Bandanas Bar-B-Que

Bandana’s Bar-B-Q is a regional barbecue restaurant group rooted in the St. Louis area and focused on classic, dry-rubbed, slow-smoked meats served in a relaxed, family-friendly setting. The restaurants offer full-service dining along with carryout and catering, built around hickory-smoked pork, beef, chicken, ribs, and sausages, served with traditional Midwestern sides and a lineup of house-made sauces.

The brand began in 1996, when founder Skip Steele opened the first Bandana’s Bar-B-Q in Arnold, Missouri. That original location introduced the core approach the company still follows today: straightforward pit-barbecue techniques, approachable pricing, and a consistent, comfortable dining room that works for both families and groups. Through the late 1990s and 2000s Bandana’s steadily added locations across the St. Louis metro, then moved into other Missouri communities and into neighboring states, evolving from a single local spot into a recognizable multi-unit chain with a common look, menu, and operating style.

As of October 2024 Bandana’s operates about 30 restaurants across Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana, with its heaviest concentration in greater St. Louis and additional units in mid-sized and smaller markets such as Columbia, Jefferson City, Cape Girardeau, and Bloomington-Normal. The company uses a mix of company-owned and franchised locations. Most sites are standalone or endcap restaurants with strong roadside presence, convenient access, and ample parking, aimed at capturing daily lunch and dinner business as well as weekend and game-day traffic. In addition to dine-in service, Bandana’s has built a meaningful catering and group-meal business and has upgraded newer locations with refreshed interiors and digital ordering tools to support takeout and third-party delivery.

Over the last five years the brand’s evolution has focused less on entering distant new regions and more on reinforcing and extending its existing Midwest footprint. Bandana’s has continued to promote franchising and development opportunities, while concentrating new units in gaps within its Missouri and Illinois trade areas and selectively testing nearby Iowa and Indiana markets. This approach has kept growth steady but controlled, with attention to markets where the name is already familiar and where word-of-mouth and regional recognition support new-store openings.

For landlords, developers, and brokers, Bandana’s brings nearly three decades of operating history, a stable casual-dining barbecue format, and a footprint that fits comfortably into a wide range of suburban and small-city retail corridors. Its preference for high-traffic suburban arterials, highway-adjacent retail clusters, and regional trade areas anchored by big-box and grocery centers aligns well with typical power-center and community-center merchandising plans. The concept’s recognizable signage, flexible ability to occupy second-generation restaurant space, and balanced revenue mix across dine-in, takeout, and catering position it as a practical, dependable anchor or co-tenant within everyday retail environments across the contiguous Midwest.