KansasCity BBQ (Kansas City, St. Louis, Blue Springs: appointed, house, live in)

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by Weaubleau

When I first moved to KC, I thought that KC style sauce was sweet and molasses-ey based on KC Masterpiece, which honestly was never my favorite bottled sauce. Once I tried BBQ from many restaurants around town, I found many styles being prevalent. My two favorites are Zarda original, which doesn't have much taste to be honest, but lets the smokiness of the meat shine through, and then Oklahoma Joe's (I still call it that) Night of the living BBQ, which is the best hot BBQ sauce around town. Next would be both the Gates original and sweet, and then last place would be Rosedale's, which to me tastes like Karo dark syrup with red food coloring in it.

What's your opinion of:

• Gates Extra Hot?
• Arthur Bryant's?
• Jones Bar-B-Q, the place the Fab Five from Q***r Eye made over?
• Jack Stack?
• Meat Mitch Table Sauce, Char Bar's spicy sauce?

I still like Gates Extra Hot, and my own homebrew is based on its recipe, but I think the Meat Mitch sauce has it beat. Night of the Living BBQ is distinctive in that it combines heat and sweet.

KC_Retiree: Vinegar-based barbecue sauce is native to Eastern North Carolina (and I think it's great too). In South Carolina, the sauce is mustard-based (something I have yet to encounter, never having eaten BBQ in that state), and in northeast Alabama, it's mayonnaise-based and served with/over chicken (ditto). Everywhere else, the base is tomatoes. Texas Q is known for being served without sauce, though you can get it on the side at most places, from what I understand (I've only had Texas Q once, in Houston; something else noteworthy about it is that sausages are part of the mix, no doubt related to Texas Q's origin in the German belt of settlement in the central part of the state).

[CaseyMO]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

Neither Gates' original sauce nor Grant's (a now-departed BBQ place at 11th and Washington Boulevard in KCK that friends of my family owned) were terribly sweet. Nor is Bryant's sauce, for that matter (I don't know if this is still the case, but one of its ingredients when I was a lad was lard).

Gates introduced Sweet & Mild as a response to the spread of these overly sweet, molasses-heavy sauces. It wasn't part of the company's original line (Original and Extra Hot).

BTW, one store brand of Kansas City-style sauce I've tried that doesn't fall into this trap is Burman's, Aldi's store brand. It also doesn't use high fructose corn syrup. Sadly, Gates does now; I copied the recipe when Ollie Gates gave it up to Martha Stewart on her old Food Network TV show and make my own. The home-brew version uses brown sugar, which means it does have molasses in it at one remove.

Gates has always been my favorite, but I like Bryant's too, The atmosphere at Bryant's just oozes BBQ! I can eat BBQ almost anywhere and even ate at Dickey's when we lived in Texas. I never understood the buzz about Texas BBQ. I had a recommendation to to BBQ in Memphis, but it did not suit me either. I have been to North Carolina, but I did not try their BBQ.

Years ago, I was a Supervisor for ITT Continental Baking Co (Wonder Bread & Hostess) and when one of the route salesmen would take a week of vacation, I would fill in for them. One of the routes included Gates on 31st. I remember having lunch there one day and Ollie was talking to some of his patrons about a new location that he was considering which happened to be the restaurant at 103rd & State Line. This would have been in 1970. He was pleased with the idea of opening one in that area of Kansas City. If my recollection is correct, he only had two restaurants at that time. The other one was his original place on 12th Street.

[Okey Dokie]

Originally Posted by CaseyMO

Years ago, I was a Supervisor for ITT Continental Baking Co (Wonder Bread & Hostess) and when one of the route salesmen would take a week of vacation, I would fill in for them. One of the routes included Gates on 31st.

IMO, KC BBQ took a nosedive when Wonder Bread ceased to be.

[CaseyMO]

Originally Posted by okey dokie

imo, kc bbq took a nosedive when wonder bread ceased to be.

lol!

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by CaseyMO

Gates has always been my favorite, but I like Bryant's too, The atmosphere at Bryant's just oozes BBQ! I can eat BBQ almost anywhere and even ate at Dickey's when we lived in Texas. I never understood the buzz about Texas BBQ. I had a recommendation to to BBQ in Memphis, but it did not suit me either. I have been to North Carolina, but I did not try their BBQ.

Years ago, I was a Supervisor for ITT Continental Baking Co (Wonder Bread & Hostess) and when one of the route salesmen would take a week of vacation, I would fill in for them. One of the routes included Gates on 31st. I remember having lunch there one day and Ollie was talking to some of his patrons about a new location that he was considering which happened to be the restaurant at 103rd & State Line. This would have been in 1970. He was pleased with the idea of opening one in that area of Kansas City. If my recollection is correct, he only had two restaurants at that time. The other one was his original place on 12th Street.

