Category: Food Life

It’s our last two days of this road trip.  We are now in Kansas City – my hometown and the arguably the spiritual home of barbecue.  With more than 100 BBQ spots, there just may be more BBQ joints per capita than anywhere in America.  And this is also the home of the barbecue competition sanctioning body, the Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS).

Picking the best to visit is a challenge.  Our goal here is to sample a variety of different styles within the spectrum of Kansas City BBQ.  We’ve chosen some of the founding fathers along with some of the newer boys (and girls) on the block.  First up, Arthur Bryant’s.

Arthur Bryant’s

https://www.arthurbryantsbbq.com/

This institution of BBQ traces it roots back to Henry Perry who began serving smoked meats to garment workers in 1908.  Charlie Bryant worked for Henry, taking over the place when he died in 1940.  Arthur came to visit his brother not long after and never left, ultimately taking over in 1946.  Arthur moved the restaurant to its current location at 18^th and Brooklyn in 1958, a short distance from the Municipal stadium that was home to the Kansas City Blues and Kansas City Athletics.  As people passed through town, they tried out the barbecue and a reputation was launched.  It has since seen celebrities (Tom Watson, Steven Speilberg, Harrison Ford, James Spader) and presidents (Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barak Obama to name a few).

Arthur “created” the burnt ends Kansas City is famous for when he put out chunks of the brisket trimmings for customers to munch on while they waited in line to order.  He was a regular sight at the place right up until his death.

From the moment you enter you see this place just oozes history.  From the old photographs and signs to the worn Formica tables, it is easy to tell this there is a long tradition here.  There is a high menu over the old-fashioned walk-up counter where you watch them preparing your order.

We’ve gotten to this place early, it’s only 11:00, and it is already busy.  There are a number of people already eating in the two dining areas.  As with all KC BBQ joints, you have a range of sandwiches to choose from as well as plain sliced meats, ribs and a bunch of sides.  We place what has become our standard order of ‘everything’ and take a massive tray of meat to our table.

After we finish our sampling and scoring, we ask if we can have a look in the back.  Kristea is happy to show us around.  We head straight to the smokers, a pair of in-direct wood-fired rotisserie Old Hickory Pits smokers.  Kristea says they burn a random mix of hardwoods including oak, hickory and ‘whatever else is sitting there’.

They start their prep at about 18:30, trimming and rubbing down the meats.  These rest until about 18:30 when they finally get put in the smoker.  They cook the briskets and pork butts until about 07:00 (about 12 ½ hours) when they take them out to rest until opening at 11:00.

We’ve got a number of spots to hit today so we are off to the next one, Rosedale BBQ.

Rosedale

http://www.rosedalebarbeque.com

We cross downtown to the Kansas side to a joint that started up just as prohibition ended.  They wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to sell beer and opened up a beer and hotdog stand in 1934.  There was a BBQ place a bit down the road and they knew offering up BBQ would increase their beer sales.  They set up a small tin shack and Rosedale BBQ was born.

It has expanded quite a bit now offering take-away, counter and sit down service.  They also gone from a bit of smoked meat to a full menu with a wide range of sides.

This spot is a proper home-town BBQ joint with an old diner feel. They open early on game days (football and baseball) for take-away. You’ve got proper counter service as well as tables and you have your food within minutes of ordering. They have expanded the building several times over the past few years but have maintained their charm.

We’re a bit short on time today so we get our food, take our notes and score them. There is no time for a tour and these guys are swamped anyway as we arrived during lunch rush so its not a good time to ask. We do have a quick chat and mention what we are doing. They are excited to hear about our road trip and quite proud we stopped by.

L.C.’s

http://www.lcsbarbq.com/

This spot is not on the list of top 50 BBQ joints in American, but it certainly is a Kansas City institution. It opened in 1986 in its current location. Around Kansas City they are arguably best known for their sponsorship of the Kansas City Chiefs football team. You cannot listen to a game and not hear a commercial for these guys. And they live up to this by opening early every game day to allow people to get BBQ for their tailgate parties.

