Kansas Is Home To The World's Most Mouth-Watering BBQ Restaurant, Per Anthony Bourdain

Chef and television personality Anthony Bourdain sampled dishes at some of the world's most upscale restaurants for his travel shows "A Cook's Tour," "No Reservations," and "Parts Unknown." But when it came time to write his definitive list of places everyone must eat before they die, Bourdain included a more modest destination: a Kansas barbecue restaurant operated out of a small gas station.

Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que, formerly named Oklahoma Joe's, opened at the corner of 47th Avenue and Mission Road in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1996. In the 28 years since, its owners have opened two other Kansas locations, won dozens of awards for their smoked meats, and earned top rankings on several "best barbecue" lists. Before he died in 2018, Bourdain helped cement the restaurant's status as one of the best barbecue spots around Kansas City. In an article for Men's Health in 2011, Bourdain proclaimed Joe's as "the best BBQ in the world."

Bourdain, a documentarian who shared countless travel tips during his lifetime, visited Joe's Kansas City Barb-B-Que for an episode of "A Cook's Tour" that aired on Food Network in 2002. A decade later, he stopped by again while filming the Travel Channel's "No Reservations." In both episodes, Bourdain highlighted the variety that's unique to Kansas City barbecue. While other regions focus on particular meats, Kansas City does it all. "It's a microcosm of the barbecue world," he said about the city on A Cook's Tour.

The late chef declared on "No Reservations" that Joe's was his favorite restaurant for Kansas City barbecue. He reiterated that sentiment in his article for Men's Health, writing, "the brisket (particularly the burnt ends), pulled pork, and ribs are all of a quality that meet the high standards even of Kansas City natives." In the article, Joe's was one of 13 restaurants where Bourdain urged readers to eat before they die. The barbecue joint was listed alongside Michelin-starred restaurants in California, the United Kingdom, and Spain, as well as a famous New York City deli and a hot dog restaurant in Chicago.

Jeff and Joy Stehney, the owners of Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que, spent the early 1990s competing in barbecue contests as part of a team named the Slaughterhouse Five. After winning several of the competitions, the husband and wife partnered with their friend Joe Don Davidson to open their first restaurant: Oklahoma Joe's in Stillwater, Oklahoma. By 1997, the Stehneys had opened their new location at the Kansas City gas station, and Davidson moved from Oklahoma to Texas. With no one around to run the Oklahoma site, that restaurant closed, and the Stehneys bought Davidson's share of the Kansas City location. They renamed their company in 2014 to better reflect its geography. Today, the couple runs three locations in Kansas, including one in Olathe and another in Leawood. Customers still flock to the small gas station in Kansas City, where the line often trails out the door and wraps around the building. 

"One thing I've learned: Good barbecue is not always pretty ... welcome to Oklahoma Joe's," Bourdain said of the gas station location on "A Cook's Tour." "Gas station, liquor store, convenience store, some of the finest barbecue in this country." Multiple reviews on Tripadvisor and Yelp mention long lines at the Kansas City restaurant, but many of the reviewers claim the food was worth the wait. "This place has lines out the door for a reason," one reviewer wrote on Tripadvisor in 2017.