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Chicago BBQ may be better than Memphis BBQ, but neither is as good as Kansas City BBQ!

Wow, quite the statements you've made in this piece. LOL. I'm sure you'll get some dandy comments to it. Course being a follower of the Paupered Chefs and their Chicago location and various BBQ experiences, I'd be interested in hearing their opinion on this matter as well.

Would like to hear a review from someone less biased. Its impossible to not think what you grew up on is the best.

Dry rub is just weird. It's like dragging your barbecue through a litterbox. But I had several very good chopped pork sandwiches in Memphis. The thing is, it really IS a sandwich, I mean, the unit here is the sandwich, not the meat itself. You have to eat the meat, the cole slaw, and the sweetish bun together. That's different from other places like KC or Texas where it's about the meat, pure and simple.

Chicago... Memphis... neither matters to me. I live in central Texas. I need not cross state lines, or even county lines, for good BBQ. I feel sorry for you people who do. :-P

(Ok, I'll concede that Kansas City or Carolina style BBQ sauces pair better with pork. Texans are the experts when it comes to beef brisket.)

I guess you can tell I'm in the "wet BBQ" camp. To each his own, but I just wanted to make sure that west Texas BBQ beef brisket got some love. :-)

Chicago BBQ? As a Texan, I never thought I'd see those two words back to back!

Albert Einstein wouldn't exist without his father Hermann, but it's pretty apparent which of the two ended up displaying more brilliance.

There are several types of BBQ sauce. Most traditional BBQ sauces either use tomato sauce, mustard, or vinegar as a base, and they come a variety of thicknesses. Each state also specializes in certain types of meat.

Kansas City barbecue typically consists of brisket and burnt ends, pork, lamb, and beef ribs, steaks, chicken and turkey. Their barbecue sauces are tomato based, thick, sweet, spicy and sticky.

Meat used in South Carolina is consistent throughout the state, slow-cooked, hickory-smoked pulled pork. They are more mustard based, but feature some vinegar too. North Carolina also uses much pork but their barbecue sauce is usually vinegar based, thin and runny.

Memphis-style barbecue is known for wet ribs made with a mild, sweet BBQ sauce that's basted on the ribs before and after smoking; dry-rub crusted ribs, made with a spice rub that forms a crust on the surface, applied during or right after they've been cooked; and pulled pork.

East Texas barbecue is an extension of traditional southern barbecue, similar to that found in Tennessee and Arkansas. It is primarily pork-based, with cuts such as pork shoulder and pork ribs, indirectly slow smoked over primarily hickory wood. The sauce is tomato-based, sweet, and thick. It's most common in Houston and Dallas. West Texas features "Cowboy" barbecue, cooked over an open pit using direct heat from mesquite. The meat is primarily beef, shoulder clods and brisket being favorite cuts, mutton and goat.

Barbecue in St. Louis often uses pork and features a sauce that is typically tangier and thinner than its Kansas City cousin, with less vinegar taste. It somewhat resembles the Memphis style sauce.

While barbecue is typically associated with tough cuts of meat, barbecue ribs in Chicago BBQ tends to be from very good cuts of pork, perhaps because of the abundance of good meat and resulting higher expectations in this meat industry town. South- and West-side Chicago is noted for smoked ribs and Deep South style rib sauce.

Of course this is all American BBQ. Brasilians and people of other Latin heritage are disgusted at all the sweet sauces we mop on our BBQ. Look up Rodizio in google if you aren't familiar with it yet. There are many Churrascarias that come to your table every 5 minutes and serve up to 15 types of BBQ meat that Americans don't normally define as BBQ. But it's so good that it doesn't need sauce!

If it's on TV, it must be true. That being said, man can only eat at one place at a time. I'd rather have one perfect bbq joint, than mediocre ones.

All things considered, Memphis is still my favorite barbecue town, hands down. And, good sir, I do object to your calling it the land of Elvis. I eat only in the good graces of Stax Records.

