Kansas City barbecue restaurant opens second location, adds pickleball to the platter
Nearly a decade after Char Bar Smoked Meats and Amusements debuted in Westport, the Southern-inspired barbecue restaurant has added a second location.
This one’s in Parkville, at 15348 Old Town Drive, in the new Creekside development. It opened last Thursday.
“Our first weekend went great,” said James Westphal, a partner in Culinary Virtue, the restaurant group behind Char Bar. “It’s exciting to have a presence in Parkville and to start meeting all the people who live up there.”
The Parkville location offers the same menu as in Westport, with signature trays like The Whole Hog (three ribs, pulled pork and hand-cranked sausage; $23) and sandwiches like the Burnt Heaven (smoked burnt ends, smoked sausage, fried jalapenos, chipotle barbecue mayo and slaw on an egg bun; $15).
The happy hour special is from 3 to 6 p.m. weekdays and features $4 barbecue pork rinds, $5 local draft beers, $6 house wines and $7 pulled rib sliders, among other items.
Also like Westport, Char Bar in Parkville has a large patio and lawn for yard games like cornhole. But the 6,000-square-foot space also boasts an activity Westport does not: pickleball. There are four courts indoors, two outdoors. Guests can reserve courts for $20 per hour online at charbarbbq.com.
“We see a lot of opportunity with pickleball,” Westphal said. “We’ll have open play, but eventually probably some tournaments and clinics, and hopefully some leagues will develop.”
The restaurant opens on weekdays at 11 a.m., and at 10 a.m. for brunch on Saturday and Sunday.
“We don’t expect to be open as late in Parkville as in Westport,” Westphal said. “But that might evolve based on how late people want to play pickleball. So, I think we’ll learn a lot about our customers over the next 90 days or so.”
