Restaurants

Kick Sass

Black Belt Bar-B-Que enters the competitive KC market swinging.

By Charles Ferruzza 

Some Kansas Citians take things a little too literally, which is why restaurateurs have to be wary of names that are too clever for their own good. For example, Pete Peterman may change the name of his Sour Octopus when he moves the restaurant from its far north location to a more accessible venue near Columbus Park in the next few weeks; as incredible as it sounds, some diners thought sour octopus was a dish on the menu.

And the Nelsons -- Colin, Mary and Sharlie -- who own Westport's eight-month-old Black Belt Bar-B-Que (534 Westport Road), have heard that some people thought their restaurant was a karate school. "It's true! We've actually heard people say that," Sharlie says. "That's one of the problems we have in getting customers to find us. The other is that we're at the far end of a shopping strip that's dominated by Chili's and the New Peking. We're sort of lost down here."

But the offbeat restaurant is well worth discovering. The Nelson family serves up traditional, Southern-style barbecued meats -- ribs, beef, pulled pork, smoked chicken -- as well as Jamaican dishes from Colin Nelson's homeland. "No one does jerk chicken like my father," Sharlie insists. "He's from the city where jerk cooking originated -- Portland, Jamaica."

Colin's second passion (after making jerk pork and chicken) is tae kwan do, which is where the restaurant got its name. "My father is a third-degree black belt," Sharlie says. She notes that the barbecue joint's slogan -- "the one with the kick" -- also refers to Colin's spicy jerk sauce, made with scallions, garlic, peppers and allspice. The Nelsons offer only one version: hot.

The barbecue sauce is much milder, a rich and shiny, brown-sugar-based potion. It's especially luscious as a dipping sauce for Black Belt's sweet-potato fries or for a square-meat Jamaican patty wrapped in a vibrant yellow pastry.

Is it a particular spice that makes the pastry dough so vivid? "No," Sharlie says candidly. "Food coloring."

Sharlie cannot tell a lie, so she'll admit that Black Belt's potato salad and cole slaw are not homemade. But practically everything else in the place is. Her biggest surprise so far is how popular the goat curry has become. "We actually sell a lot of it," she says. "Now we just have to educate our customers about how tender and delicious our oxtails are."

And I can testify: She's not jerking you around.