Glenn Elder - Lakeside Convenience

Normally, when you think of convenience store food, old hotdogs on rollers and cheap low quality microwave burritos come to mind. Rarely do convenience stores and good barbeque go hand in hand. Except for when you're talking about Lakeside Convenience, overlooking Waconda Lake in Glenn Elder, Kansas- it's one of those rare treats.

This place looks like a typical gas station. In fact, nothing outside the building indicates the delicious food available inside. Had it not been for a tip from Kansas State University Extension Agent Sarah Molzahn, who covers this area of North Central Kansas, I would have never known about this hidden gem.

Don't let this disguise fool you- this is some good grub!

Lakeside Convenience carries a good selection of barbecue supplies including smoking woods and delicious Head County sauces. These are the same sauces served with their pulled pork sandwiches.The also sell Luther’s Smokehouse jerky, the same good stuff covered by fellow blogger Mike.

They have a limited barbecue menu that includes wonderful pulled pork sandwiches seasoned with a homemade blend of spices and served on a butter toasted bun.During my recent visit, I chose seasoned fries for a side and was not disappointed.

Trust me. It's good. 

If you're looking for something different or just something handy while out at the lake, you owe it to yourself to stop in. Just look for the fish out front.

Nice fish.

Until next time, swine and dine!

Chris

Kansas City - Woodyard Bar-B-Que

I feel like I’d be doing you a disservice if I talked about unique places to dine on barbecued pork and didn’t mention “Woodyard Bar-B-Que” in Kansas City, KS. Woodyard is the consummate KC BBQ place as far as I am concerned. Woodyard is located on Merriam Lane, which on the map is just north of the I-35 and Lamar Ave. interchange, so it’s pretty easy to get to, and well worth your time.

Welcome friends.

Woodyard happens to be inside an old house of all places, with large brick smokers outside (pretty much in what used to be the front yard) that do all the cooking. In my mind, it is bare bones BBQ at its finest. I find it’s best to go when the weather is nice, because the majority of the seating is outdoors, but there are a few places to sit inside if need be. They actually happen to be in the living/dining room of the old house!

Come on in and take a seat.

 The place has really grown in popularity lately, as it was featured in 2010 on Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” hosted by Guy Fieti. From a humble beginning in the 1950s as nothing more than a place that sold smoking wood, Woodyard slowly turned into a place that also used the wood to smoke meat and sell it too over the years! These days, with the publicity the TV show brought, and a recent concerted effort to cater to the “happy hour” crowd, this unique family-run eatery has really had an upswing in business.

I wish I could include aroma in these pictures. 

On my last trip there, I had the #1 rib platter, with came with two pork ribs, some of the best smoked pork sausage I have ever eaten, a side, and a couple other meats that we won’t discuss right now! The ribs were very tender, and have an outstanding rub on them that is as unique as the restaurant itself is. The sausage, like I said, was some of the best I have ever had. It was lean, but not chewy, and had good moisture without being greasy.

The real deal.

At Woodyard you walk in and order, and they bring the food to you at the table when it is ready, but otherwise this place is all self serve regarding your drinks and sauce needs. There is a roll of paper towels on the table and that’s about it! Just about the way Kansas City Barbecue was meant to be served I would say! If you’re heading down I-35 in Kansas City and are in the mood for something a chain restaurant can’t even begin to offer, make your way to “Woodyard Bar-B-Que” and step back in time for a taste of Kansas City Barbecue’s glory days! 


-Mike

Morland - Mercantile Community Support Part II

If you didn’t make it out to the Morland Mercantile Benefit supper on Friday July 15th,

You missed the best barbeque ribs in northwest Kansas!

Ribs you missed!

The buffet line. There was more, but this is the important stuff.

The event was a fundraiser for the Morland Mercantile, a community kitchen and access to food facility housed in a historic downtown grocery store building. Equipment for the Morland Mercantile will be brought in early this fall and hopefully the doors will open for business soon after.

Looks so good, and they were!

The July 15th barbeque brought in approximately $1700 in donations for the thirty racks of ribs and five gallons of beans that were served.

