Missouri Hick BBQ

The smoker at Missouri Hick BBQ is the operational and visual centerpiece of the restaurant. The substantial commercial smoker sits in a covered structure visible from both the parking lot and from I-44 — a deliberate placement that produces the wood-smoke aroma that draws travelers off the highway. The smoker runs essentially continuously during operating hours and on most days during the warmer months when smoking happens to also include weekend overnight smokes for the longer-cooking cuts.

The cooking program is built around traditional Missouri BBQ technique. Wood selection is primarily hickory and oak — the standard combination for Missouri-style BBQ — with occasional applications of pecan and cherry for specific cuts. Cook times are appropriately long: brisket cooks for 12-14 hours at low temperature, pulled pork shoulders for 10-12 hours, and ribs for 4-5 hours with a careful balance of smoke exposure and finishing technique. The kitchen does not rush the cooks; meats that aren't ready by lunch service are held over for dinner, and the daily menu sometimes shifts based on what's finished cooking.

Quality control is genuinely tight. The kitchen is small enough that a single experienced pit master oversees most cooks, which produces the kind of consistent quality that's harder to achieve in larger BBQ operations. Customer feedback over the years has consistently emphasized the brisket bark and the rib smoke ring as standouts; the burnt ends (a Kansas City-style specialty using the fatty point cut of the brisket) are the most-recommended single menu item by repeat customers.

The menu structure is traditional BBQ: meats by the plate, by the sandwich, or by the pound. Plate dinners typically include a meat (8-10 ounces), two sides, and Texas toast or cornbread. Sandwich options are pulled pork, brisket, smoked sausage, smoked chicken, or burnt ends served on standard hamburger buns or on Texas toast. By-the-pound takeaway includes the same meats plus the option of full slabs of ribs (baby back or St. Louis-style spare ribs) for larger groups.

The signature item is the burnt ends — the deeply-smoked, heavily-bark-crusted, cubed fatty-point pieces from the brisket that are a Kansas City BBQ tradition. Missouri Hick's burnt ends are widely considered among the best in the rural Missouri BBQ scene; the kitchen smokes the burnt ends for the full brisket cook time and then returns them to the smoker for additional bark development before service. Repeat customers consistently order burnt ends and the burnt-ends-burnt-ends sandwich combination as the standard order.

Beyond burnt ends, the pulled pork is excellent (10-12 hour smoke, generous portions, served with sauce on the side), the brisket is consistently good (the bark and smoke ring are the indicators of careful cooking), and the ribs are appropriately tender without being fall-off-the-bone (which BBQ purists consider over-cooked). Sides include classic standards — baked beans (the BBQ-bean recipe is well-regarded), coleslaw, potato salad, mac and cheese, and Texas toast — at portion sizes that pair appropriately with the meats.

The dining room is the kind of unpretentious wood-and-corrugated-metal roadhouse interior that traditional BBQ joints are supposed to have — rough-hewn wood tables, simple chairs, paper napkin dispensers, condiment caddies on each table with the various house-made sauces, and walls decorated with Route 66 memorabilia, customer photographs, and the kind of small-town BBQ-restaurant ephemera that builds up across years of operation. Seating runs roughly 60-80 indoors with additional picnic-table seating in the outdoor area during warmer months.

The outdoor picnic area is the preferred seating during spring and fall (April through May, September through October) when Missouri weather is mild. Picnic tables sit under shade trees with views of the smoker, the parking lot, and the surrounding Cuba landscape; the casual outdoor environment is appropriate to the BBQ context and is genuinely pleasant on good-weather days. Summer afternoons can be hot but evenings cool off acceptably.

Service is counter-style. Customers order at a counter inside the restaurant, take a numbered tag, and either find a table or wait in the outdoor area for their order to be called. The model produces faster service than full table-service BBQ restaurants and is appropriate for the I-44 traveler clientele who need efficient lunch turnaround. Beer and soft drinks are available; the beer selection is limited but includes the standard Missouri options (Anheuser-Busch products primarily, plus several craft options).

Pricing is appropriately moderate for rural-Missouri BBQ. Plate dinners run $14-$22 depending on the meat and side selections; sandwich combinations with chips and a drink run $10-$16; by-the-pound takeaway runs $20-$32 per pound for meats and $5-$8 per pint for sides. The pricing is genuinely good value for the quality — comparable urban BBQ restaurants in St. Louis or Kansas City charge 40-60% more for similar quality.

Hours are Wednesday through Sunday from 11am to 8pm. Closed Monday and Tuesday. The kitchen sometimes runs out of specific cuts (especially brisket and burnt ends) during peak weekend service and switches to whatever else is available; arriving for an early lunch (11:30am-12:30pm) is the standard way to ensure access to all menu options. Weekend dinner service (Friday and Saturday evenings) is the busiest period; Wednesday and Thursday lunches are the quietest.

Reservations are not accepted — the restaurant operates on a first-come, first-served counter-service model. Wait times during peak periods can run 15-30 minutes but typically don't reach restaurant-ruining levels. The natural strategy for Route 66 travelers is to plan a Cuba lunch stop with some flexibility on timing; arriving at 11:15am or 1:30pm avoids the noon rush and produces faster service.

Missouri Hick BBQ is the natural lunch anchor for a Cuba day-plan. The standard sequence: morning at the Cuba Outdoor Murals walking tour (60-90 minutes ending around 11am), drive 4 miles west to Fanning for the rocking chair (30-45 minutes), return to Cuba for lunch at Missouri Hick (60-90 minutes including counter wait), then afternoon at Bob's Gasoline Alley or the Wagon Wheel Motel. The restaurant's location on East Washington Street puts it directly on the Route 66 alignment and easily accessible from both downtown Cuba and the I-44 exits.

For travelers continuing west toward Rolla and Springfield, Missouri Hick is the natural last Cuba stop. Rolla is 30 miles west — typically a 30-minute drive — and Springfield is 130 miles west, typically a 2-hour drive. A late lunch at Missouri Hick (1:30-2:30pm) puts travelers in Rolla by mid-afternoon and Springfield by early evening, an appropriate pace for the Missouri Route 66 corridor.

For travelers continuing east toward Pacific and St. Louis, Missouri Hick is the natural first Cuba stop after a morning start from St. Louis (typically a 75-90 minute drive from downtown St. Louis). The combination of an early lunch at Missouri Hick followed by an afternoon at the Cuba Outdoor Murals and other attractions produces a natural Cuba half-day from a St. Louis base. The 35-mile drive from Cuba to Pacific (Jensen Point overlook and other small-town stops) is the natural afternoon extension.