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Squeal Like a Pig, Joe and Mike Pearce’s barbecue competition team, won 2nd place on the 5th season of Destination America’s BBQ Pitmasters. The Pearce brothers’ team also appeared on Food Network’s BBQ Brawl. From the beginning, the Pearce family’s roots go deep in KC barbecue. Joe Pearce grew up watching his father barbecue, and knew he wanted to join the tradition as a kid. After successfully competing in some of the largest barbecue competitions in the country, Joe and Mike opened what they consider their biggest accomplishment: a sit-down restaurant committed to the same fresh flavors and cuts they are famous for. The restaurant has been ranked alongside iconic joints like Arthur Bryant’s as a top destination for Kansas City barbecue by Food &amp; Wine magazine.

Joe and Mike Pearce with their award for the 2022 American Royal

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Food & Wine - Where to Find the Best Barbecue in Kansas City

Brothers Joe and Mike Pearce began competing in barbecue competitions in 2013. Their competition team, Squeal Like a Pig, successfully competed on BBQ Pitmasters, and opened the award-winning Slap’s BBQ restaurant in 2014. Slap’s still competes on the Kansas City Barbecue Society circuit each year, averaging 25-35 contests each season.

Slaps BBQ

This driving tour includes six of the most iconic BBQ restaurants in Kansas City along with the two places that made it all possible, the restaurant operated by the "father of Kansas City BBQ and the West Bottoms. Understanding that there are over a hundred BBQ restaurants in the Kansas City metro, this trail is meant to be a starting place to your exploration of the history and culture of Kansas City BBQ. 

The history of Gates Bar-B-Q is inextricably intertwined with the history of Kansas City barbeque. According to numerous sources, the franchise and Kansas City BBQ both have their roots in the work of entrepreneur Henry Perry, the self-proclaimed "Barbeque King of Kansas City." In 1907, Perry opened a stand selling smoked barbequed meat in Downtown's Garment District, before moving to 18th and Vine, where he sparked the development of hundreds of eateries. Furthermore, the article says, "in spite of it being the Jim Crow era, [Perry] consistently attracted a diverse customer base." When Perry passed away in 1940 at the age of sixty-six, his legacy gave rise to two of the longest-standing traditions of Kansas City barbeque. Perry's initial business was sold to brothers Arthur and Charlie Bryant, who would go on to found Arthur Bryant's at 18th and Brooklyn. The other side of the fork was a man named Arthur Pinkard, who would go on to become the cook at the restaurant opened by George W. Gates in 1946.The Gates franchise has had a long history of operating restaurants throughout the metro area. The original location was opened at 19th and Vine before growing popularity prompted a move to 23rd and Charlotte in 1949. In 1951, plans for further expansion saw the restaurant move back to 19th and Vine, though a fire that same year forced Gates to move his business to 24th and Brooklyn, where it would remain for much of the decade. The next big change would come in 1954 when a second restaurant was opened at 12th and Highland. Two years after that, the business rebranded to Gates &amp; Sons Bar-B-Q as George Gates' son Ollie began playing a more active role in the company, as well as opening his own restaurant/club, O.G.'s at 31st and Indiana.Over time, Ollie Gates further expanded the business, adding a Swope Parkway location in 1970 and a State Line location in 1972. The franchise also opened a Kansas City, Kansas, location in 1975 and an Independence location in 1979. However, the biggest change came in 1975, when Gates began offering a bottled version of their renowned barbeque sauce in stores across the metro. They expanded to nationwide distribution in 1983, with a manufacturing facility opening in Kansas City two years later. Though new facilities continued to spring up into the new century, the continued success of the Gate brand was tempered in 2005 by the loss of matriarch Arzelia June Smith Gates, followed by her daughter Winnifred in 2007. Through it all, the Gates family has continued to provide fantastic food and service to the Kansas City metro area.