Chris working hard!

The ribs were expertly prepared by KCBS bbq judge Chris Petty with assistance from community supporters Alice Petty and Alex Leslie. They were slow smoked on three smokers for approximately 8 hours using a combination of mulberry and hickory wood and were hand rubbed with Head Country Seasoning.


Until next time, swine and dine!
Chris

Morland - Mercantile Community Support

Hey BBQ lovers, yours truly will be smoking up a heap of delicious Kansas City style pork ribs this Friday, July 15th! Come on down to the Prairie Junction in beautiful downtown Morland, Kansas at 5:30 P.M. for a free will offering supper to support the Morland Mercantile and enjoy the best ribs in northwest Kansas!

Tasty ribs you will enjoy! 

The Morland Mercantile is a community supported access to food facility and community kitchen that will be opening soon. Construction work is being done now on the historic grocery store building and equipment should be arriving this fall.

Morland Grocery

Tasty ribs can be enjoyed with traditional sides and even a nice cold one if you wish! Community supporters Alex Leslie and food blogger Christopher Petty will slowly hickory smoke 140 pounds of meaty and perfectly seasoned pork ribs all day until they are just right for your eating pleasure!

I wouldn't miss these if I were you...

Come on out and get a great meal and support a great cause at the same time… and remember pigs always smell better when they are barbecued!

Until next time, swine and dine!

Chris

Williamsburg- Guy and Mae's Tavern

The Tavern

A while back I finally had the pleasure to stop at a place I’d heard a lot about over the years. It had almost become an urban legend in my mind. I was glad to see (and taste) that it actually existed, while managing to live up to the hype. The place is none other than Guy and Mae’s Tavern in Williamsburg, KS. It’s known far and wide for serving up delicious pork ribs in a no-frills fashion, and won’t disappoint the seeker of all things BBQ!

           

Williamsburg is located a mile or so south of I-35, out between BETO Junction and Ottawa (it’s about a 20 minute drive from either Ottawa or BETO Junction). You about have to be going there on purpose, or lost, to find the place, but it is well worth your time if you’re a rib fan! “Guy and Mae’s” is about the only thing going on in Williamsburg anymore, but it continues to pull people in from all over the region, wanting to get a taste of the famous ribs.

           

The Food

As you can see in the picture, the ribs are certainly served up in the most basic fashion. What the picture doesn’t show is how they look when they are served. It is a mess of foil that you open up, revealing 2 slices of white bread, with a beautiful slab of ribs under them, and a folded up newspaper under the ribs. It just seems like the way ribs were meant to be served! The ribs were excellent. They were very tender and were about as lean as ribs get. The meat came off the bones and pulled apart almost like you’d expect tender pot roast to do. An added bonus is that the ribs at Guy and Mae’s are trimmed to be “St. Louis Style”, meaning that the cartilage and sternum are cut off, making them fast and easy to eat. The dry rub provided all the flavor I needed, and it was a good thing. I was not fond of the house BBQ sauce; the only drawback to the entire experience.

           

If you’re not in the mood for ribs, you have some other choices, but not many! The menu is basic to say the least. Ribs are the main attraction, but you can get a few other types of smoked meat served in sandwich form. As for sides, you can get a bag of chips, baked beans, potato salad, or cole slaw. Go ahead and get some spicy pickles too, just make sure your drink is handy!

-Mike

P.S. For those last minute folks, make sure to sign up for Kansas Pork's grill giveaway today! The drawing will be tomorrow, July 15!

Salina- Hickory Hut

Yeah, they're serious.

It was time for another road trip a couple weeks ago, so I loaded up the family and headed toward Missouri. As we traveled, my wife and I found ourselves in Salina, around noon time. We decided to try the Hickory Hut for lunch. I had seen several favorable reviews on trip advisor and decided to try for myself. 

Can you smell it from here?

The very first thing I noticed was that the smell of barbeque hit my nose as soon as we opened up the door. I always consider the smell factor to be an important part of the entire barbeque experience and this place did not disappoint. 

