His BBQ has been a star in Westport and Paris. Now he has a Johnson County restaurant

The long-awaited Meat Mitch Barbecue has softly opened in Leawood’s Ranch Mart North shopping center, nearly four years after the space was first leased.

Its founder, Mitch Benjamin, spent more than 20 years on the barbecue competition circuit — as well as partnering in Char Bar Smoked Meats & Amusements in Westport. Now he hopes to be a contender in a city filled with around 100 barbecues, some of them legendary.

“It’s been exhilarating. It has been amazing to have bodies in there, to be able to feed people, have fun and see the restaurant actually come to life,” he said. “They’ve been staring at this empty building for years. So they’re excited to have us there. Everyone has loved everything.”

His menu includes 16-hour smoked Black Angus hand-carved brisket, burnt ends, St. Louis-style pork ribs, pulled pork, rope sausage, turkey, and a vegetarian jackfruit option.

Sides include jalapeno cheesy corn bake, bacon-broccoli slaw, barbecue pit beans, macaroni and cheese, and sticky curly fries (with a touch of honey).

Among the sandwiches are the Naked & Afraid (with burnt ends, smoked rope sausage, pepper jack cheese, charred mayonnaise, matchstick potatoes, pickled jalapeno and Meat Mitch Whomp! Naked BBQ Sauce), and the Smo’ Fried Chicken (crispy smoked chicken, American cheese, pickles and Alabama white sauce).

It also has brisket smash burgers and toasted griddled cheese sandwiches such as The Pigmento with smoked pork rib meat, bacon jam, pimento cheese and pickled red onion, along with entree salads (customers can add cherry-smoked Faroe Island salmon for $6).

Appetizers include its loaded brisket chili, and The Meat Tower — a riff on seafood towers with a three-layer stack of meats, pig candy (smoked bacon), fried pickles, smoky chicken suckers (chicken drumettes), pimento cheese and cheesy hot fries for $35.

For dessert there are house-made whoopie pies and blueberry-peach bread pudding with cinnamon caramel ice cream.

Benjamin has won awards at such competitions as the American Royal and Memphis in May, and more than a thousand grocery stores and specialty retailers internationally carry his sauces and rubs.

He partnered with Westport restaurateurs James Westphal and Mark Kelpe in Char Bar in 2014, featuring many of his barbecue dishes, sauces and rubs. Benjamin also was a manufacturer’s representative with the TaylorMade Golf Co. for 21 years but left in 2016 to open Meat Mitch Barbecue.

Nearly four years ago, Benjamin, Westphal and Kelpe leased a 6,300-square-foot space at 3620 W. 95th St. on the east end of Ranch Mart North, along with a new partner, Scott Redler, co-founder and chief experience officer of Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers in Wichita.

But a $40 million renovation of the center, as well as the pandemic, pushed the opening back.

Benjamin kept busy. He even moved to Paris for a couple months in 2019 to help open Rosie’s Smokehouse BBQ, and also spent a month competing in New Zealand that year.

In July, CNN’s “The 15 best barbecue rubs and sauces, according to chefs” listed Meat Mitch Whomp! BBQ Sauce, along with such mainstays as Gates Bar-B-Q’s original classic.

Meat Mitch Whomp! Naked BBQ Sauce also received a first place in the vinegar mild barbecue sauce category by the National Barbecue & Grilling Association in 2021.

Now, like many restaurants locally and nationally, he is struggling to find enough workers. He opened Meat Mitch Barbecue just before New Year’s for carryout only, from 3 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays.

The bar area is now open for limited seating, and Benjamin will expand hours in the coming weeks. The restaurant, which can seat up to 170 people, features high ceilings and an “industrial butcher shop motif.” A retail cabinet stocks Meat Mitch sauces, his “BBQ Revolution” cookbook, caps, T-shirts, hoodies, and Yeti drinkware.

Meat Mitch has a fast casual style. Customers order and pay at the counter, then employees deliver the food to tables.

At the front entrance, which is on the east side with abundant parking, there’s a large carryout area. Look up to see its chandelier made from colorful Weber Kettle Grill lids.

It also has enclosed patio seating for up to 40 people and will have outdoor seating and lawn games this spring.

“I want them to have fun, I want them to enjoy their food, I want it to be a venue where they are excited to bring their family, their kids,” Benjamin said.

Meat Mitch is also set to be part of the new Kansas City International Airport terminal in 2023, according to Vantage Airport Group, which won the contract to operate concessions there.

The $40 million redevelopment of Ranch Mart North includes a new two-story building north of Meat Mitch. An office tenant is scheduled to open in the 12,500-square-foot top floor. The center is negotiating with two restaurants for the first floor.

This story was originally published January 11, 2022 at 5:00 AM.