In Kansas City barbeque is king and prides itself
on an anything goes kind of style. You
want a bunch of different meats? Ok. You
want a tomato, vinegar, sugar, or mustard based sauce? Sure you can get that. There are a bunch of different BBQ places, but
when I told the lady at the rental car agency I was there for BBQ, she not only
asked if I was going to Arthur Bryant's, but told me I HAD to go to the
original location. Not only already on
the agenda, but the entire reason for the trip I assured her.
The List tells me "there's no decor to speak of....but that just means there's nothing to distract you from the signature half-pound of slow-cooked brisket slapped on plain old white bread, with a gritty herbs-and-spices-flavored barbeque sauce and the best skin on french fries in America."
The List tells me "there's no decor to speak of....but that just means there's nothing to distract you from the signature half-pound of slow-cooked brisket slapped on plain old white bread, with a gritty herbs-and-spices-flavored barbeque sauce and the best skin on french fries in America."
Listen, real-talk here....those fries were
marginal. They were fine, but definitely
not in top 10, let alone best in America.
5 things about Arthur Bryant's Barbecue:
1. There is no decor; it is pretty much just a
collection of tables, and a school lunch line of meat windows. There also seemed to be no air-conditioning
because it was HOT in there.
2. It was packed.
Even at 2pm on a random Saturday.
I waited in line around 20 minutes to order.
3. I knew I was ordering waaaaaaay too much food,
but I wanted to try a couple of kinds of meat.
I really though about ordering an extra side, but was glad I
refrained. About half of my meal ended
up not being eaten.
4. The actual order: The combo with burnt ends (obviously) and
sausage, and fries. Like I said the amount of food was overwhelming. The burnt ends were delicious. So, so, very delicious. I ate pretty much all of that part of my
plate. The sausage was also good, but I
was expecting it to be, you know, sausage-shaped, but it was sliced like roast
beef. But it tasted like sausage - it
was good, but ultimately too weird for my brain/palate to reconcile. The sauce, though, well, they have a bunch -
but the original was all I needed. I thought it was insanely good. (Maybe tied with Melon sauce.)
5. While it was very good, I was surrounded in
line by folks who had never been there before.
I don't know if they live in the area or were visiting, but as with many
of these Local Royalty Restaurants (Pat and Geno's in Philly, for example) - they are
legendary examples of a local food genre, but you probably won't see a lot of
actual locals there.
