JoCo barbecue to close after nearly four decades: ‘it’s been my life for so long’
Johnny White will miss his customers most of all.
Since opening Johnny’s Bar-B-Q in Mission in 1983, he’s gotten to know his regulars, gone fishing with some, hired sons and daughters of others. Even watched as those teenagers grew up and had children. And when those children became teenagers, some went to work for Johnny’s.
But Johnny and his wife, Linda, are retiring and will close the restaurant on Jan. 31.
“I’m excited, but apprehensive. It’s been my life for so long,” White said.
A four decade barbecue career started over his desire for a drum set.
White, then 14, and his father were headed to the music store, or so he thought. His father worked at Rosedale Barbeque and stopped there, not to pick up a paycheck to help pay for the drums, but to put Johnny to work so he could pay for them.
White went on to work at other area barbecues, picking up tips at each one. Then he took a job as a route salesman and manager at area corporate bakeries to save money for a barbecue of his own. He even became a partner in a downtown doughnut shop, but soon put a barbecue beef special — with his own sauce — on the lunch menu.
In the late 1970s, he opened Santa Fe Trail Bar-B-Q in Olathe with a partner, in a former Straw Hat Pizza building. But a few years later he bought out his partner and then sold it to an employee.
He had found a spot he liked in Mission near his home, saving him the long drive to Olathe every day. It was another former Straw Hat Pizza building, this one on a corner spot at 5959 Broadmoor St.
“Relax! Let Johnny Treat You,” his ads said after it opened in 1983. He’s been there ever since, serving up ribs, burnt ends, chicken, turkey, sausage, barbecue meatballs and more.
“We are very consistent with our food, we have good staffing and we work on it — very hard,” he said.
Nearly a decade ago, it was featured on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network. According to Guy, Johnny’s Bar-B-Q “just screams tradition.”
“With a handmade pit, over three decades of happy customers and an owner who’s been making BBQ since he was 14 that comes as no surprise. Try the nice and crispy, super-juicy smoked-and-deep-fried chicken with award-winning mild BBQ rub.”
The Whites have four children who all worked in the business as teenagers. But only one — son Eric — wanted to make it a career. Eric White opened the Olathe location, at 1375 W. Old U.S. 56, in 2004 — with his dad by his side for the first five weeks.
“I’m the only crazy one, I always liked the hustle of it. I liked watching my dad do it over the years and following in his footsteps,” Eric White said.
Years ago, the family started a bottled barbecue sauce collection, one that customers contributed to over the years, bringing back souvenirs from their travels. Now hundreds of bottles line the walls of both restaurants — Fat Jack’s Hot & Spicy, Jerry’s Good Shit B.B.Q. Sauce and Charlie Vegos Rendezvous Famous Barbecue Sauce.
The Kansas City Barbeque Society meets in an event space at the Mission restaurant once a month and some of their event posters also serve as decor, as well as license plates customers have donated (along with some of Johnny White’s)— BBQRIBS, BURNTNS, BARBIEQ.
Now the nearly 4,000-square-foot building, a storage shed currently used for catering, a 50-space parking lot and patio is listed for sale by Don Gessen of Block Real Estate Services.
The couple want to travel more and spend time with their children and five grandchildren. But after 60-hour weeks, Johnny is not ready to get out of the business completely. He still talks of promoting his sauces and rubs, and helping son Eric in his growing catering operation.
“I’ll have my hand up,” he said. “But it is going to be sad for all of us when we close this location. It’s kind of like my child that I’m turning loose. It’s not going to be there any longer.”