Kansas City Food Blog

​If you're looking for the future of barbecue, you might just head out to Blue Springs, Missouri. That's the hometown of Plowboys BBQ, the newly crowned American Royal Invitational Grand Champion.

The team of Todd Johns and his brother-in-law Randy Hinck (who compete as the Pork Pullin Plowboys) bested 123 past grand champions to capture the overall crown. And they did it with a mixture of classic techniques and a bit of technology designed by Johns -- an IT project manager by day. 

"We cook at low temps for a long period of time. That is the more traditional way of preparing barbecue," says Johns. "However, that is where tradition ends for us. We use 100 percent wood pellets for fuel along with computer controls and temperature sensors on our pits. Our smoke profile is light. We rely largely on the quality of the meat and our own seasonings to liven up the taste buds. Pecan and cherry are our wood flavors of choice. Pecan delivers a familiar barbecue wood flavor while cherry brings the ruby color."

​Fat City received a phone call yesterday morning from the concerned father of a young woman who had been employed at the original KC Masterpiece Restaurant & Grill at 109th and Metcalf. The woman, a recent college graduate, had apparently shown up for her shift at the 22-year-old restaurant -- once the flagship for a collection of four "upscale" barbecue eateries created by Dr. Rich Davis, founder of the barbecue sauce of the same name -- and found the door locked and this sign, right, taped to the glass. The hand-written sign reads "Temporarily closed, We look forward to serving you soon." The caller told us his daughter had not been informed of this in advance.

The phone number for the restaurant, which Davis sold several years ago, has been "temporarily disconnected."

So, how temporary is temporary? The current owner of KC Masterpiece -- which once operated the Overland Park venue, a location on the Country Club Plaza and two restaurants in St. Louis, now all closed -- is a company called Restaurant Equity Venture. A partner in the firm, Blair Hurst, told the Star's Joyce Smith that a "new prototype KC Masterpiece" would open in Blue Springs.

This is the same Blair Hurst who told The Pitch, back in 2005, he was turning the Baja 600 Mexican restaurant on the Country Club Plaza into "an eclectic American Grill."  That concept change never took place.

Baja 600, of course, is also temporarily closed and has been since late June, after a fire caused enough damage to have the Health Department order the restaurant closed. The message on the restaurant's answering machine informs callers that the restaurant will be re-opening this week. Maybe there will be jobs for all of those unemployed KC Masterpiece staffers.

 

Gates has a little more to strut about after being named one of the 23 landmark restaurants in the country.

No, it's not an official landmark as designated by the government. The title was bestowed by AOL, which called it "lip-smacking good" and commended the sauce as "what elevates it to the top of the heap," especially when its on the ribs.

Gates is in good company. Other restaurants to make the list included Ted Drewes of St. Louis, Katz's Deli of New York, Pink's Hot Dogs of LA and Ben's Chili Bowl of Washington D.C.

Gates also played a significant role in the Washington Post Magazine's 2,000-word feature last Sunday on Kansas City barbecue:

"HI, MAY I HELP YOU?!" scream the women behind the counter at the Gates on Main Street, where you have precisely 1.5 seconds to shout back your order before they brand you hopeless and move on to the next customer. That is part of the restaurant's shtick (the phrase "Hi, may I help you" appears everywhere on the menu), but the barbecue itself is no gimmick. The fries approach the Platonic ideal (hat tip, lard!), but don't overlook the barbecued mutton, sausage and sauces of various heat and intensity.

Also on the list of dishes not to be missed: Gates's Yummy Yammer pie, a sweet potato tartlet that you'll unconvincingly pretend to have no room for before you devour it in three bites.

Yes, stories about Gates, Arthur Bryant's, Oklahoma Joe's and others can be tediously familiar to those of us here in town, but the article is still worth a read as the Post writer Chuck Voegel paints an almost picturesque setting. "Kansas City likes to call itself the City of Fountains, boasting that no other town save Rome has more of them. But it's really a city of districts."

Read the full story here.

(Image via Flickr: Cleverswine)

Fans of "Restaurant Row" on 39th Street who have wanted an exclusively barbecue restaurant in the neighborhood will probably thrilled when restaurateur Tommy Treccariche opens Matchstick Barbecue later this summer in the former Spitfire Wine Bar & Grill location at 1809 West 39th Street.

According to real estate maven Greg Patterson, who negotiated the deal, Treccarciche -- who has a background in the meat business -- and his partners saw a niche on 39th Street for an intimate bistro that served both barbecue and breakfasts: the breakfast trade has been slim on this stretch since Bell Street Mama's -- now Mama's 39th Street Diner -- moved to the eastern border of the neighborhood, to the old Nichol's Lunch location.

The owners of Matchstick, according to Patterson, will put a smoker at the back of the building and offer smoked meats -- including unusual game, like elk -- and barbecue breakfasts.

 

A couple of my friends had raved to me about the new restaurant at 3613 Broadway, a home-style barbeque restaurant called C. Withers Restaurant & Catering. But my friend Richard Strong, who lives in the neighborhood, practically demanded that I eat there.

