The Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven has played a central role in Kansas City's music and counterculture scene for 50 years. But now owner Jan Fichman is retiring, leaving longtime customers to reflect on what the record store has meant to them.

The Crossroads bar Society has become Kansas City's hub of social dancing, with two nights every week dedicated to salsa, bachata, cumbia and merengue. For beginners, it's a place to practice your moves — for experienced salseros, it's an "injection of life."

Clinton’s Soda Fountain has been a pillar of the Independence community since the 1980s for its ice cream and nostalgic feel. As a teenager, President Harry Truman worked in the same building at a different ice cream shop.

Over the last three years, Chartreuse Saloon's free pool tables and eight-ball tournaments have made it into a destination for Kansas City-area players to show off their skills, sip craft cocktails and enjoy a plate of nachos.

For 10 years, Blip Roasters in Kansas City has been a place where bikers and enthusiasts meet, drink coffee, make friends and admire the scores of motorcycles parked outside every Sunday.

Since 1992, Broadway Café in the heart of Westport has remained a central part of Kansas City's coffee scene — a place where people don't just grab their drinks to go, but stay a while and even make some friends.