Danny Edwards BLVD BBQ in Kansas City, Missouri
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| Danny Edwards brisket sandwich and fries |
Today I visited Danny Edwards BLVD BBQ on Southwest Boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri. Danny Edwards BLVD BBQ is a family restaurant along the lines of a number of other barbecue places in Kansas City. According to their website, “Danny Edwards’s father Jake arrived in Kansas City in 1938 and set up Jake’s Barbecue, which remained open until 1981. Danny, then known as “Lil’ Jake,” opened his own barbecue restaurant in 1980 using his family’s recipes. He became most well-known for his slogan, “Eat it, and beat it.” It was a reminder to the customers of his 18-seater on Grand Boulevard in the heart of downtown Kansas City of the long line of customers waiting for seats. In 2007, Edwards was forced out of his Grand Boulevard space and he relocated to a much larger space on Southwest Boulevard.”
This restaurant is open limited hours. 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM Monday through Saturday to be exact. I arrived around 12:30 on Friday. There were five people in line ahead of me and the dining area was pretty full. I would say it probably seats around 50 people.I could smell the smoker as soon as I walked in the door and it smelled delicious. This is a restaurant where you order at the counter and seat yourself and they bring your food to you. I ordered a large brisket sandwich and fries and my bill was around 13 dollars. A few minutes after I ordered and got my drink at the self serve station and then found a table they called my name. I got up to walk to the counter to get my food and the woman holding my order saw me and said “no, no, please sit down. I’ll bring it to you!” Guess I was unaware of the standard protocol at this restaurant, but it is very nice that they bring your food to you because not all places do that.
The sandwich is served on a normal sandwich bun with thick cut pieces of brisket. They gave me quite a large serving of meat. The sandwich was also served with their sauce already on it. When I took my first bite I was disappointed that the meat seemed a bit cold. It was a little warm, but the temperature made it seem like it had been sitting at room temperature for more than a few minutes and I know it hadn’t been sitting out because I received the sandwich only a couple minutes after ordering it. Other than that, I thought the brisket was prepared perfectly. The meat had a nice smoke ring and smoky flavor and a crunchy bark. There was almost zero fat on this sandwich, so they do a great job of trimming the fat. The meat was tender and had just the right texture. I’d say other than the temperature being a bit off, they cooked almost a perfect brisket.
I tried their barbecue sauce with my fries. I really like their sauce. It is not very sweet at all and also didn’t have much of a kick to it, although it did have a little aftertaste “tingle” to it. The fries were good. I didn’t notice any seasoning on the fries other than salt and pepper. They were perfect to dip in the sauce.
This is another of my visits that has been in town for a while and was my first time ever going there. Like I mentioned, other than the temperature of the sandwich and the fact that they served sauce on the sandwich, I think the brisket was cooked almost perfectly. There are only a couple other places I’ve visited so far that I can say that about.
This makes number 36 on my quest. I’ve added a few places since my last post thanks to Ryan Cooper, who reached out to me and let me know that he is working on a barbecue project and mapping out all the barbecue places in Kansas City and the surrounding areas. You can check out his site here. Not only is the interactive map great, but he provides a great succinct history of the Kansas City barbecue scene.
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