C-razy Concept

Photo by Katherine McGinness

A boutique hotel, contemporary art museum and historic restaurant all in one? Yeah right, as if that’s possible. And they have $7,000 four-foot tall plastic penguins you can just pick up and move around? Excuse me, but penguins! Penguins?! I had definitely never heard of anything like this before — I had to go down to the 21c Hotel to see for myself.

21c Museum Hotel and Savoy Restaurant stands in place of the Savoy Hotel and Grill which, opened in 1903, had been Kansas City’s oldest operating restaurant until 2014. Besides its famous steaks and seafood, the Grill is known for its Presidents’ Booth where four presidents, including Ronald Reagan and Harry Truman, have dined.

However, in 2014 a large fire destroyed the Savoy Grill’s kitchen, forcing its closure. 21c Museum Hotels bought and revitalized the historic hotel and restaurant with $50 million in renovations. The pair reopened on July 17, 2018, continuing the hotel’s cherished legacy.

It ended up being nothing like I expected, but the unique exhibitions, tasty food and fascinating history made it an absolute must-see.

Walking down West 9th Street, the 21c Hotel looks just like any other historic, cookie-cutter brick building in the financial district of downtown KC. I would never have guessed all of the surprises awaiting me through the front door.

And when I said door, I meant portal. As soon as I walked through, I was transported via magic portal to an entirely new dimension. A white hallway lit with neon bars full of a rotating array of radiant colors illuminated my path to the check in desk. We were later told the colors were computer generated to never repeat and resemble a sunrise/set. I was astonished by the vibrancy of the colors in the installation.

After a short wait for our five o’clock docent-led museum tour, my family and I were greeted by a short-haired lady with red lipstick and a striped button down. She introduced herself as Jori Cheville, the manager of the museum, and we followed her through the featured exhibit entitled Refuge: Needing, Seeking, and Creating Shelter.

Now this is not the Nelson. The Nelson has nothing on the 21c Museum’s collection. The pieces in the 21c Museum were some of the most bizarre I had ever seen, ranging from a giant neon green chandelier with black light bulbs (which contain trace amounts of uranium ore) to videos of people dressed in old-fashioned clothing drowning in rowboats on a dark black ocean to the tune of classical music (self explanatory?). With pieces ranging from a demonstration of a tumbleweed on a treadmill (yup you heard me right, a fan kept the tumbleweed from falling off) to a canvas piece with a cage and the text “Once the bird has flown away what would we do with the cage?” written in cursive (here’s the catch, the cage and text was made up of fly and insect wings) each piece was even weirder than the last.

After the tour, we went straight to 21c’s reimagined Savoy restaurant where we dined in a spacious room with curved light panels, shining with a rotating assortment of colors, similar to the ones in the “portal.” My sister pulled over a friendly looking sky blue penguin, whom she named Leroy, who joined us for our meal. When our waiter arrived, I ordered the Vichyssoise, Pasta a La Primavera, Green Bean Almandine & Baked Alaska. Although the chilled potato-leek soup wasn’t for me, I’m more of a chicken noodle gal, the rest of my meal was scrumptious.

The bread, a highlight for any meal of mine, was particularly good. It was a fancier version of the famous Cheesecake Factory multigrain bread served with salted butter.

My main course, the Pasta a La Primavera, was a fairly average primavera made up of thick spaghetti-like noodles and an assortment of vegetables. The Green Bean Almandine, my lowly side, actually ended up being one of my favorite dishes of the nigh t— along with dessert of course. It consisted of green beans tossed with fresh lemon juice, toasted almonds and some brown butter. The toppings elevated the beans into something juicy and zesty that made me keep stabbing my fork in for more.

Finally, the highlight of the meal: the Baked Alaska. Executive Chef Joe West took the stereotypical Baked Alaska and added a new spin. The classic combo of lemon meringue transformed an already impressive dessert into a visually stunning — and equally tasty — masterpiece. A scoop of lavender ice cream (interesting choice Joe) sat atop a lemon cake with swirled toasted meringue coating the whole thing. The lavender ice cream was a little too adventurous for me, but replace the lavender ice cream with a plain vanilla and that baked Alaska would have been the best I have ever had.

Although I wasn’t an overnight guest, I’ll always remember my time at the 21c Hotel — and I’ll never look at a Marriott the same way. And just when I thought there would be no more surprises, bright blue cotton candy arrived along with our bill.

Photo by Katherine McGinness

Photo by Katherine McGinness

Photo by Katherine McGinness

Photo by Katherine McGinness