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AUSTIN, Texas — From beaches to grilling burgers, summer brings plenty of fun outdoor memories to mind. However, there's one thing that's guaranteed to get all the carnivores salivating — barbecue! So, if you're traveling around the United States this summer, you might want to take notes because a new survey is ranking where you'll find the best BBQ from coast to coast.
Conducted by LawnStarter, researchers looked at the meaty situation in the 500 largest cities across the U.S. in order to find America's BBQ capital. Researchers cooked up a grading system based on each city's access to local barbecue restaurants or smokehouses, the customer ratings from those locations, the BBQ competitions won by residents from those cities, and even the number of BBQ festivals each city holds annually.
Based on those rankings and nearly two dozen other factors, the new survey awarded their blue ribbon to Kansas City, Missouri! This year's winner and the self-proclaimed “BBQ Capital of the World” backed up their bragging thanks to having the most award-winning cooking teams over the past five years (11), the most BBQ festivals each year (8), and finishing in the top 20 for top-rated barbecue vendors citywide (9).
“Once the hottest name in the BBQ scene, legendary Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque finds plenty of competition in newer establishments like Chef J BBQ and Q39. This meat-loving city even has options for both vegans and carnivores at Char Bar,” researchers write in a statement.
Also making the podium in 2024 is Memphis, Tennessee, taking second place, and Houston, Texas, which stands in third. In fourth place was Kansas City — no, not that Kansas City — Kansas City, Kansas also knows how to cook some top-quality barbecue.
In what many people might find surprising, the poll ranked Los Angeles, California as the fifth-best city to get some BBQ. In fact, L.A. ranked first overall in terms of customer satisfaction and was second only to San Antonio, Texas for access to tasty BBQ joints.
Check out the entire list here:
Researchers note that 21 cities tied for last place on this year's list. Yonkers, New York, Rio Rancho, New Mexico, and South Fulton, Georgia were among the notable communities that either have few or no BBQ establishments or smokehouses, no barbecue festivals, and no prize-winning cooking teams in town.
The LawnStarter team also found that 80% of U.S. homeowners own a grill or smoker. In fact, Americans spent over $6 billion on grills and grilling accessories in 2021 alone. So, no matter where you go this summer, the odds are you'll run into someone grilling up something tasty.
Methodology
First, LawnStarter determined the factors (metrics) that are most relevant to ranking the Best BBQ Cities in America. Researchers then assigned a weight to each factor based on its importance and grouped those factors into 5 categories: Access, Consumer Satisfaction, Competition Awards, Elite BBQ Memberships, and Hosting. The categories, factors, and their weights are listed in the table below.
For each of the 500 biggest U.S. cities, LawnStarter then gathered data on each factor from the sources listed below the table.
Finally, researchers calculated scores (out of 100 points) for each city to determine its rank in each factor, each category, and overall. A city’s Overall Score is the average of its scores across all factors and categories. The highest Overall Score ranked “Best” (No. 1) and the lowest “Worst” (No. 500).
Note: The “Worst” among individual factors may not be No. 500 due to ties.
