Hundreds of Chiefs fans lined up at Blind Box BBQ last Thursday for a chance to meet Chiefs’ wide receiver Rashee Rice. Rice announced a partnership with Blind Box back in July and the pair recently introduced the HE4VYWEIGHT Plate, a soul-food inspired dish that pays homage to Rice’s roots.
Along with ribs and burnt ends, the dish comes with bourbon baked Beans, creamy mac and cheese, collard greens and cornbread with honey butter. Before the meet-and-greet began, I spoke with Rice about what the collaborative meal means to him. When asked where the soul food inspiration comes from, he credits his family.
“[It’s inspired by] my grandma. All my aunts,” Rice says. “Whenever we had a block party in Philly, that’s all they’re cooking in the house, is soul food.”
KC’s quintessential and often controversial barbecue ingredient is sauce. So I had to ask. “You know KC is all about the sauce, so I gotta ask: sauce or no sauce?”
“Sauce,” Rice responds, without hesitation.
The event, hosted with the help of Square Peg Marketing & Branding, marked the official start of a season-long partnership between Rice, Blind Box BBQ and two local makers: Goldbar Limited, a Black-owned design house, and Meeks Me Smile Studio, a Kansas City fashion brand by designer Shawanna Meeks.
Goldbar’s founder Q. Ambition designed Rice’s custom jacket, a one-of-a-kind teal and red piece that Rice debuted ahead of his Oct. 27 Monday Night Football game. The jacket will go on display at Blind Box later this season and one lucky fan can win it.
Rice also showed off a duffle bag by Meeks Me Smile which signaled the launch of Meeks’s new men’s line.
“It combines two things I really like,” Rice states in a press release. “Solid fashion and good BBQ.”
Throughout the season, fans can expect more appearances from Rice at Blind Box, along with giveaways, charity tie-ins for The Rashee Rice Foundation and exclusive merch drops.
