Less than a year after opening in Kansas City, barbecue, bar & shop combo shuts down

BeerSauce Shop was still mailing out a “now open” ad right up until it closed Friday.

The St. Louis-based company opened in Kansas City’s Watts Mill Shopping Center, 1219 W. 103rd St., last May, but the location didn’t work out, and it is now looking to relocate in the metro.

The concept combined a barbecue restaurant and bar with a retail shop selling craft beers, sauces and rubs, and more.

“We are going to reopen. It is one of those things in retail where you don’t always find the right spot the first time,” said Rick “The Sauce Guy” Duree, co-founder with Andrew “The Beer Guy” Tessmer. “The foot traffic wasn’t what we needed. I think the location was part of the problem.”

They are currently looking in such areas as north Overland Park and Lee’s Summit.

BeerSauce Shop served a dozen barbecue items to eat at the bar and high top tables, or for carryout — burnt ends with bourbon-infused barbecue sauce, brisket Reubens, Cubans, bourbon brisket French dip, and barbecue nachos. It also had 22 rotating beers on tap.

The retail area had about 400 craft beers, 200 sauces and barbecue rubs, and more than 60 local and regional whiskeys, gifts, barbecue accessories and more.

As for the direct mail “Now Open” ad, Duree said he forgot about it, having paid for it months ago.

The founders have three locations in the St. Louis area with a fourth opening later this month (one is a franchise). A franchise location also is scheduled to open in the Tampa, Florida, area in June.

“Being an entrepreneur, the road isn’t straight and flat, you have to roll with the punches and keep working it every day,” Duree said. “We’ve had a lot of support in KC. We love our craft community and think a new location is a way to keep moving that forward.”

This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 11:06 AM.