Opening a bar in Prohibition America sounds like financial suicide, doesn’t it? But for the Peanut on Kansas City’s Main Street, it’s proven to be a masterstroke.

Almost 90 years later, this local institution is still serving sippers and soaks the liquor and wine that would once have been tucked away behind its broad darkwood bar.

Windows, once painted to protect its patrons from police, now look out from a single-room bar packed with Americana gathered probably since the Peanut first opened in 1933.

Amongst the beer posters, KC plates and odes to the Royals is an excerpt from a magazine review.

“At the Peanut, you will feel like a stranger for about, oh, 10 seconds,” its sub reads.

They got that right.

The Peanut on Main – KCMO’s oldest bar and the best wings in town

And perhaps it’s Kansas City’s Midwestern friendliness and hospitality that’s at play, but it’s evident that KCMO has comfort food down to a fine art.

If there’s any doubt of that, you need to check out our tour of Kansas City’s incredible barbecue scene.

At the Peanut, you will feel like a stranger for about, oh, 10 seconds.

But my first steps through the doors of the Peanut are one of those magical travel moments that I’ll always remember. And like many vivid memories, this one’s all about smell… more specifically the smell of food!

That iconic aroma – rich, tangy, spicy and savoury – fill the air already thick with laughter, music and friendly chatter.

Eyes wide, I turn to Christina: “wow! Can you smell buffalo wings?”

Sure enough, within minutes of finding a table, our friends conjure a huge bowl of chicken; orange, sticky and unctuous – as the menu declares – ‘best wings in KC!’

You buy them by the dozen here at the Peanut, but when the bar’s chef, John Navarre, comes out to chat, it’s the BLTs he’s most pleased with.

We dodge into the tiny kitchen at the back of the bar to see how John does it.

“Sure, the wings are good,” he shrugs. “You know what the secret sauce is?”

Grinning, he holds up two things next to the polished steal prep counter: a bottle of Frank’s Red Hot and butter.

“Equal parts, simple as that.”

Equal parts butter and an off-the-shelf sauce you can even buy in Australia. Brilliant. How audacious. But it works.

You also marinade the wings in plenty of black pepper overnight and fry them super-hot, so maybe not that simple.

BLT at The Peanut – bacon, lettuce and tomato never tasted so good

As for the Peanut’s BLTs, they come from a recipe handed down through three generations.

I’m not sure if John Navarre was supposed to give it up, but here it is:

– Toast one side of the bread on the hotplate, then add mayonnaise and pepper.
– Then press lettuce over on itself and top with more mayo.
– Cut thick slices of tomato and then fry at least four long streaky bacon rashers until they’re very crispy, adding them in that order.
– Finally top with crated cheddar and topped with the other slice of bread, then turn the whole thing on the hotplate to toast the bread and melt the cheese.

The result is superlative.

What else is up at the Peanut?

Apart from its impressive menu (the Nachos Supreme – a mountain of chips, queso, chilli, tomatoes, onions, black olives, cheese and of course sour cream – is the ultimate crowd-pleaser), the Peanut is a fascinating melting pot.

John Navarre tells us a bit more about the bar’s history. It got its name not from the most likely place of a classic bar snack, but from architecture.

Walnut Tower, built on Walnut Street way downtown was the country’s first condo. Then came the Peanut Tower… followed by its eponymous blind tiger.

John tells us the Peanut’s a special place – it brings in locals from every walk of life. There’s something about this prohibition speakeasy and its careful blend of zane, history, sports and friendliness that brings folk in.

I think that review got it wrong though: it took us way less than 10 seconds to feel at home here.

We sit back down at our table, leaving John to his covers – he’s the only one in the kitchen and has been for over three years now. The energy in the bar picks up – as does the noise.

The Chiefs are on the TV – and they’re winning.

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To say we were excited about being in Kansas City is an understatement. We’d been talking with our awesome friends Melissa and Peter for ages about coming here.

Melissa – a KCMO local – now lives with Peter in San Francisco and we’ve often visited them there, exploring the many bars and cool spots of SF.

But we were thrilled at being able to see where Melissa grew up, meet her friends and fam, and see the sights the City of Fountains.

Why ‘City of Fountains’? Kansas City is home to 200 of them.

And that’s not the city’s only nickname. It’s also known as Paris of the Plains, Cowtown and of course KCMO, which makes the important distinction between Kansas City, KA and Kansas City, Missouri by the way.

But the nickname we’re most interested in is this one:

Kansas City – BBQ Capital of the World

Many cities in the States claim they’re the barbecue capital – Kansas City’s eastern Missouri neighbour St Louis for one. So what makes KCMO different to the rest?

