‘Snl’ Star Heidi Gardner on her love for her hometown of Kansas City and Travel

On By Littum

For the past eight years, Heidi Gardner has made New York City’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza her home as the longest-rented female role crew member at the moment on Saturday Night Live. While she is proud to be part of the legendary comedy show as it toasting her 50 -year anniversary this weekend – with SNL50: Homecoming concert at Peacock on Friday 14 February, which led to the big SNL50: Anniversary Special On NBC and Peacock on Sunday 16 February – a quick browse of her Instagram stories or a glimpse of her frequent Red-and-Gold clothing during the show’s good nights Leaving no doubt that her greatest love is her hometown of Kansas City.

“Kansas City is like a hug-it’s like my comfort place,” the 41-year-old actress-comedies told Travel + free time on a call from KC last week. “I feel like myself when I’m here.”

She first heard the description from a friend who visited her a couple of summers ago. “She just felt a hot embrace from the other, she stepped out of the plane,” Gardner said. “I feel it that way, but I grew up here, so it always feels like to me.”

For most of her life, she said travelers tended to think of the city that extends over Missouri and Kansas, as a “stop-over-city”, but there has been a shift in the last decade. “People are starting to realize that there is so much more here and it becomes a destination place that feels really good,” she said.

Synonymous with the city is its barbecue scene and gardner is so well versed that, without missing out on a beat, she rattled a list of specialties. For burnt ends is her top choice LC’s Bar-Bqjust down the street from where she grew up while she goes to Arthur Bryants Grill For his ribs Gates BBQ to the “most nostalgic sauce” and SLACK’s BBQ For his sausage, like “Legit, melts in the mouth, like butter.”

Heidi at Hotel No available position in Kansas City with Chiefs Cheerleaders.

With the permission of Heidi Gardner


She also suggested that first -time visitors go to River Marketwhich is a “cool outdoor market with lots of suppliers that are a lot of fun.” It is also home to Arabia Steamboat Museumthat highlights the American boundary life. Also the itinerary is Throwback cinemas Screenland Armor and Stray Cat Film Center“Which is just really good places that are interested in movies – just really good vibber,” as well as Nelson Atkins Museum of Art and Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art In nearby Overland Park, Kansas, who just debuted one Jeremy Scott exhibition Last weekend.

If you happen to be in town the first weekend of the month she said not to miss First FridaysWhen Crossroads Arts District jumps to life in an art gallery open house of kinds, along with craftsmen, food trucks, craft breweries and artificial alerts.

One of her favorite places to stay is boutique hotel No vacancy with a barrum called Le Lounge where she celebrated his birthday in July last yearIt describes it as “transport” as it “feels like Kansas City, but also Moroccan and European” and is “just as well curated.”

Since Kansas City is ultimately a “Sportsby”, she recommends catching a Kansas City current (Women’s football team) Games, especially because its venue CPKC Stadium Just opened in 2024 and is the first stadium ever built for a woman’s professional sports team, “which is a shocking fact,” and the games are “such a fun time.” Also worth checking: Kansas City Royals Play at Kauffman Stadium.

And of course there is the biggest reason why Kansas City is on the map more than ever in the last decade: her beloved Kansas City Chiefs. “I’m not lying: Having a World Cup football team has helped us,” she said. Despite Sunday’s Super Bowl -Tab she posted after the game: “Thank you for putting it out there every Sunday. You give us so much to smile about.”

Window or Gang?
Window.

Casting buddy Who would make the best travel buddy?
Ego (nwodim). She has the best taste and gets you to the best restaurant, whether it is considered the best or has something like the best soup dumpings. She knows everything.

Best Snl Post-party location?
I become the only person who says this – and is probably not cool to this – but Rosa Mexicano. Instead of getting a steak at. 3, I can get chips and really good guacamole and a margarita. That’s the perfect thing after a show.

Next destination on your journey wish list?
I want to go to Japan, especially Tokyo because I’m still an amusement park person. I will go to Tokyo Disneyland and Sanrio Puroland.

