Slaps BBQ
Andrew and I arrived at Slaps, located in the Strawberry
Hill neighborhood of Kansas City on the Kansas side, and the first thing we
noticed was all the people standing around. It was Sunday morning. The place
didn’t open for another five minutes, and yet there was a line out of the door
and the parking lot was three-quarters full with a line of cars waiting to turn
in and fill up the few remaining spots. We quickly secured our spot in line, but
once the doors opened, we had made our order, paid, and received our food
within five minutes. Long lines, short
wait. This was the first of many contradictions in this meal which led us to
determine that Slaps was good, and it was not so good.
Not starved from the BBQ carnage of the day prior, we opted
for a sampler plate, the Cattleman’s Platter, which had burnt ends, brisket,
and beef sausage (good!). The server placed the meat on the platter, and was
careful to count: four slices of brisket, 12 thin slices of sausage, and 6 chunks
of burnt ends—no, make that five. She must have miscounted and took one away,
putting it back in the smoker (not good). To be clear, I don’t expect any extra
consideration when I patronize an establishment, but this is a competitive business
in a competitive town, and there are other places that wouldn’t have been so…exacting.
Perhaps they were afraid they would run out food. Regardless, this meal came to
a mere 21 dollars, which with the two sides, made for a pretty good value. So
far, the equation had balanced itself out.
We chose the bacon mac and cheese and the cheese curds for
our two sides. Extra sauce cups were advertised as twenty-five cents apiece
extra (not good), so we ordered two, but I don’t think we were charged. This is
because just outside in the heated screened porch, there were two massive
bottles of each of their signature sauces with cups for the filling. We filled (very
good).
Sitting at our picnic-style table with our food in front of
us, we attempted to count out who gets how much of each portion, which was hard
considering there wasn’t a lot for oversampling. Burnt ends were cut in half to
stretch them further. Very moist with a good fat content (good), decent smoke
(neutral), but almost non-existent bark (not good). The brisket was the same;
great moisture (good) with decent smoke (neutral), but this meat surprised us
the most. It had a sweetness to it that made us feel as if we were eating meat
candy (uh, wow). That was unexpected and quite lovely. Finally, the sausage was
superb. Great smoky, juicy, but skinny pieces of love. The contradictions kept
adding up.
The sides were a letdown. The Bacon mac and cheese was creamy
(good) but came in a very small sample cup (not good) and contained one small
fragment of bacon that imparted zero bacon flavor on the dish (really not
good). Had the Federal Trade Commission showed up for lunch, they might have
had a truth in advertising case on their hands. The other side dish, the cheese
curds, was made to order, so came out piping hot a mere two minutes after we
sat down (good). Honestly, you can find better fried curds at DQ or A&W (just
okay).
We sampled all of this, and had a few samples of each item
left, so we went for the sauce. This is where things really started to look up
for Slaps. The sauces kept pace with the contradictions. The sweet sauce was
super heavy on the molasses. When applied to the sweet brisket, it was glorious,
redefining what bar-b-que can be. On the other hand, the spicy sauce was stingy
spicy, the sting lingering on the lips and tongue for minutes afterwards. When
applied to the brisket, it created an entirely new dish. Beautiful
contradictions. Andrew and I became so enamored with the sauces that we put them
on everything, fighting over the two slices of bread that acted as the bed for
the sample meats so we could soak up the remaining sauce in our sample cups. We
both raved about how good the sauces were, and we both spoke at the same time: I
said, “The sweet sauce is awesome!” while he said, “I love the spicy sauce!” We just smiled at each other (good). We decided
it was good enough to ask the lady at the window if we could buy a bottle of
each. Unfortunately, she said that they don’t sell bottled sauce there, but we
could wait until the Ace Hardware up the street opened to buy some (not good;
we were leaving town right afterwards.)
Bottom line, in a town crazed with bar-b-que, Slaps has an
outstanding following. People love their food, and for good reason. Is there
better bar-b-que in KC? I think so, but the price point and the sauces alone
are enough to make us consider coming back next time we are in town.
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