Community

What are you up after midnight and before sunrise? What are you thinking about? Doing? Eating? Tune in to KC Currents this week Sunday, August 26 at 5 p.m. and Monday, August 27 at 8 p.m. for a special Up All Night edition. Explore the region between the hours of midnight and 5 am.Up All Night With A New Baby KCUR listeners may know that our producer and regular co-host Sylvia Maria Gross is on maternity leave. But this Up all Night show theme was her idea, so we felt we had to include her somehow. Sylvia and her husband, Bill Elder, had baby Rosa Mina just a month ago. We thought their overnight experience would take us to a scene all new parents will recognize.A Late Night Frog GigIn Missouri, the bullfrog and green frog harvest seasons start on the night of June 30th and last through the end of October.Waiting until complete darkness falls, a spotlight is used to scope the edges of water banks to find the frogs by the glare of their eyes. The frogs are blinded by the shining light and freeze in place. This makes it easier to get close enough to use a gig, a fork like hook on a pole, to stab them. Late Night Town Topic Town Topic Diner at Broadway and Southwest Blvd. is open 24/7. Since 1937 this tiny white shack with its red neon sign has acted as a late night hub for all night workers, drunken partiers, and anyone looking for atmosphere and cheap food. Ripe For The Night At perhaps one of the busiest and time sensitive workplaces in town Donna Vestal, editor of Harvest Public Media, takes us to Liberty Fruit Co., in Kansas City, Kansas. Here she found a business constantly on the move. So much so, that spent most of her time trying not to get run over. Mutual Musicians Foundation’s Spirit Won’t Stop For more than eighty years, the small two-story building at 1823 Highland Avenue has been the heart of Kansas City jazz. Today it’s the Mutual Musician’s Foundation, but in 1917, the building became the headquarters for the Local 627 Colored Musician’s Union. Over the decades, nearly every jazz great in the country has jammed here, and the all-night weekend jam sessions have also served as training grounds for jazz students. KCUR’s Susan Wilson spent a late night there to find out what draws audiences and keeps them until the 6 a.m. closing time.

An After Midnight Snack At Town Topic

KCUR | By Eric Baker

Published August 26, 2012 at 5:00 PM CDT

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Danny Fischer

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Danny Fischer

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Danny Fischer

So you and your friends have knocked a few beers back and are feeling a little hungry, but it’s 2 a.m.

Town Topic is a Kansas City establishment that has been around since being opened in 1937. The tiny white shack with its red neon sign has acted as a late-night hub for the all-night workers, drunken partiers and anyone looking for atmosphere and cheap food. Open 24/7, Town Topic receives a crowd comprised of just about anyone you can think of.

Town Topic is famous for its burgers but has a pretty large diner menu and a chalkboard filled with pie choices, so finding something for you shouldn’t be difficult — unless you want a salad.

Regulars have flocked to the tiny restaurant for generations for a consistently tasty product. April Reddick, 27, is a waitress at Town Topic and estimates that 85 percent of their customers are regulars. She says Town Topic has a welcoming air about it.

However, Town Topic isn’t free of problems. Due to its all-night serving the restaurant has seen everything from drunken fights, people stripping and shootings in the parking lot. In fact, on July 21, six people were shot and wounded in the parking lot. A police officer now stands outside, keeping an eye out during the busy weekend nights.

The restaurant has been feature on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations as well.

Whether or not you fall in love with their food, Town Topic is a great place to people watch late at night and see a different part of Kansas City culture.