanes someday...will be way nicer, though I gotta admit city mountain bikin'/making your own way is a fun way to get the old heart rate up

What really kills me is that it would be so easy and cheap for this city to dedicate one major N/S artery as bus/bike/ped only throughway, with 2 bus lanes, 1 full bike lane, level board stations with ticketing, and greenway a la the trolley track trail.

All it would take is one straight street more or less in the middle of the city, that goes all the way from say...Admiral to Bannister, with room for park/rides at the North and South ends. Maybe a street that's accessible but in need of an investment boost, where few major businesses would bitch about not having parking in front of their doors, yet the population is still pretty dense and major destinations like downtown, a large hospital, universities, and big shoppign districts are still close by. It would be even sweeter if it was a street that's kind of a historic demographic dividing line in the city. It also would be great if a couple of sections of the street still had good urban bones for redevelopment, and if the route connected with or could easily be connected to the river front trail, brush creek trail and indian creek trail. Probably be cheaper and more effective to do all that than full on LRT.

Too bad such a street doesn't exist in Kansas City.

[Pork Chop]

The Mainstreet is a great building, but I pretty much never go there since Cinemark is now literally half price.

Yeah, I usually only go to mainstreet for a big blockbuster film and make a night of it. Other than that, I usually go to Cinemark for the cost.

[DaveKCMO]

tiny blurb in the star about the midland's marquee lights being replace with higher efficiency bulbs.

[FangKC]

AMC wants Cordish out of the Mainstreet Theater partnership.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/p ... l?ana=e_ph

[Highlander]

AMC wants Cordish out of the Mainstreet Theater partnership.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/p ... l?ana=e_ph

Does Cordish have a business partner that is happy with them? They seem to inspire acrimonious business relationships.

[aknowledgeableperson]

AMC wants Cordish out of the Mainstreet Theater partnership.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/p ... l?ana=e_ph

An interesting bit from the article.

Lopez said AMC wants to encourage Baltimore-based Cordish to exit the joint venture and let AMC take sole control of the movie theater, which opened in May 2009 but, according to Lopez, has yet to turn a profit.

Interesting.
Wonder if AMC feels the reason for "no profit" is because of Cordish.

[FangKC]

During my walk downtown today among the things that annoyed me was:

No movie posters in the AMC Mainstreet advertising what films were there. The names were on the marquee, but I like to see movie posters showing the people in the movies. Big downer.

Second, nothing has happened with the Midland Office Tower. I thought part of the redevelopment of the Midland included turning that into apartments. With downtown rental rates around 95-98 percent, it would seem they wouldn't have any trouble renting them.

[pstokely]

During my walk downtown today among the things that annoyed me was:

No movie posters in the AMC Mainstreet advertising what films were there. The names were on the marquee, but I like to see movie posters showing the people in the movies. Big downer.

Second, nothing has happened with the Midland Office Tower. I thought part of the redevelopment of the Midland included turning that into apartments. With downtown rental rates around 95-98 percent, it would seem they wouldn't have any trouble renting them.

They have some digital screens showing the posters outside

[FangKC]

They weren't on when I walked by.