FEBRUARY 2019 / SOUTHERNLIVING.COM
72Deborah Jones
and Mary Jones
Jones Bar-B-Q
KANSAS CITY, KSK
ANSAS CITY natives Deborah and
Mary Jones learned to cook barbecue
from their father, an electrician who
moonlighted as the pitmaster at a
restaurant called Hezekiah’s. Their
older brother Daniel eventually bought the
business and renamed it Jones Bar-B-Q. The
sisters helped out as a sideline to their day
jobs (Deborah worked at the post office and
Mary as a nurse), and then they took over
the place after their brother passed away.
The Joneses stepped away from the
restaurant business for a few years, but
they couldn’t resist the draw of the pit. In
2015, they rented a small brick building
(which used to be a taco stand) in front of
a strip mall on Kaw Drive and set up a black
metal upright smoker with a tall smokestack
outside. It’s a two-woman operation these
days, with Deborah lighting the oak and
hickory fire at 2 a.m. and Mary prepping
the meat for the day.
They serve old-school Kansas City-style
barbecue—sausage, rib tips, burnt ends, and
beef cooked over real wood with no fancy
rubs or flourishes—and they’ve steadily been
winning over new fans and gaining lots of
media attention. The building recently got
a face-lift—a new coat of black paint for the
brick walls, a sign with sleek white lettering
on the roof, and a big walled patio added out
front where customers can dine on picnic
tables with white umbrellas.don’t need a
lot of money,”
Danielle Bennett
says. “I need a
lot of life.” And she’s found
plenty of it in the world
of barbecue. It all started
when she was recruited
as a substitute judge at the
2007 Canadian Open BBQ
Championships in Barrie,
Ontario. Instantly hooked,
she soon had her own team
called Diva Q, traveling
across North America
and stopping off at every
old-school barbecue joint
along the way.
Though she grew up in
Canada, her family had a
vacation home in Florida,
where she now resides. “I’d
classify myself as one of the
most Southern Canadian
people you’ll ever meet,”
she admits.
In 2013, Bennett landed
her own Travel Channel
show, BBQ Crawl. For three
seasons, she introducedviewers to the diversity
of the modern restaurant
scene. “We showcased
real places and told real
stories, and it was never
scripted,” she says. “I like
the integrity of that.”
Bennett has a passion
for sharing the techniques
and traditions of barbecue
cooking. She teaches more
than 50 classes a year
for corporate clients like
Traeger, a manufacturer of
pellet grills. Such events let
her connect with thousands
of students—most are not
aspiring pros but backyard
barbecuers looking to up
their games. The majority
of her students are still men,
but that’s starting to change.
Bennett says, “Three years
ago, in a 50-student class,
I would be lucky to get one
or two women. Now, my
classes will have five, six, or
even 10 women.” If Diva Q
has her way, those numbers
will continue to grow.Danielle
Bennett
Diva Q
FLORIDA“I