Plowboys Barbecue downtown location opens tomorrow

Last September, The Pitch reported that competitive barbecue pitmaster Todd Johns was opening a second location of his popular Blue Springs restaurant, Plowboys Barbecue in the Town Center Pavilion building at 1111 Main. At the time, Johns was planning to be open in November 2014.

“Well, you know how these things go,” Johns says. “The city takes its time, and contractors take their time and, suddenly, it’s January!”

Johns will open the dining room of the new Plowboys location tomorrow at 11 a.m. No meats will actually be smoked in the downtown restaurant. And there won’t be any french fries. (There’s no hood system in the kitchen, so Johns will offer chips and several hot and cold side dishes).

“I consider the new location to be a satellite of our Blue Springs restaurant,” Johns says. “We’ll smoke the meats in Blue Springs and bring them to the Town Center Pavilion restaurant in the morning.”

Certain popular barbecue items will be offered only on certain days of the week: Ribs will be featured on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and burnt ends on Wednesdays and Fridays. Johns is in the process of getting his liquor license and will sell cold beer in addition to soft drinks.

Starting tomorrow, the dining-room hours at the downtown Plowboys will be from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. In six weeks, Johns will be open on Saturdays as well.

“We need to see how everything is working during the week before we add Saturday hours,” John says.

The downtown Plowboys will feature 54 seats and a Chipoltle-style cafeteria line, for customers to choose the ingredients on their sandwiches or wraps.