This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

El Indio, Pollos Asados Al Carbon is a charcoal-grilled chicken business on the Independence Avenue corridor in Kansas City’s Historic Northeast, started in 2015 by Juan Bautista, who also owns KC Tacos and Wings. Northeast News describes it plainly and twice as a food truck working “right out of its mobile kitchen,” originally pitched in a parking lot at the intersection of Chelsea and Independence Avenues.1 Its own Facebook pages now publish a fixed street address — 5200 Independence Ave, Kansas City, MO 64124 — with the phone (816) 433-0164 and fixed daily hours of Tuesday–Sunday, 11:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m.23 That address is the same building as KC Tacos and Wings; whether El Indio now trades from inside that storefront or from its truck parked on that lot is not settled by any source read on this pass, and is not assumed here. Tier 1 — owner-operated, resident owner, independent.1

Description

El Indio sells chicken cooked over charcoal — pollos asados al carbón — on the Independence Avenue corridor. Northeast News characterises the menu as “barbecue, Mexican and Latin inspired chicken menu items,” grilled to order.1 The business’s own Facebook posts add costillas (ribs) to that repertoire, an item the August 2025 article does not mention.3

The trading pattern is a single standing offer and a single set of hours. Its own posts read “¡Estamos abiertos! Vengan a visitarnos, Martes a Domingo de 11am-8pm” — open Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. — and carry the address and phone in every caption.2 The recurring promotion is a Tuesday one: “Compras un pollo y llévate uno y medio” — buy a chicken and take away one and a half.23 Northeast News prices that special at $20.1

The business trades under two closely related names in public. Its Facebook pages are titled “El Indio - Pollos Asados Al Carbon” and “Pollo el indio” respectively; both publish the same address and the same telephone number, so they are treated here as one business with two pages rather than two businesses.23 The Registry uses the longer form, which is also the form Northeast News prints.1

Ownership and history

Juan Bautista is the owner, and El Indio is the third of the four businesses in his working history that Northeast News records.1 He grew up in the Historic Northeast, began in food service at sixteen at Garozzo’s Ristorante in Columbus Park, and opened Carmen’s Cafe at 6307 Brookside Plaza in 1999.

2015 is the founding year. In the paper’s account, Bautista “found himself drawn back to the Northeast community” and opened El Indio, Pollos Asados Al Carbon in a parking lot at the intersection of Chelsea and Independence Avenues — a food truck, “grilling up orders and serving customers right out of its mobile kitchen.”1 That is the article’s own language, and it is unambiguous about the form the business took at its start.

In February 2024 Bautista took over the former El Taco at 5200 Independence Ave and converted it to KC Tacos and Wings; as of the August 2025 profile he spent the majority of his time there.1

The move to 5200 Independence Ave is undated. Every first-party caption read on this pass gives 5200 Independence Ave, but Northeast News — writing in August 2025 — still places El Indio at Chelsea and Independence.123 Either the article was describing a position the truck had already left, or the relocation happened after publication. No source read states when or why the address changed, and none is invented: “.

No co-owner, partner, business entity name, or licence record was located this pass. “.

menu_status: partial. The items below are documented from local press and the business’s own social captions; the regular prices are not.

ItemPrice
Whole charcoal-grilled chicken (pollo asado al carbón)“
Half chicken“
Costillas (ribs)“
Barbecue, Mexican and Latin-inspired chicken plates“

Standing offer — Tuesday: buy one chicken and take one and a half, reported at $20 by Northeast News.1 The business’s own captions carry the offer but state no price.23 The $20 figure is a press-reported promotional price, not a verified first-party menu price.

Why no other prices: the business has no own domain and no first-party Toast, Square, Clover or Menufy ordering page was found. Prices for El Indio circulate only on delivery platforms and aggregator menu scrapers, which run materially above in-store pricing and are not carried on Registry pages. Items are recorded regardless.

Accompaniments are reported by customers rather than published by the business: a dated 2024 review describes the $20 whole chicken as arriving with beans, rice, salsa and tortillas.4 Recorded as customer-reported, not as a menu specification.

