Chicago cracked the top ten as one of America's best cities for BBQ
And now, according to a new ranking from yard experts LawnStarter, Chicago earned a sixth place spot out of nearly 500 U.S. cities on the list of 2025's Best BBQ Cities in America. Chicagoland earned an overall score of 42.20. (For reference, the number one spot earned an overall score of 52.02, with the number five destination garnering a 46.54.)
To determine the above rankings, LawnStarter looked at consumer satisfaction, access to BBQ restaurants, competition awards, and elite BBQ memberships (yes, that's a thing). For each of the biggest cities in the U.S., data was analyzed, and scores were calculated out of 100 points for each city, giving each locale an overall score from the 'Best' at number one to the 'Worst' at number 476.
Fifteen Illinois cities made it to the list, but only two earned a spot in the top 100: along with Chicago at No. 6, Joliet came in at No. 94. Elsewhere, Schaumburg earned a spot at 117, Waukegan at 132, and Peoria at 186. Other cities didn't fare as well: Springfield at 335, Evanston at 381, and Rockford at 442.
Outside of Illinois, Kansas City, Missouri received the number one rank, followed by Los Angeles, Houston, St. Louis, and Austin rounding out the top five. Interestingly, Los Angeles has the best access to BBQ with 162 establishment according to this ranking and has the second highest number of top-rated BBQ joints. Unsurprisingly, nine cities in Texas landed in the top 100.
Chicago earned the number four spot for the highest number of BBQ establishments with 123. And for the highest number of top-rated BBQ establishments, Chicago comes in at number five.
Now, who's hungry?
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