Patrick Mahomes, Obama & Paul Rudd are right: Joe’s KC is quintessential barbecue
There’s this saying that goes: “Treat your body like a temple.” You know, eat your vegetables, limit sugary and fried fare. Sure, that’s fine for the health nuts and medical professionals out there.
Late chef Anthony Bourdain put it better in his bestselling memoir: “Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park.”
There’s no better place to test this philosophy than at Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que, a local institution and one of Bourdain’s top 13 places to eat before you die. He called it the best barbecue in Kansas City, which, in his words, means it’s “the best BBQ in the world.”
Today, Joe’s draws Disney World-level crowds and hour-long waits. (There’s no FastPass to skip ahead, but you can order online.)
Customers queue for pounds of sauced-up, smoked meats and classic BBQ sides that will likely send your stomach on a roller coaster ride. Most come for the cholesterol-raising crown jewel: the Z-Man brisket sandwich.
A gas station and a dream
When Bourdain first visited Joe’s, it was called Oklahoma Joe’s, the second location of a Stillwater, Oklahoma barbecue joint started by Joe Don Davidson in 1996.
Davidson was friends with Jeff and Joy Stehney, a KC couple who, at the time, were competing in local barbecue competitions on a team called the “Slaughterhouse Five.” As the Stehneys racked up national accolades during the 1990s, they began considering opening a restaurant.
The Stehneys saw an opportunity when their neighborhood Kansas City gas station closed its fried chicken counter, and they opened an Oklahoma Joe’s there in 1997. That year, Davidson sold his smoker company and moved to Texas, leaving the Stehneys the sole owners of the barbecue joint.
The Stehneys officially switched the restaurant’s name to Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que in August 2014 — just a few months after then-President Barack Obama ordered a $1,400 takeout order of ribs, pork, sausage and sides to bring on Air Force One.
Since then, the restaurant has been known as Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que, located at 3002 W 47th Ave. Kansas City, Kansas. Joe’s later expanded to locations in Leawood and Olathe.
What’s in a name?
While customers now face long waits, Joe’s didn’t always have a cult following. In the restaurant’s early days, Jeff Stehney was looking to get the word out about his gas station spot. He partnered with regular customer Mike Zarrick, who was about to launch his own sports radio show and needed to sell advertising.
Jeff Stehney wanted to publicize his newest menu innovation: a thin-sliced beef brisket sandwich. He and Zarrick, known as “Z-Man” to fans, put together a contest for listeners to name the sandwich.
As Zarrick’s show grew, customers started calling the sandwich the “Z-Man,” and the name stuck. Almost three decades later, the Z-Man has taken on a life of its own, cementing itself in the Kansas Citian vernacular.
On its face, the Z-Man appears to be assembled from a “Chopped” mystery ingredient basket: thin-sliced brisket, two fried onion rings, provolone cheese and a splotch of barbecue sauce.
The brisket is piled high with a consistency so tender it could be confused with butter. While it was difficult to discern the tangy provolone cheese, the battered onion rings added a satisfying crunch.
The thick, pillowy Kaiser bun soaked up the sweet barbecue sauce and salty juice from the brisket — all while providing sufficient structural integrity to hold the colossal sandwich together.
A cut above
Joe’s Director of Marketing Eric Tadda said the quality of the Z-Man’s ingredients helps the sandwich stand out in KC’s barbecue Bible belt. The brisket cooks overnight for 17 hours, allowing for the rich, charred flavor to fully mature, Tadda said.
Damien Metzeder, who Tadda calls the “master smoke-stician,” operates the massive smoker, which pumps out at least 500 pounds of brisket per day.
“It still gets me,” Metzeder said. “I think, ‘We really make that much food every day?’”
Tadda said the other secret to the Z-Man is the Kaiser bun, which is toasted on Joe’s “butter wheel,” a metal gray conveyor belt lined with liquid butter.
“It adds quality to even just a piece of toast,” Tadda said. “We’re one of the only ones with a butter wheel.”
Gaining national traction
The winner of owner Jeff Stehney’s Z-Man naming contest would’ve taken home a $50 gift certificate — a comical figure considering Joe’s sells $3 million worth of Z-Mans annually. Tadda estimates that’s 250,000 sandwiches a year.
Tadda said some of those sandwiches are shipped nationally, including to Philadelphia this February after the Chiefs’ Super Bowl loss to the Eagles. Joe’s KC had made a friendly wager with Pat’s King of Steaks, the creator of the cheesesteak sandwich. The loser had to send their signature sandwich to the winning city’s fire department.
The Z-Man is a favorite of the city’s biggest celebrities, including Patrick Mahomes, who told Jimmy Kimmel he gets the sandwich delivered to him once every two weeks, and Paul Rudd, who called it his favorite Kansas City barbecue sandwich.
Tadda said the Z-Man is Joe’s most popular menu item, and customers come from near and far for it. Recent customer Justin Jacks, a master’s student at the University of Kansas, made the near-hour long trek from Lawrence to order a Z-Man for lunch. He’s been coming to Joe’s for a decade.
“I come once a month, and I’d come more often except it’s always packed,” Jacks said. “You have to schedule it in for when you have time.”
Tadda, a Leavenworth native who grew up going to Joe’s, said the wait times are well worth it.
“If you want to show somebody what true Kansas City barbecue is, this is the spot,” Tadda said.
The Z-Man also comes in portobello, pork and chicken varieties — which is Tadda’s go-to because it comes with a barbecue mayonnaise and “feels” healthier. But the Z-Man — onion rings and all — shows it’s pretty difficult to find a nutritious option at Joe’s.
That’s the whole idea. So come hungry, buckle up and enjoy the ride.
This meal is perfect for: when you want to feel like a real Kansas Citian.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more quintessential KC experience than dining at a gas station. While this sounds like (and is, to some degree) a tourist trap, Joe’s high-quality ingredients and tried-and-true smoking methods prove why it’s a must-visit for locals and out-of-towners alike.
This story was originally published August 7, 2025 at 1:06 PM.
