See our slideshow of America’s Best BBQ Restaurants.
Beyond the shamrock gas station’s pumps and past the racks of Hostess cakes, a warren of tables and booths makes up the Kansas City, Kansas, barbecue joint Oklahoma Joe’s. On a steamy Wednesday in July, the dean of Kansas City barbecue, Ardie Davis, sat alone in the restaurant beneath drowsy ceiling fans, looking at his watch.
When he spied us, Davis shot up from his seat, and though it was just after 11 a.m., dashed toward the cashier to place his order: sliced beef brisket, pork ribs, French fries, beans, and burnt ends.
The woman behind the counter looked up from her register. “Burnt ends ain’t ready yet,” she said. “Y’all gone stick around?”
“Wonderful,” Davis replied, and explained: you won’t find these caramelized morsels from the edges of the brisket, where the seasoning gathers as the fat renders, on the menu, they’re only served on Wednesdays and Saturdays; in a half-hour’s time, the lunch line would extend out the door, and then…who knows when they might run out?
Davis wasn’t taking any chances. An avuncular retiree with a sturdy build and snowy hair, he’s the author of five books about barbecue and has been a competition-barbecue judge for 25 years. Oklahoma Joe’s began life on that circuit in the early 90’s as the Slaughterhouse Five, a team of barbecue enthusiasts who got together to cook at weekend championships around the Midwest and the South. The team won so many awards that by 1996, they opened a restaurant. Compared with Kansas City institutions like the circa-1920 Arthur Bryant’s, O.J.’s was a modern place, using state-of-the-art smokers that cook meat with a combination of natural gas and wood.
When our food arrived, Davis took a bite of the rib, which pleased him immensely. “See this bark here?” he said, pointing to a reddish-black shard of crust on the surface of the rib. “You want it crispy like that on the outside, but tender on the inside. And there,” he said, pointing to a layer of almost lurid pinkness just beneath the skin that extended the length of the rib, “that’s the smoke ring, the sign that it’s been properly smoked. O.J.’s uses more wood than gas. You go to some places and you can’t taste any smoke at all.”
The ribs were, indeed, redolent of white oak and porky, and they disappeared quickly. The brisket was fall-apart tender, a tad dry but then there were sauces to dress it with (permissible in Kansas City).
Finally, the burnt ends came, and they were wonderful: salty, glistening with smoke-tinged fat, and prickly with the heat of black pepper. To us, they seemed to be the best bit, but Davis was having none of it. “They’re too salty, and there’s no bark on ’em,” he said, but conceded, “Concerning taste, there’s no argument. That’s what makes barbecue fun.”
Comments (24)
Open / CloseWho made up the list ?
I usually do not comment on articles such as this, but as an avid eater of the pits best products, I am rather surprised that not one Tx BBQ place made the list..
shame on the writer(s)
Disservice to Real Barbecue
In the interest of protecting and preserving artisinal barbecue, I write this comment.
Before you refer to a place as "America's best BBQ Restaurants" you first must understand what "barbecue" is. In the opinion of almost every competitor, judge, sanctioning body, authority on the subject as well as the U.S.D.A.'s definitiion of "BBQ", if its cooked using gas as part of the heat source, it is just not real barbecue. Like the U.S.D.A., every sanctioned competition I know of, in North Amer... Read More
Barbecue Quest
Great article. It's hard to include all of the best bbq joints in one piece, but you all hit a bunch of them. I made a 3 week bbq road trip across country and started a blog in search of the best barbecue (barbecuequest.blogspot.com). Will add some of your places to my list of barbecue joints to check out. Next time you're in Memphis, try out the Bar-B-Shop on Madison.
Missing a bunch
You guys really need to expand your search... While Wilbur's and Scott's is decent they are not in the class of Mike Mills. You missed the BBQ rated the best in the nation by several food critic.all together "Dinosaur's in Syracuse NY"
There is a place in Clovis Ca you should check out run by California's top competition team. QN4U.. At least two in Virginia run by top competitor's too.
Let me give you a big hint. If you are walking up to the place and you don't smell smoke ... Read More
Matt and Ted! You Need to get OUT more!
It is ridiculous that you artilcle is titled Best Barbecue and does not include one Texas choice or even comment or Dreamland in Tuscalousa, AL. You need to ask your Mama to buy you a plane ticket to Austin and Visit the Salt lick in Driftwood amound several others. Any one who knows barbeque and US regions of barbecue would not have made such an outrageous omission. It says very little about your credibility to research and write such an article. Perhaps you have unpaid speeding tickets in ... Read More
Gotta second (or third or fourth?) Where's Texas?
Just want to throw my 2 cents in...there are four undisputed barbecue regions: Kansas City, Memphis, the Carolinas....and Texas? Why not even a mention?
NC BARBECUE-THE BEST
There's no such thing barbeque besides the barbeque made in Eastern NC. Real barbeque isn't cooked with red sweet sauce but cooked with a vinegar based seasoning, and the vinegar based seasoning is not poured onto the pork in raw form. Instead, the vinegar based seasoning is cooked into the pork just right. NC will always have the best barbecue. There's no other barbeque like it.
SC Barbeque
I've eaten in Goldsboro, NC and in Nashville, but put Williamsburg County, SC above both. You should try Brown's Barbeque (Kingstree, SC) for excellent slow cooked pit barbeque.
BBQ
Perhaps you should have qualified that your 3000 mile odysey was only going to cover the part of the country that lays between Kansas and the Carolinas and wasn't going to cover ANYTHING in the South. To do a "Best of America" BBQ and completely neglect Texas, Alabama and Mississipi is poor "travel" journalism. Obviously you didn't actually bother to show up in Austin otherwise you'd know that Austin isn't know only for sausage...have you never heard of a place called Salt Lick? And yes th... Read More
texas barbecue
you could write an entire article just on texas bbq, or debate all day long on which is the best bbq in texas (salt lick is for tourists...mueller's is up high on the list).
but not including a single restaurant in texas in this list just shows these jokers don't know what they are talking about. all for the best, i suppose, the best way to ruin a place is publish it. i won't list my favorites on a public forum.
anyway, you can tell that these guys are bbq noobies. first of all... Read More
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