May Is What Month??

Why yes!  Yes it is!!

National Barbecue Month

Y'all know what to do!

Git out there and enjoy!!

Kansas City gets some high profile recognition

Here it is, one more list Kansas City is on---and this time we hit it rather big. The number one spot over at the Huffington Post:

America's Top 5 Cities To Keep On Your Radar

What they said about us (after using our own Eric Bowers' photograph, no less):

Get to the Green Lady Lounge for some jazz, eat awesome BBQ at Q39, and don't forget to check out the historic City Market. The food is amazing, nearly everything is affordable, and the people are nice.

Sure, it's brief but hey, we got big exposure, some nice things said about us and we're in this number one spot.

So now go out there and be nice, people.

Have a great weekend.

Kansas City on "Best BBQ" list

As we should be, Kansas City is all over a list out last evening on Yahoo! News about the nation's "Best and Worst Barbecue":

Ultimate BBQ Sauce Taste Test | The Daily Meal

First up is

I'd never heard of it.

What they had to say about it:

"Tangy and sweet, well balanced, and lots of flavor," said one taster, and just about everyone else agreed.

Cattlemen’s had a nice blend of spice and a hint of brown sugar, but one taster found it "mono-dimensional."

Next up was

And they said:

The original Kansas City barbecue sauce, this one still stands tall among the pack. Heavy on the smoke and not too sweet, spicy, or acidic, the only negative was that the smokiness was a bit too overpowering for some.

Now, to be clear, these are the ones the rated:

KC Masterpiece, Stubb’s, Hunt’s, Bull’s-Eye, Sweet Baby Ray’s, Cattlemen’s Reserve, Kraft, Open Pit, Jack Daniel's, or pitmaster Brad Orrison’s new line called The Shed.

And that, right there, to me, makes the whole thing suspect. Very suspect, at that.

You rated corporate barbecue like Kraft and Hunt's?

Are you kidding me? 

And you want or expect to be taken seriously?

Where's all the Texas and North Carolina and Memphis brands and styles, let alone Bryant's and all the others that SHOULD be on this list?

Seriously people?

And then, too, they only rated 8 sauces.

Eight.

And again, they expect to be taken seriously.

The good news is Kansas City is on the list.

The bad news is that the list sucks and really can't be given any validity.

Links:

Click to see More of the Best and Worst Barbecue Sauces

Click Here for the Ultimate Barbecue Sauce Taste Test Slideshow

Interesting, teasing ad from Oklahoma Joe's today

From their Facebook page:

 

We can hardly wait.

Kansas City, from MSN

Link to original post: http://rediscover.msn.com/city/253392723

KC Barbecue gets heads up from Bon Appétit

Here it is, this time Trader Joe's Kansas City style barbecue sauce gets the raves with coverage on Yahoo! News last evening:

Supermarket Standoff: Barbecue sauces

Bon Appétit

When they're not busy tasting dishes over and over, Bon Appétit's food editors are tasting other stuff like different brands of chicken stock. Because while we're into making things from scratch, sometimes there just isn't time to brown veal bones for rich broth, or simmer strawberries into preserves. When we do cut corners, though, we want to do it in the tastiest possible way -- hence the taste tests of store-bought items.

Today's item: barbecue sauce.

Sure, food editor Hunter "Carolina Boy" Lewis might have a mean recipe handed down to him by his great grandfather, but most of us don't.

The good news? Many bottled sauces -- some of them made by big companies, some of them by two dudes with a passion and a big ol' stockpot -- are darn good. Here are six of our favorites.

Trader Joe's Kansas City Style

"This is a total cheat sheet sauce." Translation: It's adaptable, and you could "put it on chicken and fake that it's charred." It's smoky, sweet, and has a pronounced tomato flavor.

$2.69 at Trader Joe's in New York City.

The conclusion?

Trader Joe's has been good for Kansas City and in return, Kansas City has been good for and to Trader Joe's.

Bon appétit, indeed.

Link: http://shopping.yahoo.com/news/supermarket-standoff--barbecue-sauces.html

On Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue

I'll be happy--very happy--when the newness of Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue is over.

I'd like to get back to more people liking more than one barbecue joint in town.

This week, they're being covered yet again. This time by The Pitch Magazine. (link below).

I mean, come on, Joe's is good, sure, but this whole trendy, citywide zeitgeist that they're the best right now is far too lemming-like, for me, anyway.

