I've been in Kansas City for going on three years now and have been searching for the best BBQ this city has to offer since shortly after I arrived. After investigating several sites I learned firsthand that my new home was a sauce city and I could not have been more pleased. One of my favorite things on the planet Earth is sauce. Hot sauce, sweet sauce, sour sauce, salty sauce, red sauce, orange sauce, white sauce, smooth sauce, creamy sauce, chunky sauce, mushy sauce, pulpy sauce, and gravy. When I order chicken wings they ask if I want ranch or bleu cheese. What do you think I tell them? If you guessed extra sauce instead, you guessed right. I like my meat covered, drenched, soaked, marinated, saturated, bathed in, no infused with mouth-watering sauce. Then, I dip it in the sprawling pile of savory juice I've squirted on my plate.
I came to Kansas City for law school by way of Columbia, MO where I attended Mizzou's journalism school. I'm from Columbia, IL, a small town just outside of STL so I'm unable to rep either major KC sports program, although I have tried. I do root for the Wizards from time to time. But when people ask me about Kansas City, I talk about the BBQ. I preach about the meat, slow-cooked and marinated in its own juices, the sauce, of which there is a vast variety, and the sides, which separate the good from the great. I've been repping KC BBQ everywhere I go, back home, CoMO, Fort Collins and Denver, Washington D.C., where I explained the glories of KC BBQ to delegates from across the nation over Independence Day weekend. I tell facebook and twitter all about my love for the local delicacies after complaining about the poor baseball. I've become an ambassador for Kansas City BBQ so I decided to tell the Internet.
One of the first things I noticed after I tried Oklahoma Joe's, Gates, Arthur Bryant's, and Jack Stack was that most of the locals only visit these few famous establishments, the same restaurants that the tourists attend. I knew there were more quality smokestacks and I wanted some firsthand knowledge and suggestions on what to try next because all the advertisements get kind of bumbled together online, one seeming as good as the next by the dolled up pictures and paid reviews. So, I asked many KC natives for their favorite BBQ joint and most would respond with the same few answers, Oklahoma Joe's, Gates, Arthur Bryant's, and Jack Stack. In a city that prides itself on its BBQ, people who brag about their hometown being the pinnacle of pulled pork perfection, many if not most, had only been to where the tourists flock. How can you say something is your favorite if you only have a handful of experience to compare it with? So, I dug deeper. I found foodies, BBQ lovers, sauce addicts like myself who don't take the brochure's word for it. Others who have searched, wandered, and eventually arrived at the several meat and sauce Meccas, the oases hidden in the desert. Wherever I was pointed, I went, I ate, I examined, and I savored.
For the record, the first time I eat at any BBQ joint I have the pulled pork, fries, and beans if I'm extra hungry. Also, if there is a side for which the restaurant is particularly well-known then I order that too. I tell you this because the pulled pork sandwhich and its friend, french fries, are my control group, the anchor that keeps me capable of contradiction and comparative analysis.
Here, I'm going to compare and contrast as many restaurants as I can visit before I leave town, whenever that is. I will reflect on previous visits, but will only write about a restaurant after having recently visited so as to have the tastes fresh in my mouth. I say with confidence that you can trust my BBQ judgment, although I know tastes differ. As an outsider I was not bogged down by biases born at a young age. I came to Kansas City with a fresh palate, a hearty appetite, and an insatiable hunger to find the best, as if that were possible. If you stumble on this site, know that you're in good hands, a glutton who analyzes everything he encounters, especially those things that he loves, like meat and sauce.
Now that I'm hungry, I'm heading to LC's. My favorite KC BBQ establishment. I'll get back to you later today.
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