"The food is fantastic. And so inexpensive!"

The family-owned business is located in the narrow storefront last occupied by the Nigat Ethiopian Restaurant. The simple black awning over the entrance doesn't say much -- other than the owner's name -- about the business. But this joint is definitely worth a visit. I tasted some of the best ribs, chicken wings, cornbread and side dishes that I've eaten in this town. And yes, the fare is modestly priced.

But for one day -- next Tuesday, June 2 -- owner Cardell Withers is serving a lunch for $1.03 as part of a promotion with local radio station 103 KPRS-FM.  What, I asked him, can you serve for a buck and three pennies? "Three chicken wings and a side dish," he told me.

And baby, those chicken wings are good. And you haven't lived until you've tasted cheesecake-flavored cornbread.

 

Continue reading " Now Open: C. Withers Restaurant"...

Tags: barbecue, C. Withers Restaurant & Catering, cornbread, side dishes, smoked meats

The theme for last week's "Restaurant Critic's" edition of KCUR-FM's Walt Bodine Show was Italian food. But the caller questions, typically, had little to do with the theme. A woman called in looking for a place that served home-made, hand-breaded onion rings. A few minutes later, a gentleman called in to rave about the onion rings and everything else at Adam's Rib Original KC Barbecue, which opened a month ago.

I wrote about owner Hope Loehr getting the place together on Fat City in February.

Yesterday, I decided the time had come for me to eat at the restaurant, which usually closes early on Sundays, but the mention on the Walt Bodine Show brought in so much business over the weekend that Loehr was ignoring her own closing times. "If we're busy," she told me, "I stay open."

The joint was packed, but after ordering at the counter, my friend Bob and I found a little table where we could watch the muted TV monitors and eat 'que: a sampler plate with brisket and babyback ribs for him and a Carolina-styled pulled pork sandwich for me. The ribs were great and so was my pulled pork, topped with a hefty spoonful cole slaw, especially after I doused it with Adam's Rib signature sauce, a molasses-heavy number with a surprisingly fiery aftertaste. I liked it. In addition to the typical side dishes, like fries, baked beans and onion rings (which aren't hand-breaded but are really good), Loehr offers a creamy mac-and-cheese -- a nice counterpoint to the smoky meats -- and cheesy cornbread with honey butter.

Adam's Rib serves desserts too, including fried apple fritters heavily dusted with cinnamon sugar. They're big, about the size of a small Macintosh apple. Like the fruit that got Adam and his rib-turned-love interest, Eve, in so much trouble.

These days, I can't pass a sign with the word special in it without stopping to investigate. I saw this sign in front of one of my favorite barbecue joints tonight: RJ's Bob-Be-Que Shack at 5835 Lamar in Mission. A barbecue sandwich and fries for less than four bucks?

This special -- only available as a carry-out deal -- is the "Lil One Sandwich" that's usually priced at $5.25, including fries, on the regular menu. I winced at the idea that the sandwich was "lil." What if it were too "lil" for a hearty appetite? At RJ's, this sandwich is filled with 3-ounces of meat, your choice of beef brisket, ham, turkey, sausage, pork or chicken. And a fistful of those wonderfully crispy seasoned fries. The sandwich wasn't too petite, I was happy to see. I ordered sausage for myself and brisket for a friend. But since I was hungry, I ate my meal in the car on the way home. It was satisfying and a very good deal.

This carry-out special is available seven days a week and if you think it sounds like too "lil" food, order two.

Flickr: Ttstam

Is it true? Can barbecue actually be healthy for you? Yes and no. New research shows that the fat in a certain cut of barbecue may be the good monounsaturated type.

The research is by a team at Texas A&M, and thus the focus is on Texas-style barbecue and the famous Texas brisket. According to "meat scientist" Dr. Stephen Smith, brisket contains "tiny reservoirs of healthy monounsaturated fatty acids" with cornfed steer fat containing 50 percent oleic acid, a monounsaturated acid that's good for the human body. (The healthiest oils, like olive oil, are around 70 percent oleic acid but can be as low as 50 percent oleic acid, making brisket nearly as good as olive oil.)

Flickr: Clever Swine

It's looking as if Gates Barbecue won't have a place at the redesigned Kauffman Stadium.

In charge of concession stands and restaurants in the newly redesigned stadium is food giant Aramark, which signed an agreement this past fall with the club to provide food services for the next 10 years. Calls to Aramark office went unreturned but a Royals employee with knowledge of the new concession layouts told me he had not seen Gates in the new plans.

Nearly a month after taking the Internet by storm and having a write-up in The New York Times, the bacon explosion is going strong. Co-founder of the bacon explosion and Web site BBQ Addicts Aaron Chronister confirmed that a book is in the works. "The deal is nearly done. We haven't signed the papers yet but they accepted our proposal."

"They" would be Scribner, a division of publishing giant Simon and Schuster. Chronister didn't offer up any details on the financial arrangement but it's widely being reported as somewhere in the six figures.

