Back in Kansas City

I spent last weekend back in my birthplace Kansas City, Missouri, to celebrate my Grandmother’s 80th birthday! I cannot go out of town without discovering or rediscovering some of my favorite places. On my last visit, I introduced you all to the goodness that is Kansas City Barbecue. I did stop by Gates again but this post is intended to focus on some new places! This time I picked a few other places in Kansas City that I love, Cupcake A La Mode and Peach Tree Cafeteria.

First up, Peach Tree Cafeteria! This is Kansas City’s go to soul food spot. As you can imagine on Sundays the lines are out of the door at both locations. We stopped by for a Saturday lunch while the crowd was light. As the name implies, this location is cafeteria style so you breeze through the line and make your picks. This gets me in trouble, because my eyes are bigger than my stomach. I ordered mac and cheese, fried chicken, yams, catfish, greens, dinner roll AND a sweet potato muffin! I did not eat it all, oh but I tasted it all. The fried chicken is so good. My sister and I stopped mid bite to discuss the seasoning and the perfect crispiness. Literally everything that touched my fork is good and you cannot go wrong with any of these items. I will also note, their combo plates are much cheaper than a lot of other soul food places that I have tried around the country.

My plate!

Next I swung by my favorite cupcake shop in Kansas City, Cupcake A La Mode. They are now in a prime location in the middle of the Plaza, outdoor shopping center. I have been stopping by this place since I was in law school. Their cupcakes are fresh and moist plus they have some unique flavors such as stuffed french toast. I went with a chocolate cupcake topped with vanilla buttercream and my cousin grabbed the vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. It was just as good as I remembered it!

Finally, as with all of my traveling posts, I have to show you a few of the spots that I visited while on my trip. Although I spend a lot of time in Kansas City, I had never experienced many of the touristy spots that Kansas City boasts. First up, I stopped by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to see the shuttlecocks up close and personal. The shuttlecocks are a permanent art installation that are prominently placed in the front lawn of the art gallery. I did some research for this post and found the sculptors website which attempts to explain WHY and I still do not get it. All the same, the shuttlecocks are now a part of the Kansas City fabric just like the many fountains that dot the city. The lawn is set up like a park allowing guests to wander and take pictures. Just to the left of the shuttlecocks is a glass maze and a metal tree. Someone must windex that glass maze daily because it is very easy to run into a wall and a small child did just that while I was there. So if you visit, walk through, as the sign suggests, slowly! Here are a few of the pictures my cousin and I took from Nelson-Atkins.

The glass maze.

Us inside of the glass maze.

Well after that we were still feeling touristy and hit up the Liberty World War II Memorial just before sunset. The memorial itself is beautiful. From the tall steps to the large steeple like statute at the center. What I did not expect to see just beyond the tower is a beautiful view of Kansas City, downtown and Union Station. This is the view that is on pretty much every Kansas City postcard. I enjoy coming to Kansas City because my family is there, so it was great to enjoy another aspect of this great midwestern city.