If you're talking about the 103d and State Line location, Gates had three locations by then: the original at 12th and Brooklyn, the place at 31st and Indiana (which went by the name OG's, for Ollie Gates; I think he must have been impatient to run the company and opened a place of his own before he took over the whole shebang) and the third and (at the time) newest location, a place on Swope Parkway just east of The Paseo that had been a diner called Max's.*

103d and State Line was the fourth Gates location, and it signaled that (to alter the words to the "Good Times" theme song a bit) Gates was "movin' on up to the Westside."

The Swope Parkway location got replaced by the current one when the junction of Swope Parkway, The Paseo, Volker and Emmanuel Cleaver II boulevards got totally reworked. That location, next to Gates' corporate HQ in what had been the Village Green shopping center in the 4600 block of The Paseo, is now the flagship.

*After I landed here in the Northeast, I learned (through The Village Voice) that the most popular indie-rock/punk-rock club in New York City was a place on the Lower East Side (I think) called Max's Kansas City. I don't know whether or not its owner knew of this place.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by Okey Dokie

IMO, KC BBQ took a nosedive when Wonder Bread ceased to be.

Y'know, I think you're right!

But Wonder Bread lives on still. Its maker, Continental Baking Company, by then a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Ralston Purina Company, got acquired in 1995 by its then locally-based rival, Interstate Brands Corporation (Interstate Bakeries Corporation when we were young), bakers of Butternut bread and Dolly Madison snack cakes (the latter the sponsor of those "Peanuts" specials on CBS).

According to this Wikipedia article, the company changed its name to Hostess Brands and moved its HQ to Irving, Texas, in 2009 after emerging from a 2004 bankruptcy. The company declared bankruptcy again in 2012 and got liquidated this time after its unions rejected a contract that called for deep pay and benefit cuts after Hostess executives had voted themselves generous salary increases the year before.

A couple of private investors formed a new Hostess Brands in 2013. That company, headquartered in Lenexa, produces Hostess, Dolly Madison and Voortman snack cakes and cookies. Wonder Bread is now made by Thomasville, Ga.-based Flowers Foods.

[Weaubleau]

Gates Extra Hot- Pretty good, but not as good as Sweet and Hot
Arthur Bryants- Strange, but it has been good if you put it on hot barbecue, it must melt the fat that is in it
Jones BBQ- Haven't tried
Jack Stack- Pretty good, but doesn't stand out, a little bit on the sweet side. Have only had a few times, I have not eaten at Jack Stack all that much.
Char Bar- also haven't tried.

Places ranked in the frequency that I have tried them:
Oklahoma (KC) Joes
Gates
Zarda
Bryants
Bates (Shawnee)
Jack Stack
Smokin Joe's
Rosedale (dry& boring)
Lots of places one time that I can't remember i.e. catered in from someone at an event from an unknown or forgotten place
Wyandot (horrible)

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by Weaubleau

Gates Extra Hot- Pretty good, but not as good as Sweet and Hot
Arthur Bryants- Strange, but it has been good if you put it on hot barbecue, it must melt the fat that is in it
Jones BBQ- Haven't tried
Jack Stack- Pretty good, but doesn't stand out, a little bit on the sweet side. Have only had a few times, I have not eaten at Jack Stack all that much.
Char Bar- also haven't tried.

Places ranked in the frequency that I have tried them:
Oklahoma (KC) Joes
Gates
Zarda
Bryants
Bates (Shawnee)
Jack Stack
Smokin Joe's
Rosedale (dry& boring)
Lots of places one time that I can't remember i.e. catered in from someone at an event from an unknown or forgotten place
Wyandot (horrible)

I'd recommend you give Char Bar a try.

Its chef-owner also has a sense of humor.

The menu has some vegetarian items on it. These are marked with little skulls and crossbones next to them. Down at the bottom of the page, a legend next to the skull and crossbones reads:

"WARNING: THESE ITEMS CONTAIN NO MEAT!"

[KC_Retiree]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

I'd recommend you give Char Bar a try.

Its chef-owner also has a sense of humor.

The menu has some vegetarian items on it. These are marked with little skulls and crossbones next to them. Down at the bottom of the page, a legend next to the skull and crossbones reads:

"WARNING: THESE ITEMS CONTAIN NO MEAT!"

Char Bar is excellent.

Another BBQ spot in KC that I enjoy is Q39. They do some interesting things with BBQ (pork belly and sausage corn dogs?). It's not for those who like their BBQ from gritty "dives" as it is definitely an upscale place. But good.

[IloveOC]

I would like to thank everyone for their comments - since I am not from KC I found it all good to read. I find it interesting to read all of your opinions. It is true - everyone has their own favorite type of sauce.