In a word: sauce.

Kansas does what you might call a wet barbecue. The meat is important of course, but it plays second sax to the sauce. And each barbecue house has its own proprietary blend.

In St Louis by the way, they have a drier style, focusing on the rub and smoke on the meat.

Whatever.

Our hearts are with Kansas barbecue and we’re all about the sauce now. Here’s our pick of five places not to miss.

By the way, if you don’t know what ‘burnt ends’ are, read this first or everything you’re about to read will sound weird.

Q39

The newest of the barbecue places in the city, Q39 has shot to notoriety thanks to its beautifully worked branding and fame in national pit smoker and barbecue competitions. You can check out their array of trophies and awards on display.

Inside, Q39 its barn-like open space is run more like a modern restaurant than the cafeteria style of most traditional BBQ spots in KC. Rather than ordering and collecting your food at the counter, you’re seated with menus and servers come to you with table service.

However, there are nods to the old school with an open kitchen, lots of pictures on the walls and a caddy of sauces on every table.

The food at Q39 is excellent and comes more elegantly presented than other places. The brisket, which is served sliced into long thick strips is tender and the burnt ends are delicious. As for the ribs, they’re juicy but not fall-off-the-bone tender as promised.

This is all moot though as the sauces they make here are excellent. Spicy, herbaceous and a good hit of vinegar.

Good for newbies or where you could take your date for a BBQ.

Jack Stack Barbecue

A real institution in Kansas City and a successful chain in the city too, Jack Stack has all the feels of an old-school American steak restaurant.

There’s even a bronzed cow statue outside.

Inside, booths are the call of the day and cheery servers come to take your order at your table. This was our first experience of KCMOBBQ and what a great way to get things started. Soon enough, we’d filled our table with delicious food and tucked in merrily.

Christina went in straight for the burnt ends, which were excellent, and my baby back ribs went down a treat. My spare ribs were a bit chewy though. The sauces here are excellent, though I found it hard to pick the really spicy one out of the selection.

The real take-home from Jack Stack though was more what came with the meat. This place does the best sides in the state for sure. The beans are sweet and are mixed with the sauce, the mac n cheese is great but the cheesy corn is mind-blowing.

Jack Stack used to have the recipe for its cheesy corn on its website for a while, but not anymore. Probably just as well for my heart’s sake!

Most unexpected was the dessert. Although we were stuffed to gills, our server managed to convince us to try the carrot cake. Christina, who isn’t a fan of cake anyway, was sceptical, but when it came, it took all four of us by surprise.

A solid option for a fancy dinner with family and good friends.

Gates Bar-B-Q

Visiting Gates Bar-B-Q is like stepping back in time – in a good way! Filled with memorabilia from the cast iron hobby horse you can ride for a quarter to the old Gates signs from when its founder George Gates opened Gates Ol’ Kentucky in 1946.

Ordering at the counter from the aggressively friendly kitchen – they shout ‘Hi, may I help you?’ in a very forceful manner – you get to choose from a range of options that are bewildering to the first-timer.

As first-timers, we turned to the guy fidgeting to get his order behind us and asked him. Straight away, he told us he was getting a whole rack “because they’re the best” he explained. They’re also good value at $25 a piece. And you get to choose your rack too. If you’re brave and hungry enough.

We were neither and went for burnt ends and sides of beans and pickles. I think we chose very wisely.

Served in a ‘hoggie’ – a pillowy soft giant hotdog bun – the generous portion of burnt ends were tender and fragmented, and smothered in the best sauce we’d tasted. This was serious.

As for the beans, they were sweet but not too much, and the pickles were thick-sliced and delicious. But the sauce… I fell in love with the extra hot sauce and bought a bottle to take home.

At the door, we discovered a complete lack of wifi to order an Uber home and ended up waiting for ages for a taxi to come.

In the meantime, the guy on the door, who had been working here for decades, told us the owner and George’s son Ollie Gates was somewhere in the warren of rooms. He was having dinner with his daughter and watching the game.

He kindly took us to meet this venerable gentleman, who left his meal, his daughter and the game to have a photo and a quick chat with us. We were very impressed.

My favourite place in Kansas for BBQ – sorry Bar-B-Q. The best sauce we had and best burnt ends too. Choose your Gates Bar-B-Q location carefully. Each one has a different vibe. We went to the Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard venue.

Jones Sisters’ Bar-B-Q

A way out of town and on the Kansas State side of the city, Jones Bar-B-Q has seen a lot of changes happen recently. The focal point of the TV show Queer Eye, which is based in KCMO, the two sisters who run the joint have turned this place around.

