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I am tired of the negativity on this sub about the town we call home. There are plenty of great things to do here. I'd love to hear some more ideas but these are the things I enjoy about living here.

Nature:

• Wildcat Glades has a nice little nature center near the creek with some beautiful trails. If you enjoy fishing the small mouth fishing in this creek is pretty great!
• George Washington Carver National Monument is a beautiful museum set around a short probably 1 mile trail that meanders through sites from his childhood
• I love floating our local rivers on an innertube, canoe, or kayak. You need to self-guide a lot of this but Zan's campground rents tubes and shuttles you in the summer I believe.
• Some other nice walking trails: Walter Woods (a short loop with bridges over water), Frisco Trail, this is a long trail with mixed paved and gravel sections through the woods, you can go from Joplin to Webb City, Ruby Jack is a longer trail on the outskirts of town it is the only one I haven't personally been on.
• Grand Falls - This can get a little rowdy during peak summer but is a beautiful spot on the river
• Riverside and Zan's a good spot to park a lawn chair in the river or camp overnight
• A rather pleasant walking/running path circles Mercy Hospital

Dining:

Unique:

• River's Bend- this is just burgers and hot dogs but they have a huge deck over the river where kids can feed the fish or even hop in for a swim.
• Undercliff- is a neat spot on the outskirts of town with a restaurant build using a cliff wall for the back wall. Take the back roads and enjoy a drive
• Downtown Burgers- a tiny shack on main street where you can get a traditional old burger. They serve the same ones at Whisler's and have a train car to dine in and a little train for kids to ride
• Fred & Red's- This old school chili joint will take you back to the 50's with everyone sitting around a counter. They serve a specific unique type of chili, you can get it plain, on a tamale, or over noodles for the namesake Spaghetti Red

Good Local

• 609- One of Joplin's longest running local restaurant with a mix of steaks, seafood, and sandwiches
• Wilder's- A high end steakhouse with a great old school vibe and delicious steaks. A bit on the high end but worth it for the experience
• Brunchanette- A hip brunch joint with fun specials, a must try on a weekend morning but we warned they will be busy
• Royale Cinema- This used to be bookhouse so we will see shortly if this is the same. This place bridges across multiple categories as they do game nights and have an excellent small indie theater too. But their food is top notch especially for vegan and vegetarian fare
• Woody's- A solid wood fired pizza place with a lunch buffet
• Wiseguy's- A great Italian restaurant that is moving from the strip mall to a georgous downtown location repoeneing 11/1
• Mexican- We have a lot of good Mexican restaurants some of my favorites are, Lalo's for super authentic, Habanero's for more traditional American style, Casa Montez has been around forever and has a unique take on some traditional dishes and good Margaritas. Latin Fusion serves up Central American faire
• NYPD Pizza- Sandwiches and NY style Pizza. Very delicious and has a big city vibe.
• Hungry Monkey - Amazing Hawaiian Food. Boozy slushies to top it off
• Mytho's - Long standing Greek/Medeterranian restaurant thats good for date nights. Try the spicy feta dip
• MacCheesy - Big crazy heart stopping portions of everthing thats bad for you
• Red Onion - American food served in a historic building downtown. They have been in business forever too
• Vietnamese - We have three that are all good. Phams Pho, Kim's Kitchen, and Pho Saigon.
• Blackstone Gastropub: a lot of good meat-heavy dishes and a list of fancy cocktails.
• Latin Fusion: Honduran and Mexican food, the Honduran is especially good.
• Pan y Kafe: an excellent place to get breakfast, either American or Mexican style, plus a huge case of Mexican style pastries and sweet breads.

• Sum'na Eat: Soul food localed on south main Bars

• Blackthorn- local dive bar with friendly bar tenders and a bajillion beers on tap. Likely to have a live event. They also have good pizza

• Whiskey Dick's- This is the young peoples bar and will be slammed with 20 somethings singing karaoke most weekends

• 5:30 Somewhere- This is a good restarant too so I wasn't sure where to put it but it has a frozen bar top and good deals on coctails.

• Tropicana- Architecturally cool spot with two level and great nautical theme and two patios. They have some great food and are more of a bar & grill than late night bar

• OK- a recently remodeled pool hall that serves fish bowls of beer

• Living Room- A cool 70's themed bar with engaging owners. They have fun events like Bingo and occasional live music

• Chaos- Local brewery with nice people, they do trivia here on Wednesdays

• Not technically in Joplin but Flag City Brewing is really good. Music Bingo, live music in the summer, open mic nights, food trucks a lot of times, and good beer. Really chill place with outdoor seating too.

