I'm so glad we formed this group. We share very similar personalities, had lots of fun and laughs, and pretty sure there are a couple of #teamfunfact field trips in the works.
The conference ended early Wednesday afternoon. Bruce was moderating a late morning session so we all went to that. Everyone had talked about going to Oklahoma Joe's, and we decided it would be the perfect way to finish out the week. Kerrie was originally going to stay for the last session and miss out, but changed her mind and joined the party. Mike rented a car so we could drop him and the San Jose crew off at the airport after lunch. Kerrie wasn't flying out until later that evening, and I was staying another night.
I had heard of Oklahoma Joe's, but had never been there. Everyone gave it rave reviews, and it's basically required to eat BBQ while in Kansas City. We settled on the original location, since it's closest to the airport. After looking at the other locations on the website, I'm so happy we did. The original is in a gas station...can't beat that for atmosphere. The other ones are in modern buildings, and that just wouldn't be the same.
I've heard of people waiting up to 2 1/2 hours to get through the line. When we arrived the line was wrapped around the inside, all the way to the door, but we made it through in about 30 minutes. You're not supposed to save tables. But we're rebels. We saw a couple of guys from the conference who were finishing up, so we sat with them. And they gave us the rest of their fries. So we weren't really saving, we were eating fries...
The menu is pretty basic. BBQ and sides. I ended up with Bruce & Mike in line when we were ordering. We rattled off the list to the guy, who rattled it back to us and then back to the kitchen twice. And never got anything wrong. Honestly we weren't even sure if it was wrong or not, but everything came out perfectly. We were amazed and impressed.
We each got a sandwich, plus we split a rack of ribs, potato salad, cole slaw, onion rings, and fries. 3 of us got the Z man, 3 got the Carolina Pulled Pork.
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Z Man sandwich - slow smoked beef brisket, smoked provolone cheese,
two crispy onion rings, kaiser roll
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| Carolina Pulled Pork - pulled pork on toasted bun, topped with spicy cole slaw and Bubba's sauce |
I had the Z Man, and it was fantastic. The brisket was so tender, the provolone was delicious, and the onion rings gave it a great crunch. The Carolina pulled pork also got rave reviews. Kerrie said the spicy cole slaw was really spicy, so we went with the creamy. For some reason Mike thought it was a good idea to get pints of the cole slaw and potato salad. They were both excellent, but no chance we could finish them. The fries were absolutely delicious. They had kind of an Old Bay spice on them. The ribs were to die for. Falling off the bone. There are 12 on a full slab, so we each had 2. I had to force myself to eat the second one because I was so full. But no chance I wasn't finishing it.
By the time we were absolutely stuffed, there was still most of the potato salad and cole slaw left, as well as some onion rings. Not because they weren't delicious, but because we had ordered way too much. There was a big group about to take our table, so we left everything with them. They hadn't ordered any of that, so it worked out perfectly.
Will I go back? This is yet another restaurant on my annual KC list. And I will always go to the original location.
