Finding a Home in Shawnee

story by Kari Williams | photography by Kevin Anderson

When the Johnson County staple relocated to West 75th Street in May 2019, its regulars followed.

“For us to be here over a year and staying very consistent, I think that shows volumes,” says Sweeney, Hayward’s general manager. “It proves that with your community, the support of the community, anything can happen. But being an almost 50-year-old brand, we just really had to stay consistent. I always say that we give the best service around and that’s what keeps people coming back, and that’s why we’ve really embraced the city of Shawnee.”

When Reilly Sweeney’s father, Eric, purchased the barbecue business in 2013, it was a full-circle moment. Eric had grown up in a home off 100th Terrace and Antioch Road, which was within walking distance from the original Hayward’s location when he started working there at age 13, taking ash and embers out of the pit and filling it with more wood.

After spending much of his life in the food business, Eric knew that one day he would own his own restaurant. It was a couple months after his own father died that he responded to a Craigslist advertisement looking for someone to run a “well-established” barbecue restaurant. While Hayward’s wasn’t named in the ad, he said he could tell by the wording that the restaurant in question was Hayward’s.

The Sweeneys have roughly 60 years of combined experience in the barbecue and restaurant industry. Reilly says between his parents and himself, he has always been around the service industry.

“I have an affinity for helping people, and, of course, food,” Reilly says.

But being involved in a family-owned business is more than that—for Reilly, it means even the customers are family.

Hayward’s first opened in 1972 in Overland Park near West 95th Street and Antioch Road. Roughly 10 years later, the business moved to College Boulevard and Antioch Road.

“[It was] one of the first building restaurants up there even before Corporate Woods,” Reilly says.

Hayward’s had gone through “a few different hands,” Riley says, before his father purchased it in 2013.

Three years later, the Sweeneys moved Hayward’s to a smaller location in Lenexa.

All the communities Hayward’s has resided in embraced them, according to Eric. “Business has grown right out of the gate. … The community helped us get to where we are today,” he says.

When Hayward’s outgrew its Lenexa space, the county’s oldest barbecue moved to Shawnee in 2019.

In the move to Shawnee, Hayward’s added a second smoker due to the amount of business they brought in shortly after opening. There were even days the restaurant sold out.

New customers visit Hayward’s every day, according to Reilly, and in the 50 years the business has existed, it has had a tendency to draw regulars who visit daily.

“I would say it’s been much, much busier than we could have ever anticipated,” Reilly says. “But as far as moving to Shawnee, we’ve still experienced a lot of love and a lot of embrace just from years of being around. What surprised me the most was we still have people who have been eating at Hayward’s since 1972.” Customers are so much a part of the business that a wing sauce is named after one of the regulars.

HAYWARD’S PIT BBQ 10901 W. 75TH ST., SHAWNEE, KS 66214 (913) 451-8080 HAYWARDSPITBARBQUE.COM | FACEBOOK: @HAYWARDSBBQ

Setting up shop on one of the “busiest streets in Shawnee,” according to Reilly, was a plus, and the spacious building itself was a draw.

“Obviously, in hindsight, we had no idea what was going to happen in March,” he says, referring to the Covid-19 pandemic that prompted businesses to close their doors to the public.

Had they remained in Lenexa, he says, it would have been harder to “stay afloat” because the space was smaller.

“We knew that the people of Shawnee are awesome, and they would take us in with loving arms,” Reilly says.

Running a restaurant through the pandemic gave Reilly a new perspective. When restaurants had to close in March, he expected business to be a lot slower due to a lack of dine-in guests. However, community support continued daily.

“The people of Shawnee are huge fans of small businesses and family-owned businesses,” he says.

Reilly says the keys to surviving the pandemic have been the Shawnee location’s garage doors, which allow for ventilation, and its ample space, which allows for social distancing.

And with restrictions partially loosening throughout throughout the county, Hayward’s has reopened its dining area and started providing live music.

Because Hayward’s has been an established restaurant for five decades, Reilly says the key to success is consistency.

But they will make some small changes to “keep things fresh,” he says. Hayward’s has added specials throughout the week, for example.

They also have a “pretty solid” cocktail and beer list, and the cocktails are “catered to changing seasons. One aspect that remains consistent is that Hayward’s offers the “best service around,” Reilly says. “[We always] make it a point to make sure that everyone’s taken care of and gets the same type of treatment. I always say you can hear people talking with a smile, even with the masks on.”

Hayward’s had only been open about nine months when construction prompted the closure of exit and entrance ramps off 75th Street—also amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The menu also has undergone a few changes.

Hayward’s Pit BBQ opened in 1972 in Overland Park and was located off of 95th and Antioch Road. About 10 years later, Hayward’s BBQ moved to College Boulevard and Antioch Road.

In 2013, Eric Sweeney purchased Hayward’s BBQ.

The Sweeneys downsized and moved Hayward’s BBQ to Lenexa in 2016.

The Sweeneys then upgraded, moving Hayward’s BBQ to Shawnee in May 2019.

Hayward’s BBQ sauce is sold at various retail sites, including KC Grilling Co. in Olathe and on Amazon.

Though Hayward’s BBQ left Overland Park in 2016, the former Hayward’s site on Antioch Road is now home to a new barbecue joint, Q39.