RJ’s Bob-Be-Que Shack in Mission, KS
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| RJ’s Brisket sandwich |
Today I stopped by RJ’s Bob-Be-Que Shack in Mission, KS on the corner of Johnson Drive and Lamar. From their website…”Robert “Bob” Palmgren, is a Kansas City native, who got his start in food service while working at his family’s grocery store off Armour & Troost. After his years at the store, Bob discovered his passion and began his lifelong career in professional, fine-dining cuisine. He has since moved around the country serving as chef, executive chef, restaurant consultant, and contractor at many restaurants and public and private events across the culinary spectrum. After over 25 years in the fine-dining and food retail arena, Bob resolved he would finally pursue what had, up to that point, been only a hobby: BBQ. RJ’s Bob-Be-Que Shack was born. Named after Bob’s son, RJ (Robert, Junior), the restaurant is Bob’s grand opus. With more than 30 years of toying around at BBQ contests, Bob and his girlfriend Denise realized his dream of owning and operating his very own restaurant.” They’ve also been featured on Kansas City’s “Check Please” television restaurant review show and Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”
I arrived around 4:30 on Thursday. I had a fantasy football draft so I had to go a bit early. This is a restaurant where you seat yourself and a waitress serves you at your table. They have a bar with plenty of beers on tap and liquor as well and I decided to sit at the bar. There weren’t too many people at the restaurant at this time of day. There were three Shawnee police officers sitting at a table and another gentleman that was sitting at the bar.
Their menu is A La Carte, so the sandwich doesn’t come with sides. I ordered their large brisket sandwich and it took about 10 minutes to get my order. The sandwich is served on toasted bread with no sauce. This is the first place I’ve visited that serves their sandwich with toasted bread, so that was different. My first thought when she gave me my food was “wow, that’s a lot of bread!” There was a bottom slice of bread, some brisket on top of that, another slice of bread, some brisket on top of that and then another slice of bread on top.
The brisket was a bit dry and tough, but had a good flavor to it. I ate half of the sandwich without sauce and decided to split the other half in two pieces to try their sauces. Their original sauce has a bit of a brown sugar taste to it but was not too sweet. The second sauce is a “Southern BBQ” sauce and it was VERY sweet. I am not a fan of the Southern sauce. I noticed they have a “Habenero Sauce” so I took a piece of brisket off the sandwich so I could try that sauce as well. It has quite a kick to it and the taste lingered in my mouth and tingled. It really did linger for a while after I tried it. I had two glasses of water trying to get the feeling back in my mouth but I could still feel the heat!
My bill was $9.86 for a large brisket sandwich. The fries or any of the other sides were between $2.50 and $5.00.
I’m glad I found this place, but I’m not a huge fan of the brisket. Since there is a Johnny’s right down the street, I’d probably just go there if I was in the area and wanted some barbecue. I’ve heard some people really like this place, so maybe they have other items that are worth trying. I’ll have to give it a shot again sometime.
I’ve got 15 restaurants down now. I’ve added one to my list and I had to remove one that went out of business, so that will even out. Till next time….
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| Here’s a picture of half the sandwich. A lot of bread and not much meat. |