Deborah ‘Shorty’ and Mary ‘Little’ Jones took the pit over from their father and still mix their sauces and barbecue their meat every day.

But the little shed they cook from just off the highway now has a garden with seating, they have proper signage and their sauce, which you can buy (we did!) comes in a fancy glass bottle.

As for the food, the meat is well-smoked and tender. Our burnt ends and beef slice came with two sides. The beans here are excellent and come full of chopped burnt ends too. The slaw is also worth ordering.

Jones Bar-B-Q has a lovely local feel to it. One of the sisters, Shorty, was in the kitchen when we were there and enjoyed Christina’s Aussie accent. In the garden, one of their friends was busy selling her homemade 7-Up pound cake and bantering with customers. It was a lot of fun.

A great experience with the bonus of delicious food. Come here early though as they often sell out of meat. Remember to grab a $1 beer with lunch too!

Arthur Bryant’s Barbecue

A place with real history, Arthur Bryant’s is considered by many to be the most famous barbecue diner in the whole country.

It’s been here for ages and you wonder as you walk in how much things have changed. Our guess is: not much.

Old pictures virtually cover every wall of how things used to be, though the photo of Woodrow Bacon, who’s been working here for over 60 years reinforces how little Bryant’s has changed.

It’s got such a local vibe, its edges have a bit of roughness to them, but the food speaks for itself. That and seeing a cop park up and stride in. The floor’s a little slippery from grease, there’s a funky smell about the place and the metal banister at the counter is a bit wobbly.

But the barbecue here is amazing.

You order from the purposefully surly kitchen – and don’t hang around they’re in a hurry – then collect your pickle options from the stand.

Once laden with your meat, you find a table and feast on huge chunks of superb burnt ends, sandwiches packed with tender sliced brisket and baby back ribs to die for.

The three sauce options are fun to try, though the original is the best. As for sides, the beans are dark and brooding though sweet and rich, and the potato casserole is truly excellent – like a mushed up cheesy potato bake.

Such an institution, Arthur Bryant’s is a must-visit in Kansas City. It’s down the road from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, which is also a priority for visitors. You’re also near the Boulevard Brewery that’s really worth a visit too.

Make sure you know what you’re doing before you come here. It’s good, but can be a bit confronting for a bar-b-q newbie.

A note on Joe’s Bar-B-Que

We heard again and again that going to Joe’s – formerly Oklahoma Joe’s – is a must, but we also heard that a 45-minute queue for food was normal. I love my barbecue as much as I love a local recommendation, but I hate queuing more. Sorry Joe. Maybe next time.

By the way, there are a few Joe’s Barbecue places in KC – the original venue that’s part of the gas station is apparently the best.

Mr Ollie Gates and us inside Gates Bar-B-Q, Kansas City

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As we watch LA disappear into the distance from our plane windows, the thrill of visiting a new US city makes us a little less sad to be leaving. 

We’re heading for the very heart of the country – the bullseye of America: Kansas City, Missouri.

Perhaps it’s the fascination of seeing the true Midwest of the States. Perhaps it’s the lure of what people tell us is the best low-and-slow barbecue in the world.

But we’re feeling an extra pull to this beautiful city: our remarkable friends Melissa and Peter are there waiting for us. We haven’t seen these guys in ages and they’ve been promising to show us KCMO forever.

They’ve sold us on tales of mouthwatering barbecues, amazing bars, beautiful architecture and even more food stories that we could hardly believe were true.

Finally all four of us have managed to co-ordinate to be here at the same time.

And this is what happens:

Our first stop – almost before we drop our luggage off at Melissa and Peter’s apartment – is here: Jack Stack Barbecue – the first of our barbecue marathon.

We can’t tell you how good it is to be in the company of these wonderful people once again. Even more so now that we’re finally here in Kansas City.

Jack Stack is a great place to begin our tour of KC’s meaty marvels, so here’s to all the burnt ends, ribs, baby backs and brisket. More importantly, here’s to the sauce!

Jack Stack has really delivered on our expectations. We devour our dinners like we’ve never eaten before, but not so quickly that we don’t notice the three different types of barbecue sauce they serve here. The original, the spicy and the hot.

General consensus is that the hot sauce is the best, but somewhat overshadowed by the cheesy corn bake just right of centre here. It’s like the cheesiest sauce and the sweetest corn got together and started a mutant school like in X Men. It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before.

We’ve arrived in KC just in time to get to see the city’s football team – the Chiefs – play rival side Denver Broncos. Sadly it’s in Denver, but that doesn’t stop the Chiefs.

We hit a couple of bars, pick up with Melissa’s excellent brother Marshal and move briskly on to a town favourite for celebratory drinks. This, ladies and gents, is The Peanut.

