Traditional barbecue meets innovation at Q39 in KC.
Kansas City is known as one of the best cities in the country for barbecue. In my travels, I often meet chefs and restaurant owners who raise the bar in the culinary scene to a position that others strive to reach. Q39’s founder, Chef Rob Magee, and his wife, Chef Kelly Magee, are owners who reached this bar.
Kelly Magee, owner of Q39, shows off the restaurant’s signature smoked brisket sandwich.
In 2014, he and Kelly Magee opened the restaurant Q39 on 39th Street in Kansas City. Their championship-worthy barbecue restaurant quickly became known as chef driven: a concept that allows the chef to have flexibility to be creative with menu changes and additions. That is because, unlike many other barbecue operators, they started their restaurant from the viewpoint of a classically culinary trained chef who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. Sadly, Chef Rob passed away from cancer in 2021, but Kelly has carried on. She is the CEO of both the original restaurant and the second location in Overland Park, which opened in 2017. Both restaurants still use the award-winning recipes that originated from Chef Rob in his early career when he was a Kansas City Barbecue Society champion.
Kelly continues to build the brand by focusing on leveraging her team’s expertise to develop their outstanding operations. Her efforts have been paying off, and she was honored in 2024 as Restaurateur of the Year by the Greater Kansas City Restaurant Association. Kelly states, “We are the most reviewed and highest rated barbecue restaurant in Kansas City, according to Yelp and Google reviews.”
When it comes to the menu, Kelly says, “We don’t take shortcuts. Expect fresh ingredients, sliced-to-order brisket straight from the smoker, Certified Angus Beef burgers ground in house daily, and wood-fired grill plates served from flame to table. Our guests come for the Q, stay for the craft cocktails, and return for the hospitality.” She goes on to say, “We continue with our chef-driven focus led by Chef Pat Peluso as the executive chef and director of culinary operations.” Chef Pat updates menus seasonally, creating new recipes for salads, appetizers, and sandwiches. “The core foundation of our smoked meats is consistently available each day. We pride ourselves on never running out of fresh-from-the-pit smoked meats. People travel from all over the country to visit Q39, and we don’t want to disappoint our supporters.”
meats. Options include pork spare ribs, sliced brisket, pulled pork, smoked chicken, or house-made chipotle sausage.
Q39 is releasing their fall and winter menu on October 20, claiming that there will be some exciting new dishes. One new dish is the brisket poutine, which will include chopped brisket smoked in-house with white cheddar cheese curds, brisket gravy, green onions, and a drizzle of barbecue sauce.
Along with “the Q,”—the name that this smoky meat is known as—the restaurant also offers a full bar with craft beer and craft cocktails, as well as an extensive wine list. The Smoked Old Fashioned is the restaurant’s number one cocktail. They are also proud to offer beverages from many local Missouri breweries and distilleries.
Kelly adds, “Q39 goes beyond the traditional barbecue joint. We are an elevated hospitality, full-service restaurant that just happens to specialize in great barbecue. We are also the only large-scale barbecue restaurant in Kansas City that is truly ‘pit to plate,’ where every brisket is cooked that meal period, sliced to order by hand, and served with warm barbecue sauce.”
Now that’s what I call great barbecue! And when served with a dose of exceptional hospitality, this is the formula that has made Q39 so popular. I highly recommend you take a trip to one of the Q39 locations in Kansas City, the city known for some of the best barbecue in the country.
CHEF DANIEL PLISKA is a certified executive chef and author. He teaches culinary arts at Ozarks Technical Community College in Springfield.
• 1000 W. 39th Street, Kansas City • 11051 Antioch Road, Overland Park, KS. • Q39KC.com
All photos courtesy of Q39.
This article was originally printed in the October 2025 issue of Missouri Life.