As a Memphis native who has spent some time in Chicago recently, I both agree and vehemently disagree with the article. I still think there are some great barbecue places in Memphis that far outshine what I've had in Chi-town, but most people haven't heard of them or hadn't been. However, I do agree that the restaurants noted above (except for Central IMNSHO) are no longer representative of what Memphis 'cue was/is all about. See, a lot of the 'cue places in Memphis have become "industrialized" - that's our dirty little secret. I grew up about a block east of the original Corky's on Poplar Avenue - I still remember when it was converted from an arcade (and a 76 gas station before that) into Corky's. It was delicious and really was some of the best around. However, over time they have tweaked and adapted their original recipes to service the mass market - bottles, grocery stores, etc. The same thing has happened at all the other places - Rendevous, Commisary, Neely's, Interstate, etc. Once they start changing their recipes to be shelf stable and mass-produced and they start using their mass-produced product in the restaurants, they become just another place to eat.

Right now my two favorite places are Central (I like the Summer Ave location - much more room than the one on Central; they have the best brisket and their homemade bbq potato chips are great - especially freshly made) and Tom's on Getwell and Raines (bbq bologna is a must-try!).

Born and raised in KS on KC bbq.
Chi City 98-06 and still there every other month.
Married a Memphian and live there now.
I can't attest to the overall scene being better, but from a restaurant standpoint I would definitely put Smoque up against anyone (especially the tourist traps). Love the dad/son combo at Honey1: I'm glad to read they are still around. That plexiglass/aquarium smoker is the goods!

I love Chicago, and I think it doesn't get the credit it deserves. Even so, this is a bold claim and having 4-5 good/amazing BBQ restaurants does not establish it as a BBQ city. A good BBQ city has a culture where residents argue about the best cuts and the best sauce, residents drive a few hours for BBQ and even the vegans have BBQ-time-outs. (I'm biased - I'm from Austin. But I also think the other BBQ capitals have similar traits.)

If you're headed to Texas to try BBQ, I like http://fcg-bbq.blogspot.com/ and Texas Monthly's guide.

I had some excellent brisket at Sheffield's the other night. Still, I think Memphis > Chicago overall in the BBQ arena.

PEOPLE... ARE YOU NUTS?!? I am from Chicago, live in NY and have travelled to many BBQ cities. I'll say this...

I agree, and disagree, with many of you. First off, to make this short and sweet... NY BBQ KILLS Chicago BBQ. Kills. I'll take the bottom three of NY's top 10 and put them against Chicago's top 3.

Second, I respect what Smoque has done for the Chicago BBQ scence, but I'll keep this simple too... too much smoke and pepper. Please tell me if you taste anything else besides that, honestly.

Saying Chicago has better BBQ than NY is like saying that NY hot dogs are better than Chicago's... come one people, you know better!

In response to AV Club’s criticism of my BBQ piece:

http://www.avclub.com/chicago/articles/chicagos-bbq-is-worse-than-memphis-bbq,36152/

Marah,

I appreciate the criticism. I'll be the first person in the world to admit that I didn't eat at every spot in Memphis, which I admitted in the piece. However, I did make a good run at the places that make almost every critics top list from Memphis and outside Memphis. What stands as you point out, that there may be one better place I didn't get to, as of course we know critics miss stuff...I also made that point in my piece. My point here being, I understand the weaknesses in my argument and I disclosed them. Having someone else reiterate them as you do here is kind of feels like piling on the fat kid who already hates himself for being fat.

But, hey, that being said, the places I went to in Memphis were the analog of Hot Doug's, i.e. critical darlings purported to have the best bbq in Memphis. If I went to Hot Doug's, as I have, I would agree with those critics wholeheartedly that it represents most of what they say it does. (However, some would say they have the best fries in the world and I think you might find fRed Hot's and Fries frites are superior, and yet people don't wait hours in line for what may be some of the best fries in Chicagoland - some of the sausages are just as good if not better, as well.)