This is a tiny place that looks like it was last decorated, well, in 1960 — a bit odd since it opened in 1986. Their pit is front and centre in the restaurant and you get to see all the magic happening every time someone orders.

Unfortunately, the pit (and the grease hood in front of it) looks like it hasn’t been cleaned since it was opened. The rest of the place seems clean, but the pit is a mess. And outside is even worse.

But we’re here and we going to give it a go. The staff are friendly and happy to talk to us. The owner is there and we’re told to have a chat with him while we wait for our order — he’s watching a football game on the TV in the corner of the restaurant.

We order up a plate of brisket, ham, pork and ribs. We’re short on time so we get it all to go — we’ll taste it all later.

Gates

https://gatesbbq.com/

It’s pushing 17:00 and we are on to our next stop — Gates BBQ. This is another KC institution with bags of history. This spot has close ties with Arthur Bryants. Gates opened in 1946 and like Arthur Bryant’s can trace itself back to Henry Perry, the founder of KC barbecue. Arthur Pinkard, who learned barbecue from Henry Perry himself, was working at Ol’ Kentuck when it was purchased by George and Ollie Gates. He stayed on to run the pits and taught them everything he knew.  

Gates has moved about a bit in KC over the years but it has settled now near its historic location at Linwood and Main. This is the location we are headed to today.

Inside you find not just BBQ but history of the site itself. It’s original trolley car site is inside the building and still taking orders. This site is a restaurant, event site and headquarters for the company as well.

From the moment you walk in it almost feels more like a museum than a restaurant. But their trademark greeting — Hi may I help you? — brings you back quickly. This is not a spot to dawdle. You’re here to order food and get down to eating!

We order up a three-meat platter (brisket, pork and ham) plus some ribs and toss in a side of beans.

We’re late for dinner — yeah, this isn’t dinner believe it or not — so we take it all to go and we’ll sample it all at mom’s. I have high hopes of this impressing Adrian.

Today we leave Arkansas and travel through the Ozarks and central Missouri to Kansas City. Our first stop is in Springfield, Missouri for City Butcher and Barbecue. This place has a number of awards for their brisket. They serve up Texas-style BBQ and have done since 2014 – a newcomer in BBQ terms.

We’re taking the scenic route through the Ozarks from Bentonville, Arkansas. The straight, flat roads are gone as we go through the Ozark mountains. It’s all hills and curves now. The views have been amazing with a light fog hanging in the hills.

Arriving into Springfield, it looks like any town in the Midwest with strip malls and car dealers everywhere you look. And it is to one of those strip malls we are headed for City Butcher and Barbecue.

City Butcher and Barbecue

https://www.citybutchersgf.com/

It is not much to look at from the outside. The signs on every store in the strip are so similar as to be hard to distinguish from each other. We find the right one and head inside. It morphs into a typical Texan joint when you walk in. You’ve got the meat being sliced and chopped at the counter as you come in with the dining area behind. No plates provided, just butcher paper (though here it is the waxed kind). Pickle slices, raw onions and jalapenos are waiting for you on the back counter along with plastic cutlery. And there is Blues playing in the background. Its a nice setting despite its strip mall exterior.

They have a quite an extensive menu one of the most diverse yet. Plenty of the typical meat by the pound, but for the first time we are seeing burnt ends (a KC specialty) and pork belly. There is a range of sandwiches on offer as well as sausage and even chilli

We decide on a mix of brisket, burnt ends, turkey, pulled pork, pork ribs and pork belly along with some beans and potato salad. We’ll start with the sides…

The bean are ok, but there really isn’t any flavour beyond the chunks of meat in them – and I think there might be more meat than beans here. The potato salad is made from chunks of skin-on potatoes with strong onions and a mustard based sauce. It’s nice but not wow. They offer three sauces — spicy, house and mustard — none of them overly impressive.

But barbecue is first and foremost about the meat. And this is some of the best we have had so far. The brisket has a nice bark with good seasoning. The burnt ends are soft and loose. The turkey is moist and has a visible smoke ring — this is by far the best turkey we’ve tasted on this trip. The ribs are nice but the flavour is limited to the rub, the pork does not have much flavour. The pulled pork is in nice chunks with a good texture. But we’re really surprised to find our favourite is the pork belly. I’ve never seen smoked pork belly before, but it is absolutely superb.

