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

Mudbug Cajun Po’ Boys is a lunch-hours po’ boy shop at 3524 NE Vivion Road in Kansas City North, opened in 2016 by Shreveport-born chef Chris Jones after twenty years in Kansas City kitchens, and run since with his wife Heather, a Jackson, Mississippi native who came in looking for a shrimp po’ boy that tasted like home and stayed. The sandwiches go on French bread with provolone, tomato and garlic-butter crawfish as garnish; the shrimp version — fried shrimp over polenta with lemon-pepper slaw and smoked-onion aioli, “like eating shrimp and grits on a bun” — is the best seller, with Gulf Coast redfish, crawfish, a surf-and-turf and a “KC Pork” alongside gumbo, jambalaya and red beans. Heather’s Bakery supplies the cakes and pies; a food truck, Mudbug Mobile Madness, works events. The Pitch’s readers made it a Best Lunch finalist in 2024.

Description

Mudbug occupies a storefront on NE Vivion Road in Kansas City North; the sign reads “MUDBUG Cajun Po’ Boy Sandwiches” under a red crawfish.12 KCUR called it “the popular Northland lunch spot,” and lunch is the point: it opens at 11 and closes at 3 four days a week, staying open through dinner only on Fridays.31

Every po’ boy comes on French bread “with provolone, tomato, and garlic butter sautéed crawfish for garnish.”1 The lineup on the ordering page is Shrimp, Crawfish, a 50/50 shrimp-crawfish, Gulf Coast Red Fish, Surf N Turf and KC Pork; Roaming Hunger’s older description of the truck’s “KC Po’ Boy” — lemon-pepper slaw, smoked pork loin, fried onion strings, barbecue sauce — is presumably the last of those.14 The shrimp po’ boy is the best seller: fried shrimp with polenta, lemon-pepper slaw and a smoked-onion aioli. “It’s like eating shrimp and grits on a bun, which is another southern staple,” Chris Jones told KCUR.5 KSHB, on a visit, heard the pitch as “a lot of culinary creativeness in our menu” and, from Heather, “our jambalaya is real good, our gumbo is real good.”6

Beyond the sandwiches the shop sells gumbo, jambalaya and red beans by the cup or side, fried okra, truffled or lemon-pepper slaw, basa and shrimp and crawfish baskets, and a rotating take-and-bake case — shrimp-and-chicken penne Alfredo, Cajun smothered pork chops with au gratin potatoes, an alligator-and-crawfish pot pie — plus a weekly “Meals 2 Go” subscription of four dinners for $75 (beef bourguignon and bouillabaisse one week; buffalo chicken sliders and fried shrimp with watermelon salad another).7 Heather’s Bakery, a section of the same site, sells whole cakes and pies — mint-chocolate cheesecake, chocolate orange cake, pink champagne cake, bourbon pecan pie, blackberry-peach cobbler — and slices, cookies and “Ding Dongs” at the counter.7 The site was advertising a Surf & Turf special for Friday, August 28, 2026 and taking $90 reservations for a “Mudbug Fall Dinner 2026.”17

Ownership and history

Chris Jones is from Shreveport, Louisiana. His favorite childhood memories, by his wife’s account, are fishing and his grandfather’s cooking; professionally he “worked his way through the ranks of multiple restaurant concepts including opening restaurants from the ground up and cleaning up existing concepts” — twenty years in Kansas City’s restaurant industry by KCUR’s count, more than thirty in the business overall.25 The decision to open his own place followed the death of a close friend in a car accident: “if you don’t take your opportunities, you might not get them.”5

He opened Mudbug Cajun Po’ Boys at 3524 NE Vivion Road in 2016, starting “with four Po Boys and Gumbo,” and put a truck on the road as Mudbug Mobile Madness — Heather Jones describes the concept as having begun “with a dream of a restaurant and a food truck.”23 Roaming Hunger’s listing for the truck, which it has carried for more than seven years, names “Chef Christopher Jones, a Louisiana native.”4 KCUR has called Mudbug Kansas City’s first po’ boy shop.5

Heather Jones grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, baking with her grandmother from her preteen years and working as a baker in restaurants as a teenager; she moved to Kansas City for college.52 She met Chris in 2019 when, as KCUR tells it, she was “on a mission to find a shrimp po’ boy in Kansas City that tasted like home”; they married in 2020.35 She found her place in the business through the bakery — “I am personally proud of elevating my baking skills under the direction and encouragement of my husband Chef Chris” — and handles much of the public face, appearing on KCTV5’s morning show in June 2026 and in VoyageKC’s “Change Makers” series that August.28

Growth came fast at first: “a full staff, daily traffic and of course the food truck was running daily,” and in December 2019 a second location opened.2 The pandemic closed it within months — “As fast as the second location was opened it was closed” — and cut deeply into the Vivion Road shop, which lost most of its staff and was not built for to-go-only service; the couple stood up a website and phone ordering and rebuilt. “We are still recovering today,” Heather said in 2026. “We have a number of guests that come in and say they haven’t been in since the start of the pandemic.”2 Where the second location was is not stated.

