Michael Paul Nickle

We are truly at a loss, and appreciate all the heartfelt messages that have come. My brother Michael P. Nickle passed on 4/25/25. We will be having a visitation for Michael from 5 to 8pm on Monday, May 5, 2025 at McGilley State Line Chapel.

We shared this with our staff at BB's and thought it would be a good read for family and friends.

This might be a little long. For some of you that are new or don't know my brother he was the reason the BBQ is what it is at BB's now. We both started here in 1992. My parents were friends with Lindsay and Jo (original founders) and told them we were able to work and we needed jobs. We were 15yrs old and needed special signed letters to let us work at that age in the kitchen. I started first and Mike came a little later that year. I think he cut himself 3 times in the first week, and I told him to knock it off or we would get fired. :) Years went by and I left. Mike stayed and never left BB's. He continued working there with the Shannons kids, (Jonathan and Mike Shannon), brother (Kenneth Nickle), childhood friends Joe Strobl, Tim Lanigan, Carlos, Tim Euston, and so many friends that helped along the way throughout high school and college.

Mike put himself through junior college and got his associates degree. I came back and would help like a lot of our friends did when they needed it or we needed extra money over the years. I would always ask him "What are you going to do? You can't work down here forever!" He continued helping the Shannon's build BB's into what it is today. If he left I don't think we would be here now. He started doing a lot of research on BBQ at that time. Funny thing is BB's didn't even have burnt ends back then. Mike got them on the menu and like a lot of new things we did not know what the hell we were doing. After some trial and error with Joe Strobl, Tim Lanigan, and Kenneth Nickle and others they got them dialed in. Most of you know that is the most ordered thing on the menu. I remember working down there as a teenager and people would bring Strouds Chicken in and listen to music. It would really piss us off, but we were teenagers making BBQ in the BBQ capital of the world and didn't know what the hell we were doing. Michael's relentless passion for BBQ kept growing and he took me to the American Royal BBQ. It was our first time visiting and we did not know how it worked. We were not competing then and we thought we would smoke a joint and get some free bbq. The joint part was fun, but there was no free bbq!! We were kids and didn't know how it all worked. As time went on I was working as a manager at Applebees where I met my wife. It was at that time I realized how awesome of a BBQ Cook Mike was. He truly inspired me to fall in love with cooking.

We began competing in BBQ contest with our whole family and friends. We didn't win much at first and it was frustrating, but we had the best times doing it. Mike really got into it with the help of our parents. We started with an off set smoker you would have in your back yard. After a while we fell in love with bbq competitions and my dad sold his favorite 70 Chevy pick up and bought a competition trailer and competition smoker for them to get serious with. They began doing about 15-16 contest a year or more for about 7yrs straight. Mike started getting awards in individual categories, and then started winning Grand Champion and Reserved Grand Championships competing in the Kansas City BBQ Society circuit. He even helped my kids win kids bbq contest. He then started implementing some of these bbq techniques at BB's and the BBQ just kept getting better. After a while Guy Fieri's team contacted Mike and did an interview. BB's was invited to be on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. We were so excited for the Shannon family and Michael. I will post a clip of the show. It was great and there is a part where Mike gets nervous and says the pit is 1000yrs old!! After triple D aired, BB's had record setting years and we were approached by Lindsay and his wife about buying BB's. Mike also got on Anthony Bourdaines no reservations and a really cool show on PBS called Burnt Legends about Burnt Ends in KC. Almost every recipe from the BBQ Nachos to the Peach BBQ sauce has Mikes signature BBQ style on it. He went on to meet his wife Leah Sherer Nickle at BB's, and get married here in KC. He continued to work with me side by side. There are many more stories I will share. He has his hands on just about every inch of that building. It was the only job he ever had his entire life. He is the OG GOAT PIT MASTER at BB's and that will never change.