On a warm summer evening in Kansas City, you can develop an appetite just driving down the street. That's because this unofficial "Home of Barbecue" boasts more than 90 barbecue-devoted restaurants, as well as numerous BBQ cookoffs, and a whole contingent of BBQ aficionados who work their magic out of converted oil drums and charcoal kettles (serious barbecuers never, ever use gas grills) on neighborhood sidewalks and in their own backyards.
The city owes its barbecue addiction and its "Home of BBQ" nickname to the African-Americans who rode the rails from the South at the turn of the 20th century. At the time, packinghouse jobs were most prevalent, and, at day's end, the cheapest cuts of meat went home with the workers. They discovered that Kansas City's native hickory trees made excellent smoking chips, and our bumper crop of tomatoes made the ideal base for a good sauce.
Smokers sprang up in backyards all over town, and in 1916, Henry Perry, known as the "father of barbecue," opened the first barbecued meat store on 19th Street. Slabs of ribs were grilled in pits and sold for 25 cents each, and the locals said Perry's sauce was so hot, it was said to have made first-time customers gasp.
Today, Perry would be facing plenty of competition around town, each one with its own style of sauce. Which is best? Let your taste buds decide for themselves. The treat is definitely in the exploration.
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