Quick’s Bar-B-Q closed today after 50 years in Kansas City, Kansas

Ron Quick made an executive decision today. Well, two actually.

The first was to make today the last day of business for the 50-year-old barbecue restaurant at 1007 Merriam Lane in Kansas City, Kansas. (Quick had told a couple of local news outlets that he intended to keep the restaurant open until November 14.)

The second? “I had planned to stay open until 8 p.m. tonight,” Quick says. “But we got slammed at lunch, and by 3 p.m., we were sold out of almost everything that anyone could eat. Pulled pork, burnt ends, everything.”

The door to the restaurant was locked at 3 p.m., although a couple of old regulars were allowed to sneak in at the last minute, including an old friend whom Ron Quick had known since he was a child. “We set some ribs aside for her,” Quick says.

It’s a bittersweet day for the 58-year-old restaurateur who grew up in the smoked meat business: His late father, Earl Quick, opened his barbecue restaurant in 1964 when Ron was 8 years old. But in 1978, Earl Quick collapsed in his 22-year-old son’s arms from a major heart attack and was unable to work again.

“I never thought about what else I might do for a career,” Ron Quick says, “because this business became my responsibility at such a young age.”

Ron Quick became a partner in the family business in 1987 and bought his father out in the 1990s. The restaurant, which has changed very little over the years — it still looks like a 1960s recreation room with its wood paneling, burnt-orange linoleum floors, and neon beer signs —  has become an iconic barbecue spot over the last half-century. Quick’s wasn’t merely celebrated for its deliciously smoky rubs, tender pulled pork, and smoked burgers, but for its wide array of side dishes, including four different kinds of fries (wedge, crinkle-cut, waffle-cut and chili cheese fries) and battered sweet corn nuggets.

“Janet and I wanted to make it to the restaurant’s 50-year anniversary, which we did on May 14. But it was very hard to juggle the demands of the restaurant, the catering business, and the food truck which we started last year. We had to cut back somewhere. I wanted to get out of the day-to-day operation while I still had my health.”

Quick says his son Dustin will continue to manage the catering business — they have a party for 200 that they’re feeding over the weekend — and the food truck. “We’ll have the food truck parked in front of the restaurant a few days next week,” Ron Quick says. “Definitely on Wednesday, which is our rib special day.”

Quick says the truck will sell most of the restaurant’s most popular dishes, including pulled pork, ribs and baked beans, with alternating special dishes. Patrons will be able to find the truck’s locations via Twitter at @quicksonwheels.

“It’s the end of one era and the beginning of another,” Quick says. “Yesterday my daughter Kelly, who lives in Arizona, called to tell us she was engaged. Now Janet and I will have more free time to go out and see them.”