Drink >>

• Best New Bar
  The Foundry at McCoy's
  The Foundry at McCoy's fits right into Westport — literally. Nestled between the Riot Room and McCoy's (through which there's an entrance), the newest bar in Kansas City's oldest entertainment district offers, from its generous patio, a great view of Westport Road and exudes the kind of... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar North
  Moxie Bar and Grill
  The nightlife ascendance of downtown's Power & Light District has left a lot of worthy smaller local joints nonplussed in the face of declining business. One great maneuver against insulting patrons with plastic cups of Miller Lite: actually treating customers like grown-ups by serving them... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar East
  Bickering Tree Lounge
  In honor of his Scottish heritage, Graham Cummings named the Bickering Tree Lounge after the Bickering Bush, a Scottish battlefield where William Wallace fought the English. But even though the soul of this Raytown watering hole is Scottish, the Bickering Tree is a pure Midwestern drop-ceiling... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar South
  Ugly Joe's Sports Bar & Grille
  Back in 2006, Ugly Joe's moved into the red-brick strip mall at 103rd Street and State Line Road. Its owners scrubbed the place, put in a bunch of plasma screens and transformed the large room into a great local hangout for a wide mix of South KC residents. Its after-work happy hour draws a... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar West
  Sammy's
  What do you do when friends don't want to leave after a long night of drinking and playing cards at your house? If you're the original owners of Sammy's in Strawberry Hill, you build an addition onto your house and open shop. That's exactly what the owners of what would eventually become Sammy's... More >>
• Best 3 a.m. Bar
  The Riot Room
  Whether it's a guilty pleasure or standard procedure, there is something about an out-all-night-until-closing-time experience that causes folks to talk. Like stories of emptied wallets and asshole bartenders making last call 10 minutes early, the 3 a.m. bar experience can be a mixed bag. For a... More >>
• Best Bartender (4 Comments)
  Steve Judd, Buzzard Beach
  The finest bartender in Kansas City keeps his clothes on while he works. He stays off the top of the bar, doesn't set anything on fire, doesn't give female co-workers back massages while his patrons are waiting for drinks, and doesn't flip and toss around a bottle of Jamison before pouring a... More >>
• Best Dive Bar (6 Comments)
  The Zoo Bar
  Not too far from the impersonal, desperate groping for connection that is the Power & Light District, you'll find a bar with a real sense of camaraderie among regulars who hover from dawn till close. There's no beer on tap — bottles and hard liquor served straight are preferred —... More >>
• Best Dance Club
  VooDoo Lounge
  DJs who want to keep food on the table and the needle in the groove know that the casino circuit is where it's at. VooDoo Lounge on Saturday night turns into a grindfest. The venue already has the best lighting and sound in the metro, short of the Sprint Center. For those who prefer not to be... More >>
• Best Reverse Happy Hour (1 Comment)
  Nara
  Kansas City may not be close to an ocean, but it boasts one of the country's top Japanese restaurants, according to the 2008 Zagat survey. A true downtown jewel, Nara no doubt snagged the national rating for its scrumptious sushi, awesome sake selection and trendy atmosphere. All of these... More >>
• Best Third-Shift Bar
  D.B. Cooper's
  God bless the worker who's up all night doing the jobs that need doing while the rest of us sleep or party. From doctors to blue-collar men and women, they keep the city's infrastructure running. When their labor is done, they deserve to get shitfaced as much as the rest of us day walkers.... More >>
• Best Activity When Bombed
  Skeeball at the Velvet Dog
  The small skeeball machines at the Velvet Dog not only are fun to play but also are true friends when you're snockered. Their shortened incline makes it possible for even the most uncoordinated player to score points, no matter how many machines she sees. And it's practically impossible to hurt... More >>
• Best Mechanical Bull
  PBR Big Sky Bar
  One big stud in the Power & Light District is guaranteed to get some action every night. In fact, men and women line up for a chance to straddle him, even though he doesn't seem to like it much. He's Norman, the itinerant mechanical bull at PBR Big Sky Bar. He resides in the center of the... More >>
• Best Gay Bar
  Sidekicks Saloon
  The drinks are cheap, the wooden dance floor is made for two-stepping, and the walls are decorated with Norman Rockwellian paintings of muscular male farmhands with bulges in their jeans. Here, folks whose ideas about fashion are more rodeo than runway can feel comfortable. But everyone else... More >>
• Best Sports Bar ­­– Missouri
  Minsky's Pizza
  All the high-def flat screens in Kansas City don't add up to a good sports bar. The name of a pro athlete on the door isn't enough. Neither are Big 12 Bud Light neon signs or live radio broadcasts. Minsky's in the City Market has none of these things. What it lacks in sleek viewing technology... More >>
• Best Sports Bar – Kansas
  Lucky Brewgrille
  Though the velvet VIP booths haven't moved, the downstairs part of Lucky Brewgrille in Mission has completely transformed. The hip-hop DJs and Patron-and-Red Bull crowd have been replaced with Silver Strike, two pool tables, electronic darts and enough room for chest bumps and high-fives after... More >>
• Best Happy Hour
  Hannibal's Waldo Bar & Grill
  From the barflies who putter early in the afternoon to the well-dressed professionals who don't want to drive all the way to Brookside for a beer, everyone feels welcome in Waldo for five fantastic hours. From 3 to 8 p.m. every day, Hannibal's serves up the only thing you really need for happy... More >>
• Best Brewer
  Keith ThompsonMcCoy's Public House
  Every week, McCoy's sells about 7,500 pints of Hog Pound brown ale, Red Light Raspberry and Landing Light lager. The microbrewed delights travel only about 50 feet from their origin to empty glasses. For the past 11 years, brewmaster Keith Thompson has lovingly crafted a solid selection of more... More >>
• Best Protection Against Scurvy
  Good Hope I.P.A.
  In drinking days of yore, beer couldn't survive the trip from England to India, so brewers preserved their ales with extra hops. You can taste the scurvy-fighting fruits of their labors on tap at the 75th Street Brewery, where the recipe recently underwent a revamp to give it higher alcohol... More >>
• Best Expression of Country Chic
  Stroud's South Restaurant
  Busboys at Stroud's sport shirts proclaiming the legendary KC restaurant's unforgettable slogan: "We choke our own chickens." Double-entendre aside, the Chicken Choker is no joke. The smooth, fruity beverage by that name goes down easy as sweet lemonade on a summer afternoon. Bartender Joe... More >>
• Best Bar-Name Tribute
  J.J.'s Cool Change
  Thanks to its Florida-inspired vibe and its cheap drinks, J.J.'s Cool Change is a little oasis in the middle of Johnson County. Seashells decorate its bathrooms, and sometimes Eddie the bartender sports a guayabera shirt. This little neighborhood strip-mall bar, which is located across the... More >>