The Sampler Platter

While I wouldn’t consider the Hickory Hut to be fancy, it is nicely decorated and I noticed that there was a constant line of customers from the cash register to the door. In the parking lot I found cars from all over Kansas and many from other states as well. This speaks volumes about the popularity of the place.  While I was standing in the order line, I overheard one customer describe the place to an out of state friend as “good mild barbeque.” This is a pretty good description, as nothing was overwhelming or far out of the ordinary for what could be considered to be Kansas City style barbecue. In fact, smoking with hickory wood is one of the definitive characteristics of Kansas City Style barbeque.

The spread.

My wife, son and I all shared the sampler platter which was plenty big enough for the three of us. I would certainly recommend the sausage and pulled pork. The beans, which contained ample amounts of meat, were above average as well. The French fries were good and the meal came with Texas toast instead of the cheap white bread many places serve. If your just passing through on Interstate 70 or if you live in central Kansas, you owe it to yourself to check out the Hickory Hut. 

As far as our giveaway, the Kansas Pork Association is still registering folks for the summer grill giveaway. If you're looking to win a Genesis e-320 Gas Grill, head on over to KPA's webpage and sign up to win. 

Until next time, swine and dine!

Chris

Bonner Springs- Papa Bob's Bar-Be-Que

Adam Richman's nemesis. 

Lately, when a person thinks of western Wyandotte County, Cabela’s, Nebraska Furniture Mart, the Legends shopping center, and the Kansas Speedway are the first things that come to mind, but if you slightly venture off the beaten path in that area, some very good barbeque awaits. In my latest quest for all things pork, I hit up a place I’ve visited a few times before, and was always impressed with. The place, “Papa Bob’s Bar-Be-Que”, is located on the eastern outskirts of Bonner Springs on KS Hwy 32. That's just east of the KS Hwy 7 interchange, or about 15 minutes southwest of the Legends shopping area. Papa Bob’s is a neat little place that’s home to some excellent Kansas City Style Barbeque, as well as a nearly impossible food challenge that has stumped even the great Adam Richman of Travel Channel’s show “Man vs. Food”.

Mmmm...

On my most recent stop at Papa Bob’s, I had the “Rib Platter”, which consisted of an assortment of both long end and short end pork ribs, and the choice of 2 sides. The ribs were delicious; end of story! They were lean, tender, juicy and of course, smoky. They were cooked to near perfection and had just a light coating of Papa Bob’s regular BBQ sauce on them, which tasted great. The beans were meaty and tasty, the onion rings were crispy and fresh, and the meal was certainly more than enough food for me!

Note the adult sunglasses and how small they look. 

If that doesn’t suit you though, they have an awesome food challenge for anyone brave enough to try it. It’s called “The Ultimate Destroyer” and it doesn’t appear on the menu. The Ultimate Destroyer is 4.5 lbs of meat on a 12 inch hoagie bun, served with 1.5 lbs of fries, and a pickle. It costs almost 50 bucks and you have 45 minutes to eat everything on the plate. Your prize for finishing it, besides basic pride, is that you get it free and you get to join all of about 4 people on the “wall of fame” that have actually finished it in as a solo act! If you fail, you get proudly displayed on the “wall of shame” instead! The day I stopped in to eat, I was lucky enough to see the sandwich with my own eyes. Unfortunately, it was a group of 3 adult men eating it, so the drama was limited. Nevertheless, the sandwich was a sight to see!

Overall I highly recommend this place for its pork perfection. There’s not much I like better than a place off the beaten path that truly looks the part of the classic KC BBQ joint, and then backs up the looks by actually serving authentic KC Style BBQ. Throw in a ridiculous food challenge and an old-school indoor atmosphere and you have a can’t-miss place to eat if you’re near the Legends region and are looking for something besides the usual suspects of the restaurant world!  

Next on the agenda is something that we've both been waiting on. Remember how we said we would work with the Kansas Pork Producers to provide you with a summer grill giveaway? It's here! Just give the picture below a click and get signed up between today and June 15 for your chance to win a Weber Genesis e-320 Gas Grill .  Oh, and by the way, make sure to tell a pork producer thank you the next time you see him!

Click here!