Young owner of Shawnee’s Blind Box Barbecue is expanding the space | The Kansas City Star

Shawnee’s Blind Box Barbecue is more than doubling its occupancy and more than tripling in size.

Joe Tulipana, owner of the barbecue restaurant at 13214 W. 62nd Terrace in Millcreek, is taking over two more storefronts in the center. One will be a private event space seating 50 to 60 people and connected to the current dining room. The other space will be a designated to-go area and catering section. The work is scheduled to be completed by this fall.

But that’s not all. Tulipana also is adding a patio in front that will seat 60 to 80 people.

“It isn’t a huge space now, occupancy is under 100. So now we will almost double our capacity,” he said.

Tulipana, 27, earned a civil engineering degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2012. After working in IT, he spent a few months converting a former Japanese steakhouse into Blind Box Barbecue, naming it after the “blind boxes” teams submit to judges in competitions. He opened it in August 2015.

His menu includes both classic and innovative items: burnt ends, baby back ribs and chicken, as well as the Lil’ Juicy signature sandwich (smoked, shaved steak topped with caramelized onions and Swiss cheese and served with a horseradish cream sauce), barbecue nachos and wontons, Hog Wings (pork shanks tossed in a spicy chili and honey glaze) and barbecue sweet corn.

For more on Kansas City barbecue, see the A-Z list of Kansas City-area barbecue food trucks, restaurants