Post trip note: This pork belly is the best of trip!

Once again the staff are extremely friendly. After we finish devouring far too much meat, Blain is kind enough to take us into the back to have a peek into the production.

They use three Cookshack smokers (300, 500, 750 models) which are all commercial rotisserie smokers fueled by wood pellets. City Butcher uses a mix of oak and hickory – a departure from their Texas roots where only oak is used. That touch of hickory adds some sweetness to the smoke.

In Texas tradition, they use only salt and pepper on their meats after minimal trimming. They cook the brisket and pork butts for about 12 hours and then wrap and put to rest for about five hours.

We’ve done our tasting and bought our t-shirts so its back on the road again. Next stop, Osceola, Missouri.

We’re headed north now to central Missouri to make a stop at Sugarfoot BBQ in Osceola. This place is a bit unique as its part of a gas station (petrol station for the Brits). It’s not a lot to look at, but it holds some hidden gems.

https://www.wholehogcafe.com/

From HB’s we head to north-central Littlerock just off the banks of the Arkansas River. This place was started by an award winning team back in 2002 with a small food trailer in a parking lot. Not long after came the restaurant and now they have locations in Arkansas, Missouri, New Jersey and New Mexico.

First impression isn’t much. This is a tired looking place in an out of the way strip mall that does not ooze great food. But these guys have won a massive number of awards and are ranked in the top 50 in the USA so we’ll see if the food speaks louder than the view.

They don’t put a lot into the décor. The inside is quite bland with lots of basic booths and little ambience. Outside of the many trophies — and there are a LOT of them — there is not much to the place. But we are here for the food not the ambiance.

Before I even get close to the counter I’m greeted and asked what I’d like to order. I’ve not even read over the menu yet so I have to ask for more time, feeling a little bit like I should have known already what I wanted. That feeling becomes stronger as two other people come in and rattle off their order without even looking up at the menu. They clearly have a following.

I decide on a 3-meat platter with brisket, pulled pork, pulled chicken and add on some ribs. This place has six sauces to choose from so I get three of those to try out. It’s the first time where sauce seems to be considered a key part of the offering. We’ve just finished lunch at HB’s so we get this to go and the sampling will have to wait until later!

We head to the motel (a step down from last night’s but its clean and only £30 a night. It’s time to try out the food from Whole Hog Café.

The pulled chicken was nicely shredded and tender without being mushy, but its chicken – there just isn’t a lot of flavour there. The pulled pork was nice enough though a little chewy. We found both the beef brisket and the ribs to be on the chewy side. Quite average, not what we were expecting.

We’re beginning to reach of limit of barbecue so we decide to find a place to get a drink and some dinner that does not include BBQ sauce and end up at TGI Friday’s. Not exactly a great option, but its walking distance from the motel. We both end up ordering salads as we couldn’t bear the idea of more rich meat.

A Chinese salad with grilled chicken proves the perfect choice. Its back to the motel to work on the blog for a bit and then to bed — another early morning on the road tomorrow as we head into Missouri and on to Kansas City.

Today we’re driving from Dallas, Texas to Littlerock, Arkansas. It’s about a five hour drive. Our first stop closes by 14:00 so we are on the road by 07:30 after finding some strong coffee at Circle K where we pick up a 100 oz travel mug — everything truly is bigger in Texas!

There is not a lot to see between Dallas and Littlerock. A highway that goes on straight forever and flat scrub land. There are a surprising number of car dealerships (selling pretty much nothing but pickup trucks) and scrap yards full of broken down vehicles.

We make good time and get into Littlerock about 12:00. We’re using Google Maps to guide us of course, but we are getting increasingly concerned as we drive through a somewhat rundown residential neighborhood looking for our first stop, HB’s Bar-B-Q.

