New barbecue restaurant to open in mid-June

A new barbecue restaurant, Slap’s, is planned at the site of the former Millie’s Cafe on Central Avenue in Kansas City, Kan. (Photo by William Crum)

by William Crum

Soon to open will be a new barbecue restaurant located at 553 Central Ave. in Kansas City, Kan. The name of the restaurant is Slaps Barbecue. This is the old location of Millie’s Café, which many might remember.
Slaps Barbecue is the dream child of three barbecue masters, Joe Pearce, Mike Pearce, and Brandon Whipple. All are from the Greater Kansas City area; both Joe’s and Mike’s grandmother is from the Strawberry Hill area in Kansas City, Kan.
“This is why we wanted to locate here because of my close ties to Kansas City, Kan. We are born-and-bred barbecue-fed,” Joe said.
Even though Joe, Mike and Brandon had only been together for not quite a year each has competed in various barbecue competitions throughout the area. Each one brings a lot of barbecue knowledge that will make this restaurant a truly unique pleasurable barbecue experience, especially for those who really enjoy good barbecue. Currently they are on the 2014 America’s pit masters barbecue competition where they compete with other barbecue teams throughout the nation. In fact it is a high honor for any team to compete on a national well known level.
The restaurant will offer barbecue like you would do in your backyard the old-fashioned way, where they have open smokers. They plan to be open for the lunch crowd, for the working man who has a 30 minute lunch. As of now their hours have not yet been determined, however they do plan to be open until they sell out.
This is a true example of the Wyandotte County experience where new businesses are opening up constantly in our community, making Wyandotte County a more livable community.