Another week, another Johnson County barbecue restaurant is closing: ‘I feel numb’
Just days after a longtime Johnson County barbecue closed for good, another just a few miles east is doing the same.
Overland Park’s Smokeys on the Blvd BBQ will close at the end of business Sunday.
“I was building the business and I think we would have made it without the pandemic,” said owner Winston Riley. “The pandemic hit. We were doing a lot of great things — supporting the front-line workers at three local hospitals with meals — and business through the drive-thru, that basically kept us afloat.”
Johnson County also recently lost Smokin’ Joe’s Bar-B-Q in Olathe, which blamed price increases and the lack of workers.
A father/son team first opened Smokey’s on the Blvd at 14521 Metcalf Ave., Overland Park, in 2012. They originally wanted to open on College Boulevard, thus the Blvd in the name.
Riley purchased the barbecue about four years ago. Just months later a water line break forced him to relocate.
Riley, 67, took his life savings to buy a $1 million building at 8669 W. 135th St., off Antioch Road. He previously spent four decades in the food and restaurant business, mostly as an international consultant.
“But you have to sell a lot of sandwiches for a million-dollar building and $30,000 in taxes,” he said.
In March 2020, just before the pandemic hit the Kansas City area, Riley finished a proposal to turn the restaurant into a nonprofit, fully accredited barbecue academy.
The American Academy of Barbecue would have been a hands-on training facility and food service outlet for students, barbecue entrepreneurs and hobbyists, covering all aspects of the barbecue method of cooking.
During the early days of the pandemic, he started a GoFundMe account to provide free meals to front-line health care workers at three Overland Park hospitals.
He also enforced a mask policy, even though he was constantly challenged, “often hatefully, by people who simply refuse,” he said in June 2020.
When pandemic mandates limited dine-in seating, Smokeys’ drive-thru business surged. But when restrictions eased and consumers had more choices, business didn’t bounce back to pre-pandemic levels, said John Sexton, general manager.
“We were waiting for the pickup to happen in the summer and it hasn’t come — more teams, more business lunches,” Sexton said.
Riley said: “I was losing money hand over fist. I just needed to cut my losses. I’m leveraged to the hilt.”
The restaurant has about 10 employees. Riley said some of his workers moved on during the pandemic, but he didn’t let anyone go.
He plans to sell or lease the building.
Meanwhile, he is starting a residential solar energy business, Bask Solar Co., in Lee’s Summit.
“I roll with the punches. But I feel numb,” Riley said. “I just take it as it comes. There are so many things I can’t control so just do your best.”