photo by: Submitted photo

A pulled pork sandwich from Fire Canyon Barbeque is pictured.

Look for a new barbecue restaurant to open soon in the former Slow Ride Roadhouse location in North Lawrence. Don’t expect much to move slow at the new Fire Canyon Barbeque restaurant, though. Co-owner Darren Shafer likes to take experimentation at a fast pace.

While Fire Canyon will offer all the staples of Kansas City-style barbecue — pulled pork, brisket, burnt ends, ribs and other such items — Shafer said he believes in the idea of always having something special on the menu to test the taste buds of area diners.

Sometimes, it is not just special, but big — big like a buffalo.

Indeed, Shafer said he plans to have some buffalo on the menu from time to time. Shafer — who began operating a catering business in 2013 and later expanded to a food truck — already is paying a partial homage to barbecue buffalo. He was at a Colorado establishment that was serving the specialty meat, and it came with a side of blueberry-based barbecue sauce.

That led Shafer to create his own version, a habanero blueberry sauce that is now a regular on his menu. As Shafer gets ready to open his first brick-and mortar restaurant at 1350 North Third St. — about a block north of the Kansas Turnpike bridge in North Lawrence — he’s excited to roll out a multitude of creations.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The former Slow Ride Roadhouse is pictured in North Lawrence on June 27, 2023.

Look for beef ribs, as in the type that look like a portion of a dinosaur has parked on your plate. Pork belly burnt ends also are on the list. So too is a pair of chili varieties — a pork green chili that uses green chiles from Hatch, New Mexico, and a red chili recipe that features brisket. Also, Shafer said he is in the process of learning how to do whole hog barbecue, which is just what it sounds like. You smoke an entire hog rather than just focusing on individual cuts from the animal.

Look for multiple sauces, too. There’s a classic Kansas City-style sauce, a Memphis style, a white Alabama barbecue sauce, and a mustard-based sauce popular in the Carolinas, among others.

The idea of experimenting with barbecue is nothing new to Shafer. It is how he got started with barbecue. A native Kansan, he found himself living in Colorado, and was thoroughly unimpressed with the barbecue options there.

“I looked for a year, and I was like ‘dang, I’m going to have to teach myself how to do this,'” Shafer said. “When I was in Kansas City, I never had an incentive to learn because I could just go down the street and buy a great brisket.”

So, Shafer became a certified Kansas City Barbecue Society judge, and began working at barbecue competitions every Saturday. Then on Sundays, he would barbecue all day, working to meet or exceed what he had judged.

Eventually, a Colorado catering business and a food truck business ensued as Shafer — who works as an I.T. professional — honed his skills. By 2019, Shafer and his wife, Bridget, moved back to Kansas to be closer to family.

photo by: Submitted photo

Fire Canyon Barbeque’s food truck is pictured, which will soon become a regular sight in North Lawrence.

Shafer was ready for a brick-and-mortar restaurant by then, but the pandemic had different ideas. Nearly three years later, Shafer said he’s glad to have found the former Slow Ride location, which was a bar and restaurant that formerly was operated by the Del Campo family.

The site has both an indoor and an outdoor stage, and Shafer said he intends to book bands at the location.

“We’ve already gotten flooded by bands who want to play here,” Shafer said. “It already is a well-known place.”

Among those who know the place well are motorcycle enthusiasts who often made the Slow Ride a regular stop while touring the countryside of northeast Kansas.

“They’ve already been pinging me about it,” Shafer, a Tonganoxie resident, said of area riders. “They can’t wait to come back here and have that on their tour again.”

One other group that Shafer hopes to have at the restaurant on a regular basis is craft beer lovers. He said his time in Colorado showed him the power of craft beer, and he grew to love cooking with it. He said he’ll be looking to collaborate with local breweries on recipes that use local beers.

The establishment also will have a full bar, which will be managed by the Shafers’ son, Ashton, who has been in the small-batch whiskey business in Seattle.

Shafer said he hopes to have a soft opening in late July or early August, with a more full opening by September.

Here’s a couple of other restaurant notes from around town:

• It may not be quite as old as the area’s love of barbecue, but Lawrence’s tradition with Pizza Shuttle goes back a long way. The restaurant that has been synonymous with takeout and delivery pizza for the college-age crowd has a new location.

The company has moved into space at 711 W. 23rd St., which is in the Malls Shopping Center at 23rd and Louisiana streets. The Shuttle had been located in the shopping center at 23rd and Ousdahl since 1984. But as we’ve reported several times over the years, that shopping center at 23rd and Ousdahl has slowly been turning into a self-storage business. It looks like the Pizza Shuttle spot has fallen victim to that expansion.

Pizza Shuttle moved into its new location last week. While the location is new, it has kept the menu the same and has some items that pay homage to its old, longtime home.

• Massachusetts Street has a new Mexican restaurant. Fiesta Cancun has opened at 740 Massachusetts St. in the spot that used to house the Wa sushi restaurant.

Fiesta Cancun is owned by the brother-in-law duo of Carlos Méndez and Miguel Perez, who both began working in restaurants more than 20 years ago, according to the restaurant’s Facebook page.

The restaurant has a big menu, featuring many of the traditional Tex-Mex dishes, including a variety of tacos, chimichangas, and fajitas. But it also has several other more complex dishes like a Pollo Veracruz that is a chicken and shrimp dish that features mushrooms, poblano peppers, onions and chipotle cream sauce. Mexican-style steak also is a featured part of the menu, with the classic carne asada being one option, while a “Texas steak” that comes with mushrooms, bacon, Monterey jack cheese and sliced avocado is another.