By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Restaurateur Philip Kuhn offers a barbecue taste tour with his new establishment, Blue Smoke Barbecue, in downtown Hays.
His newest endeavor opened on Monday at 804 Main in the former Soda Shoppe location.
Blue Smoke makes its own dry rub to create flavor profiles. Then the restaurant offers diners a choice of its own homemade barbecue sauces in line with the various regional barbecue styles — KC, Memphis, Carolina and Texas.
"It is kind of cool in a sense that every time you come, you can actually have a different combo or different flavor profile," he said.
In its debut Monday, Blue Smoke sold out of barbecue by 2:17 p.m.
"It's been fun," Kuhn said. "We've had a lot of great customers and people in the community that I've known for years. They come in and have said really good things so far."
Blue Smoke is offering brisket, pulled pork, Carolina-style ribs, spicy sausage, regular sausage and chicken.
You can order the chicken with a special Alabama white barbecue sauce.
The restaurant serves burnt ends, which Kuhn calls "meat marshmallows," but they are not on menu on their own. You can get the ends in the restaurant's "grown up" mac and cheese. Burnt ends are the crispy ends of a smoked brisket.
For sides, Blue Smoke offers green apple slaw, fire roasted corn salad, cucumber onion salad, baked potato salad, salt roasted baked potato, mac and cheese and side salad.
"Everything is packed with flavor," Kuhn said. "Everything is fresh. We make everything in house."
The name Blue Smoke came from the the thin blue smoke that comes from the smoker when you have conditions in the smoker just right, Kuhn said.
"We always strive for perfection," he said. "We always try to get the best customer experience. Not only that, but we try to train our employees and give them a wealth of knowledge."
Breakfast
Blue Smoke's hours are 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. or sell out Mondays through Saturdays.
Kuhn thought downtown needed another restaurant that served breakfast. One of its breakfast specialities is brisket and gravy, which is a take off on the classic biscuits and gravy, but the white gravy is made from the beef fat with bits of brisket.
You can also order croissant or Texas toast sandwiches, skillets, eggs and homemade breakfast sausage.
Soda fountain
Kuhn retained the classic soda fountain that had been the gem of the previous Soda Shoppe.
At one time, Hays had five soda fountains, and Blue Smoke's is the only one that remains. Kuhn did not know the age of the current soda fountain, but he said it dates to at least the 1990s when the previous building owner, Jim Keller, last remodeled the building.
"There is no way you could pay me enough money to rip those soda fountains out," Kuhn said.
Blue Smoke has a complete menu of old fashioned soda treats like shakes, Shirley Temples, cream soda and hand-packed ice cream.
Grocery
Kuhn will also open a market in the storefront to the south of Blue Smoke.
"I saw this need of these apartments going up and Fort Hays right here. 'Why don't we have a market? We used to have one,' " Kuhn said.
The market's focus will be on Kansas foods. It will also supply Kuhn's two restaurants.
Kuhn is putting his own hydroponics system in the basement to grow fresh herbs and vegetables. He also hopes to carry Kansas beef, pork and eggs.
He hopes the business, Kuhn's Market, will open by Jan. 1.
A vibrant downtown
This is Kuhn's second downtown restaurant. He also owns The Press in the Hadley Center on Eighth Street.
"There is this new vibrant culture that's coming in [to downtown]," Kuhn said. "It is not even just the people. It's this ownership. In the past year, we saw a lot of owners buy their own buildings. ... They are putting life back into them. ...
"Downtown to me says you have something local. You have something special. This says if you are proud of something, you are proud of Hays, you put it downtown."
Kuhn has purchased both 804 and 802 Main. 804 Main St. was built in 1917, and 802 was built in 1922. He plans to remodel the space over Blue Smoke into a loft for himself and put two two-bedroom apartments over the grocery next door.
Kuhn has removed the metal facing from the front of both buildings, but repairs still need to be made to the decorative brickwork. The buildings are in the historic Chestnut Street District, but are not contributing buildings.
Kuhn as a chef
Kuhn started cooking for himself and his four siblings out of necessity when he was 9.
"You can only eat so many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and grilled cheese sandwiches before you get hungry," he said.
Kuhn learned to cook from both his grandmothers as well as his great-aunt who was a local premier caterer.
He studied at the Art Institute of Colorado. After he completed his training, he ran the Airport Steakhouse in Hutchinson, the Dodge City casino food service and taught as an instructor at NCK Tech for seven years, only recently leaving that position.
You can follow Blue Smoke on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BlueSmokeHays.