Founded in 1946 by George W. Gates as "Gates' Famous Old Kentucky Bar-B-Q," Gates' Bar-B-Q is widely regarded as a Kansas City institution. The restaurant's original location was within what is now the 18th and Vine neighborhood. With the growing popularity of their food and barbeque sauce, the company acquired this location which is located near the company's headquarters. This location features a statue of the company's "Struttin' Man" logo, and similar to all Gates locations, guests should expect an enthusiastic "HI, MAY I HELP YOU" greeting from staff when they enter the service line. Gates has seen many iterations over its nearly 70-year history. The first location was opened at 19th and Vine, before moving several times and opening numerous other locations. Now boasting five restaurants across the Kansas City metro area, Gates' Bar-B-Q is a pillar of the culinary and social fabric of Kansas City. This restaurant at 12th and Brooklyn has been in operation since 1954.

Gates Bar-B-Q (12th & Brooklyn Location)

Arthur Bryant’s history begins in 1908 when the future father of Kansas City BBQ, Henry Perry, began serving cuts of meat that were available at low costs using his unique preparation methods that added flavor while making tougher cuts more tender. With some of the largest slaughterhouses in the world just miles away, Perry was able to acquire cuts of meat like brisket and ribs that were often discarded. Perry trained many of Kansas City's future BBQ legends, including Arthur Bryant and George Gates who began Gates BBQ. Perry later opened a restaurant at 18th and Euclid where he trained many of Kansas City's future barbeque masters, including brothers Charlie and Arthur Bryant. Charlie entered the barbeque business as a proprietor in 1940, followed by Arthur six years later. Recognizing the potential of this location owing to its proximity to Municipal Stadium, Arthur Bryant moved the business here in 1949.Mr. Perry made BBQ famous in Kansas City by adding and incorporating different ingredients and smoking styles, using a combination of slow smoking with a vinegar-based sauce and a host of secret spices. After Perry's death, Arthur Bryant bought the business and moved it to this location in 1949, hoping to serve the diverse populations who came to the area to enjoy baseball and football games at Municipal Stadium.The restaurant was not only a culinary landmark but also a place where diverse people dined with each other. And even if they did not always share the same table, this proximity was a step forward within a heavily segregated city. As a result, this restaurant was sometimes the site of civil rights gatherings in the 60's and 70's. Leaders would meet to discuss events and community gatherings. With the restaurant being so close to Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium, the restaurant quickly became a cultural hub for players and fans until 1976, when the new stadium complex was built. In many ways, the history of Arthur Bryant's is the history of Kansas City.Famous patrons who have dined here include Presidents Jimmy Carter, Harry Truman, and Barack Obama, as well as actors and directors like Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg. For Kansas City civil rights activists, food and fellowship have gone hand in hand. For many Kansas City residents, including African Americans, cooking and creating BBQ has been key to commercial success.

The history of Arthur Bryant's is closely connected to the larger history of Kansas City. One of the oldest and most influential restaurants in establishing the unique flavor of Kansas City barbeque, Arthur Bryant’s dates back to 1908 when Henry Perry began serving barbecued meats from a cart in Kansas City's Garment District. In the decades that followed, Charlie and Arthur Bryant learned the craft while working for Perry. In 1949, Arthur Bryant established this restaurant which quickly established a strong reputation among diverse groups of Kansas City residents. The restaurant's fame spread following a 1972 article by food critic Calvin Trillin that declared Arthur Bryant's "the single best restaurant in the world." In the decades that followed, American Presidents, politicians, civil rights leaders, actors, and athletes from all around the United States and the world have made a pilgrimage to experience what some consider to be the best BBQ ribs in the world.

