Columbia, Missouri
Columbia, Missouri’s downtown is better known simply as the District and is bordered on three sides by colleges: the University of Missouri, Columbia College and Stephens College.
The abundant student traffic infuses the District with a young energy, and “there’s a huge focus on art and a great music scene,” said Megan McConachie, strategic communications manager for the city and the Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It has the feel of a cool neighborhood in a big city.”
Many of the original buildings have been repurposed as art galleries and restaurants, and abutting the District is the North Village Arts District, an industrial area with plentiful art galleries that also does a First Friday art crawl every month.
The dining scene is driven by local, chef-owned restaurants with upscale food. Although many of the city’s group dining options are outside of downtown, Shakespeare’s Pizza is a casual downtown eatery that welcomes groups, and Sycamore “is a really fantastic upscale restaurant that does accommodate groups,” McConachie said. Visitors never know what flavors await at Sparky’s Homemade Ice Cream, “the only ice cream shop in town that has a liquor license,” she said; it could be lavender honey or a red wine ice cream with Ghirardelli chocolate.
In downtown, the Broadway is a newer DoubleTree by Hilton hotel with 114 rooms and a rooftop bar, and the Tiger Hotel is a historic 62-room boutique property that has recently been renovated.
The Missouri Theatre is a pre-Depression-era movie palace and vaudeville stage that was built in 1928. Today, the University of Missouri owns and operates it and welcomes groups for concerts and other performances. Visitors often like to check out Ragtag Cinema, an independent movie theater housed in Hittsville, a former Coca-Cola bottling plant where groups will also find a bakery and a record store.
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City doesn’t have just one downtown; it has several different downtown districts, each with its own distinct OKC personality. Bricktown is a former warehouse quarter directly east of the convention center that is now a hip hub of nightlife. The neighboring Boathouse District is an up-and-coming destination for outdoor adventure.
The Bricktown Canal cuts through the industrial-chic entertainment district just below street level, and the Bricktown Water Taxi offers narrated water-taxi tours, private charters and dinner cruises.
“It just gives you a really good overview of OKC in a fun way,” said Tabbi Burwell, communications manager for the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau.
In Bricktown, groups can dine at Mickey Mantle’s Steakhouse, catch a show at Michael Murphy’s Dueling Piano Bar, or play games at Brickopolis or HeyDay.
Hotel development is booming in Bricktown, with several projects in the works. On the east side, the AC Hotel Oklahoma City Bricktown opened in December with 148 rooms.
In May 2016, a $45-million whitewater rafting facility opened in the Boathouse District within walking distance of Bricktown. There, groups can raft down both its recreation and Olympic channels, looping around four times. Visitors can also canoe, kayak or stand-up paddleboard, as well as zip line across the river, zoom down three-story-high stainless-steel slides and tackle the SandRidge Sky Trail, an 80-foot-tall, six-level aerial obstacle course structure.
The city is also building a six-mile-long modern streetcar system that will link several districts in and around downtown OKC, including Bricktown, when it opens later this year. The Oklahoma City Streetcar will help serve the city’s planned new convention center, which will soon break ground, and its new adjacent 70-acre downtown park.
