Where to get bbq in kansas city

They have some of the best pit beans in the city as well as killer cheesy corn bake. The dish to try? Any way you go, you surely will not be disappointed! Definitely, try the legendary Z-Man Sandwich. This beautiful sandwich is filled with melt-in-your-mouth brisket, onion rings, and provolone cheese all on a kaiser roll! It started with brisket. Well, brisket fat, actually. Tyler Harp was puzzling over what to do with all the drippings left over from Harp Barbecue, his twice-weekly barbecue pop-up in the back room of a Raytown brewery.

What pairs well with beef fat? I tasted all kinds of things: smoke, gooey chocolate, brown sugar, an undeniable meatiness. I was overcome by a primordial urge to devour what is delicious, closely followed by an instinct to hoard this delicacy for times of scarcity. Two years after we anointed it tops in town , Harp is still the best barbecue experience in Kansas City. In the last two years, the city has seen a raft of newcomers who have matched where Harp was two years ago.

But Harp keeps setting the pace, getting a little better every time we visit. Harp is still cooking in a wood-fired pit parked in the gravel lot out back of Crane Brewing. And jerk chicken. And tater tot casserole. The birds are seasoned just before they are placed on the smoker.

Another strength—this one less technical, more elusive—is his ability to broaden the scope of a pitmaster. That includes tater tot casserole, his take on the Midwest classic.

Harp offers it as a seasonal side and folds his sausage into the mix. Like everything else, it sells out fast. These are things that many do well and that Harp usually does better. Ambrosial chicken rubbed with an island of spices, cooked with such a focused patience that no drop of precious moisture dares escape the bird.

Chocolate chip cookies that are at once as familiar as a kitchen-counter ceramic jar and as astonishing as it feels to fall in love for the first time. Half the customers are sporting Chiefs gear. This is no small feat given this particular pit is located in the concession stand of a seasonal haunted house.

Wood paneling lines the walls, and iron chandeliers hang where Easterwood cooks. Stained-glass cutouts fill the counters where meat is sliced. That eccentric down-home vibe is just the crackling of the whole operation. Near-perfect barbecued meat is at its core. Easterwood makes everything from scratch, from an escabeche of jalepenos and carrots to a yellow-gold Carolina- style mustard sauce.

The house-made sauce is served in tiny containers to keep meat from being drowned by well-intentioned, overzealous patrons. Everything Easterwood makes is exceptional. The bacon burnt ends are melt-in-your-mouth meat candy. The jalapeno-cheddar sausage is exceptionally rich. The rib crust makes for a full sensory experience—I got teary-eyed on the first bite. As for sides, instead of standard cheesy corn, Easterwood makes smoked elotes, sauced and spiced with a wedge of lime pressed into the center.

Speaking of tacos: Chef J will be serving them all this month until midnight. His location is a haunted house snackbar, after all, and with that comes the responsibility of feeding young, meat-thirsty crowds piling out of The Beast. Jones Sr. And the Wednesday wings were even better. Years have passed since their memorable appearance on Queer Eye , but it continues to open doors and bring in new customers from out of town.

And it makes things like barbecue chips possible. They still take care of the old customers, too. Like Mr. They know who I am. Can I get my sausages? Kansas St. Just two years after opening at 3Halves Brewing Co. Growing into a small chain while keeping your product consistently excellent is a huge challenge. Many good men have failed at this endeavor. Atwell staged with Tyler Harp, a high school classmate of his wife.

They keep long hours and yet consistently turn out perfect ribs, some of the best beans in town and my personal favorite cheesy corn bake in KC, green chili cheesy corn with a nice pop of heat. Jousting Pigs is the rare place in town where you can get perfect thick-sliced brisket on, say, a Wednesday. The larger new kitchen will allow for more catering gigs and let the company bottle their Korean and spicy sauces for retail sale.

Those sauces are both great. This is the Midwest. Q39 pitmaster Rob Magee does everything a little bit differently.

The chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America, the Harvard of culinary schools, before breaking onto the competition circuit en route to opening his own spot. Magee knows a lot about the science of food, enough to ignore certain truisms and bits of folk wisdom. I took everything I learned in the field and figured out how to do that in a restaurant.

And Q39 is a restaurant—a barbecue restaurant, but a restaurant. That and cable television. Located at the epicenter of the lower 48, KC is known for many things, including its beautiful trees and Super Bowl champion Chiefs. The things we do for science. The chicken gumbeaux is a spicy surprise. And the sauce is classic KC style. My friend and I arrived 10 minutes early, and there was already a line outside of the tour, filled with both locals and tourists making their daily pilgrimage. This is 5-star all the way.

The next two restaurants are a toss-up and do different things better. Their burnt ends and multiple sauces were very good but not the best, more on that below ; same for the ribs.