Arthur Bryant's BBQ

In 1871, the Kansas City Stockyards opened and quickly grew to become the second-largest in the country (after Chicago). By the early 1920s, the stockyards were processing over 2.5 million cows, and about half of them were purchased for local operations in Kansas City. [1] Meat was plentiful, and barbecues were a tradition among the city’s Southern migrants who had come to work in the rail and riverboat industries after the Civil War. Hosting a barbecue at big events like church gatherings and public celebrations was a perfect way to feed large quantities of people efficiently and affordably. [2,3]Henry Perry, dubbed “The Barbecue King,” is credited with starting the first commercial barbecue enterprise in the city. [3] Perry was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and had started working as a cook on Mississippi River steamboats at the age of 15. He moved to Kansas City in 1907 and started his own small business selling cuts of barbecue wrapped in newspaper for 25 cents to workers and residents in the Garment District, at the corner of 8th and Banks Streets. Within a few years, he was able to start a restaurant called Perry’s Barbecue at 17th Street and Lydia Avenue, which then moved a few years later to 19th Street and Highland Avenue. [4] The latter restaurant was in the heart of the 18th and Vine District, a hotbed of jazz and African American prosperity during the 1920s. (See “18th and Vine Historic District” entry on Clio for more information.)By the early 1930s, there were numerous barbecue stands in the city. When Henry Perry died in 1940, his restaurant was purchased by one of his employees, Charlie Bryant. Charlie’s brother Arthur later took over.While Perry may have been Kansas City’s first barbecue restaurateur, the Bryant brothers made the barbecue business legendary. Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque is still in business today and has been described as “the single best restaurant in the world.” [2]The other leading Kansas City barbecue restaurant that opened around the same time was also directly connected to Perry's business. George and Arzelia Gates’ Ol’ Kentuck Bar-B-Q, now Gates Bar-B-Q began when Gates learned Perry’s method from one of his former employees, Arthur Pinkard. Pinkard “came with” the Ol’ Kentuck Bar-B-Q when the Gateses purchased it and served as pitmaster at the restaurant for decades. Gates Bar-B-Q has expanded to multiple locations and each has a framed photo of Pinkard.Kansas City barbecue has evolved over time to something quite a bit different from Henry Perry’s day. For one, Perry often used cheap meats from nocturnal wild animals like possum, groundhog, and raccoon. Perry’s sauce has been described as “harsh and peppery”. [2,3] It was the Bryants who changed Perry’s strong, spicy sauce to one that was sweeter, ketchup-based, and more widely palatable. This style of barbecue sauce, which often incorporates vinegar and molasses, has become Kansas City’s signature. Perry was an strong advocate of slow-cooked barbecue in open pits over hickory and oak wood, a technique adopted by many other others since. Serving up the burnt, caramelized ends of brisket resulting from this process to customers became another tradition among many Kansas City barbecuers.In 1980, a barbecue competition started at the city’s famous American Royal. The American Royal began as a livestock show that has taken place in Kansas City since 1899, but now incorporates other events such as a horse show and rodeo. The barbecue cookoff has become the world’s largest barbecue contest and has been called “The World Series of Barbecue. Over 400 teams from seven different countries competed in 2019, with a payout of over $120,000.

Henry Perry is widely regarded as the "Father of Kansas City BBQ," and this was the location of the last restaurant he operated. Given the long and storied tradition of barbecue in this city, the fact that leading restaurants from Gates to Arthur Bryant's draw their roots to Perry's shop here at 19th and Highland is a tribute not only to Perry's craft, but his influence on the next generation of cooks and restaurant operators. The practice of barbequing meats in the city can be traced all the way back to the era after the Civil War when Southern migrants came to the city looking for work. The massive Kansas City Stockyards provided huge quantities of affordable meat to the area’s residents. Henry Perry began selling barbecue wrapped in a newspaper from a cart in 1907. A few years later, he opened Perry’s Barbecue, the city’s first barbecue restaurant. Encouraged by his success, more entrepreneurs opened their own restaurants, which were frequently concentrated around the African-American community of the 18th and Vine District. Perry operated a restaurant at 17th and Lydia, about three blocks northwest before moving to 1514 East 19th Street and operating his final restaurant at 1900 Highland Avenue. Today, Kansas City is well-known for its delicious barbecue from about 100 different vendors, including Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque and Gates Bar-B-Q, who both trace their methods to Perry. The city also hosts the American Royal, the largest annual barbecue competition in the world.