Billed as a dive bar, I think of it more as the best youth centre for grown ups you’ll ever find. It’s been here for over 75 years – before Prohibition! – and no matter what people do for a living, they’re welcome here.

In fact, there’s a saying here that when you walk in to the Peanut you’ll feel like a stranger for about 10 seconds. They’re not wrong.

We’ll have a lot more to say about the Peanut but I’ll tell you this: their chicken wings and their BLT sandwiches are insane. I’ve seen how they make both and they’re simply works of art.

It turns out we’ll be back here almost every night of our stay. Pretty happy with that.

We wake up pretty slowly this morning. Thankfully, there’s excellent coffee nearby – something neither Christina nor I were expecting to find on this trip.

Kaldi’s Coffee turns out a great cappuccino – even with a bit of coffee art too. It comes with a glass of fizzy water and some chocolate-covered coffee beans, which is a lovely touch. There are a few other things on the menu we’re keen to try other than the cap.

The Gibraltar and the Sidecar both interest us very much. More about that later.

We continue our barbecue rampage of Kansas City with a surprisingly long drive out to Jones Bar-B-Q way down on Kaw Drive – a road that Peter very much enjoys saying. Good for him!

Jones BBQ caught Christina’s attention a while back when it was featured on Queer Eye. She fell in love with the two sisters who own the shop – and their barbecue looked really good too.

Sure enough, this little shack in the middle of nowhere turns out truly delicious food. The brisket – thinly sliced and drizzled with their signature sauce – is tender and well smoked.

The burnt ends, which is basically chunks of brisket from the end of the cut, is delicious. It’s chopped into the sauce they use, so you get even more flavour per mouthful.

We’re pleased we made the journey out here to the Jones Bar-B-Q, and it’s even better to see the place doing so well.

It’s not the most well-known place in KC – in fact most locals in the city will take a minute to work out where you mean. Even with Peter reminding everyone it’s way down on Kaw, folk had to think.

Next stop, we go to visit more of Melissa’s family. It’s lovely to be able to put faces to so many names we’ve heard about, but we’re also really enjoying how American the neighbourhoods around KC are. It’s like something straight from the movies.

Lawns filled with trees just about to take on full Fall colours, squirrels everywhere and truly huge houses with swings out front and tree houses out back… it’s amazing.

It’s also close to Halloween, which means all the streets are full of pumpkins, skeletons, funny tomb stones and fake cobwebs. Everything you think is in the movies just for show is actually real life here.

Last night feels a little blurry this morning! From visiting Melissa’s brothers’ houses, we went on to dinner at Grand Street with Marshal and his friend Greg, who owns this and quite a few other restaurants in town.

After a delicious dinner, we went – guess where – the Peanut and then a big crowd of us including Melissa’s other brother Micky and his wife Muff moved en mass to the Piano Room. After that, I believe we made our Uber driver go into a drive-thru for a late-night snack!

So, this morning, it’s a much-needed Sidecar at Kaldi’s. A Sidecar, it turns out, is a cappuccino with an extra shot of espresso on the side. Better than a simple double-shot cap because you get to taste the coffee with and without milk.

As for a Gibraltar, I think it’s a drip-filter Americano coffee with an extra shot… or maybe a double-shot macchiato, but as I said. Blurry today.

Blurry or not, we’ve made it to yet another stalwart icon in KC’s barbecue royalty.

Arthur Bryant’s has been here since barbecue began. Its floors are slippery, its walls covered in fascinating photos from the past. As for its food, well…

Ordering here is a little confronting at first. The menu’s huge and the staff are purposefully surly. Cuts come fast and you need to know what you want as you come to the counter.

We come away unscathed and loaded down with food. Melissa and Peter are already drowning in sauce, but they’re soldiering on, bless ’em.

Burnt ends here are big chunky buggers, the brisket comes as a thick-filled sandwich and the ribs are truly tasty. We’re impressed with the sauces here, and the beans are really something.

The other side you can see is their version of potato ‘mash’ I think. But it comes out more like the best bits of a cheesy potato bake. It’s amazing.

You also get to help yourself to pickles. Our advice, always take more than you think you’ll need. They’re excellent.

It’s not far from Arthur Bryant’s to our next stop: the Boulevard Brewery. This local beer maker has grown enormously in recent years to the point where they had to expand into another building.

It’s cool to be able to see the old one from the balcony of the new and as the sun goes down, the original sign sets a perfect silhouette to go with our beers.

It’s surprisingly busy here this afternoon at Boulevard. In fact, two wedding parties come through at one point. We manage to find a seat though with Melissa’s friends Kelley, Scott and Amy.

