Kansas City Barbecue

Henry Perry began selling smoked meat from a stand in the 1900s and the style grew from there, distinguished from the Carolinas and Texas by two things: it takes everything - pork, beef, chicken, sausage, mutton - rather than specialising, and the sauce is thick, tomato-based, sweetened with molasses or brown sugar. Burnt ends are the local invention: the fatty point end of the brisket, cut off and cubed, once handed out free to people waiting in line at Arthur Bryant's, now a menu item that sells out first. Wood is usually hickory or oak. The city has a large number of pits and the arguments about ranking them are permanent.

Highlights

• Every meat smoked - not a single-animal tradition.
• A thick sweet tomato sauce - molasses or brown sugar.
• Burnt ends - once free scraps, now the thing that sells out.
• Hickory and oak smoke - the usual fuel.

When to go

Year round. A meal.

What to expect

Burnt ends run out early in the day at the busy places. Queues at the famous pits are long. Sauce is sweeter than visitors from other barbecue regions expect. Pits are spread across the metro and need a car.

Nearby

The Country Club Plaza and 18th and Vine are central.