Jack Stack Barbecue - Martin City
Jack Fiorella opened this room in 1974, worked out he could not beat Arthur Bryant's and Gates at the counter, and went the other way: gourmet meats over hickory, cloth napkins, a full bar, and salads that scandalized the purists.24
Why go
Russ Fiorella started the family in barbecue in 1957 with a storefront stand and five or six items on it.2 Jack, the eldest son, worked with his father until 1974 and then opened his own room out in Martin City.2 His second restaurant, Hatfield and McCoy's in Overland Park, closed, and The Pitch puts the epiphany right there: the only way to survive against Arthur Bryant's, Gates, Quick's and Rosedale was to stop competing with them on their own ground.4 Jack and Delores cooked what the house calls gourmet meats over hickory, and the menu they built ran Certified Angus Beef steaks, seafood and lamb ribs alongside the barbecue.2 Today's Martin City board keeps the shape without the lamb: a twelve-ounce Kansas City strip, a whole boneless trout and a Duroc pork chop sit under the same roof as the burnt ends.1 Tommy Kupczyk runs this pit.2
Order this / avoid
- Order: the crown prime beef ribs. Two of them anchor Jack's Best at $94, with pork spare ribs, beef burnt ends and smoked sausage, and it feeds four.1
- Order: cheesy corn bake and hickory pit beans. The Pitch:
the beans are so loaded with meat that even a small order can make a decent meal.
4 - Avoid: treating the sandwich board as the whole menu. The Duroc pork chop comes off the wood-fired grill and the kitchen sources it from Phillip's family farm.1
What locals & experts say
- The Pitch, on the sides:
The cheesy corn is addictive, and the beans are so loaded with meat that even a small order can make a decent meal.
4 - The Pitch, on the room:
It's cozy, with wood-paneled walls, low ceilings, a fireplace and an oddball assortment of 20th-century antiques.
4
Good to know
- Timing: Monday to Thursday 11am to 9pm, Friday and Saturday to 10pm, Sunday to 8.30pm. Happy hour runs Monday to Friday, 3pm to 6pm.1
- You can book a table here, which the counter joints in this city do not offer.3
- Lunch has its own board, and it comes off at 4pm.1
- Which door: six Jack Stack restaurants trade in the metro and this is the 1974 original on Holmes Rd.2
- Not on the city ranking: Ryan Bernsten's fourteen-place Infatuation ranking of Kansas City barbecue, edition of 18 September 2025, names no Jack Stack door.5
Verdict
could-visit — Jack Fiorella opened this room in 1974 and then did something none of the counter joints did, which was put steaks, seafood and a hickory grill on a barbecue menu and hire staff to serve it. The cooking is real and the beef ribs are the reason to come. Against that, Ryan Bernsten's fourteen-place Infatuation ranking of September 2025 has no Jack Stack door on it, six rooms now trade under the name, and the only critical line on file comes from a piece whose writer and date could not be established. That is a rung below the counters this city is known for.