The last week of the year is a time for spending quality time with family, for quiet reflection and, in our present era, for data dumps.
Our staff and contributors worked hard to fulfill our mission over the past year, celebrating the things that make Kansas City great while also considering its faults so that our highly engaged readers might help tend to them.
Kansas City magazine’s most popular posts from 2021 show readers are interested in both—our top ten posts are evidence that our readers crave the latest restaurant news, city guides they can trust and… sideshow action from the extended universe of characters surrounding the Chiefs.
Our biggest story of the entire year was actually from last week: the continuing misadventures of Jackson Mahomes, kid brother to KC QB Patrick Mahomes. It’s probably better described as “hot goss” instead of actual news, but it remains of intense interest to Kansas Citians.
You’ll note that a lot of the content comes from the latter part of the year, which isn’t just because we like to end strong—though, of course, we do—but because we built a new website, which launched in October. Our traffic numbers on individual posts have crept up steadily since, which is perhaps a function of how nice the new site looks, but also probably partially attributable to boring technical details involving caching and image optimization.
Without getting too far into the weeds, most of our traffic comes from search, not social media as some people we encounter incorrectly assume, which makes these technical details matter more than they do to Facebook-focused media sites. (Our second biggest source of traffic last year? Our twice-weekly newsletters.)
Here are links to that story and the rest of our top 10 from 2021.
1. ‘We’ll Survive Your Ego’: KC Cocktail Bar Responds To Jackson Mahomes’ Instagram Attack
The little brother of Patrick Mahomes is a lightning rod for attention and controversy in KC. We had this story a few minutes before TMZ and it went viral from there.
2. The 40 Best Restaurants In Kansas City—We Ate At Hundreds To Pick Them
Our definitive list of the best restaurants in KC was first published in December 2019 and got a light refresh this year, as we removed spots that permanently closed and added the same number of spots to replace them (unranked at the top of the list). It remains extremely popular.
3. The 10 Best BBQ Spots in Kansas City Right Now
People in Kansas City love barbecue—who knew?
4. Two Longtime Favorite Westport Spots Are Closing
The news of two favorite spots in Westport announcing their closure just hours apart struck a nerve. There was good news for fans of Joe’s Pizza Buy the Slice, as they’ve returned under new owners with a refreshed concept. Our Westport coverage will continue apace in the new year.
5. ‘I Was Becoming A Monster:’ Chiefs Superfan X-Factor Will Retire
Superfan X-Factor is the first or second most controversial member of the rogue’s gallery of Chiefs fandom, depending on who you talk to and when. We broke the news of his retirement.
6. Nine Great Restaurants from a Bold New Era of Kansas City Food
New restaurants, old restaurants, best restaurants —people turn to Kansas City magazine when it comes time to plan a night out and we are happy to oblige with a recommendation, as we did with this list of the best new restaurants in KC.
People like restaurants, and they also like knowing what’s going on.