Not the business’s website. Several auto-generated SEO pages present themselves as first-party sites for this business — including el-indio-pollos-asados-al-carbon.goto-where.com, .res-discover.com, .com-fnb.com and .wheree.com. None is operated by the business, none is linked from either Facebook page, and none is cited on this page. One of them additionally miscategorises the business as being in North Kansas City.

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Julia Williams, “Historic Northeast Restaurateur Dishes Up Wings Along Independence Avenue,” Northeast News, August 20, 2025 (accessed 2026-08-13; full article body retrieved and read). Asserts, in the article’s own words: “In 2015, he found himself drawn back to the Northeast community and it was then that he decided to open up a new business — El Indio, Pollos Asados Al Carbon — in a parking lot at the intersection of Chelsea and Independence Avenues”; “This food truck specializes in barbecue, Mexican and Latin inspired chicken menu items, grilling up orders and serving customers right out of its mobile kitchen”; “On Tuesdays at El Indio, the truck offers its ‘buy one chicken, get one and a half for $20.’” Also asserts: owner Juan Bautista, Historic Northeast native; first job at age 16 at Garozzo’s Ristorante, 526 Harrison St, Columbus Park; opened Carmen’s Cafe, 6307 Brookside Plaza, in 1999; took over El Taco at 5200 Independence Ave in 2024 and converted it to KC Tacos and Wings, retaining staff; spends the majority of his time at KC Tacos and Wings. The article gives no El Indio address other than the Chelsea/Independence parking lot, and no El Indio prices other than the $20 Tuesday special. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  2. “El Indio - Pollos Asados Al Carbon,” official Facebook page (accessed 2026-08-13; page shell behind Meta’s login wall, post and video captions retrieved via the page’s public video index). Asserts: recurring caption “Especial de Martes ‼️ Compras un pollo y llevate uno y medio por solo. Te esperamos. De 11:00am a 8:00pm. 5200 E. Independence Ave Kansas City Mo 64124 (816) 433-0164”; and caption “¡Estamos abiertos! Vengan a visitarnos, Martes a Domingo de 11am-8pm … 📍5200 independence ave. Kansas City, Mo 64124 | (816) 433 0164”. Establishes current address, phone, hours (Tue–Sun 11:00–20:00) and the Tuesday promotion. No price is stated in any caption read; no menu page is published. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. “Pollo el indio,” second official Facebook page for the same business (accessed 2026-08-13; captions retrieved via the page’s public video index). Asserts: every caption read carries “5200 independence ave. Kansas City, Mo 64124 | (816) 433 0164” — the same address and phone as the “El Indio - Pollos Asados Al Carbon” page, which is the basis for treating the two pages as one business. Captions read include “Invitenme mañana MARTES en dia de promo”; “¡Hoy paga por un pollo y llévate pollo y medio!”; “Ven por tus COSTILLAS 🤗 te esperamos”; “Tiernas, jugosas y llenas de sabor. Así se disfrutan las costillitas”; “El dinero compra pollito asado de El Indio.” Establishes ribs (costillas) as a menu item and confirms the Tuesday promotion. No prices are stated. Post dates were not retrievable for this page on this pass. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. “El Indio, Pollos Asados Al Carbon,” Wanderlog place record (Google Places-derived) (accessed 2026-08-13). Asserts: address 5200 Independence Ave, Kansas City, MO 64124; phone (816) 433-0164; hours Sunday 11AM–8PM, Monday closed, Tuesday–Saturday 11AM–8PM; the business is described as a food truck; no permanently-closed flag is present; a dated customer review of 30 August 2024 reads in part “Got to love all the food trucks on the Avenue … $20 whole chicken beans rice and salsa tortillas”. Third-party aggregator — used only for category corroboration, the absence of a closure flag, and the attributed customer review. No aggregator prices are carried onto this page. ↩

See also

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/el-indio-pollos-asados · record updated 2026-08-13