A well-known barbecue name is greeting the Lee’s Summit community with plates of competition smoked meats and chef-driven appetizers in its largest restaurant to date.
Q39, the “pit-to-plate” barbecue restaurant started by the late pitmaster Rob Magee and his wife, Kelly Magee, has settled into the KC suburb near the intersection of U.S. Highway 50 and Missouri Route 291. On Thursday and Friday, CEO Kelly Magee and executive chef Patrick Peluso welcomed family, friends and media to a soft opening before opening their doors to the public Aug. 3.
It may be the largest Q39 to date at 10,000 square feet — and Magee said it’s also the biggest parking lot they’ve built — but every square inch of the restaurant was filled with barbecue consumers and Q39’s army of staff there to essentially practice a busy dinner shift before they open.
Peluso said Q39’s team of around 80 employees cared for nearly 300 reservations Thursday. Normally, they’d handle many more, closer to 1,000, due to walk-ins and Q39’s takeout operations…