18th & Vine

Overview

Kansas City’s historic jazz district is home to legendary smoked meats, stellar museums and celebrated live music. It’s this combination of barbecue, baseball and bebop jam sessions that melds together for one sweet melody.

As luck would have it, two of the city’s most acclaimed museums are under one roof. A frequent stop for visiting celebrities and dignitaries, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum chronicles the stars and stories of America’s favorite pastime from the leagues’ origin after the Civil War to their demise in the 1960s.

Next door is what The New York Times called “an interactive paradise,” the American Jazz Museum, with its many listening stations, touch-screen adventures and custom-mixing soundboards. Keep your eyes peeled for Charlie Parker’s saxophone, a gift to the museum from former president Bill Clinton.

Just around the corner, visitors can find the Black Archives of Mid-America, one of the largest collections of Midwestern African-American memorabilia. Browse exhibits filled with artifacts, oral histories and business records featuring local leaders, organizations and neighborhoods at this free museum.

Sample KC’s signature sound at the district’s acclaimed Jammin’ at The Gem series or inside the American Jazz Museum’s working jazz club, The Blue Room. Night owls are in for a real treat at the Mutual Musicians Foundation, where the late-night sounds bebop until 5 a.m. Have an instrument of your own? You’re welcome to join—this is where the jam session was invented after all.

Places to Eat

Celebrities and “common folk” alike have made the pilgrimage to Arthur Bryant’s for its legendary barbecue, slow-smoked with a combination of hickory and oak woods, mellowed to the peak of flavor, then splashed with Original or Rich & Spicy sauce. While you wait in line, take a look at the wall for a glimpse of the many A-Listers to belly up to the bar.

For a jazz-inspired meal, try the blues brunch at the KC Juke House, or grab a plate full of chicken wings at Smaxx. Cap off your meal with a brew at Vine Street Brewing Co., Missouri’s first black-owned brewery.