Bad to the Bones

Bad to the Bones is a smash-burger, smoked-wings and live-music bar at 308 S Hudson Street in downtown Buckner, Missouri — eastern Jackson County, not Kansas. It is the current trade name on the Facebook page and alcohol licence that succeeded Kirk and Rene Kellough’s Italian restaurant Tuscono’s, which occupied the same Hudson Street block. This is the Buckner, Missouri room. It is not Lucille’s Bad to the Bone BBQ, not the Atlanta-area Bad to the Bones BBQ, and not any other national “Bad to the Bone” pit.

Description

Bad to the Bones trades at 308 S Hudson Street in Buckner’s downtown, a few doors from Lady Lou’s Bakehouse (323 S Hudson) and from the old Tuscono’s dining rooms at 312 S Hudson, which a 2025–26 commercial listing still advertises for sale with the bar building removed from that listing.¹²³ Buckner is a city of under three thousand on U.S. 24 in northeastern Jackson County, Missouri.⁴

The room is a burger-and-wings bar, not a traditional Kansas City pit barbecue. First-party posts advertise smash burgers (including a multi-patty “Beast”), smoked brined wings, Chicago-style dogs, hand-dipped corn dogs, fries and tots cooked in beef tallow in a dedicated gluten-free fryer, and pulled pork that began as a special and was later put on the everyday menu.⁵⁶⁷ Live music is booked on weekend nights with no cover on advertised shows (Levee Town, Western Hippie, Kelsey Miles among 2025–26 names).⁸⁵ A first-party April 2025 post said nine TVs in a sports-bar room and two in a restaurant bar, on whenever the house is open.⁹

Missouri’s active alcohol-licence file, rows last updated 31 August 2026, lists BAD TO THE BONES LLC, DBA BAD TO THE BONES, at 308 Hudson, Buckner, 64016, Retail by Drink licence 315418 plus Permission - Employ Minors 315419. Named contact: KIRK KELLOUGH, association MGR.¹

Disambiguation. The name collides with many unrelated businesses: Lucille’s Bad to the Bone BBQ (separate brand, own menu site), a Bad to the Bones BBQ in Lawrenceville / Atlanta, a Bad to the Bone take-out in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, a Bad to The Bone BBQ in San Juan Capistrano, and the 1982 George Thorogood song. This page is only 308 S Hudson, Buckner, Missouri. badtothebones.com resolves to a generic lander, not this restaurant, and is not treated as first-party. Predecessor site tusconos.com fails TLS (expired certificate) and is not a current official site.

Ownership and history

Kirk Kellough is the licence contact / manager on Bad to the Bones LLC.¹ A 26 July 2026 first-party post states “Our owner has Celiac disease” in the gluten-free kitchen write-up.⁵ That is consistent with Kellough, who in December 2024 signed a Tuscono’s gluten-free notice as “Owner, Tuscono’s Restaurant, 312 S Hudson st.”¹⁰

The Hudson Street Italian restaurant Tuscono’s Woodfired Pizza & Pasta was the Kelloughs’ first restaurant. Feast (April 2016) found Kirk and Rene Kellough serving New York-style pizza and from-scratch pasta in the old post office at 312 S. Hudson St. after three years of nights-and-weekends renovation, with a hand-built wood-fired oven; they already ran a heating-and-cooling business in town. The piece put them at “a little less than a year” open, which places the Tuscono’s opening in 2015, not a year earlier or later.¹¹ A 2017 Feast follow-up repeated the 312 S. Hudson address and noted they had acquired the building to the north for a bar.¹²

On 26 December 2024 Tuscono’s posted that it would close permanently on 11 January 2025, citing labour and food costs and Missouri Proposition A (minimum wage and paid sick leave). KCTV5 reported the announcement the next day; the post put tenure at “over nine years,” which aligns with a 2015 opening.¹³ On 29–30 December 2024 Kirk and Rene reversed course. KSHB quoted their Facebook: community support had inspired them to “take a fresh look”; “Tuscono’s will remain open.”¹⁴

The Bad to the Bones name is on the same Facebook page (facebook.com/Tusconos) by 2025, with the About address flipped to 308 S Hudson and a new phone, while some 2025 musician posts still said “at Tuscono’s.”²⁹⁸ A 4 November 2025 third-party Instagram from a Blue Springs realtor treated Bad to the Bones as a “new local spot” for smash burgers, Chicago dogs and a gluten-free fryer.¹⁵ The 312 S. Hudson Tuscono’s dining plant was listed for sale in late 2025, with a later update that “THE BUILDING WITH THE BAR HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THE LISTING” — consistent with 308 remaining the operating bar while 312 is offered as a separate restaurant sale.³

Rene Kellough’s legal role in Bad to the Bones LLC is “. Missouri SoS search returned 403 and is not used as a filing. Do not collapse Tuscono’s 312 address into Bad to the Bones’ 308 address; they are neighbouring buildings on the same block.

