"The Boys" from Minnesota visited KC to see how much good barbecue they could consume in a weekend.

Comments:

Smokestack:
nice place. best beans. burnt ends really are burned! great smoked meat! Liked the old warehouse type atmosphere. Really liked the sauce
 
BB's:
Lordy! that's a whole lot of ribs. I didn't like the cinnamon flavoring in the sauce. best atmosphere by far! tasted good for breakfast too! Good food, nice atmosphere, and a live band...what more did we need. Sauce had a unique apple cinnamon flavor...not too sure about that
 
LC's:
I feared for my life the entire time we were here - but that was good eating!! Seemed a little on the dirty side. Best overall meal.

Rosedales:
Good ribs and quick service. Nicest looking place we went to...but atmosphere seemed to be lacking. This maybe skewed because of the other places.
I was disappointed that the chopped meat didn't have and smoke flavor. The sliced beef was very dry, lacked flavor.

General Overall comments:
These places seemed to be in not so nice neighborhoods.  Maybe just our perception. The BBQ in KC was great. Going to 4 BBQ places in a weekend was too much...but we enjoyed every bite of it and would probably do it again. Man there are a lot of BBQ places in KC. KC has a lot more to offer for a weekend than just BBQ.  We didn't realize there was that much to see.

We suggest that you go to Famous Dave's in Calhoun Square when you are in Minneapolis.  We think this is about the closest to KC BBQ we can recommend.  It is very good.  We rank this one up there with the ones we visited in KC. Here is a picture of the 4 of us in front of BB's.

Comments:

Smokestack:
Almost as good the second time around.  Those beans are hard to beat…especially if you can find them for $1 in a grocery store.  “Waitress, check please”.  Gotta love that sauce.  Good beans.  Our waitress got confused easily. Nice atmosphere, the waitress was a little spacey but not too bad.  The sauce and beans are great.  Went to a local store and bought beans to take home.

Oklahoma Joe’s:
I want to go back when I’m actually hungry…but it was even tasty on a full stomach.  Their side order of fries puts McDonald’s “super size” to shame.
Great ribs, fast service, great sauce, beans were differently spiced, but good.  Plus red cream soda on tap!!  A different location and type of BBQ place.  Convenience store and liquor store on each side and an order line.   The service was fast, I ordered my meal and was still getting my red cream soda when they called my number.  The food was really good and portions were more than adequate.

K&M:
The best ham I’ve ever tasted.  I should see if they’d ship 10lbs to Minnesota.  The ice cream place next door was cleverly located…too bad I was too stuffed to have any. Quite a drive from downtown.  Very good smokey meat.  Excellent sauce and beans.  Generous portions and an ice cream store conveniently located next door.  Some lady nearly got whiplash doing a double take at their huge sandwiches. My god the portions were huge.  I had the ham and it was the best smoked flavor I have ever had, great meat.  Service was good.  Wanted to take home some of their sauce but they didn’t have any bottles available.  They put some sauce in a styrofoam cup and said they had 5 cases the day before…they sold 5 CASES, must be good sauce.

Earl Quicks:
Didn’t impress me.  Pretty bland…although I just had a sandwich and fries. Kinda disappointing compared to the others. Kind of bland on the smoked flavor.  The sauce was average and the portions kind of small.  We only had their sandwiches but they seemed small.  Service was so so

Winslow’s:
An all around good meal.  The “original” sauce wasn’t anything special, but I like the other sauce.  It was fun watching people run around in the wind and rain…and watching people try to hold down their displays in the market. Fun location in the city market.  Good grilled flavor to the meat.  delicious beans.  Sauce was bland. Great location, able to sit outside and watch the people moving around the market. service was good, the burnt ends were really burnt but had a good Smokey flavor.

Overall:
I may have navigated us through all of the worst parts of town, but at least we knew where we were on the map!  I didn’t try killing us by almost rear ending another vehicle.

I thought Oklahoma Joes and K&M were a pretty close match.  Joes sauce was thicker and the ribs a  tad better, but K&Ms other meats and sauce made up the difference.  K&Ms restaurant was nice and neat but lacked character, while Joes had character. Dairy Queen in Story City on way home: they treated me right....mmm hot fudge caramel mudslide......Other notes:  I spilled on my pants every day.  Tom burned his tongue on an egg McMuffin on Friday so don't trust his ratings.  Johnny navigated us through every single bad neighborhood in KC.  When Brent tells you to stop, you'd better hit the breaks. The next trip we need to find a hotel that doesn’t have electrical problems.

We had a hotel room the first night that kept throwing the circuit breaker.  I have come to the conclusion that red cream soda is a very important ingredient with a good BBQ meal.  Another successful trip to KC.  An enjoyable time overall and man what good food.  Looking forward to our next trip to KC…can hardly wait!