Former Johnson County BBQ spot to become sushi, poke, ramen restaurant
Months after Burnt End BBQ left its Overland Park home and headed west for De Soto, a sushi, poke and ramen restaurant will move in.
Pokeloha, a restaurant with an existing Kansas City location, will open in Johnson County this summer.
The restaurant filed commercial sign permits this month for the 11831 Metcalf Ave. space.
A manager with the restaurant confirmed that the restaurant would take over the Overland Park spot, adding that the new location will have a slightly different menu than the others, after owners hired a sushi chef from New York with 20 years of experience.
While the 8827 State Line Road spot focuses on poke — a Hawaiian dish with raw fish, savory sauce, vegetables and more — the new spot will have an expanded menu to include sushi and ramen.
An exact menu was not available.
Pokeloha’s other location is in Lawrence at 937 Massachusetts St.
Burnt End BBQ closed its Overland Park spot last year around the time it opened in De Soto at 34071 Commerce Drive.
Initially, Burnt End BBQ planned to keep both locations, but pitmaster Stephen “Smokey” Schwartz told The Star at the time that they would have had to expand their old location to keep up with operations.
“In order for us to do what we wanted to do, we’d have to make some really huge reconstructive changes to the building,” he said. “It was too much to do two at one time.”
Burnt End BBQ also has a location in Crown Center.
Pokeloha first opened its original Lawrence spot in March 2019, with the State Line location following suit a few months later.