KC BBQ

Recently my work sent me to a training class in the Overland Park area of Kansas for 2 weeks. Upon landing at Missouri International Airport I told myself that I would not leave the state until I had some renowned KC BBQ in my belly. From the moment I stepped off of the plane onto KC soil is the moment that my culinary mission began. I understand that the subject of KC BBQ is irrelevant to this blog considering that the key subject of this site is HD establishments. However, I feel that if my readers are anything like myself, they wouldn't have a problem with me posting more pictures and descriptions of tasty food to hold them over until I get the chance to try out some new HDeats!

The first place I visited was in Olathe, KS. The establishment is called Oklahoma Joe's, the moment we walked in we were slapped in the face with a wall of trophies, plaques, awards, and ribbons of the owner's numerous competition victories. The air in the restaurant was smokey with a subtle undertone of hickory and paprika. The above picture is the ordering booth, at Oklahoma Joe's. You simply walk up to the counter, order your food, watch them pull your meat out of the smoker, cut it up, and pay at the register at the end of the booth. This process guarantees that your meat is fresh out of the smoker and hot on your plate!
I went a little bit overboard on my visit and let my eyes become much bigger than my stomach. My order consisted of a pulled pork sandwich, Brisket, half rack of ribs, texas toast, and an order of spicy slaw. Do yourself a favor and click on the image to get a full screen view, the food tasted exactly how it looked on the picture, AMAZING! The brisket melted in my mouth, the ribs pulled off the bone with a snap of the wrist, and the pulled pork tasted so good it didn't even need sauce! The spicy slaw tasted like cole slaw with chili powder, and the buttery texas toast was a nice change to the normal slice of white bread that almost all bbq joints out here include with a bbq meal. There were 3 sauces on the table: A vinegar base sauce, a tomato base sauce, and a spicy tomato base sauce. All three sauces tasted great and accented the dry rub tastes that were highly detectible in the meat. The vinegar base sauce seemed to accent the smoke flavor of the meat even more and created a dining experience that puts any California bbq joint to shame!
Next stop on the trip was the famous Arthur Bryant's in Kansas City Missouri. This joint was a little more of a "hole in the wall" than Oklahoma Joe's. The entire restaurant was a brick structure and the smell of smoke lingered in the air over a block away from the establishment! The first thing we noticed as we walked in was that there were pictures everywhere of presidents and celebrity visits to the restaurant. The inside looked a little more like a cafeteria with customers getting there food on trays with butcher paper and sitting down on plane white tables with fold out chairs. The ordering booth was the same as Oklahoma Joe's: order, watch it get pulled out of the smoker, pay, eat.
I went ahead and ordered a full rack of ribs with the hopes of anything close to the ribs I saw on the billboard! I wasn't disappointed, the ribs were easily the best ribs i've ever had in my life! The dry rub was caked on thick and the meat melted in my mouth while still leaving a crunchy crust from the dry rub. Arthur Bryant's also offered sauces on the table which I didn't feel the need to use on these ribs, they were perfect as is.
We also ordered a pulled pork sandwich, the "sandwich" consisted of a piece of white bread with well over a pound of sauced pulled pork completely covering it, and a piece of white bread on the side. The difference between this pork and Joe's pork is that the pork at Arthur Bryant's came mixed with the sauce already. The process of watching them pull the pork out of the smoker, cut it up with huge butcher knives, and mix with the sauce left my mouth watering. The pork was awesome, the sauce was a combination of spicy vinegar/sweet tomato with a hint of brown sugar. My bbq visits in California usually consist of either Famous Dave's or Lucille's in Ontario/Rancho, I always thought that those places must come pretty close to other BBQ town's products. I was terribly wrong, Oklahoma Joe's and Arthur Bryant's provided me with experiences that I doubt can ever be duplicated by any California establishments. They showed me that BBQ is truly an art form and that prep, love, and a good spice rub can take your food to a higher level than what you've ever had before.