Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que

Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que is a barbecue restaurant, formerly known as Oklahoma Joe's with locations in the Kansas City metropolitan area, owned and operated by Jeff and Joy Stehney. History Oklahoma Joe's origins can be traced to competition barbecue and the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS). Tagging along with friends at the American Royal and The Great Lenexa BBQ Battle was all the inspiration Jeff Stehney needed to get started cooking on his own. The first smoker purchased was an Oklahoma Joe's 24” smoker, christened in April 1991. The competition team, Slaughterhouse Five, won eight Grand Championships, including the prestigious American Royal BBQ, three Reserve Grand Championships, and the KCBS's Grand Champion “Team of the Year” in 1993. Over the next several seasons Slaughterhouse Five won dozens more awards and was generally recognized as one of the top competition BBQ teams in the country. While on the competition circuit, the Stehneys became friends with Joe Davidson, founder and owner of the Oklahoma Joe's Smoker Company. Jeff and Joe decided to go into business together and opened Oklahoma Joe's in Stillwater, Oklahoma in 1996. Later that same year in August, they also opened the first Kansas City area location inside a gas station at the corner of 47th Avenue and Mission Road in Kansas City, Kansas that was formerly home to a fried-chicken-and-liquor-store operation known as One Fast Chick-n. In 1997, Joe Davidson sold his smoker company and moved to Texas. With none of the owners located in Oklahoma, the partners decided to close the Oklahoma location, and then Jeff and Joy Stehney bought out Joe's share of the Kansas City restaurant operation.