Customers come with creativity
Staff writer
For Bill and Essie’s BBQ in Marion, building a customer base has taken time and effort. But it also requires a strong dash of creativity, Megan Jones said.
Daryl, Megan’s husband and the restaurant’s chef, has cooked at the senior center and sold food at a variety of community events.
They have invented many different daily specials — “Fish Fridays,” “Meatloaf Mondays” —which do a good job of drawing customers, at least until interest tapers off, Jones said.
“You have to let them die for a minute and then bring them back,” Jones said.
The restaurant has even taken the unusual step of adjusting its hours so it can be open when other Marion restaurants are not.
When Bill and Essie’s first opened, Jones said, “there weren’t very many places open on Monday, and I don’t think there were any places open on Sunday.”
The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. for similar reasons (though also because the couple enjoys late lunch, Jones said).
“We try to be present for the community in a variety of different ways,” Jones said.
She was at a restaurant table photographing a new dish — loaded pretzel bites — to post online while she spoke.
For Jones, opening Bill and Essie’s represented a homecoming.
Jones had grown up in Marion since kindergarten, when her father took a job at Marion Reservoir, where he worked for the Corps of Engineers as a park ranger.
“I had good friends,” she said. “I also had big falling-outs with friends.”
After marrying Daryl and living in Olathe for a time, Megan decided to go back to her roots to raise her family in 2022.
“There’s something to be said for growing up or raising children in this small-town community,” she said. “Whether you like it or not, everybody knows you. Everybody knows who your kids belong to.”
Her mother and Daryl’s father both were ill and lived nearby. That also contributed to the decision.
While still living in Olathe, Megan and Daryl tried to determine how they would make a living in Marion.
They decided to go bold: Daryl, who always had dreamed of opening a restaurant, would start his own barbecue joint.
It would be called Bill and Essie’s after his parents, though perhaps not in the way one would expect; Daryl’s mother had the nickname Wild Bill, and his father, though he went by E.J., was named after his own father, Essie.
Daryl went to work in the Kansas City area to see how much he could learn from restaurateurs in one of the barbecue capitals of the world. (Todd Johns, the owner of Plowboys Barbecue, was apparently a big help.)
The couple applied for grants and small business loans to purchase the building they desired on 301 E Main St, in the heart of Marion’s downtown.
“We did get two grants, and we were able to take advantage of a private business loan and a few Network Kansas business loans,” Jones said.
There still were roadblocks, mostly to do with finding funding for building renovations.
“If you want it hard enough, you can push past every roadblock, but it will never be an easy path,” Jones said.
In February 2024, though their building was not yet fully renovated, the couple decided to open their kitchen to serve people and build word of mouth while raising money.
The dining room eventually was completed in July, 2024, and the restaurant officially became open for business.
“One thing I will say about Marion is it is completely unpredictable,” she said. “In most places you can count on Friday and Saturday being crazy busy, but not here. Sometimes… it’ll be a random Monday.”
Bill and Essie’s has built up a loyal following, and Megan enjoys knowing which regulars are coming in when
“On Sundays, for instance, I’ll make sure that we have plenty of iced tea,” she said.
The restaurant’s future and level of success is still unknown; keeping any business afloat in a town of less than 2,000 is hard work. But Jones is optimistic.
“Bills are getting paid, and we’re only a year into our operation,” she said. “I feel like that’s about all you can ask.”
To that end, Bill and Essie’s will celebrate one year of the restaurant being open through next week.
Sales have been up, Jones said, since last July.