"Nonnymus" wrote

I just got back from an emergency run (funeral) to the old hometown in
central MO, passing thru MCI on the way. Naturally, I had to stop at
one of my favorite Q joints to get some food to sustain me for the 90
mile drive ahead. The name of the place I so enjoy is something like
Smokehouse or Smokestack Barbecue, I don't recall the name fully, but
it's located off Tiffany Springs Road, across from the Embassy Suites up
by the airport. Their sauce is absolutely classic KC style, and about
all they lack is pulled pork. I had a sandwich of turkey and sliced
sausage, slathered with their sauce. It was so good, I didn't even
spill a drop on my clean shirt. The slaw and potato salad were classic
as well.

You're probably familiar with the place, and if you're not, I'm sure
they have others in the KC area. Let me know what you think. IMHO, it
doesn't offer the finest Q in KC, but I've never been disappointed in
it, either. Their sauce is good, though and the portions and price are
right as well.

Smokestack - A venerable group of barbecue restaurants which have branched
over years as the Fiorella family opened different locations and spinoff
names, for example, the upscale Jack Stacks developed by one of the
founder's sons. The variants are too numerous to remember them all, some
operating, some defunct, with varying degrees of quality from mediocre to
incredible. When I was a kid washing dishes in a diner, the patriarch and
founder Jack Fiorella would come in Sunday mornings for breakfast, all of
about 5 ft tall, and 5ft wide, dressed in kitchen whites, driving a
split window Sting Ray. If he stood still in your yard in the winter he
could have passed for a snowman. When he got out of the Vette he
popped out as if he had been forcefully squeezed into it. His original
Smokestack
restaurant, one of the true shrines of KC barbecue, had, IMO, the best
burnt ends, and pit baked beans slow cooked in individual crocks,
ever to grace KC.

I digress, but I can't help waxing sentimental since the ravages of time and
urban decline eventually brought the original to its end a couple years
back. Back to the question.

Smokehouse Barbecue where you ate is different. It seems to be a chain of
restaurants, I don't know how large, but there are three around here and
unfortunately none of them is
anywhere close to me. There are two up north of the river and one in the
eastern edge of Independence, all at least a 40 minute drive from south KC.
You were probably at the one in Zona Rosa. Anyway I haven't tried it yet,
especially since there are so many places between here and there I find
irresistible. I'll probably be up north a few times next month so I will
check it out and let you know what I think. It sounds pretty tasty!

What's your hometown in MO?

MartyB in KC