Jones Bar-B-Q (Kansas City) facts for kids

Jones Bar-B-Q is a popular barbecue restaurant in Kansas City, Kansas. It is special because it's owned and run by two sisters, Deborah and Mary Jones. They are known for their delicious smoked meats and a secret family sauce.

The Story of Jones Bar-B-Q

Deborah and Mary Jones grew up in Kansas City. Their father, Leavy Jones, worked as an electrician. He also cooked barbecue at an African-American owned restaurant called Hezekiah's. The sisters helped out from a young age. They learned to make their family's sausage recipe.

The sisters and their siblings worked at Hezekiah's on weekends. Their brother Daniel later bought the restaurant. Deborah continued to work there, even while having another full-time job. When Daniel passed away in the 1980s, Mary joined Deborah. Mary was a nurse, but she decided to help run the family business.

They kept the restaurant on 10th Street until 2003. Then they moved to 6th Street. In 2009, they decided to make their business smaller. They started selling barbecue from a food cart on 12th Street. This allowed them to spend more time caring for their father, who had been in an accident.

A New Beginning and TV Fame

After their father passed away in 2015, the sisters opened their current restaurant. It's in a former taco stand in an industrial area of Kansas City. Their big wood smoker sits outside. Customers line up to order their food at a window. The restaurant is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 11 AM until they sell out. They often sell out by noon!

By 2016, The Kansas City Star newspaper noted something unique about them. They might be the only barbecue restaurant in Kansas City owned and run by women pitmasters. Pitmasters are the experts who cook the barbecue. The sisters do not take part in barbecue cooking competitions.

In 2018, Deborah and Mary appeared on Steve Harvey's TV show, Steve. They were featured in a part called "The Queens of Barbecue."

In March 2019, the sisters and their restaurant were on the TV show Queer Eye. The show was filmed near Kansas City. Deborah's daughter, Izora, nominated them. She told the show that her aunts had reopened their restaurant after using a food cart. This helped Izora pay for college. The sisters and their restaurant got a makeover from the show. They also started bottling their famous barbecue sauce.

After the Queer Eye episode, demand for their food exploded! They had to add a second barbecue pit to keep up. As of March 2019, they hadn't hired more staff. They wanted to be sure the high demand would last before hiring new people.

What's on the Menu?

Jones Bar-B-Q sells many tasty items. They offer ribs, turkey, burnt ends, brisket, and sausage. Everything is cooked "pit-style" over hickory logs. This means they use wood smoke to cook the meat slowly. When the Queer Eye show was fixing up their restaurant, the sisters told them not to bother putting in an oven. They only cook with smoke!

The Famous Sauce

For a while, customers bought the sisters' barbecue sauce directly from the restaurant. But the demand became too much for them to handle. They stopped selling it as a separate item.

During the Queer Eye show, the sisters connected with a local company. This company helped them bottle their sauce. This meant they could sell and distribute it more widely. The TV episode aired on March 15. By March 28, they had already sold over 70,000 bottles of their delicious sauce!