Strip’s Chicken to go in former Waldo KFC building

Award winning Strip’s Chicken to go in former Wornall KFC building

By Christina McDonough Hunt

Local restaurateur Todd Johnson hopes to put Strip’s Chicken on the map as a Kansas City destination restaurant, and the opening of its second location is a step in that direction.  

The restaurant will open its doors end of October in the former KFC and Long John Silver’s building at 85th & Wornall.  Until then, you can enjoy their limited menu options at their food truck which is located in the parking lot.

Strip’s Chicken offers a menu of high quality foods made locally from scratch–from the chicken and breading to the sauces. Its motto is to be “completely different and absolutely better”.  

“We make everything from scratch, except the fries and tots, and offer farm fresh, never frozen chicken strips, nuggets, and pork burgers,” said Johnson.  “We use chicken breasts instead of tenders and press and cut each breast to even thickness for a more even cook.  Our food is flavorful and is absolutely the best chicken you can get”.  

In addition, Strip’s offers an allergy friendly menu at no extra charge including breading that uses a proprietary flour that comes from Kansas farmers.  The flour is free from gluten, dairy, eggs, and soy.  The staff has also been trained on how to handle allergy friendly foods.  

“Most of my staff has been with me for at least 2 years” Johnson commented.  “They’ve each been trained to know to change their gloves when preparing allergy free foods, and to be mindful of cross contamination.  We even have a dedicated fryer and fryer filtration system in our buildings and on the food truck”.  

The restaurant features 10 dipping sauces.  Their most popular sauces are the Secret Sauce, the Strawberry Barbecue, and the Farmstead, which is their all natural Ranch style dressing.  Spices add depth of flavor to each sauce and they pride themselves on having no MSG.  

In 2019, Strip’s won the Pitch’s awards for Best Gluten Free Restaurant and Best Lunch in Kansas City. They were nominated in 24 categories.  

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The original Strip’s Chicken is located in Olathe, KS and opened its doors in September 2016.  Johnson had been looking for another location to expand his restaurant since last year and is now in the process of designing the 85th & Wornall location to create an open and welcoming atmosphere.  

“I was able to negotiate a great deal on leasing this building,” Johnson said.  “It’s in great shape and it has a large kitchen.  We are working through the design process now, but I’m not in a hurry because I want to get it right”.

When asked if he has plans to expand beyond the two locations, he laughed, “I’m a one man show here.  If this goes well, we may consider another location, but we’ll see how this goes”.  

A full menu may be found at stripschicken.com and the food truck limited menu may be found on their Facebook page.