Location of Henry Perry’s Barbecue; History of Kansas City BBQ

Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue began with a surprise purchase. In 1957 Russ Fiorella bought a roadhouse called The Lucky Inn at 8129 Hickman Mills Drive in Kansas City while his wife, Flora, was in labor at the hospital with their sixth child. That restaurant, originally named Smoke Stack BBQ, was the beginnings of the Jack Stack brand which now includes six separate restaurants and a catering arm, including the largest full-service wood cookery in the industry.Russ was one of fourteen children in a Kansas City Italian family, and went into the grocery business like many of his brothers, doubling as his store’s butcher. When larger chains began to force out smaller Kansas City grocers in the late 1950s, Russ pivoted to a favorite obsession: barbecue. He moved his family out of their seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom home in Kansas City and into the second-floor apartment above The Lucky Inn to help pay for his purchase of the building. Changing the name to Smoke Stack BBQ, Russ did not allow phones or alcohol in his new establishment, which resulted in long lines of hungry customers forming outside the restaurant.In the late 60s, a fire in the barbecue pit destroyed the restaurant. But Russ rebuilt, and his daughter Diane says this is when business really took off. Several of Russ’s children opened their own restaurants, and Russ, along with his eldest son Jack, launched the first Fiorella’s Jack Stack BBQ in Martin City, MO in 1974. Jack and his wife, Delores, expanded the restaurant to accommodate full-service dining, adding menu items and two dining rooms. Now headed by CEO Case Dorman, who is married to Jennifer Fiorella, Jack’s daughter and Russ’s granddaughter, Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue continues to grow, burnishing its reputation as a beloved part of Kansas City’s barbecue community.

Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue in the renovated Freight House is a Kansas City barbecue establishment over sixty years in the making. Set in the Crossroads Arts District, with impressive architectural features such as twenty-five-foot ceilings and a fireplace bar, Jack Stack Freight House captures the spirit of its founder, Russ Fiorella, who loved barbecue and hospitality. Three generations later, the Fiorella family is still serving phenomenal food and has become a Kansas City barbecue staple.

Jack Stack Barbeque (Freight House Location)

<h4>Brief History of the Kansas City Stockyards</h4>The history of the Kansas City Stockyards is as old as the city itself. This is because the Kansas City area was known as the gateway to the west, and along the Sante Fe Trail, thousands of cattle were moving from Texas to markets in the east. In the 1840s and late ‘60s, Native Americans, squatters, and farmers were converging in the West Bottoms to trade livestock, flour, furs, and more. Anticipating a further increase in trading, local businessmen constructed 11 pens, 15 unloading chutes, and a pair of Fairbanks scales in 1870. That same year, over 100,000 cattle were moved with those limited facilities. By 1871, the “Kansas Stock Yards Company” came into being. From there, the stockyards grew immensely over the years, acquiring more land and trading hundreds of thousands of livestock.1Kansas City grew around the stockyards, and towards the end of the 19th century, about 90-percent of the value in Kansas City lay in the West Bottoms. The stockyards continued to flourish, surviving floods and fires, and building the nine-story Livestock Exchange (at the time of its building in 1911, it was the tallest building in the world). In 1929, for example, around 2,179,000 head of cattle and 4,151,000 hogs were sold through the stockyard. Activity peaked in the 1940s with over $350 million in exchange every year.2 Unfortunately, the great flood of 1951 had devastating effects on the stockyard; many packing plants closed and farmers and ranchers began negotiating directly with packers or through small regional auction barns. Nonetheless, the stockyards continued for another 40 years after the flood, closing in 1991.

This historic Kansas City landmark was constructed between 1909 and 1911. The building serves as the headquarters of the Kansas City Stockyards which was once the second-biggest stockyard in the United States, trailing only behind the Union Stock Yards in Chicago. Founded in 1870, and operating until it closed in 1991, the Kansas City stockyards and its Live Stock Exchange Building were essential to the economic growth of the city, providing livestock owners with the best prices for their cattle. Beginning in 1899, the stockyards began what is known today as the American Royal Livestock and Horse Show. At the height of its operations, between 1911 and the devastating flood of 1951, the stockyards sold millions of cattle, including cows, hogs, sheep, horses, and many other animals. The Livestock Exchange, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, stands as a monument of the growth, development, and decline of Kansas City and its livestock industry. The building has been home to the Golden Ox steakhouse, an iconic Kansas City establishment, since 1949.

