Jazz, A Louisiana Kitchen - Kansas City

I had a morning meeting at an account out on the far west side of Kansas City, so I got a hotel room in the Village West complex of retail, entertainment and sports.  The Kansas Speedway and Children's Mercy Park stadium which is home to the Sporting Kansas City soccer club are part of the Village West district.  There's also a number of restaurants in the immediate area although many of them are national chains that I try to stay away from.  However, there was one place that I recognized - Jazz, A Louisiana Kitchen - a place that I first ate at in the Westport area of Kansas City nearly 20 years ago.  It was a cool and rainy evening and I needed some spicy food to warm me up.  It was a very short trip between my hotel and this location of Jazz which was part of the Legends Outlets shopping complex.  (see map)  

Years ago when I was working for a Kansas City area company, my boss liked to take us to a Cajun restaurant in Kansas City's Westport neighborhood.  (Of course, the name of the place completely escapes me.)  It was really the first time I was exposed to Cajun food and I immediately liked it.  He and his wife had traveled to New Orleans a handful of times and he declared the food at this restaurant was as almost good as what they'd had in authentic Cajun/Creole restaurants in Louisiana.  

Along about the same time that I started with the company in Kansas City, Vic Allred was living in Lubbock, TX going to school at Texas Tech.  Allred had been working in restaurants since he was 14 years old starting out as a dishwasher in the upscale New Orleans House restaurants before moving to Texas to go to college.   Allred worked in restaurants in Lubbock to earn some money while he was in school.  In Lubbock, there was a higher-end Cajun restaurant by the name of Oscar's that reminded him of some of the top restaurants in New Orleans.  While the food was good and it was authentic Louisiana cuisine, it was an expensive meal.  Especially for a college student.   

Allred knew people who were in the restaurant business in Lubbock.  The group got together and came up with a concept for a Cajun/Creole restaurant that was much more casual and less expensive to eat in.  They found a spot near the campus of Texas Tech and they opened Jazz in 1986.  In order to attract more students, they kept their prices low and offered live music starting at midnight some nights.  Allred was the first kitchen manager of the Jazz location in Lubbock and two years later, they opened a second Jazz in Austin, TX near the University of Texas campus.  Allred was named the General Manager of the Jazz location in Lubbock soon after that.  

Pictured right - Vic Allred.  Photo courtesy the Missouri Times.

A young lady from Kansas City stole Allred's heart and he ended up marrying her in 1991.  In 1993, he was approached by a landlord in the Westport area of Kansas City to become a consultant on the revitalization of what was a popular bar dating back to Prohibition.  While Allred declined the offer, he got to looking into the history of the building.  The building that housed the tavern at the corner of 39th and Stateline near the present day University of Kansas Medical Center started out as a livery stable.  It became a speakeasy during Prohibition, then was rebranded as The Bigger Jigger.  

The Westport Bigger Jigger eventually became Jimmy's Jigger, a popular joint with many people still talk fondly about today.  After the owner, Jimmy Bowers, sold his interest to another party, it wasn't the same place without him in there holding court.  Subsequent proprietors of the place couldn't make a go of the bar and it closed for good in the mid-90's.  When Allred was approached a second time by the landlord of the building, this time he didn't hesitate in moving his family to Kansas City to open a Jazz location in the spot of Jimmy's Jiggers old space.  

When the Legends Outlets complex opened in Village West in 2006, Allred saw to it that a Jazz location went in there.  Since then, he's put in Jazz, A Louisiana Kitchen locations in Omaha, NE, Independence, MO, and in Columbia, MO.  The original Jazz is still in business in Lubbock, TX.  In addition to serving on various boards of national, regional and local restaurant associations, Allred is also now a candidate for the Missouri House of Representatives in the state's 13th District.    

The Jazz location at Village West is in the southwest part of the Legends Outlets complex.  I was able to park a short distance from the west door of the place.  Stepping inside, I found a space that was sort of industrial in its decor with colorful lighting casting a glowing hue around the dining area.  There were step-up dining areas in the dining room with low wrought iron fencing.  

