logo
Chicago cracked the top ten as one of America's best cities for BBQ

Chicago cracked the top ten as one of America's best cities for BBQ

Time Out7 days ago
The Windy City has long been a foodie haven, especially when it comes to meat: There's Italian beef sandwiches, loaded hot dogs and, of course, Chicago-style barbecue. Heavily influenced by the city's vibrant immigrant communities, the city's local 'cue utilizes an aquarium smoker and sweet-meets-tangy sauces and spotlights specific dishes like rib tips and hot links.
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?
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

The tallest standpipe tower in London could soon reopen to the public
The tallest standpipe tower in London could soon reopen to the public

Time Out

time19 hours ago

  • Time Out

The tallest standpipe tower in London could soon reopen to the public

Do you know what a standpipe is? Us neither, until this week when we heard that London's tallest one could soon be re-opening to the public. A remnant of the Victorian era, standpipe towers (not to be confused with the also Victorian stinkpipes) are towers that were used to regulate water pressure in the era of early steam-powered pumping engines. Fascinating stuff, eh? So, if you're a fan of engineering from the olden days, you are going to want to hear this news. The London Museum of Water and Steam is crowdfunding so that it can re-open its 1867-built standpipe. The 210-foot-tall tower is a bit of landmark in Brentford, west London. Its design is inspired by the architecture of Italian church towers and inside it contains five impressively large vertical cast-iron pipes – it's the only surviving full-height standpipe tower in the world with its original pipework intact. The tower had to close to the public in 2019 due to internal decay and contamination. The biggest problem? During the pandemic the tower became infested with pigeons, leaving it to become absolutely caked in pigeon poo. But it could be about to make a comeback, if the museum can raise £15,000 to go with the £30,000 grant it has already received to restore the landmark. Once all the bird crap is removed, visitors will be able to climb the structure to get panoramic views over Brentford, Kew Gardens, and central London landmarks like the Shard and Canary Wharf. The museum is hoping to have raised funds by August 2025, and will start work as soon as possible after that. Want to help? You can donate to the fundraiser online here.

Radicchio, hazelnut and blood orange salad recipe
Radicchio, hazelnut and blood orange salad recipe

Times

time4 days ago

  • Times

Radicchio, hazelnut and blood orange salad recipe

The beauty of this recipe is that it is rather flexible, as a number of the ingredients can be substituted according to availability, and of course, personal taste. You can swap the hazelnuts for pine nuts or walnuts, but whichever you chose, make sure you roast them until they're dark with an intensely nutty smell. We love to grate ricotta salata, a firm, salty Italian sheep's cheese, over this salad, but if you can't find it, then you can use a ball of mozzarella — just freeze it until it's hard enough to grate first. Serves 4 • 150g hazelnuts• 3 blood oranges• 2 heads of radicchio or 4 red endives• 1 tsp honey• 20ml white wine vinegar• Generous pinch of dried oregano• 70ml good-quality extra virgin olive oil• 1 ricotta salata (or 1 large buffalo mozzarella, frozen for a few hours) 1. Preheat the oven to 170C/gas 5. Roast the hazelnuts on a baking tray for about 8-10 min, until they're a dark amber colour with an intensely nutty smell. 2. Juice a blood orange then put the juice to one side. Use a small knife to trim all the peel and pith off the other 2 oranges. Make incisions on the inside of each segment to release the flesh as whole pieces — like you would with a Terry's Chocolate Orange. 3. Next, cut the radicchio or endive down the middle and free the leaves from the core with a knife. Cut the leaves in half, into non-uniform shapes. Wash them thoroughly then spin or pat dry. 4. For the dressing, whisk the reserved orange juice, honey and vinegar together. Add salt and black pepper and the oregano. Slowly drizzle the olive oil into the mix while whisking consistently until you get a slightly thicker, glistening dressing. This process can also be done in a mixer or blender. 5. Put the radicchio leaves and orange segments into a salad bowl, crush the hazelnuts with the side of your knife to get uneven pieces and pop them in the bowl too. Pour over the dressing and toss thoroughly, then taste for seasoning. 6. Finally, grate the ricotta over the top of the salad, which will give it a zingy, salty edge. If you cannot get hold of ricotta salata, take a ball of frozen buffalo mozzarella. At the last minute, retrieve the mozzarella and grate finely over the top and serve. Neil Paterson and George Colebrook run Arete, a private dining company based in London and Edinburgh

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store