blue springs, brisket, missouri, plowboys

Plowboys Barbecue in Blue Springs, Missouri

July 7, 2018 by Joe Mathieu

Plowboys brisket sandwich

For the next stop on my quest I visited Plowboys Barbecue in Blue Springs, Missouri on Friday evening. Plowboys started as a competition barbecue team in 2001. They have been very successful on the competition barbecue circuit and in 2013 they opened their restaurant in Blue Springs, Missouri. From their website:

“The heart of Plowboys BBQ is competition-style barbecue. It began in 2001 when Todd Johns and his brother-in-law, Randy Hinck, started Pork Pullin Plowboys, their competition team. For the next six years, Todd and Randy would travel all over the country, participating in competitions, perfecting their craft and learning what makes truly great barbecue. Hint: It’s all about the “low and slow.”

I met up with Ryan Cooper, the BBQ Tourist, who is in town on business and is doing a bunch of barbecue stops in the process. We arrived around 5:30. I ordered a large brisket sandwich and Ryan and I decided to split a sampler platter. The sandwich was about eight dollars or so.

Their building looks like it was a former fast food restaurant. It even has a drive through window. When you walk in you order at the counter and they give you a number and then you have a seat and they bring your food out when it is ready. One thing I noticed is that they do not ask for a tip on the receipt like a lot of places with a similar setup do. I liked the ease of not having to think about whether or not to leave a tip when you’re not really being waited on.

We received our food about five minutes after ordering. The brisket sandwich was served without sauce on it. The meat was served as thick cut slices and had a great smoke flavor and a crunchy, flavorful bark. The meat was tender but a bit dry, and I did not need sauce to eat the sandwich. I liked it, but it wasn’t one of my favorites because it was a bit dry.

They have three sauces at each table to try. A Sweet 180, a Crossroads, and an En Fuego. The En Fuego is advertised as their spicy sauce but I didn’t find it really spicy at all. The Crossroads sauce tasted like it had a molasses base. It was good and pretty mild. I also liked the Sweet 180. Pretty good for a sweet sauce.

When I checked in at Plowboys I had a follower comment that I needed to try the barbecue nachos, so I decided to go back to the counter and order some. I ordered them with burnt ends on the nachos. They put cheese, barbecue sauce and pieces of burnt ends on a layer of nachos. You can get sour cream and other toppings if you want to but I didn’t. The nacho cheese mixed well with the barbecue sauce and the burnt ends were great!

I also tried the pork ribs and I really enjoyed them as well. They make some good barbecue at this place.