September 18, 2009 11:37 am

LC's Kansas City Barbeque: Real Tasty Road Food

As I understand it, there is some debate about Kansas City Barbeque. Specifically, the debate is about which joint is the best, and since I have only eaten at one Kansas City barbeque restaurant, I cannot in good conscious conclude that LC's is, as they say, better than all the rest. But it is damn good, and I am not just whistling Dixie here: I spent my spring break last year driving around the South, testing the various permutations of my preferred brand of barbeque, North Carolinian, against the best that Atlanta and Memphis could offer. Taken alongside my excursions to Austin and Chicago, I've had a fairly good survey of American BBQ. But, as someone raised on North Carolina pulled pork, my preference is for "dry" barbeque, or at most something with a thin, vinegar-based sauce. So I am not naturally inclined to like Kansas City's style of BBQ, with its emphasis on the sauce over the meat. But LC's, in my humble opinion, stands up to the best I've had.

For one thing—and, again, not to try and draw an uninformed comparison here—the physical presences of KC's standard-bearers seem, as one of my companions put it, a bit too clean. (If you're looking to have some serous barbeque, do you really want to eat at a place Steven Spielberg has eaten?). LC's is a small one-room building at a fork in the road, and doesn't seem to have a kitchen as such, just a counter and a hulking smoker that dominates the front of the room. You order one or more meats (from a selection of ribs, brisket, ham, turkey, sausage, and pork) and whatever sides you want, and it comes on a tray with red sauce slathered on and slices of white bread. (The sides are very good—thick fries and unctuous beans.) Before we get to the more important part, i.e. the meat, let's just talk about that sauce. Being familiar with commercial Kansas City-style sauces, you might expect something heavy in molasses, cloying and sticky and overwhelming. But LC's version of the classic red sauce was far subtler, with some sweetness but main overtones of paprika, garlic, cayenne and a few other more savory flavors. It actually enhanced, rather than smothered, the meat.

Which we should talk about. Because it was mind-bendingly good. Between the four of us we got almost every variety, and while the house-made sausage and smoky turkey were wonderful, it's hard to overstate just how good the ribs were. In general, I'm not a big fan of ribs, which seem like too much work for too little reward, but LC's ribs were pink with smoke a good half-inch into the meat, which was full of flavor that incorporated the darkness of the smoke into the richness of the pork fat and overlaid it with the sauce for a perfect blend. But, and as much as it pains me as a Lexington partisan to say this, the straight-up pork (sliced, not pulled) was very, very good too. They know how to do meat at LC's, and they know how not to do sauce. Is it the best? That's for others to say, I suppose. But it's one of my best.

Photo credit: Michael Stern, roadfood.com

— Written by Michael Barthel

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