Kansas City Recap

Big news this week - I survived my first business trip!  I know I just started my job, but my new boss really wanted me to attend corporation finance training.  All the states' securities examiners belong to a national association and they put on, from what I can tell, about 5-10 trainings on a variety of securities regulations topics throughout the year.  Usually they pick one or two cities and do all their yearly trainings there - this year was Kansas City.  I know what you're thinking - woo.  Well, I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by all KC had to offer - it was definitely more than just BBQ (but that was the highlight).  I'm not going to post much about the conference when I write about this trip because I doubt anyone wants to hear about potential state impact of the newly-passed JOBS Act, SEC updates, and a detailed look at REIT filings.  It was interesting to me though, especially since I need to know this stuff eventually or I'll get fired.

Since I had to fly from Alaska, which took forever, Thursday was nothing but travel.  On the way to KC, I flew through Seattle and ended up connecting up with five attendees (all attorneys) from Washington.  Most were about my age and were really nice and invited me to hang out with them right away.  We totally hit it off and I was really glad they were at this conference with me.  On the first night, I tagged along with them to Oklahoma Joe's BBQ.  It's actually across the border in Kansas, which isn't that far really, and we had to take a cab to get there from our hotel.  When we pulled up, I almost asked the driver to turn back.

Yes, it's located inside a gas station

This place, according to an article on the wall, is listed among Anthony Bourdain's 13 places to eat in the world before you die.  "Man v. Food" and "Diners, Drive ins, and Dives" have also visited this place.  On the wall they post their winning banners from BBQ competitions with clever names like "Slaughterhouse 5."  You can see above that the line is OUT THE DOOR.  This is the line from the inside:

I'm taking that from the front of the line, and it goes all the way back to that little half-wall, out the door, and by the time we left it was wrapped around the building.  This place was also packed with locals - this is how you know it's legit.

This place is pretty low-key and since you order at the counter and bus your own tables they keep it cheap.  For less than $9 including tax this is what I got:

The house specialty - regular pulled pork with pickles and a side of creamy slaw.  This was, hands down, the best pulled pork sandwich I have ever had.  I want one of these right now.  The sauce was also incredible and I wanted to bring some home, but had no way of putting it in my carry on.  The TSA needs to put a "deliciousness" exemption in their >3 oz liquids ban for things like booze and barbecue sauce.  I'll probably be ordering some from the internet.  Yum.

Later I went out and had a beer with the Washingtonians.  Again, these people were really cool - I could not have been luckier to meet them.  I expected I was going to spend the whole weekend hanging out by myself in the Marriott (which was really nice, actually, and I believe is where the players stayed for the MLB All-Star game which we missed by a week).

Friday was conference day and then we went out to explore KC again.  Based on a tip from a concierge, we ended up in the Kansas City Power and Light District.  This place is full of theme bars, has an outdoor concert venue, and was basically just packed with drunk people.  When we got there, the one hit wonder band, Buckcherry, was playing in the outdoor plaza.  We happened to get there right as they played their hit.  We listened and then moved on.  Good timing.  After checking out the options (Irish bar, hip hop bar, tropical bar) We settled on the PBR Big Sky Bar which is the "cowboy bar."  This place was. awesome.

How much Amurrica can you pack into one photo - mechanical bull, American flag, giant Jack Daniels poster, country music blaring, half naked cowgirls dancing on the bar Coyote Ugly style, and someone had to kill about 50 old growth forests to decorate the place. Yee-haw.  While at this place, we witnessed a bar fight, spied quite a few mullets, and saw a girl ride the bull totally topless.  In the interest of keeping the blog PG, I will not be posting any pictures of that lady.  ("Lady" is probably generous considering her behavior.)

Saturday was more conferencing, followed by more BBQ.  This time, we headed out to the place where everyone at the conference told us to go - Fiorella's Jack Stack BBQ.

Outside the restaurant - so you know what you're getting. 

This place was also fantastic, but it was no Oklahoma Joe's.  This time I went for the baby backs.

I love that everything comes with pickles.  I think that's a vegetable in Missouri.

When ordering, I had to ask the waitress about the difference between the baby backs and the pork spare ribs.  She explained by pointing out on her body, as if she were the pig, where the ribs came from. Then she apologized for being gross.  It's okay, lady, I know what I'm eating.  The sides were a little much - I didn't have any room for the fries or the Texas toast, but I turned that rack into a pile of bare bones. One of my new buddies from WA had the ribs both at Oklahoma Joe's and Jack Stack and said OJ's was better (also cheaper).  Even so, these were pretty awesome.  I'm not sure you can get bad BBQ in KC.  

After dinner we headed out in search of a patio to enjoy the nice weather.  Generally in KC it was about 100 degrees and miserably humid, but at night the weather was always perfect - nice breeze, warm weather, no humidity.  We ended up at the patio at McCormick and Schmicks...a little taste of the Northwest.

The view on the patio

Everything at the "Plaza," which was the part of town where our hotel was located (and where the picture was taken), was very spanish style.  This place was ritzy.  If you think KC is full of midwestern hicks, you'd be sorely mistaken.  This part of town had tons of high-end retail stores - Coach, Gucci, Valentino, etc. and we basically just used the places for their air conditioning.  I had no business shopping in any of those stores.  (okay there was an H&M there...I probably could have bought something there).  I appreciated the ambiance though, as it was a nice place to walk around and was only three blocks from the hotel.

one of the many fountains at the plaza.  It was so hot I almost went swimming

Another fountain at the entrance to the plaza - full of Canada geese

In all, the conference was great.  I learned a LOT about my job, I met a ton of new people, I explored a new city, and I probably gained 10 lbs from all the great food I ate.  I actually would plan a trip to go back to KC - maybe on a BBQ road trip or something.  KC is serious about its BBQ and does it right.  There is so much BBQ there, the town actually smells like barbecue sauce and woodsmoke.  If I could bottle that smell and wear it as perfume I would, which I know Andy would totally appreciate.