The Very Best Barbecue in Kansas City for Burnt Ends, Brisket, and Gigantic Turkey Legs
Ask any local about the best barbecue in Kansas City and you'll get no shortage of replies.
As regional barbecue styles go, Kansas City might paradoxically be both the most recognizable and the hardest to pin down. Picture a generic 'barbecue sauce,' and odds are, you're thinking of something distinctively Kansas City. Almost every KC barbecue joint serves their own version of the sauce, which is typically tomato-based, full-bodied, and delicately balances sweet, heat, and tang—the real stuff is a 'masterpiece' above and beyond whatever you might find on a grocery store shelf.
The meats are more varied. Henry Perry, the self-proclaimed 'barbecue king' of Kansas City, defined the city's style in the early 1900s by serving a little bit of everything to everyone. Deep in the Jim Crow era of segregation, Black and white Kansas Citians would converge on Perry's Barbecue to sample not only Perry's slow smoked beef and pork, but also mutton, possum, and raccoon. Today's pitmasters are still polymaths, adept at smoking brisket, ribs, hand-cranked sausages, turkey, and chicken. And while Perry's restaurant closed more than half a century ago, two of his proteges' spots—Gates and Arthur Bryant's—continue to represent the city's best barbecue today.
At the same time, Kansas City's presence on the barbecue competition circuit has kept the scene fresh. The American Royal hosts the largest barbecue competition in the world in KC each year, and it has served as a launchpad for several modern institutions garnering countrywide attention.
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