Kent didn’t have nice things. And then, slowly, it did.
I spent a good chunk of my 20s in Kent, including a couple of years when I was part of a motorcycle club. Yeah, yeah, I know. It was a ridiculously fun chapter of my life, and if we’re being fair, probably at least partially responsible for why I’m sober today.
Back then, Kent was a little different. This was the Kent of dive bars, commercial warehouses and nights out with friends, line dancing at the country bar that used to be here, bar hopping around town. Kent didn’t have nice things. And then, slowly, it did.
When Kent Station first opened, everyone was basically like, “Wait… Kent gets this?” The restaurants came. The movie theater came. The area around ShoWare became somewhere you actually planned to spend an evening instead of just passing through.
My Kent nights changed too. Bar hopping eventually turned into T-Birds games with my brother and friends. These days, if I’m heading to Kent, there’s a good chance I’m going to the movies (reclining seats are apparently a non-negotiable now), grabbing dinner nearby, or wandering around my actual happy place: Carpinito Brothers. Give me a coffee and nowhere else to be and I could spend half the day there.
Kent still has some of the old-school left, the industrial, gritty parts that have always been here. But now it’s mixed with great restaurants, entertainment, hockey games, trails, parks, international food and neighborhoods that feel completely different depending on which direction you drive. Kent grew up a lot since my 20s. Thankfully, so did I.
