The Kansas City Bar-B-Q History

 

Kansas City is the home of the first barbecue restaurant in the United States.  Henry Perry opened the city’s first barbecue restaurant in an old trolley barn.  Along with Henry Perry, the bloodline for Kansas City Bar-B-Q includes names like Authur Bryant, The Gates family and Otis Boyd. Of the original greats named above, Otis Boyd was the only one to obtain formal culinary training.  Otis Boyd attended Culinary school, in Chicago, and then moved to Kansas City in the 1940s where he founded Boyd’s Bar-B-Q.

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According to the Kansas City Business Journal, Henry Perry was known as the “father of Kansas City barbecue” and dubbed the “Barbecue King.” Perry sold slow-smoked meats wrapped in newspaper for 25 cents in the Garment District in the early 1900s.  According to the Barbecue Hall of Fame, line 1 of  Perry’s death certificate, records his occupation as the “Barbecue Man.”

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