It was the kind of dream that could only arise in Kansas City.
Suzanne “Little Suzy” Guenther, a culinary professional in Kansas City, was preparing to move to Germany with her German-born husband. She knew exactly what she wanted to do when she got there: open a classic Kansas City barbecue/Southern “juke joint” with live music in the land of wurst und schnitzel.
She started small, with a food truck crafted from what had been a wurstbud, the German equivalent of a hot dog stand. That was in 2008. She always intended to open a sit-down restaurant, though the plan accelerated when a collision with a tractor trailer totaled the food truck. Today, she operates Little Suzy’s Smoke Shack BBQ in Frankfurt, Germany, in a former Hooters. She serves brisket, ribs, burnt ends and Southern-style sides such as collard greens and buttermilk biscuits to diners grooving to live classic American roots music.
She believes it just might be the only true Kansas City style barbecue on the continent.
“I’ve been told it’s the best barbecue in Europe,” Guenther says. “I don’t know about that, but it is definitely the most authentic.”
Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, she made a triumphant return to her Kansas City roots with a one-day Little Suzy’s pop-up at the Glass Cat Cafe in Bonner Springs, owned by her longtime friend Stephanie Cashion. The menu was the same as what she serves in Frankfurt, and from this diner’s point of view, Guenther does her hometown proud. The meat was smoky, moist and deftly seasoned. Her sauce leans just a bit on the vinegar end of the classic KC spectrum, but it’s well balanced with sweet tomato. She also makes her own salt-fermented garlic dill pickles.
“The Germans like sweet pickles, and that just doesn’t go with barbecue,” she says.
Guenther says her customer base is a good mix of American expats and Germans.
“People from the American consulate, and soldiers, come in droves,” she says. “We’ve also got a pretty good local following,” though Germans often face a bit of a learning curve, she says. “A lot of them have never had beef brisket and they don’t know buttermilk biscuits.”
Getting the hardwood she wanted was a challenge at first.
“There’s no hickory, and for a long time I couldn’t get oak, so I started with maple, cherry and ash,” Guenther says. “Right now, I’m using primarily oak. Now, I’m going to say something controversial. As long as you’re using a good, clean hardwood, I challenge anyone to tell what kind of wood you’re using, unless it’s hickory or mesquite.”
Guenther and Cashion met when they were both enrolled in the acclaimed culinary program at Johnson County Community College in the 1990s. They went on to work together for a time at the classic fine dining restaurant Starker’s on the Country Club Plaza before Guenther headed off to Germany. Cashion worked in several Kansas City restaurants before she opened the Glass Cat, a breakfast-and-lunch cafe (11657 Kaw Drive, Bonner Springs).