However, the case in Memphis is not the same. Those places lauded as their best, with the exception of Cozy Corner, were good at most. I honestly believe (this is an important distinction - because I think you may be arguing that I'm just a blogger blowhard trying to raise a fight for pageviews, which is not the case, especially since I don't get paid per pageview) they probably would not have beat Smoque, Uncle John's, Honey 1, and Honky Tonk in a blind taste test or ribs alone between people who pay attention to what they eat.

I believe with every fiber of my being that I would not travel to any of those places again for BBQ because of the quality I have right here in Chicago. That's might seem like a given, i.e. well because of all the inconvenience etc of course you wouldn't, however, I am a professional eater, so much so that it's also my passion and takes up most of my non-professional life too. I've driven, flown, boated, and waited in collective hundreds of hours of lines including 4 hours once to eat at Uglesich in New Orleans (and it was worth every minute).

I wait and I travel for good eats as a matter of life. And indeed I would travel in a minute to Memphis anytime for Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken, as would I fly to Louis Mueller's for brisket in Texas. I would not make any special arrangement however to go to any of those Memphis bbq spots again, maybe Cozy Corner. I would make such arrangements if someone made an argument for three or four BBQ places I should have checked out that I missed. I believe only one person did that and it's on my radar.

You say:

"Sure, we have great barbecue, but barbecue is inherently pretty great—it's meat so tender it practically melts in your mouth, sometimes with delicious sauce on it. Loving it is practically a given."

If you pay close attention to your food, this is the biggest lie ever told. People would say the same about burgers or ice cream, some going so far as to argue the Big Mac is the greatest thing ever. Pay attention to that piece of meat, isolate it from the sesame seed bun and then tell me what you really think. Likewise, most people who really love BBQ will tell you that meat that "melts" is the sign of bad BBQ. BBQ is actually much easier to mess up than you think, and the places that do so are legion, here in Chicago and elsewhere. I'm not taking in to account some inherent advantage of the form and mistaking that for greatness.

You also say:

“What makes Hot Doug’s famous, and what’s made Memphis and St. Louis and Texas and all the other barbecue cities famous, is that what they do, they do on a level above everyone else, and totally different from anyone else. Can Chicago say that yet?”

I believe that Smoque in general has the best sides I’ve had at any BBQ spot in the country. I believe the quality of their ribs and brisket and the quality of the sauces served on the side would also put them in a serious contention any given day of the week. I think if Robert at Honey 1 on his best days put his ribs out there in competition he’d have a shot at taking top prize as well. You could argue that they’re not distinctive enough or different from St Louis, as you do, but I’ve never had Smoque’s or Honey 1’s sauce or rub in St. Louis – it is its own thing. I think Mac Sevier’s hot links are distinctive and maybe the best link served at a BBQ joint in the country, certainly better than the garlicky European Czech sausages served in Texas. So, yeah to answer your question, I believe Chicago can say that. I also believe those pther cities are famous based on a legacy and some more than others are relying on their laurels. People wait in line for hours and believe Lou Mitchell’s is the best breakfast spot we have. It may have been great at some point, but now all most people get are stale Milk Duds and a medium to decent normal breakfast at best.

Also, though you don’t say it explicitly, there seems to be an argument – certainly from the commenters on Serious Eats, that the number of places or the density of BBQ competition matters. I agree, on number of spots, Chicago loses. However you only need one good place to matter. If Chris Bianco were the only pizzamaker in Phoenix, the city would still be one of the best spots on earth to get pizza.

Finally, and I applaud your courage for admitting that you haven’t eaten at a lot of the places in Chicago, but this is my biggest quibble about your argument and many others who’ve debated: that you dispute my conclusion so vehemently without having checked out at least all the places I did. Had you gone to some or all of the places in Memphis and Chicago I did and said, no, he’s wrong, I’d totally respect that, as Nick Kindelsperger of The Paupered Chef did, but instead, you’re acting like a Catholic Priest writing a sex advice column. That being said, certainly having only gone to the critical darlings in Memphis, I myself am operating like a man who’d only had a handful of lovers writing a sex advice column, but I’d rather have his advice over the lifetime celibate any day.

Best,

Mike