Every once in a while, those of us from “fly over country” get our due on something pivotal to this country. I must celebrate that recognition rather than dissect loftier actions and consequences. Today’s New York Times ponders “Is Kansas City Still the Barbecue Capital of America”? The article then answers: why, yes, of course it is.
People ignore the Midwest, and KC, as an utter backwater, even though these folks bought Hallmark cards for generations or consumed many Russell Stover assortments of chocolates; both companies employed thousands over the years. Outsiders rarely appreciate the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum with its fine Chinese art collection, or are unaware of either the vast medical complex or Conservatory of Music both at the University of Missouri Kansas City.
I left Kansas City decades ago, returning yearly to see cherished friends, my beloved mentor, and occasionally relatives. I confess I don’t travel there as often as I go elsewhere. In sum, many folks have assumed for decades there were nothing of value in the metropolitan area.
Yet the sprawling city, spread across Kansas and Missouri, contains 2.2 million people. KCMO, traditionally the urban core, contains fewer than a quarter of the residents to rank 38th largest city in the nation. Kansas City, Missouri was listed somewhat higher than that sixty years ago and the Kansas suburbs were relatively lightly populated but this region has suffered the same dislocation plaguing so much of the United States as we transitioned from the post-World War II growth into a post-industrial economy. It’s not been a pretty picture but name a city that hasn’t struggled with some substantial changes.
More recently, of course, Patrick and the boys, a.k.a. the Chiefs, pulled off more than their share of last minute victories in big games to seize Super Bowl victories in 2020, 2023, and 2024 (not holding my breath for 2026). These victories brought attention to the city but athletics are ephemeral. Additionally, Tight End Trace Kelsey’s engagement to the global phenom Taylor Swift both enthralled and outraged many (as true of so much in our pop culture recently), reinforcing the view that the current state of affairs seems, like Chiefs victories this season, dreamlike.
Kansas City’s prowess and foundation, however, is barbecue. We are talking real, quality, sassy, smoky, substantial, and glorious barbecue. I haven’t consumed meats for nearly 30 years but my taste buds still conjure up decades of different meat dishes I consumed during various visits because of the intricate dance of flavors, each particular to the brand.
No, Kansas City barbecue has no interest in being that of Texas, Memphis, Carolina (east or west), or some other pretender (just Monday I sampled some sauce of dubious origin which I understand from my barbecue-knowledgeable spouse was probably Alabama).
And who better than the New York Times to acknowledge this fact? But it’s the unifying aspect that attracts me as much as the flavor. Barbecue offers a bond across this city, regardless of partisan preferences, race, gender, or ethnicity. Barbecue is Kansas City, folks, like beignets are New Orleans.
Kansas Citians attempt to address their local share of the many divides plaguing this country. The region shows partisan divides, economically depressed areas, educational disparities, hopes and failures, and many questions about what it will really take to provide inspiration for all residents across the 14 county metro area to be part of a new future.
The uniting glory of the city now, however, is barbecue. The sauce, the burnt ends, the pulled pork, the chicken, the beans, and the combo plates, whether at Arthur Bryants, Gates’s, Cue39, Joe’s Kansas City (sorry but it will always be the “gas station” in our house), Rosedale, Zarda, and others in this article, undergird a city though confidence in superiority, pride in variety but quality, and satisfaction in every dish regardless of where it is served (ok, perhaps I invoke author’s prerogative ever so slightly here since I haven’t been to every one of the places…).
Right now, unity on any single topic bedevils so much of our country. Yet for Kansas City, a place too few people appreciate as a great town to raise a family, to begin to understand our westward expansion from Westport to Oregon, or to return to trusting national figures like Walter Chronkite, barbecue encourages a town to come together. The cuisine is not sufficient to guarantee future urban rejuvenation or personal riches but barbecue and its national presence instills a civic pride hard to manufacture otherwise. Civic pride allows building for the future, if there is something from which to commence.
Kansas City barbecue is Cuisine Americana at its finest, even for us non-meat eaters who can revel in the sauces or merely the ambiance as people inhale vast quantities of carefully curated dishes born of the city’s history as a crossroads made famous for its stockyards.
How about sharing a plate of barbecue in some form to talk about the future? We never know where one plate can take us.
Thank you for sharing my whimsy about barbecue today. In an era of unrelenting anxiety, a tongue-in-cheek humor never hurts for the day. I am away from Annapolis in the splendor of southern Pennsylvania where the air is brisk, the light is clear, and the trees are beginning to display their colors. The fields are beautiful amid the October early light.
Thank you for your time and thank you for the subscriptions many of you offer.
Be well and be safe. FIN
Joel Portman, “Is Kansas City Still the Barbecue Capital of the U.S.?, NewYorkTimes.com, 15 October 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/dining/kansas-city-barbecue.html?smid=url-share
YepAcross the board!thanks.
never even occurs to me. i apply the sauce liberally to veggies.