HB’s Bar-B-Q

https://www.facebook.com/HBsBarBQ/

Suddenly, there it is on our left between two house looking quite out of place and yet like it has been there forever. And it has been there awhile – since 1961 — and thus the reason is seems so out of place. It was grandfathered in when they changed zoning laws to only residential allowing it to continue to operate.

We park across the street so we can take in the full view of the place. As Adrian gets out of the car he looks down and sees several gun cartridges on the ground — slightly disconcerting but this is Arkansas.

This spot has been around since 1961. The owner, Bruce Slaughter passed away after a six-year battle with cancer just over a year ago. Ginny, the manager, has been there 28 years now and is determined to keep it going. This place is a local institution that gathers in people from every walk of life for its great BBQ.

I got a chance to chat with Ginny who in typical southern style was more than ready to talk. She walked me around the back (that took two minutes — it’s a small place). We talked about our BBQ efforts and the difference between competition and commercial cooking.

Ginny knew almost every person who came in asking about the wives and kids, making time to talk to everyone. One older gentlemen came in and after less than two minutes Ginny was apologising for the wait. He just bellowed out, “you know what I want.” Another two minutes and his meal was on the table–no other conversation required. There are not enough places like this left in the world.

Friendly as it was, this is not a sit and linger kind of place. You order quick and the food is delivered even quicker. You put your fork down and your plate is clear and your bill is brought over. Nothing rude in the practice at all as everything happens with a smile, but they can seat only about 20 people and they are full up even on a slow day.

They use a typical wood-fired indirect heat pit burning exclusively hickory — a first in our journey. Using the hot ‘n fast method, their cook time is around seven hours. They make their signature vinegar-based sauce every morning. Ginny gave me a bottle to take home (she just grabbed an empty pint jar and filled it up) telling me, “it’s great on everything – eggs, potatoes, even meat.”

Before we go we have another of their signature items – fried pie. Yep, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Take some pie dough and put some pie filling in the middle, fold it over and firmly crimp the edges and drop it in a deep fryer. Sprinkle a bit of cinnamon and sugar on top. It’s REALLY good!

Next stop is Whole Hog Café.  These guys have won the American Royal competition too many times to count along with many other major competitions.  We’re looking forward to seeing how they do it.

From Lockhart we are headed to Dallas, Texas to meet up with Joel, an old friend and former work colleague and to sample some BBQ and Dallas nightlife. It’s just over a three hour drive from Lockhart.

We’re headed to northeast Dallas to Lakewood Smokehouse. Joel recommended this spot; it didn’t figure in any of the many “top BBQ” lists so we are anxious to see how it will compare.

Lakewood Smokehouse

https://www.lakewoodsmokehouse.com/

Lakewood Smokehouse is the most commercial of the spots we’ve been so far. This place is run by restaurant professionals, not BBQ enthusiasts. You’ve got a greeter on the door, proper restaurant menus and a far more neutral restaurant décor. But none of that means they can’t cook BBQ.

We grab one of the local tipples (Dallas Blonde – that’s a beer, not a girl) and work our way through the menu. It has all the traditional items you’d expect but also plenty of options for non-BBQ lovers (whoever they might be – I’m sad for them) including tacos, burgers and pizza.

We settle on the 3-meat plate (brisket, pulled pork and sausage) and toss in ribs added and a platter of burnt ends for good measure. It’s the first time we’ve seen burnt ends since we got to Texas. Their sausage is from Kreutz Market so we’re expecting that to be good.

Food is out to us straightaway. We pull out our tasting card and start taking notes to the bemusement of our friend and the restaurant staff.

The back of house manager, Clayton, stops by to see how the food is and we get to chatting. He takes us back to see the smokers. These guys use a mix of hickory, oak and mesquite. They are the first ones we have come across to use anything but post oak. It certainly explains the slightly sweeter taste to their meats.

They are using fairly standard commercial smoker with a vertical configuration having the firebox on the bottom. It’s all wood-fired with a thick bed of coals providing the heat and burning logs for the smoke. They have two smokers but only use the second one for the busiest periods.

They use a basic Texas-style rub of salt, pepper and cayenne but unlike some others they don’t have a long marinating time putting on the rub and straight into the smoker. They cook at about 200 degrees; a bit cooler than is typical for the low and slow method.

