What do you get when you bring together an outrageous Kansas City disc jockey, a member of the family who founded KC Masterpiece BBQ, and a dimwitted superhero cartoon character called Captain RibMan?

A new downtown Lawrence sports bar, of course.

The Meat Market soon will open at 811 N.H. in the downtown building that formerly housed the upscale French restaurant The BleuJacket.

Kansas City radio personality Randy Miller, along with John Sprengelmeyer and Rich Davis, co-creators of the popular college newspaper comic strip Captain RibMan, are leading an ownership group that hopes to open the new sports bar by late May. Davis also is the former director of operations of the chain of KC Masterpiece Barbecue & Grill restaurants. He’s also the son of the founder of the famous barbecue sauce.

The trio promises the sports bar will be anything but ordinary.

“It will be run a lot like a radio station,” said Miller, who is the morning host for Kansas City’s KZPL 97.3. “There will be lots of giveaways, prizes and promotions.

“You’ll always be comfortable here, but there will be that feeling of anything can happen at anytime.”

Miller is familiar with oddball promotions and pranks. During his 20 years on the air in Kansas City radio, he’s pulled several. Like what, you ask? One of his more publicized stunts came several years ago when he sent two members of his morning show into a upscale Kansas City-area neighborhood dressed in orange jumpsuits and handcuffed. They then began asking residents if they could borrow a hacksaw or bolt cutters.

Area police didn’t find the prank so funny. It ended when police arrested the two morning show members at gun point.

Randy Miller, left, and Rich Davis discuss their plans to open a new downtown sports bar called Meat Market. The restaurant, located in the former BleuJacket building, 811 N.H., is expected to open in late May.

Miller said his marketing ideas for the Meat Market would be more confined to the sports world. For instance, Miller said he wished the sports bar would have been open during the Al Bohl/Roy Williams controversy.

He said patrons could have expected an Al Bohl Bowlathon event, perhaps allowing patrons to bowl coconuts at Roy Williams figurines.

The bar’s memorabilia collection also is expected to be unique.

“If you think you are going to walk in here and see the last ball Hank Aaron ever hit, you might be disappointed,” Miller said. “But if you think you’re going to walk in here and see (former Kansas City Chief) Tim Grunhard’s underwear on the wall, then you understand us.”

The sports bar also will be influenced by Captain RibMan, the superhero comic strip character Davis and Sprengelmeyer created in 1997. The comic strip is now in about 150 college newspapers across the country and was named Yahoo!’s best online comic strip of 2001.

The superhero, whom Sprengelmeyer describes as having Superman’s body and Homer Simpson’s brain, will influence the sports bar by adding some of his favorite foods, like “Rocket Boy Beans,” which he must eat before he can fly, to the bar’s menu.

¢Captain RibMan

Sprengelmeyer and Davis also will use the celebrity connections they’ve made by writing the comic strip to garner memorabilia for the bar. Celebrities who have previously worked as guest writers for the comic strip include Sammy Sosa, Tony Hawk, Jesse Ventura and a host of supermodels, who are Captain RibMan’s favorite type of people.

As for the food, the restaurant will feature a full menu, including ribs, pizza, burgers, sandwiches, appetizers, salads and desserts. Davis has restaurant experience after helping create the concept for KC Masterpieces’ chain of restaurants. Sprengelmeyer also has been in the restaurant business, serving as a consultant to help several restaurant chains develop menus and promotions geared toward children.

The trio decided to open the sports bar in Lawrence in large part because Davis has lived in the city for the past eight years.

“This had to be in a college town,” Davis said. “If you can’t have fun in a college town like this, you can’t have fun anywhere. That’s the thing about us. We’re going to have fun. If you take us too seriously, that’s probably not the thing to do.”