The views from up here on the second floor of Boulevard are great, but they’re overshadowed by the beer. They have an IPA called The Calling, which is great but the Tank 7 Saisson Boulevard make is out of this world. Dangerously drinkable.

After the brewery it’s absolutely dinner time (how are we hungry again?) so Melissa, Peter, Amy and the two of us head to Tannin Wine Bar to meet up with Amy (a different one!), Tatia and Beth. Dinner is so much fun and the food’s excellent too, however, one of the waitstaff here reminds us all of David Spade from the popular comedy Just Shoot Me.

We finish off with a drink at the Crossroads Hotel lobby bar… or maybe the drink finishes us off. Time for bed.

News team – assemble!

Today, we’ve collected at The Well Bar and Grill in preparation for mobile mayhem. We’re riding the Pedal Hopper! But more about that in a minute.

First we eat. Christina orders the chop salad because she’s not too hungry… turns out a Midwest salad is what you ask for when you’ve spent the last two months on the lemonade diet. It’s massive.

I’m not that hungry either, but luckily, I’m a massive pig. This reuben sandwich disappears with scary ease.

Peter orders the loaded house-made tater tots, which are just as formidable. Each one is the size of a golf ball and is filled with cheese and all kinds of other stuff. It almost breaks the poor fella.

The good news is his team – the 49ers – wins the game we’ve come here to watch.

Now to business and the real reason we’re at the Well. We’ve climbed aboard the Pedal Hopper, a rolling bar which we’re expected to pedal across town like a peloton pub.

There will be water stops along the way – bars where we’ll refuel our inebriations and dampen our inhibitions.

Thankfully, we have a ‘pilot’ – Brett – who steers this mighty craft down busy roads while we pedal like idiots. He also has control over a little electric motor, that whirs into action when we hit any kind of hill.

Look at it – an elegant ship of orange lacquered beauty.

Me and m’man Oldham. This guy keeps us motivated with spin-class-esque prompts and reasons why CBD is the way to go.

I think I’m looking happy because we’re almost at the last stop!

What an incredible group of people. I’m not surprised Melissa talks about her mates so much. They’re wonderful.

Thank you Melissa, Muff, Oldham, Molly, Peter, Amy, Tatia, Cap, Amy and Beth. you’ve made us feel so welcome and we feel proud to know we also now have a group of amazing friends in KCMO.

At least we hope so.

It’s our last night in Kansas City, so mid-party Christina and I try to sneak off for one last barbecue fix. Our hope is to leave, eat and return without anyone noticing…

We’ve heard so much about Q39 BBQ we couldn’t leave without trying it. And we just can’t drag poor Melissa and Peter to another one. They’re smoked out.

When we get here, we understand what the fuss is about. It’s a modern table-service restaurant with an old-school barbecue theme. And the food is amazing.

The brisket comes out in thick, tender slices, the ribs are slow cooked enough to almost fall off the bone and burnt ends are up to scratch. Sauce-wise, Q39 is on the right track too though a little vinegary maybe.

We’re really happy we’ve made it here and our plan to get back to the party is looking good.

But this is where our plan goes sideways. We try for a second venue. Gates Bar-B-Q is perhaps the best-known and most loved of the Kansas City restaurants.

We’re pretty excited to be here – as you can see! The question is, will we get back to the party in time… and will we simply explode with all this food?

We understand now why Gates is so well-known. This is the burnt ends – served in a squishy hotdog bun, which soaks up the best sauce we’ve had.

The meat is perfectly cooked, the pickles are amazing, the beans are so sweet and full of meat bits, and the whole pickled jalapeño peppers give a lovely kick.

The sauce (we’ve bought a bottle) is surprisingly vinegary, but spicy too. It reminds me a little of an old-school vindaloo in the UK.

Even better than everything else, we get to meet Mr Ollie Gates himself! He’s having dinner with his daughter at the back of the restaurant and watching the game.

Steve, the guy running the door and who’s worked with Mr Gates for years, politely asks if it’s ok for us to have a photo with this local legend. What a nice man.

Unfortunately, it turns out there’s no wifi anywhere near here and we’re stranded waiting for a local taxi, who shows up an hour or so later.

We head to the pre-arranged rendez vous of the Peanut, but everyone’s gone. We missed the party.

We hope our new friends don’t hold it against us that we didn’t get to say goodbye. It’s never a fun process anyway, but that’s no excuse.

The only way we can make up for it is with the full knowledge that we’ll be back. Kansas City, you have our hearts. In the meantime, here’s what we’ve got on the best barbecue in the best barbecue town in America!

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