Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Best BBQ in a while

When I first learned that I was going to go to a BBQ place in Kansas City, MO, I thought that I was a traitor.  Everyone knows that St. Louis has great BBQ and I thought of myself as a Benedict Arnold, patronizing a BBQ establishment in another BBQ city.  But, this was really good BBQ.

Gates BBQ started as just a family making their own BBQ sauce and used their sauce on various meats.  This started in 1946 and  demand for their sauce grew.  Like other stories, they became successful and started to open one restaurant after another.  There is definitively something different and tasty about their sauce involving one spice that may or may not be the secret ingredient: pepper.







Here is the counter.  It is set up where you stand in line, order your meats, order and pick up your drinks and then sit down at your table.












The restaurant is old fashioned looking inside.  Nice booths, mirrors on the wall, nice sturdy tables and fans, attached by a single chord, where one spins the next and spins the next and is all spun by a single motor.









The fan is spinning and you can see two chords on the upper left and two on the right which turn the fans.













Doesn't this look delicious?  This was called the President's tray.  It was all of this meat: pork, turkey, chicken and beef, along with sausage.  This was $74 and was more food than 6 adults and two kids could eat.


As I mentioned, the secret ingredient could be pepper, because on every table there was the absence of a pepper shaker.  The sauce was peppery and truly lip-smacking good.  It was just enough spicy, from the pepper that it just made the meat that much more addictive. My final conclusion: if you are driving near KC and you see a Gates restaurant, stop in.

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