An overnight run to Kansas City last week found my pal and me knocking back ‘que at Fiorella’s Jack Stack. They’ve been around since 1957, and there are five locations, all rather large. We hit the one in Country Club Plaza – only in Kansas City would there be a barbeque spot in such an upscale location. I’d eaten at another location before, a good while back, and felt generally that while they were good, there were better spots around. (The sheer mega-size is off-putting to me, I admit.) Still, I remembered some first-rate chicken wings and interesting sides.
This isn’t an inexpensive place. $6.99 for 3 onion rings? Yes, they’re large, and very thickly cut. But for those of us who consider a batter-to-onion ratio a serious consideration, that’s way too much onion for a single ring, or, more accurately, a small bowl rather than a ring, because they’re cut from the ends of onion, to give them what seems to be a signature curve.
But I’m willing to forgive them quite a lot, it seems, because they serve lamb ribs. Ribs, I tell you, lamb ribs. (Yes, they have beef ribs, too.) It turns out to be the bones from a full rack of lamb – I believe I had nine bones. They’re dry rubbed and cooked really slowly. This is a very fatty cut – much more so than pork ribs, especially if they’re trimmed so what we call rib tips are removed – so it’s a rich meat, and this truly is falling off the bone without having the feeling that they were steamed or oven-baked first. Absolutely wonderful.
To me, their sauce is superfluous. I tried all three kinds, the mild, the spicy and the hot. They’re tomato-based, but to a palate used to St. Louis-style sauce, there is almost no discernible sweetness. There’s a fair amount of cumin, and the hot is moderately pungent. But all of them overwhelm the delicate flavor of the lamb.
If there’s a lamb-reluctant eater sitting across the table from you, this is a fine introduction. On the other hand, lamb ribs are extremely hard to find, so you could be creating a monster.
$23.99, includes fries and slaw – any other sides require an upcharge.
Fiorella’s Jack Stack
4747 Wyandotte Avenue, Kansas City, MO and other locations.
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