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

a Kansas City barbecue institution born of the Fiorella family’s Smoke Stack lineage (Russ Fiorella, 1957) and the Martin City restaurant Jack Fiorella opened in 1974. Profiled here as a brand with the Martin City original (13441 Holmes Rd) as flagship. Now a six-location KC-area operation with a nationwide mail-order business. Family-stewarded and locally headquartered, but classified Tier 2 on multi-location scale grounds (see Tier classification under Current standing below).

Description

Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue is one of Kansas City’s signature barbecue institutions — a family-built brand that grew from a single Martin City smokehouse into a six-restaurant KC-area operation with a substantial nationwide mail-order business. Its menu centers the hardwood-smoked Kansas City barbecue canon (burnt ends, ribs, brisket, and the house “crown prime” beef rib) alongside a fuller sit-down-restaurant format than the counter-service KC BBQ archetype.12

The flagship and original restaurant is in Martin City, the historic barbecue corridor in far-south Kansas City, Missouri, at 13441 Holmes Road.23 The brand also operates in Overland Park (KS), the Freight House district near Union Station (KC MO), the Country Club Plaza (KC MO), Lee’s Summit (MO), and Lenexa (KS).145

Ownership and history

The lineage is older and more layered than a single founding date implies, and the seed’s “founded 1957” requires the full chain to be stated accurately:

YearEvent
1957Russ Fiorella (and wife Flora) found the first Smoke Stack Barbecue in south Kansas City. Russ — one of fourteen children in a KC Italian family — pivoted from the grocery/butcher trade into barbecue.16
1974Russ’s eldest son, Jack Fiorella, with wife Delores, opens Smoke Stack Barbecue of Martin City (13441 Holmes Rd) — wanting his own restaurant out from under his father’s operation.16

| ~2000 | Brand launches nationwide mail-order shipping.1 | | 2006 | Opens Country Club Plaza location.1 | | 2009 | Case Dorman (Fiorella son-in-law) and wife Jennifer purchase the family business.7 | | 2016 | Lee’s Summit, MO location built.7 | | 2021 | Lenexa, KS location opens (sixth KC-area restaurant).5 |

Current ownership. Jack Fiorella transitioned operations to his son-in-law Case Dorman, who with his wife Jennifer bought the business in 2009 and now chairs/owns it, joined by sons Keaton and Taylor Dorman. The brand is consistently described as a fourth-generation, family-owned Kansas City business, headquartered in the KC metro (Overland Park, KS).7 Under Dorman ownership the brand grew to six KC-area restaurants plus the nationwide shipping business, a catering operation, the fine-catering brand Storia, and the Fiorella’s event venue in Southern Johnson County.7 There is no outside corporate parent; ownership remains within the Fiorella family line via the son-in-law’s family.

Local-ownership status (precise): Yes — locally owned and locally headquartered as of 2026. The Dorman family (married into the Fiorella family) owns it outright; HQ is in the KC metro. The “family-owned” claim is verified; whether the Dorman branch is counted as a strict Fiorella bloodline depends on definition — they are family by marriage, and the brand markets itself as fourth-generation Fiorella heritage.7

See also

  • henry-perry — the Henry Perry KC barbecue lineage context
  • Registry

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Wikipedia — “Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiorella’s_Jack_Stack_Barbecue. Source for the Smoke Stack (1957, Russ Fiorella) → Martin City 1974 (Jack Fiorella) → mid-1990s rebrand chain; ~2000 mail-order launch; 2006 Plaza opening; Zagat “#1 Barbecue House in the Country”; Food Network + Modern Marvels appearances. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue official site — https://www.jackstackbbq.com / https://www.jackstackbbq.com/about-us. Brand identity, menu, locations, mail-order. (Note: about-us page is JS-rendered and did not return parseable text on fetch; details corroborated by 17.) ↩ ↩2

  3. Martin City address 13441 Holmes Rd, Kansas City, MO 64145; phone (816) 942-9141 — per seed and corroborated by location listings.14 ↩

  4. Yelp — “Jack Stack Barbecue - Freight House,” 101 W 22nd St, Kansas City, MO. https://www.yelp.com/biz/jack-stack-barbecue-freight-house-kansas-city-2. Confirms Freight House location. ↩ ↩2

  5. Johnson County Post — “Jack Stack Barbecue set to open its newest location soon in Lenexa City Center,” 2021-08-26. https://johnsoncountypost.com/2021/08/26/jack-stack-lenexa-131100/. Confirms Lenexa as sixth location, fourth-generation family brand framing. ↩ ↩2

  6. Martin City Telegraph — “From Smoke Stack to Jack Stack – The Fiorella Story,” 2017-01-27. https://martincitytelegraph.com/2017/01/27/from-smoke-stack-to-jack-stack-the-fiorella-story/. ↩ ↩2

  7. Acumen Impact — “Partner Spotlight: Case Dorman, Chairman, Jack Stack Barbecue.” https://blog.acumenimpact.com/partner-spotlight-case-dorman. Source for: Case & Jennifer Dorman purchased the business in 2009; fourth-generation family-owned; HQ Overland Park, KS; sons Keaton & Taylor Dorman; growth to six KC-area restaurants + nationwide shipping + Storia fine-catering + Fiorella’s event venue; 2016 Lee’s Summit build. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

See also

Categories
  • Kansas City–owned
  • BBQ
  • Martin City