15 Best BBQ Cities in America

Editor's Note: This story originally appeared on LawnStarter.

Which U.S. cities are most likely to give you the meat sweats?

To separate the top sirloins from the chuck roasts on the BBQ scene, LawnStarter ranked 2023’s Best BBQ Cities in America.

We compared the 200 biggest U.S. cities based on five categories. We looked at access to tasty barbecue vendors, consumer ratings, competition awards, and the number of barbecue festivals, among 20 total metrics.

Light up your grill with our ranking below. To learn how we ranked the cities, see our methodology at the end.

1. Kansas City, MO

• Overall Score: 52.68
• Access Rank: 85
• Consumer Satisfaction Rank: 25
• Competition Awards Rank: 2
• Elite BBQ Memberships Rank: 1
• Hosting Rank: 1

2. St. Louis, MO

• Overall Score: 46.29
• Access Rank: 2
• Consumer Satisfaction Rank: 5
• Competition Awards Rank: 11
• Elite BBQ Memberships Rank: 2
• Hosting Rank: 43

3. Kansas City, KS

• Overall Score: 45.65
• Access Rank: 43
• Consumer Satisfaction Rank: 46
• Competition Awards Rank: 1
• Elite BBQ Memberships Rank: 3
• Hosting Rank: 3

4. Memphis, TN

• Overall Score: 38.22
• Access Rank: 26
• Consumer Satisfaction Rank: 8
• Competition Awards Rank: 4
• Elite BBQ Memberships Rank: 5
• Hosting Rank: 29

5. Houston, TX

• Overall Score: 34.33
• Access Rank: 58
• Consumer Satisfaction Rank: 3
• Competition Awards Rank: 5
• Elite BBQ Memberships Rank: 11
• Hosting Rank: 36

6. Orlando, FL

• Overall Score: 33.75
• Access Rank: 1
• Consumer Satisfaction Rank: 10
• Competition Awards Rank: 62
• Elite BBQ Memberships Rank: 15
• Hosting Rank: 43

7. Springfield, MO

• Overall Score: 32.54
• Access Rank: 14
• Consumer Satisfaction Rank: 36
• Competition Awards Rank: 17
• Elite BBQ Memberships Rank: 7
• Hosting Rank: 5

8. Omaha, NE

• Overall Score: 30.42
• Access Rank: 95
• Consumer Satisfaction Rank: 113
• Competition Awards Rank: 7
• Elite BBQ Memberships Rank: 5
• Hosting Rank: 3

9. Nashville, TN

• Overall Score: 29.9
• Access Rank: 23
• Consumer Satisfaction Rank: 7
• Competition Awards Rank: 33
• Elite BBQ Memberships Rank: 14
• Hosting Rank: 16

10. Richmond, VA

• Overall Score: 29.49
• Access Rank: 13
• Consumer Satisfaction Rank: 27
• Competition Awards Rank: 9
• Elite BBQ Memberships Rank: 27
• Hosting Rank: 36

11. Los Angeles, CA

• Overall Score: 28.85
• Access Rank: 127
• Consumer Satisfaction Rank: 1
• Competition Awards Rank: 41
• Elite BBQ Memberships Rank: 11
• Hosting Rank: 43

12. Austin, TX

• Overall Score: 28.07
• Access Rank: 17
• Consumer Satisfaction Rank: 2
• Competition Awards Rank: 47
• Elite BBQ Memberships Rank: 27
• Hosting Rank: 36

13. Minneapolis, MN

• Overall Score: 27.55
• Access Rank: 116
• Consumer Satisfaction Rank: 106
• Competition Awards Rank: 3
• Elite BBQ Memberships Rank: 52
• Hosting Rank: 43

14. New York, NY

• Overall Score: 27.24
• Access Rank: 191
• Consumer Satisfaction Rank: 4
• Competition Awards Rank: 14
• Elite BBQ Memberships Rank: 20
• Hosting Rank: 33

15. Las Vegas, NV

• Overall Score: 26.89
• Access Rank: 8
• Consumer Satisfaction Rank: 9
• Competition Awards Rank: 74
• Elite BBQ Memberships Rank: 15
• Hosting Rank: 43

Behind the Ranking

First, we determined the factors (metrics) that are most relevant to rank the Best BBQ Cities in America.

We then assigned a weight to each factor based on its importance and grouped those factors into five categories: Access, Consumer Satisfaction, Competition Awards, Elite BBQ Memberships, and Hosting. Here are the factors.

• Barbecue Vendors per 100,000 Residents
• Smokehouses per 100,000 Residents
• Average Consumer Rating for Barbecue Vendors
• Number of Top-Rated Barbecue Vendors
• Average Number of Reviews per Barbecue Vendor
• Average Consumer Rating for Smokehouses
• Number of Top-Rated Smokehouses
• Average Number of Reviews per Smokehouse
• NBBQA Award-Winning Cooking Teams (in Sauce, Rub, and/or Food Categories) in Past 5 Years
• Cooking Teams in Top 25% of Past 3 Royal World Series of Barbecue Open Contests
• Cooking Teams in Top 25% of Past 3 Royal World Series of Barbecue Invitational Contests
• Winners in Top 25% of Past 3 Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Contests
• Cooking Teams in Top 25% of Past 2 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo World’s Championship Bar-B-Que Contest
• Winners in “Memphis in May” World Championship BBQ Cooking Contest
• Number of KCBS “180 Club” Members
• Number of KCBS “700 Club” Members
• Number of National Barbecue & Grilling Association Members
• Hosts KCBS-Sanctioned National/Global Barbecue Competition
• Hosted at Least 1 KCBS-Sanctioned Masters Series Barbecue Competitions in Past 3 Years
• Number of Barbecue Festivals

For each of the 200 biggest U.S. cities, we then gathered data on each factor from the sources listed below the table.

Finally, we calculated scores (out of 100 points) for each city to determine its rank in each factor, each category, and overall. A city’s Overall Score is the average of its scores across all factors and categories. The highest Overall Score ranked “Best” (No. 1).