Links

• Facebook (official; page slug still Tusconos): https://www.facebook.com/Tusconos
• Licence dataset: https://data.mo.gov/Regulatory/Missouri-Active-Alcohol-License-Data/yyhn-562y
• Not official: https://badtothebones.com/ (lander); https://tusconos.com/ (TLS certificate expired)

Sources

Footnotes

1. “Missouri Active Alcohol License Data,” Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control via data.mo.gov, dataset yyhn-562y, rows last updated 2026-08-31 (queried 2026-08-31). Records: licensee BAD TO THE BONES LLC; DBA BAD TO THE BONES; 308 HUDSON, BUCKNER, Missouri 64016; phone_number 8163257569; primary licence 315418 Retail by Drink; secondary 315419 Permission - Employ Minors; county JACKSON COUNTY; assoc MGR; name KIRK KELLOUGH; contact phone 8163527569. URL ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. “Bad to the Bones | Buckner MO,” Facebook page (username Tusconos), accessed 2026-08-31. About: 308 S Hudson St, Buckner, MO; (816) 570-1235; dine-in and in-store pickup. URL ↩ ↩²

3. Commercial listing, 312 S Hudson Street, Buckner, MO 64016, MLS 2587760, listed 15 November 2025, still advertised 2026. Update: main dining / kitchen / pizza oven / banquet / patio included; “THE BUILDING WITH THE BAR HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THE LISTING”; Tuscono’s name and recipes offered with the sale. URL ↩ ↩²

4. buckner-mo — Buckner, Missouri, Jackson County, U.S. 24 corridor. ↩

5. Bad to the Bones, Facebook post, 26 July 2026. Gluten-free kitchen list (breaded tenders, corn dogs, smoked wings, dedicated fryer, smash burgers and Chicago dogs on GF buns); “Our owner has Celiac disease”; address 308 S Hudson Street, Buckner, MO. URL ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. Bad to the Bones, Facebook post on the Levee Town thread, accessed 2026-08-31. “Open Tuesday-Thursday 11am-7pm, Friday and Saturday 11am-9pm.” URL ↩

7. Bad to the Bones, Facebook post (pulled pork from special to everyday menu), accessed 2026-08-31. URL ↩

8. Bad to the Bones, Facebook posts for Levee Town (May 2026 thread) and Summer Blues & Burgers (Western Hippie 21 August 2026, Kelsey Miles 22 August 2026), no cover. URLs · facebook.com ↩ ↩²

9. Bad to the Bones, Facebook post, 11 April 2025. Nine TVs in the sports bar, two in the restaurant bar; hours then given as Tuesday–Friday 11 a.m.–9 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m.–10 p.m.; Kirk Kellough comment that the menu had not changed much. URL ↩ ↩²

10. Kirk Kellough, Facebook post as owner of Tuscono’s, 17 December 2024. 312 S Hudson St, Buckner; 816-650-8284; “9 1/2 years” in business; gluten-free from opening day. URL ↩

11. Jenny Vergara, “Tuscono’s Woodfired Pizza & Pasta Serves Award-Winning Pizza in Buckner, Missouri,” Feast, 21 April 2016 (updated 19 July 2022). Kirk and Rene Kellough; 312 S. Hudson St.; “a little less than a year” open; hand-built oven; HVAC business; plans for the building to the north. URL ↩

12. “Tuscono’s Woodfired Pizza & Pasta Serves Award-Winning Fare in Buckner,” Feast, 22 September 2017 (updated 19 July 2022). 312 S. Hudson St.; more than two years open; bar in the building to the north planned that fall. URL ↩

13. Jonah Kahn, “Popular Buckner Italian restaurant closing due to increased expenses,” KCTV5, 27 December 2024. Announced close 11 January 2025; “over nine years”; Proposition A cited. URL ↩

14. Sam Hartle, “‘Strength of a community’: Tuscono’s restaurant in Buckner to remain open after announcing plans to close,” KSHB 41, 30 December 2024. Kirk and Rene Kellough; S. Hudson Street; reversal after the 29 December Facebook post. URL ↩

15. Premium Realty Group, Instagram, 4 November 2025. Third-party “new local spot” post: smash burgers, Chicago dogs, hand-dipped corn dogs, gluten-free fryer; hours claim Tuesday–Sunday 11–9 (conflicts with first-party hours; not used for schedule). URL ↩