On the walls throughout the restaurant were a number of posters, beer signs and New Orleans memorabilia.  On the second floor overlooking the bar area was a gentleman playing an electric guitar and singing.  It was actually kind of loud in there for just a one man band.  

I ended up taking a seat at the bar.  There was just one other person sitting down at the other end of the bar and hockey game was playing on the flat screen television in front of me.  I was greeted by the bartender, a young lady by the name of Stephanie who had to yell to me over the music that was being played just above us.  She offered me a menu and asked what I'd like to drink.  They had a number of Kansas City area beers on tap, but I ended up getting the Big Easy IPA from the Abita brewery in Louisiana.  

Looking through the menu, I found a number of authentic Cajun and Creole dishes including blackened seafood and chicken, shrimp or crawfish étouffée, Po' Boy sandwiches, pasta dishes, and Jazz specialty items such as a Cajun stir-fry, a seafood-stuffed catfish, and the Chicken a La Mer which features a grilled chicken breast topped with shrimp and crab meat and finished with a Parmesan cream sauce.  The menu said it was their most popular dish at Jazz.

I was feeling a little out of sorts and I thought I needed something to warm me up.  I decided to start out with a cup of the gumbo.  And it was served to me in a coffee cup.  The gumbo featured big chunks of shrimp, catfish filet, and andouille sausage.  It was spicy, but I wanted to spice it up a little bit more.  I asked Stephanie if she had any Tabasco and she came back with a bottle of Jazz's own "Voodoo" sauce.  It was similar to any type of vinegar-based Louisiana hot sauces on the market and helped kick the spiciness of the gumbo up just a bit.  

For dinner that evening, I thought about getting a couple of things.  The blackened tilapia topped with garlic butter-sautéed shrimp, crab meat and scallops sounded really good.  The seafood fettuccine with shrimp, crab and scallops also sounded good.  But I was wanting something more on the spicy side to help warm me up.  

I ended up getting the shrimp étouffée with a side of jambalaya.  Before she brought the meal out, Stephanie offered me some bread to go along with it.  I declined the offer at first, then saw that I should have ordered the bread to dip into the rich roux the shrimp and rice were swimming in.  The sautéed shrimp were plump, the rice was fluffy, and the roux had a bit of a spicy kick that I kicked up a bit with some of Jazz's Voodoo sauce.  Dipping the fresh baked bread into the roux was really the highlight of the meal.  It was a very tasty meal, to say the least.   

The jambalaya had chunks of cured tasso ham and andouille sausage, along with ground beef with rice.  It, too was a little spicy from the Piquant sauce they used and it was very good.  I could have gotten a big plate of the jambalaya with a side of the shrimp étouffée and been happy.

I'm always up for good Cajun/Creole food and the food I had at Jazz was very good.  I've only been to Louisiana once and that was about 20 years ago, but I've been eating in good Cajun restaurants in the Midwest for years.  I imagine that the food at Jazz would rival what I think would be good food in Louisiana.  The shrimp étouffée was delicious, even more so with the fresh baked bread dipped into the roux.  The gumbo and the jambalaya that I also had were also very good - I could have easily picked any one of the three items I had for my main entree and I would have been happy.  Although it was a little loud in there from the live one-man-band music, it was still a pleasant enough experience.  

Comments

[Jack Newman]

If you want to write about something I'd suggest you do some research before you go and publish an article. Your comments about Jimmy Bowers (not Bower) are completely inaccurate and some are just flat out lies.

[Road Tips]

I got the information about Jimmy Bowers (I saw that his name was spelled both ways, so I went with Bower. I'll change it.) and the history of the Jigger from the Jazz Facebook page and a couple of on-line articles about Jimmy Bowers. But I don't see anything malicious or damning about Jimmy in this post. Sounded like he was a great guy, well liked by all, and revered by the owner of Jazz.