Must have item in your continuation?
Frankly, a toothbrush. I just love to brush my teeth halfway through the flight. It wakes you up.

Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim under “Bowen’s Straight” sketch at SNL.

Caro Scarimbolo/courtesy of NBC


In fact, it was Gardner himself who campaigned directly against her Snl Boss Lorne Michaels for Chiefs’ Travis Kelce to host the show before Taylor Swift was in the photo – the ultimate proof of how respected she is on Comedy Mainstay Broadcast Live from 30 Rock’s Studio 8H.

“When I started there, it was like,” oh my gosh, I’m at the Rockefeller Center! “” She remembered about her first season in 2017. “There’s so much to look at and you think about the building’s history with Snl and The Tonight Show. “Today, it’s a bit of another feeling,” I’ve made friends with so many of the security guards, it’s like going down a number of friendly faces when you get to work. “

Still, the magic of passing through the building’s lobby is never lost on her as she reminds travelers to take a moment to look up on mural that tells the great past of Spanish artist José Maria Sert’s Fresco.

“Look well around the walls,” she said. “Plus every Saturday they bring in these new flower events in the most huge vases I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s just really impressive – such a beautiful space. ”

But she said Snl The staff’s latest hotspot is down in the Rockefeller Center -Cellar: Lil Sweet Treat. “We are all occupied – it’s an addiction, and it’s bad,” she said of the candy store with a rotating offer of international rubber and sweets. “You go on one day and it’s rubbery fish and frogs, and the next they’ll be as specific as Gummy Ferraris and Ashtrays – they run out of items!”

Always seeing the comic side of things, Gardner – which often has sketches and weekend updates figures she has written on the air – admitted to travel experiences often for Snl Sketch feed, as a recent event on a delayed flight, where Port agent just like me on a group text with my friends except this is an airline! “The actress commian said.

(LR) Sarah Sherman, Charli XCX, Marcello Hernandez as Domingo, Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim under the Babymoon sketch of SN.

Will Heath/Courtesy of NBC


Gardner has always been close to the travel world because her mother was a travel agency. “Travel was all around me,” she told of her childhood. “But she was a single parent and had two children whom she ran around all the time, so when she came to travel, she traveled alone. But I heard a lot of good stories! ”

She eventually also got to pack her bags on road trips to Branson, Missouri, whom she called an “Edru Vegas.” Along the way, she and her older brother Justin fought for a single game boy before running out of batteries, which stopped at Dairy Queen and McDonald’s along the way.

Her most memorable childhood journey was when her grandparents took the siblings to Walt Disney World-with-fit a love for amusement parks that she still has today, as well as theme-motor inns when they first stayed in a decorated Renaissance room.

These days, her approach to travel is simple, as is a recent before-tackling of California-Road Trip to Ojai, Santa Barbara and Malibu. “I feel so grateful to have been there just a few months before fires,” she said. Along the way she rode horses on the beach and stayed San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara and Nobu hotel ryokan MalibuWhere it was “really peaceful to sleep next to the water and listen to the waves. It was a really special trip. ”

She also keeps it lightly as an “absolute underpacks” with the smallest version of Away is the continued. “I don’t like overpacking at all for a mistake at all. I always have enough underwear and socks, but everything else I wear a great deal again. ”

That said, she said her overall travel persona is “kind of confusing and ever -evolving” and MUSING “I want to think of myself as an adventurer and an explorer. I did these things in Hawaii but I was like, I I Could just have put in my room all the time, looked out the window of the beautiful view and got up to poke bowls and shaved ice cream. not need an overstimulating holiday.

But there are parts of working on the famous hectic live show that she hopes she can incorporate into her own life better. “When I traveled to Hawaii, we should have an hour of layover in Honolulu, but were delayed one day, so we ended up spending the night and I was so frustrated with it,” she admitted. “I’ve learned to deal with the unexpected and chaos of my job, and I was like,” Heidi, you have to embrace the unexpected and chaos of real life – especially When you get an extra day in paradise! ” ”