Kansas City’s Perfect Mix

By Winston Whetherell

As we sat outside Planters Seed and Spice Company, Savage became our tour guide and resident historian of everything Kansas City, from the 30 different spices he buys to make his secret barbecue rub (Planters spices can be purchased in all sizes and prices) to the view of where he grew up, peeking through the River Market buildings.

We popped into Savage’s green van-with his alma mater’s Jayhawks license plate-and began winding our way through the River Market, over the Kansas City Stockyards and into his old stomping grounds of Strawberry Hill in Kansas City, Kansas. Although most people churn up images of the Liberty Memorial, the Plaza or the Sprint Center when they think of Kansas City, Savage let us in on the area’s minute details, such as how the houses are so close together that most people need to turn sideways to walk in between.

“This is where I went to grade school,” he says, pointing at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church and its neighboring building. “And this is where I played at recess, looking out toward the Kansas City skyline.” The view is like something from a movie. From atop the hill, you can see down into the stockyards, up 12th Street and across the jagged buildings puncturing the sky; this same sight is seen throughout Savage’s paintings.

As a kid, drawing came naturally to him. “When there was nothing else to do, I drew,” he says. “It was a natural talent. That seems to be a bad word for artists these days; they think anything goes. I believe that you have to have a knack for it. Just like there are good writers and bad writers. Just because someone says, ‘I can write words,’ doesn’t mean they’re good at it. It’s the same with art.”

Savage rarely stops on the tour, but points out building after building in his hometown, sharing the intimate history behind each one. Everything we pass seems to spark a memory, his entertaining, educational chatter shutting out his ringing cell phone (the sound of dogs barking) and resurrecting nostalgia for yesteryear. We almost feel as if we grew up here, too.

As we finish winding through KCK, Savage grins and asks if we know where we are… we have no idea. But as names of places start to contain less English and more Spanish, we pull up to El Pueblito. As our eyes adjust from the blinding summer sunlight, we grab a table in back and hunker down over some chips and homemade salsa.

El Pueblito, a restaurant well known for its take on Mexican seafood, was a random find on Savage’s part. He and his buddies enjoy finding places they’ve never tried, especially hole-in-the-wall restaurants. As they were on the hunt one day for something delicious and unknown, “We got lucky and turned our heads just as we passed it,” he says. We decided to chow down on dos burritos and a burrito Mexicano, at least a weekly occurrence now for Savage.

This meal, of course, brings up a memory of another Mexican restaurant Savage and his friends tried, though he cannot remember the name-maybe because he couldn’t see anything. “It was some burrito with fresh habanero salsa,” he says. Luckily his visual impairment was fleeting, but Savage says the spiciness of the burrito was an unexpected twist to the meal.

Between blinding yet tasty food and snapping photos of things he sees or putting a quick doodle in his sketchpad, Savage spends most of his time at his gallery, Sav-Art Gallery. What’s his advice for up-and-coming artists? “Get involved in anything you can do: enter shows, competitions, do work for your friends,” he says. “Get rid of your ego in whatever you do. Enjoy it-I mean, it’s what you do.”

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