Kansas City Live Stock Exchange

When Anthony Rieke, his wife Alda, and brother-in-law Anthony "Tony" Sieleman opened the Bucket Shop food stand on Independence Day, 1934, they had only one goal: selling ice-cold beer and savory hot dogs to the public. But the smell of neighbor “Fatty” Sharp smoking meats soon convinced them they should be in the barbecue business, too.The following year, in 1935, with just a little over $183, they built a 12x16-foot frame building 100 feet from the beer stand, installed a smoker, and began selling. That summer, they purchased gigantic blocks of ice to cool the beer, realizing thirsty patrons would also want something to eat, and in the winter of 1935, they installed extra plywood on the interior walls to keep customers warm. Their innovative approach enabled them to weather the Great Depression. Anthony even created the first practical commercial rotisserie barbecue oven, riding around inside the machine like a carousel to make sure it functioned properly.That dedication to excellence served the Riekes and Sieleman well. Anthony worked the Rosedale location at 600 Southwest Blvd in Kansas City, KS every day until he died in 1997 at age 93, claiming it was a stroke of luck he hadn’t been able to find work during the Depression, since it enabled him to start the restaurant. Alda also worked at Rosedale until 2002, when she died at age 94. Their daughter Janelle Brown, her husband, Bill, and granddaughter Marisha Smith now own and operate Rosedale, where they still provide the exemplary barbecue Anthony, Alda, and Tony created almost a century ago.

Rosedale Bar-B-Q is a no-frills Kansas City barbecue essential. Known for their smoked meats and barbecue staples such as brisket, pork, ham, turkey, ribs and chicken, Rosedale has innovated but is not as interested in dining fads as preserving their nearly 90-year barbecue legacy. Originally founded as a hot dog and beer stand, Rosedale is Kansas City’s oldest continuously running barbecue restaurant owned and operated by the same family.

Rosedale Bar-B-Q

Jeff and Joy Stehney didn’t set out to create a barbecue restaurant. After attending a barbecue competition in 1990, the couple fell in love with the food and camaraderie they found there, and simply wanted to extend that experience by starting a barbecue competition team. Purchasing a smoker and gathering a few friends, they did just that, dubbing themselves “Slaughterhouse Five.”The Stehney’s team won so many contests that people started asking them to cook barbecue for weddings and other special events. Jeff and Joy refused at first; they were in the restaurant industry and knew how much work creating their own establishment would be. Then they met Joe Don Davidson, founder and owner of the Oklahoma Joe's Smoker Company, on the competition circuit, and decided to risk it. They opened the first Oklahoma Joe’s restaurant with Davidson in 1996 in Stillwater, OK.The next year, Jeff and Joy purchased a gas station at the corner of 47th Avenue and Mission Road in Kansas City, Kansas, not far from their home, when the owner of the station decided to close the fried chicken counter he’d been operating inside. In 1997, Joe Davidson sold his smoker business. The Stillwater restaurant closed shortly after, and Jeff and Joy bought out Davisson’s share of their Kansas City restaurant. Joe’s Kansas City BBQ was born, and the Stehneys been the only owners since then.Jeff and Joy aren’t interested in becoming the biggest barbecue restaurant in the city, and they’re aware of their unique role in the Kansas City barbecue tradition, which stretches back over a century. They now own three Joe’s locations and The 180 Room, a private dining and event space, and still love showing up to work each day, drawn by the same flames and flavors as their first competition.

An iconic green-and-white gas station at the corner of 47th Avenue and Mission Road in Kansas City, KS, has been an essential Kansas City barbecue stop since 1997. Jeff and Joy Stehney originally opened this barbecue joint that year as the second restaurant in the Oklahoma Joe’s franchise, which they co-founded with Joe Don Davidson in Stillwater, OK. But when Davidson sold his business, the Stehneys bought his share of the company and started Joe’s Kansas City BBQ, a new and unmissable part of Kansas City’s long barbecue tradition.

Kansas City BBQ Heritage Trail

Slaps BBQ

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information