Chronister is still in shock. "If you'd have bet me a million dollars a month ago that I'd ever be writing a book, I would have said you're crazy... I keep thinking it's going to taper off but it hasn't." Neither he nor co-founder Jason Day have ever written a book, though they did write a sample chapter to present at the book proposal. While it's the bacon explosion that made the duo famous, the book won't have the recipe in it. "Everybody knows that one. We want to share our own unique recipes... we're still putting them together and deciding what to do."

One thing Chronister knows for certain is the title: Barbecue Makes Everything Better. If all goes according to plan, expect the book on store shelves by spring of next year. In the meantime, Chronister and Day have a lot of tasting and testing to do.

Is Bacon Explosion: The Movie far behind?

OK, we all know that when a restaurateur says his or her new establishment is going to open "soon," that really means "in this decade."

But the hard-working Hope Loehr has been working around-the-clock inside the building -- a former Pizza Hut -- at 9148 Santa Fe Drive in Overland Park to make sure her new business, Adam's Rib Original KC Barbecue, really opens later this month.

If the name sounds familiar, it's because Loehr (former manager at Hayward's Barbecue and the New Theatre Restaurant) had another barbecue, with the same name, back in the 1994. That was in Overland Park too. But Loehr thinks this new location, the former home of a saloon called J. Barleycorn, is the right one. It's on a major east-west artery in Johnson County and, even better, it's right next to a Quik-Trip! Loehr's theory? Customers stop for gas and a lottery ticket, stay for a brisket burger!

When barbecue restaurants starting going under in Kansas City you know the recession is bad. Today is the last day for Kansas City, Kansas, barbecue joint Jones Bar-B-Q which is "suspending" operations after 15 years in business.

Owner Deborah Jones told the Kansas City Kansan that while she holds hope of reopening later this year, she's "been advised to close up shop until the economy improves."

It will be a good last day to eat at Jone's Bar-B-Q. The restaurant has a large patio to thoroughly enjoy today's awesome weather and Strawberry Hill in general.

From the New York Times slideshow. Left to right: Aaron Chronister and Jason Day.

Shortly before Christmas, two Kansas Citians put a barbecue recipe on their BBQ Addicts blog, which was receiving about about as much traffic as you'd expect for a local barbecue blog. Today, Jason Day and Aaron Chronister are on the front page of The New York Times' dining section, all thanks to the bacon explosion.

These may not be the most ideal economic times to open a new restaurant -- even one serving Kansas City's most iconic dish. After all, the new Famous Dave's Barbecue in the Power & Light District (yes, an ill-chosen non-local chain, but that's not the point) didn't last a year -- it's already being turned into one of those raucous, saloon-like Old Chicago Pasta & Pizza operations.

But Steven Dawkins had a dream. "I wanted to own my own restaurant," he says, "and the opportunity presented itself, so we did it."

A few days before Christmas, Dawkins, his wife Tennille and his brother Joseph Hooker opened the door to a tiny storefront: Greedy Man's Bar-B-Que at 5536-A Troost (it's across the street from the venerable Troostwood Garage and Body Shop) which sells barbecue sandwiches, burgers, fried shrimp and a fried turkey chop sandwich, among other things.

With only three tables in the narrow room, most of the business is carry-out. Decorations include a few framed record albums and two electric guitars mounted on a wall. The musical memorabilia is a tribute to Dawkins' cousin, the legendary blues artist John Lee Hooker. 

Dawkins called the restaurant Greedy Man's because, for several years, he operated a mobile sandwich truck, Greedy Man's Lunch Box, and he likes the name. The signature dish here is the hot and spicy chicken wings -- and I can attest to their hot and spicy qualities, let me tell you. But the residents around the neighborhood -- including students from UMKC and Rockhurst University -- are coming in for cheeseburgers, the jumbo shrimp baskets and the hefty barbecued beef sandwich made with ground beef. Most of the sandwiches come with a side dish, including a choice of kick-ass baked beans or potato salad.

 

 When it's available, Greedy Man sells a fine peach cobbler too. If they're out of it, customers can go to Stretch's Ice Cream Shop next store for a funnel cake.

Greedy Man's Bar-B-Que is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. -- By Charles Ferruzza 

By CHARLES FERRUZZA

In an election season, a tasteful “meet-and-greet” cocktail reception or brunch for a political candidate (with ample opportunity and pens for check-writing) is practically de rigueur for Kansas City hosts and hostesses with social consciousness – and spacious living rooms.

Last Sunday, Jordan and Betty Bushman opened their beautifully appointed Plaza condominium for just such a soiree.

By CHARLES FERRUZZA

The good news: One of my favorite weekend breakfast joints — R.J.’s Bob-Be-Que Shack at 5835 Lamar in Mission — is now serving up big platters of smoked meats and eggs during the week.

The bad news: It’s one of the few Kansas City restaurants that offers a breakfast too big even for me to finish off.