Top US cities for BBQ?

[Clark]

I think I'll drive up to #2 Wichita tomorrow to treat my wife to a famous BBQ sandwich at a 7-11. It probably would taste like #2.

[MarkN]

Kind of a silly way to rank cities for BBQ. It only makes sense if you plan to go out to eat and decide to blindly and randomly pick a BBQ joint, your odds of picking a good one depend on them having only a few good places rather than a lot of places from good to bad.

I wonder how many of those ratings are based upon thinking a wienie on a stick is BBQ.

[jfmorris]

The other issue is that it is TripAdvisor ratings rickgregory - who is making the ratings? A bunch of 20-somethings most likely, many of which don't know BBQ.

[rickgregory]

Panhead John - it's not their rankings. It's just TripAdvisor ratings. And if you notice, the 7 highest ranked were about 4.3 or so... and the worse above are 3.9. So a) the variance isn't high, b) most people rate far too high. Anyway, "best" and "worst" aren't the correct terms, it's really "highest rated" and "lowest rated"

[Panhead John]

There are so many great BBQ joints in Houston, no matter what those clowns took into consideration for their rankings, it’s absurd. Another thing about BBQ here, if that’s all you serve, if it’s not at least pretty darn good, you probably won’t be around long.

[USMCCrashCrew89]

Panhead John of course! A gentleman and scholar, such as yourself, would never be caught in such a BBQ slingin fight such as this!

[pkadare]

Also I assume that in traditional BBQ states, where the inhabitants actually know something about BBQ, they are a lot tougher in their reviews than are those in states that aren't traditionally known as BBQ states.

[pkadare]

KC is 39th and Memphis is 47th (out of 62) and apparently Anchorage has been moved to Arizona.

[pkadare]

The full article is a pretty good read. For instance Houston and San Antonio are one the list for the worst places for BBQ in the US. There's a valid statistical reason for this seemingly bizarre ranking and that is that Houston is #1 and San Antonio is #3 in the nation for the sheer number of BBQ places. Quantity doesn't equal quality. I personally know that those 2 cities host some of the best BBQ joints in the world, however, given the ranking methodology, the relatively large number of poorly rated BBQ spots in those cities pulls the rankings down for both cities. IMO a fairer way to rank them would have to say restrict the list of cities to only those which have at least 5 BBQ joints, then rank based on the ratings of the top 5 joints in each city.

https://www.chefspencil.com/americas-best-cities-for-bbq

[bbqLuv]

Texas is a large state and the explains why you gave VA Beaches one smiley face and Texas gets eight.

[Panhead John]

If that article wasn’t bad enough, look what just aired on the morning news today.

[au4stree]

This is a good opportunity for the moderators and/or site designers to include a "dislike" button. The list is garbage.

[Panhead John]

Being somewhat of an introvert myself, I rarely engage in those types of conversations.

[USMCCrashCrew89]

You know as much as I love Texas BBQ, it is fun to get y’all riled up. In the service we made somewhat of a sport of getting the Texans frothing at the mouth. This fella just won the grand championship!

[bbqLuv]

I keep suggesting to the wife a road trip through the south, you know a BBQ run.
Life keeps getting in the way.