The address question

Two addresses circulate for Mudbug. The official site, KCUR, KSHB and the Yelp listing all give 3524 NE Vivion Road; the site’s own “Location & Hours” block reads “Mudbug Cajun Po’ Boys, 3524 NE Vivion, Kansas City, MO 64119.”156 4702 NE Vivion Road, which some scouting notes attach to Mudbug, is the address of Zio’s Pizza (opened December 2018) and before that Alfredo’s Place; the Registry found no source placing Mudbug there.9 The old truck domain, mudbugmobilemadness.com, has lapsed and now hosts unrelated content.10

Last verified: 2026-08-28 · Source: the restaurant’s own Square ordering site (mudbugtogo.com and its section pages) · Confidence: Medium. Side, basket, take-and-bake and bakery items and prices transcribed from the section pages; the po’ boy page renders most item names and prices as separate image tiles, so only the pairs the Registry could match are priced below.17

Po’ Boys (all with provolone, tomato and garlic-butter sautéed crawfish garnish)

  • Shrimp Po Boy ($16.85) · Gulf Coast Red Fish ($18.15) · Surf N Turf Po Boy ($21.95)
  • Crawfish Po’boy · 50/50 Shrimp/Crawfish · KC Pork — prices on the page range $12.90–$19.85 but could not be matched to items
  • Friday special (8/28/26): Surf & Turf Po Boy

Soups, salads & sides

  • Jambalaya — cup ($6.75) / side ($4.25) · Gumbo — cup ($6.25) / side ($3.75) · Red Beans — cup ($5.74) / side ($3.50)
  • Okra ($3.40) · Fries ($3.05) · Slaw, truffled ($3.20) · Slaw, lemon pepper ($3.05)
  • Basa fish only ($8.40) · 1 piece of basa ($4.50) · Shrimp, half ($3.95)

Baskets

  • Basa Basket ($5.95–$10.75) · Shrimp Basket ($5.95–$10.75) · Crawfish Basket ($10.15)

Take and Bake

  • Soup Quart ($25) · Shrimp & Chicken Penne Alfredo with Garlic Bread ($40) · Cajun Smothered Pork Chops with Au Gratin Potatoes ($40) · Spicy Meatball Bake ($35) · Alligator & Crawfish Pot Pie ($60)

Meals 2 Go (four dinners, $75/week; rotating)

  • Examples posted for July–August 2026: beef bourguignon, bouillabaisse, chicken scampini, fork-tender pork chops · ground sirloin with mushroom gravy, pork cassolette, buffalo chicken sliders, fried shrimp & watermelon salad · beef quesadilla, BBQ pork sliders with mac n cheese, grilled lemon chicken, lump crab wrap with Mudbug salad

Desserts, events & gift cards

  • Bourbon Pecan Pie slice ($5.90) · Ding Dong ($5.25) · Cookies ($5) · Cupcake ($4.75) · Mudbug Fall Dinner 2026 ($90) · Gift Card ($5–$50)

Heather’s Bakery (whole cakes and pies)

  • Mint Chocolate Cheesecake ($55) · Cheesecake ($55) · Chocolate Cake ($60) · Chocolate Orange Cake ($50) · Banana with Caramel Cake ($50) · Coconut Cake ($45) · Pink Champagne Cake ($45) · Bourbon Pecan Pie ($35) · Lemon Pound Cake Loaf ($35) · BlackBerry Peach Cobbler ($30) · Lemon Sugar Cookies dozen ($25) · Strawberry Cookies dozen ($25)