• The Short Rest - 532 S Joplin Ave. It’s a Dungeons and Dragons themed bar! They also host DnD one-shots on Sundays, Wednesday thru Sunday 6pm-2am

Things to Do

• Spiva/Harry Cornell Center- A beautiful new building on 7th street that houses our art museum, there are classes and activities as well as constantly changing art. The Cornell Center is host to many different events including music, theater, dance, and other cultural events
• 4th Street Bowl- A busy bowling alley with an old school feel Rock & Bowl on Weekend nights or Discount nights on Mondays and Wednesdays are always packed
• Skate Park- Behind Ewert Park off 4th and School is a nice little city skate park the people here are usually very outgoing and friendly plus some are impressive just to watch. There is a new place called rooted that is supposed to be cool as well.
• Theater- Beyond Spiva we also have some great local theater groups with Joplin Little Theater, Dream Theater, Stained Glass, and Stone's Throw
• Disc Golf- We have 2 excellent courses at McClelland Park and Schifferdecker Park that are free to play
• House Concerts- Usually only once a month but Coda House gets some great acts
• Roller City- If you have kids this is a fun spot to spend a rainy day, it gets busy with older elementary and middle schoolers on Saturdays
• Create & Sip - A fun instructed painting place thats a great date night idea
• Firehouse Pottery - Pottery classes
• Tee Time - Golf Bays and Pickleball
• Escape Joplin - Escape Room
• Upper Room - Smash Room (Reopening soon)
• Rangeline and Schifferdecker golf - Rangeline has mini golf and batting cages too
• Main Street Axe Co - Arcade and Axe Throwing
• Centerfire Joplin - Shooting Range that offers rentals
• Paintball Ridge - Paintball
• Tilt - Mini golf and arcade
• Changing Hands is not only a great bookstore but a great game store if you’re into board games, RPGs, or Magic
• Doughman Kitchen - Cooking Classes
• Pennington Station - VR Arcade
• Royale Cinema Lounge - Cool local spot showing a mix of older and first run movies. Cocktails and food available.
• Joplin Outlaws - Fun summer leage baseball in a beautiful stadium
• Joplin Mineral and Mining Museum - a good collection of minerals and an interesting look at the history of the area
• Comedy- Puff Puff laugh is a regular thing at JBs plus there are other local comedy shows all around from coffee shops to local bars. There is a growing comedy scene in town! Beefy Stool Comedy has a open mic every Tuesday night at Bites and Pipes hookah lounge. Free show at 8pm. Every Tuesday. 2nd Friday shows at the same place. Chaos Comedy at Chaos Brewing brings a lot of comics from Tulsa and OKC plus some nationally touring names from time to time. Also look up Joplin Improv! on Facebook for regular free shows. *Table top games - Changing Hands and Hurley's Heros both have MTG and other regular gaming meet up. There is a board game group that posts on here with regular game nights at local restaurants.

Places to Meet People / Events

• Church - There are several churches around here that aren’t your grandma’s Bible-thumping, old-school kind. St. Paul’s, Unity, and First Presbyterian are all known for being open and welcoming. A lot of young familes attend Hope City
• The arts community is pretty active through connect to culture, Spiva, and Third Thursday/downtown Joplin. I know they are always looking for volunteers.
• Joplin Young Professionals group that meets regularly.
• There are some busy outdoor groups on Facebook for kayaking, hiking, camping, fishing, disc golf, pickleball, etc.
• The Empire Market on Saturdays is a cool local shopping spot with friendly people
• Joplin Parks & Rec events - Soccer, Volleyball, Softball, Pickleball, and more. Teams form regurarly and they have different skill levels
• There's a nice running group you can connect with (look up Joplin Roadrunners).
• The Joplin Y is a budget-friendly place to enjoy all the cardio equipment, weight lifting and pool time you could want. They have a lot of great classes too.
• CRITICAL MASS group rides every final friday. 6pm at 4th and Joplin Ave. Slow roll of 5 miles and we end at Chaos Brewing. Join us! All ages and skill levels welcome
• Roller City does an adult skate night every first friday! 18+ and starts at 9:30pm