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In my last blog, I alluded to our having eaten great food during our Spring Break and the fact that we did not eat on a schedule. Every spring break week is a prelude what our summer will be like – looser scheduling and eating at odd intervals.
The day that we went to Fort Osage, we drove through Buckner, Missouri. To many people, this would not be a bonus, but I had insider information garnered from a customer I had met at stuff. Right before the holidays, I struck up a conversation in the store with a woman named Tammy. She was oohing and aahing over our fully-lit, reproduction carnival letters. We talked a good long time – she mentioned needing a few of them, and we discussed all the ways Casey and I had used them in the store. Then she told me about her BBQ business in Buckner, Hawg Shed. The woman she was traveling with that day became the “rave squad” for her friend’s business and regaled me with its magic. (I’ve seen this behavior in my own friends about stuff, and it always warms my heart that they love what I do as much as I do.) Tammy stood their quietly smiling, and I stood there with my mouth watering.
Our talking came to an end as the store filled with people. I made a promise to visit in the future, and she, jokingly, mentioned saving her pennies to buy letters to spell HAWG SHED. And then we parted ways.
I have to preface my next comments about the Hawg Shed with the fact that I was basically raised on Kansas City barbeque (and bar-be-que and BAR-B-Q and Bar-b-que and BBQ). My parents – both when they were together and since they’ve been apart – are barbeque junkies. I truly believe my father could eat it every day, and my mother was once a team contestant in the American Royal BBQ contest and the Lenexa BBQ Contest. Serious red sauce runs through these veins. I won’t digress into the quagmire of debates over thin sauce vs. thick sauce, toasted buns vs. soft bread, etc.. I will also not profess to be an expert on barbeque myself.
So, that being said, I will tell you that Tammy’s place in Buckner has the finest pulled pork I have ever consumed, and her baked beans are tops. Both were authentically smoky – no trace of smoke flavoring, one of my least favorite things on the planet. No one at our table ate anything but pork, so I can’t speak to the other meat offerings. We will be going back sometime this summer when our little group of three is hungrier.
This photo perfectly reflects our lax meal schedule during Spring Break: our son had eaten breakfast and a snack, so he just had a small bowl of baked beans; my husband had only eaten breakfast, and he had the pork sandwich. I had consumed nothing all day, and, when we sat down at 3:30pm, I had the amazing Pork Nachos. My sister would have been delighted with the freshly fried corn chips. Great crunch….
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The fountain drinks were perfectly mixed, and we all left happy. The Hawg Shed has four total tables, but it has the cutest drive thru window on Highway 24! It is not much larger than a true shed, but the glimpse of the kitchen area I got showed spotless quarters. And I can tell you, having been there, that Tammy is right: the carnival letters would look “kick butt” on her building.
If you go on a weekend night, I’m told, you’d better be prepared to possibly eat in your car. They sell food by the pound, and we considered that for a few minutes but then decided that returning another time was the best option.
So, as we always do when traveling to a new place, we left a reason hanging wide open for another visit.
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