Barbecue and jazz? New restaurant is powered by Kansas City’s two famous traditions
On the menu at this new barbecue joint: ribs, brisket, pulled pork, turkey and sausage (andouille with cheddar and jalapeno, served sliced). Gerald Dunn, a jazz saxophonist and general manager of the Blue Room jazz club in Kansas City, has opened Dunn Deal BBQ, a new restaurant powered by the city's famous barbecue tradition. Dunn's grandfather once owned a barbecue restaurant in East Texas, where he learned his skills from. The restaurant is open only on Fridays and Saturdays between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., due in part to Dunn's busy schedule. Dunn started cooking six briskets a day, and may add some tables outside. The menu includes ribs, brisket, pulled pork, turkey and sausage.
Opublikowany : 11 miesięcy temu za pomocą David Hudnall w Business
Barbecue is like jazz, Gerald Dunn said the other day.
But he would say that. Dunn is a jazz saxophonist, the leader of a group called the Jazz Disciples, and the general manager of the Blue Room, one of the city’s best-known jazz clubs.
“Say you come to one of our Monday night jam sessions at the Blue Room,” Dunn said. “There might be three saxophone players on stage for a Charlie Parker number. Everybody knows that composition. But inside of it, each brings their own experience to the playing of the song, through different notes and scales and harmonies and phrases. You improvise, and that’s how you find your unique voice.
“Barbecue is similar,” he continued. “The composition is like the meat; it’s pretty much the same for everybody. It’s what you do with it — how you season it and smoke it, what flavor profile you give it — that makes you special. That’s what I’m doing here, I think: trying to be true to my own unique flavor, to who I am and what I grew up eating.”
At Dunn Deal BBQ, which Dunn opened this spring at 506 Main St. in Grandview, the notes stretch down to East Texas, where his grandfather once owned a barbecue restaurant in a town called Lindale. (It’s close to Tyler, where Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes grew up. Mahomes’ father’s sister was the maid of honor at Dunn’s sister’s wedding, he said.)
“He had his restaurant, and he cooked meat at a country store,” Dunn said of his grandfather. “He’d do church functions, family reunions. He’d just peddle barbecue anywhere.”
Dunn picked up some of those family skills, but cooked only as a hobby until the pandemic, when he started a food truck that he’d park around Grandview, where he lives. His barbecue reflected his Texas roots, emphasizing brisket cooked over hickory wood and dry rubs seasoned with flavors pulled from the Southwest as well as New Orleans.
“In central Texas, they tend to season just with salt and pepper,” Dunn said. “Where I come from, that’s close to the Louisiana border, so you get some of those flavors in there. And my sauce is closer to KC style: more like tomato based, sort of sweet and tangy.”
Dunn sometimes parked his truck outside Grandview City Hall to catch municipal workers during their lunch breaks. He got to know Grandview’s city manager and economic development director, who last year came to Dunn with a suggestion: Open up a brick-and-mortar joint on Main Street in the former Lueck’s Barbecue & General Store, which closed in early 2023. The neighborhood, they said, was in need of some barbecue.
Dunn quietly began serving in the space in late March. On the menu: ribs, brisket, pulled pork, turkey and sausage. A full slab of ribs goes for $30; a half-pound of brisket is $16; and a sausage link (andouille with cheddar and jalapeno, served sliced) is $6. Sides include coleslaw, baked beans, potato salad and fries.
The restaurant is open only on Fridays and Saturdays between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., owing in part to Dunn’s schedule at the Blue Room. He is a busy man. Last Friday, Dunn had woken up at 3 a.m. to begin smoking the day’s meat, worked the full day at the restaurant, and was headed straight to the Blue Room for a full evening of jazz shows.
Still, the hours could expand, he said. Business has been picking up. Dunn started out cooking six briskets a day. Now he’s up to 11, and he regularly sells out.
He may also add some tables outside. For now, Dunn Deal BBQ is takeout only, with just a few chairs in the small lobby to sit in while you wait for the food to come out.
“Right now, I’m just trying to build up my clientele and figure out what we’ve got here,” Dunn said. “I’m tweaking things as we go. I’m getting a lot of requests for burnt ends. But the way I trim my briskets, Texas style, it doesn’t work as well for burnt ends. But I may start offering them on a Saturday here or there. It’s a Kansas City thing. When in Rome, you know, do as the Romans do.”