As I've said here before, I hate trends and trendiness, period, but I especially dislike food trends. They're the worst.

Can we not think and act as individuals?

Are we not capable of that? Of independent thought?

Between its newness and the fact that Anthony Bourdain likes them and put them on his TV show ("No Reservations") and a local food blogger came out and said they were "best" on Mr. Bourdain's same show, it makes it "their time." And it's cool, too. I love the idea that it's in a gas station. So sure, I get all that. Fine.

I'll just be glad when all the new wears off and the hoopla is over.

The only thing is, it will all be replaced with some other new, "next" trend.

And it will start all over again.

In the meantime, you can find me at Arthur Bryant's.

Link: http://www.pitch.com/kansascity/oklahoma-joes-jeff-stehney/Content?oid=2914103

Happy National Barbecue Month!

Go get 'em! Get out there and enjoy your Kansas City barbecue, either at home or out at one of our restaurants! Go to a new place you've never been before! Go to an old favorite! Introduce friends to your favorite place, whatever. Let's get out there this month and enjoy!
(And did you even know there is a National Barbecue Association? You can find them here: http://www.nbbqa.org/).

In case you missed Kansas City Barbecue on the Travel Channel

For Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" program last evening on Kansas City and our barbecue, go here: http://www.travelchannel.com/video/relive-kansas-city-with-tony

Arthur Bryant's big, national honor

The Daily Meal, an online media site about all things food, just ranked the "101 Best Restaurants for 2012" and--get this--Arthur Bryant's Barbecue came out in the 48th spot. Wow. You should see the big names they're in there with, nationally. Outstanding. Two other things to note about this list. First, the American Restaurant is nowhere on the list and I thought it would be and second, Bryant's is the ONLY Kansas City restaurant on it. Yikes. Link: http://www.thedailymeal.com/101-best-restaurants-america

KC: One of America's Best BBQ Cities

Okay, well, it's no surprise and we should be on this list, of course, but Kansas City is US News & World Report's Travel list of "America's Best BBQ Cities." Not only that, but we're ranked number 3, too, behind only Lockhart, Texas and Memphis, Tennessee. What they have to say: "This Midwestern town has cultivated its own (very popular) version of the cuisine. It's hard to resist the thick, tangy sweet sauce served at Kansas City heavyweights like Arthur Bryant's and Gates Bar-B-Que." We Couldn't agree more. Last note: My question now is, unless maybe you're from St. Louis, who knew they did barbecue? (No. 7 so yeah, we beat em). Link: http://travel.usnews.com/gallery/Americas_Best_BBQ_Cities/Kansas_City_1680/

Arthur Bryant's via Australia

There's an article in an Aussie rag about our own Arthur Bryant's Barbecue: Humble Kansas restaurant Arthur Bryant's Barbecue has some famous fans Don'tch'a just love how people so frequently assume that, because it's Kansas City, that it's also gotta' be Kansas? That kills me. A bit of what they say (link at bottom): "Arthur Bryant's resembles a cafeteria from the 1950s, because it hasn't changed since it catered to baseball players and fans from a nearby (and long gone) stadium." Link: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/world/humble-kansas-restaurant-has-some-famous-fans/story-fn302659-1226254410567

Arthur Bryant's at the top: as it should be

Arthur Bryant's got a top national rating from Zagat's this week, as I said, as it should be. They are rated as one of the "10 US Barbecue Meccas". It's the one barbecue joint in town that doesn't taste like all the rest. And then there's the smoked meats. Yow. Good on you, Arthur. Links: http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/blog/2011/09/arthur-bryants-makes-list-of.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bizj_kansascity+%28Kansas+City+Business+Journal%29; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zagat/best-barbecue-restaurants_b_935111.html#s340250&title=4_Arthur_Bryants

KC Masterpiece rated one of best BBQ sauces

Yes, you read correctly. KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce is rated one of the best sauces in the nation for taste by Consumer Reports magazine (http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/635/the-best-bbq-sauces/). Apparently they couldn't get across town to Bryant's.

The latest and greatest--KC in the NYT this Sunday

This is always cool--as I said, our very own Kansas City highlighted in the travel section of The New York Times this Sunday.

How cool is that?

And the thing is, it's online right now. Check it out:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/travel/16hours.html

To further heighten its coolness factor, they're saying in the article what I've said here a few times and that is, wait until next year, when the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts opens.

There will be no holding us back, then.


Have a great weekend, everyone.