Clayton, like everyone we’ve met in Texas so far, was friendly and unpretentious. He wanted to hear about us as much as we wanted to hear from him. This might have been the most commercial joint so far, but they still care about their food and their customers. We were pleasantly surprised.

Next up is some local nightlife. We’ve not had the chance to sample the nightlife anywhere we have gone so far so we are looking forward to this. Our mate, Joel, takes us just around the corner from Lakewood Smokehouse to the Balcony Club. It’s an amazing little live jazz club that reminds me of a club in Paris that Joel and I spent time in.

A small stage with a three piece ensemble playing some great jazz standards combined with a friendly bartender made for a great place to chat and catch up. What a great night!

It’s a short stop in Dallas though and we are on the road early to get to Littlerock, Arkansas by lunchtime so its off to bed in our luxury (not – but at £35 you don’t expect much) motel on the motorway.

Today is about Lockhart, Texas. Lockhart is the home to some of the oldest barbecue joints in Texas dating back to 1900. German heritage and a desire to use the animal from nose to tail means sausage is a bit part of the scene in Lockhart.

We’re checking out the two related institutions of Lockhart; Kreuz Market and Smitty’s Market. The history of these two places is a bit convoluted and definitely includes family drama. But results of it all are two unique and compelling locations serving up great food.

We planned to start off from Austin about 09:00 but when 05:00 rolled around we were both away staring at the ceiling thanks to jet lag. We got up early, got packed, had a leisurely coffee and headed out to Lockhart about 08:00 after working on the blog a bit. We got into Lockhart about 09:00 expecting to have to wait around for things to open. But in fact, Smitty’s was already open with customers enjoying some morning BBQ.

Smitty’s Market

http://smittysmarket.com/

The outside of the building is nothing special and barely catches your attention with small sign saying ‘Barbecue’. We’re looking around taking some pictures when an older gentlemen opens the door and beckons us inside. We walk down a dark hallway as we get a walking commentary on how it all works — this door for the meat market, that door for the sides and tables and straight back to order the meat.

We get to the end of the hallway and almost walk into an open fire burning away on the floor. In front of us are massive brick pits being fed by the open fires.

There is smoke hanging in the air clearly visible in the light streaming through the high windows. The walls and ceiling have a 100-year old layer of soot from the open fires. There is sawdust on the floor. It is quite simply an amazing sight.

The meat isn’t cooked and moved to a separate holding cabinet exactly. The long pit is hotter at the fire end so the meat is just moved along in the pit from one end to the other as it reaches the desired cooking level. They pretty much sell out each day so they don’t have issues of needing to take the meat away from the heat.

Seems all of these places in Texas serve the meats with thick sliced bread (known as ‘Texas toast’) and saltine crackers. And lots of dill pickle slices and onion slices. The crackers are strange but surprisingly good at cleansing the palate.

The flavour in all of the beef is very good – nice and beefy. There is much less pepper used here compared to Franklin’s. The brisket is served differently than we are used to with the point and flat left together and sliced to serve.

And oddly, they have not sliced the brisket against the grain. This is usually done to make sure the meat fibres are shorter and thus break apart rendering the meat more ‘tender’. The brisket here is pretty good, but the beef shoulder, something we never smoke in the UK is actually better in both appearance and texture.

The pork ribs don’t have much of a rub on them, unlike the competition approach. They do have a nice smoke ring. They are tasty but a bit tough. They also are untrimmed — again a departure from what we are used to.

Sausages are a specialty in Lockhart so we are anxious to give them a try. They have a regular and a jalapeno version.

The sausage has a nice flavour and a good texture — not too coarse, not too fine. It’s very meaty and not too greasy. The casing is slightly tough and could perhaps have been cooked a bit longer to crisp it up.

The jalapeno sausage is not as enjoyable. We found this one greasy, perhaps from the cheese in it. It’s quite a loose sausage compared to the regular one.

So our next stop is a ‘sister’ (brother) to this one, Kreutz Market. It’s a short way down the road.