The elderly elite of Kansas City share their life journeys, what motivated them along the way, the lucky breaks and tough times, and advice for staying active and relevant in their later years
Written by David Hodes
Interviewed by David M. Block, David Hodes and Pete Mundo
Ollie Gates
Birth date: July 3, 1931, Age: 93
“Live your life the best way you can. The world is changing all the time, so you have to change with the times. Roll with the waves.”
The best barbecue in Kansas City is always a hot topic of discussion among residents and visitors alike. There are great stories of the best places, the best operators and the best meats that keep the conversation lively. And Ollie Gates, now in his 90s, has a great story to tell about the ups and downs of his popular restaurants, which now employ the fourth generation of his family.
When a customer enters a Gates & Sons Bar-B-Q restaurant and is greeted with the classic “Hi, may I help you?” it already feels like it’s going to be a different experience. Any of the five Gates restaurants delivers the goods in the greater Kansas City area. You got your delicious short ends. You got your killer burnt ends. You got the classic Gates sauce. You got a Kansas City original right there, man, and a proud Kansas Citian in charge.
Barbecue Baron
Gates, a bonafide Kansas City barbecue baron who was cooking and selling barbecue as a young adult, can now be found sitting in a back room or a nearby office (usually at the headquarters on Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard) monitoring business. He’s always watching. Always making sure customers are happy.
It was Gates’ dad, George, who first got the family business rolling back in 1946. Back then, it was called Gates Ol’ Kentucky at 19th and Vine. The business moved a few times—to 23rd and Charlotte, back to 19th and Vine, then to 24th and Brooklyn. It stayed there until 1957, serving the neighborhood and the fans of the Monarchs, who were playing in Municipal Stadium at 22nd and Brooklyn. The Kansas City Athletics moved into the renovated stadium in 1955 and brought more customers.
Engineering Growth
Ollie Gates graduated from Lincoln High School in 1949, then served two years in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He joined his dad in the business in 1956. Then, in 1960, his dad died, and the young engineer took over the business with new ideas on customer service and the design of the barbecue oven. His mother and sister joined in. “I love to build stuff,” Gates says. “That brings me happiness.”
He eventually grew Gates & Sons into several locations in Kansas City, growing out from the oldest store still based on 12th and Brooklyn to two other locations in Kansas City and one each in Leawood, KCK (now closed), Olathe (briefly) and Independence. He also opened a Gates in Las Vegas for a brief period of time “just to test the waters,” he says. “It didn’t do too good.”
Gates is credited with inspiring the growth of barbecue businesses around the city as more and more people came to the realization that barbecue was Kansas City’s claim to fame. On September 18, 2021, Gates was inducted into the American Royal Barbecue Hall of Fame, and in August 2023, he was inducted into the Missouri Restaurant Association Hall of Fame.
Work Philosophy
His work philosophy is simple. “I start in the morning when I wake up, and go to bed when I am through working,” he says. “Everywhere I go, I take my office with me. This is not a job to me. It’s a way of life. I earn my living with the way of life that I live. The restaurant business is a way of life. Period.”
Gates gets home about 2 am most nights and is back at it early the next morning. That’s seven days a week, 365 days a year. “I never had a week of vacation in my life,” he says.
He had a few moments early on when he wasn’t sure going into the barbecue business was the right thing to do. “When I first started, the smoke was getting in my eyes,” he says. “And I said. ‘I’m going to get away from here and never go to another barbecue place in my life.’”
Challenges
Any other challenges in life that he had to overcome? “I never thought about challenges so much because life, to me, is a challenge by itself,” he says. “Every step is a challenge, as far as I am concerned. You have to be careful where you are going more than what you are doing. But there comes a comfort level in certain areas. When you are accustomed to anything, there is a comfort level that goes with that.”
That familiar Gates greeting “Hi, may I help you?” came about because Gates wanted to check out his incoming customer in a friendly way. “During the time that I was raised, there were a lot of people that came in to the restaurant, and everybody wasn’t a nice person,” he says. “So we wanted to make sure we recognize everybody that came through the door—good, bad and different—and say ‘hi’ to them. Make sure that they know we’re ready for them, whatever services they want.”
Politics
Gates did more than just run a thriving barbecue business. He had a lot of friends in the political arena, he says. He was the campaign manager for Bruce Watkins when he ran for mayor in 1979. Watkins was a civil rights trailblazer who served with the Tuskegee Airmen, and was the first African American elected to the Kansas City Council (Watkins lost to Dick Berkley). Gates was appointed to the Board of KC Parks and Recreation as a result of his work with Watkins. He served on the board from 1980 to 1998 and was president from 1991 until 1998. And speaking of politics: Gates served up meals for Congressman John Kennedy and President Bill Clinton when they visited the city.
Changing Attitudes
The worst advice he ever got was from a small-business associate who told him not to open up a restaurant in Leawood on 105th and State Line. “He said: ‘Don’t do that. You’re going too fast,’” Gates says. “Let’s see, 25 years now in the same spot. Hmm. Yes, I guess I am going too fast to open up a second one.”
Gates has seen the barbecue business grow substantially in the city. A Kansas City visitors bureau publication reports that there are more than 100 barbecue restaurants in the city. But Gates doesn’t fear competition. When he first started out, there were only about four barbecue places in town. “The more people come into the barbecue business, the more people they bring into the business,” he says. “When they start talking about barbecue, I’m with them. What makes us different from the rest of the barbecue restaurants is that Gates flavor, period.”
Changing attitudes about nutrition has affected business. “You get all these brains and everybody tells you what you should eat and when you should eat,” Gates says. “We just stay with a basic thing. We don’t have the same amount of clientele that we had at one time, but we have just enough to keep us in business. And that’s important.”
His advice for the younger generation is to exploit the opportunities they are given. “If there’s something that you really like doing, then pursue that and you’ll be better off,” he says. “You do a better job with something that you take a real appreciation for. Be a good citizen. Follow the Ten Commandments. That’s all you need to know. Love what you’re trying to do regardless of how much money you are going to make.”
“I never thought about challenges so much because life, to me, is a challenge by itself. So every step is a challenge, as far as I am concerned.”
“Everywhere I go, I take my office with me. This is not a job to me. It’s a way of life.”
