Savoring the Arts—The Plaza Art Fair

by Chris Becicka

If you are among the 300,000 or so attendees to the Plaza Art Fair this year, strolling among the white booths of artists from all over the country, perhaps getting a glance of cleanly flowing Brush Creek, sipping on your chardonnay and balancing a Thai chicken pizza with your other free hand, it’s unlikely you’ll recall the beginnings of this festival.

The Midwest’s premier art event began back in 1932 when J.C. Nichols needed a way to re-attract shoppers to his stores. Those stores, set in the first shopping center in the country designed for cars, even included eight gas stations amid the Spanish architecture and beautiful fountains. People came, not only to shop and eat, but to admire the Giralda and Seville Light towers and the statues, bronzes and tiles.

It’s even harder to imagine that this nine-block area was ever hard-scrabble, swampy land dotted with shacks, a pig farm at one end and a brick yard at the other. That picture seems even more remote every year in the fall, when well-dressed art enthusiasts (along with stroller babies and unhappy canines) come to crowd the streets and sidewalks. This year’s Fair is September 21-23.

It is the best time to see many Kansas Citians at their favorite pursuits: music, food, art, conversation. There are all kinds of music at the four live music stages, from rock and roll to classical to jazz. Strategically located, the music provides a (perhaps) soothing backdrop where one can sit, mingle or eat.

For eating does, indeed, play a major role at this art show. More than two dozen of the Plaza’s 35 or so eateries will be providing hefty samples of the foods that have made them famous. Two of those restaurants are new, the M&S Grill and Brio’s Tuscan Grille. The former will be serving up mini-cheeseburgers, steak soup and artichoke dip (try their fish tacos in the restaurant) while trendy Brio offers two paninis, lasagna and Diablo pasta. That’s just a start.

This, of course, is just the start of the endless assortment—the trick is not to get into an endless line. The food is located in three main areas; be sure to check out where your favorites are located before you’re too hungry. If you’re a serious carnivore, head to George Brett’s for their sliced filet sandwich, the Plaza III for a steak sandwich, the Capital Grille for a tenderloin sandwich or Buca di Beppo for a meatball sandwich.

Something more unusual perhaps? Try the chicken spiedini from Figlio, the shrimp and crab fondue from Uno’s, the black bean and corn salad or roasted poblano chowder from the Raphael Hotel Restaurant, or even the lemon and rosemary chicken skewers with garlic yogurt aoli, or hoisin-glazed, tortilla wrapped BBQ duck with cashew cilantro pesto from the Oak Room at the Fairmont. Baja 600 offers Corona-battered talapia tacos and wonderful shrimp tacos are available from McCormick and Schmick’s.

It’s possible to score a salad from Uno (tomatoes, basil, mozzarella) or a lettuce wrap (PF Changs), but the next best thing to go for is desserts—from s’mores at Tomfooleries to chocolate fondue with strawberries, pineapple and brownies from The Fondue Pot. Again, there’s much more.

Do save time from eating and drinking, though, to savor the art.

Ahh, yes, the art. Long known as the foremost show in the area, for which honor the artists compete mightily, the Plaza’s Art Fair’s reputation has only grown. This year, 1,441 artists applied for 230 spots and the variety of art once again will prove as interesting as the folks doing it. More than 20 of them are from this area and every year, there are artists here you’ve not seen before.

For ultimately you know, the reason to go to the Plaza Art Fair is not the food, the music, the conversation—it is to find personal validity in Picasso’s statement, “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”