KC Confidential.com

This just in – more details to follow…

Hayward’s Pit Bar B Que has inked a deal to open a second location at 9148 Santa Fe Drive in old Overland Park.

Despite their acclaim, Adam’s Rib BBQ took a dirt nap at that location late last year – the victim of a sour economy.

Somewhat ironically, Adam’s Rib owner Hope Loehr managed Hayward’s in its heyday in the late ’80s / early ’90s.

The new biz will operate similarly to Adam’s Rib – no table service per se – unlike Hayward’s College Boulevard and Antioch location.

A moment of silence, please for Adam’s Rib in old Overland Park…

The less than year-old barbecue restaurant fought a valiant battle in a difficult economy. In the end, there just wasn’t enough time for the word of mouth to spread – nor enough marketing dollars to help spread it – and one of the Cotown’s best BBQs had to close. Ironically, just as Kansas City’s annual celebration of all things barbecue was about to go down this weekend at the American Royal.

Pretty sad…

Yesterday I received the following note from owner Hope Loehr: Continue reading

Hey look. Adam’s Rib is an advertiser on KC Confidential, right? Duh…

And I just wrote about its coming-soon contest where 10 local celebs will vie to win beaucoup bucks for the charity of their choice by entering the Ultimate Brisket Burger Challenge August 15th. So absent any new news that KC Mayor Mark Funkhouser, George Brett, Jason Whitlock or some other celebs have agreed to the chow down it would be bogus for me to revisit the story, right?

Wrong.

That’s what I would have told uou like 15 minutes ago…

But that is soooo 15 minutes ago. 

That’s because 5 minutes ago I got an email from Adam’s Rib owner Hope Loehr with a photo of herself seated by the actual 10 pound plus sandwich the contestants will be attempting to consume. 

With that said, I’ll let the photo of Hope and the sandwich do the rest of the talking…

You don’t have to dream the impossible dream – just nibble away at it…

Such as it is, Westport Flea Market main man Joe Zwillenberg has agreed to participate in Amanda Fredrickson of Gourmet Nomads Ultimate Brisket Burger charity challenge. The 10 man/woman chomp down goes down at 3 p.m. Saturday August 15th at Adam’s Rib bbq in Overland Park. The person who somehow, someway eats most wins a significant cash bounty for their charity of choice. In Zwillenberg’s case, that would be the Dream Factory.

Mr. Z joins the artist known as Stretch (of Grinders and Crossroads KC fame) and eight other celebrity contestants in what will undoubtedly be ridiculously insane, failed attempts at consuming Adam’s Rib’s supersized-for-this-’test ‘wich. Continue reading

The bottom line for those of us trapped here in the ever so humble flyover zone: we’ll pretty much take whatever good PR we can get…

So huzzah to former Star scribe Catharine Hamm’s “A hearty helping of Kansas City BBQ” story  last week    in the Los Angeles Times.

“Please don’t tell the family this, but they’re not the only reason I return to Kansas City whenever I can. I love them, of course, but I can talk to them on the phone,” the story begins. “We can e-mail. We can Twitter, for crying out loud. But barbecue is something you have to do in person. And it is best done here in the Heartland.”

What sets Hamm’s story apart from the standard issue smoked meats schmooze is that she explains she’s not going to belabor Gate’s or Bryant’s as is somewhat the custom. Continue reading

I have seen the future of kick ass BBQ in Overland Park and it is Adam’s rib...

Once upon a time that title belonged to a gentleman named Hayward Spears. To this day Spears operates Hayward’s Pit Bar B Que at College and Antioch. During Hayward’s ’70s and ’80s heydays, it owned the barbecue bragging rights for Johnson County. It was also one of the first suburban eateries to cash in on then new liquor-by-the-drink laws in the days when only private clubs could dole out Jagerbombs and the like. It’s spanking new, upscale digs and panoramic views of Corporate Woods merged the otherwise gritty art of eating Kansas City barbecue with fine dining.

That was then…

Today Hayward’s has grown a bit long in the tooth and shopworn to be charitable. And those long lines of suburbanites from its glory years are far fewer and further between by my measure.

Enter former Hayward’s manager Hope Loehr... Continue reading