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Mudbug Cajun Po’ Boys — official website / Square ordering site, home page. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: “Mudbug Cajun Po’ Boys, 3524 NE Vivion, Kansas City, MO 64119, 816-321-1087, mudbugmobilemadness@gmail.com”; Location & Hours block (Mon closed; Tue–Thu 11–3; Fri 11–7; Sat 11–3; Sun closed); “All of our Po’ Boys come with provolone, tomato, and garlic butter sautéed crawfish for garnish”; po’ boy tiles (Surf N Turf, Shrimp, Crawfish, 50/50, Gulf Coast Red Fish, KC Pork) and the prices listed; “Surf & Turf Po Boy for Friday 8/28/26”; Square checkout; pickup and delivery. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  2. “Daily Inspiration: Meet Heather Jones,” VoyageKC, 2026-08-25 (listed in the magazine’s “Kansas City’s Most Inspiring Stories” / “The Change Makers” collection of the same date). Retrieved 2026-08-28 (collection: voyagekc.com) — Confirms: “dream of a restaurant and a food truck”; Mudbug Mobile Madness born from “Chef Chris southern roots”; started with four po’ boys and gumbo; Chris’s career opening and fixing restaurant concepts, 30-plus years in the business; opened 2016 with fast growth, full staff and daily truck; second location opened December 2019 and closed in the pandemic; loss of staff, to-go pivot, “still recovering today”; Heather’s grandmother and teenage baking, her role in the bakery; childhood-memory quotes; contact info (website, Facebook “Mudbug Cajun Po Boys”); storefront-sign photo. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. Nomin Ujiyediin and David McKeel, “The love story behind a Kansas City po’boy shop,” KCUR — Kansas City Today, 2024-10-04. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: “popular Northland lunch spot”; husband-and-wife owners; Chris from Shreveport, opened 2016 after 20 years in KC restaurants; Heather “on a mission to find a shrimp po’boy … that tasted like home”; met 2019, married 2020; COVID struggles and customers seeking food that reminds them of home. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. Roaming Hunger — “Mudbug Mobile Madness – Kansas City.” Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: “Chef Christopher Jones is a Louisiana native”; po’ boys on bakery-fresh French bread, smoked-onion aioli, Cajun-dusted shrimp, lemon-pepper slaw; fried okra and jambalaya sides; catering; “KC Po’ Boy” description; “7+ Years on Roaming Hunger.” ↩ ↩2

  5. Brian Ellison and Claudia Brancart, “At Mudbug Cajun Po’ Boys, a husband-wife duo is serving Gulf Coast comfort to Kansas City,” KCUR — Up To Date, 2024-09-17. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: Chris Jones, chef and founder, from Shreveport, 20 years in KC restaurants before opening Mudbug in 2016; Heather Jones, co-owner, from Jackson, Mississippi, moved to KC for college; address 3524 NE Vivion Road; motivation after a friend’s death; shrimp po’ boy build and “shrimp and grits on a bun” quote; red fish, crawfish and smoked chicken po’ boys; Cajun and Creole; 2024 hours 11–3 daily with Friday dinner, closed Sun–Mon; “Kansas City’s first Po Boy shop.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  6. Olivia Acree, “From bayou to barbecue: Mudbug Cajun Po’ Boys brings taste of Louisiana to Kansas City,” KSHB 41 (undated in retrieved copy). Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: address 3524 NE Vivion Rd, 64119; owners Chris and Heather Jones; Heather from Mississippi, Chris from Shreveport; po’ boys including pulled pork, jambalaya, gumbo; the quotes attributed above; website mudbugtogo.com. ↩ ↩2

  7. Mudbug Cajun Po’ Boys — official site section pages: Soups, Salads & Sides; Baskets; Take and Bake; Desserts, Events & Gift Cards; Meals 2 Go; Heather’s Bakery. Retrieved 2026-08-28 · mudbugtogo.com · mudbugtogo.com · mudbugtogo.com · mudbugtogo.com · mudbugtogo.com — Confirms: every item and price in those Menu subsections; Meals 2 Go weekly menus dated 7/16/26, 7/23/26, 8/6/26; “Mudbug Fall Dinner 2026” $90. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  8. “Mudbug Cajun Po Boys,” KCTV5, 2026-06-01. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: co-owner Heather Jones appeared on the Shane and Kerrigan show to discuss the menu; business active June 2026. ↩

  9. Zio’s Pizza & Pub — “Contact Us.” Retrieved 2026-08-28 (as indexed; page not fetched in full); Yelp — “Zio’s Pizza, 4702 NE Vivion Rd” and “Alfredo’s Place – CLOSED, 4702 NE Vivion Rd.” yelp.com — Asserts: 4702 NE Vivion Rd is Zio’s Pizza (opened December 2018), previously Alfredo’s Place. Cited only to resolve the address conflict. Provisional. ↩

  10. mudbugmobilemadness.com — retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: the former truck domain now serves unrelated online-casino content; it is no longer an operator source. ↩

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On the record — ks.city/registry/mudbug-cajun-po-boys · record updated 2026-08-28