What should first-timers try at Gates Bar-B-Q? An expert judge told us to order the brisket

Editor’s Note: This is Part 3 of How to Eat Kansas City Barbecue Like an Expert, a series that follows food and travel journalist, Kae Lani Palmisano, as she applies Barbecue Hall of Famer Ardie A. Davis’ barbecue judging criteria to Arthur Bryant’s, Gates, and Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que. Click here to watch Part 1 here and Part 2 here, or skip ahead to Part 4 here.

The title of Barbecue Capital of the World may be self proclaimed, but when you take into consideration the roughly 100 restaurants in Kansas City serving up a wide variety of barbecue, it’s a tough claim to dispute.

Just up the road from Arthur Bryant’s is another legendary Kansas City barbecue institution, Gates Bar-B-Q (their Brooklyn Avenue location to be exact). Just as the Bryant brothers learned how to smoke meats and make sauce under the tutelage of Kansas City’s founding pitmaster, Henry Perry, the Perry tradition also made its way to Gates.

For this crash course on how to eat Kansas City barbecue like an expert, I consulted with a true barbecue expert: Ardie A. Davis, the creator of the American Royal International Barbecue Sauce, Rub & Baste Contest and esteemed master barbecue judge who was inducted into the Barbecue Hall of Fame. For Gates Bar-B-Q, he recommended I give the brisket a try.

Part of the Gates experience is the ordering process that starts with a greeting of “Hi, may I help you.” Customers shout their orders over the choreographed chaos of the kitchen while the hospitable staff shouts back, asking for their specificity like whether you’d like your barbecue on bread or on a bun. First-timers should get ready for the cacophony of saucy excitement.

Unlike Arthur Bryant’s where the beef sandwich is served with no sauce, Gates’ brisket sandwich comes with a generous slathering of sauce. It’s also accompanied with a heaping helping of pickles on the side, which ended up being the sleeper hit of the meal.

Gates’ sauce was similar to Arthur Bryant’s, which makes sense considering both restaurants were influenced by Henry Perry, but Gates’ sauce tends to be a little bit spicier. Adding pickles to the sandwich balanced out the spice of the sauce, making it more mellow and allowing for more of the smokiness from the brisket to come through. Taking bites with and without pickles really emphasized how the flavor of Gates’ brisket can evolve bite after bite.

Dining with me were some Gates regulars who had strong opinions about their go-to orders.

“Gates in my personal opinion has the best barbecue sandwiches in the city,” says Lajaun of Leavenworth. “It’s the flavor, it’s the sauce, it’s the fries, it’s the softness of the buns, it’s the pickles, it’s the tenderness of the meat, all of the above.”

At another table, Takela Estes of Overland Park recommended the fries and the baked beans. “The fries are the best. The baked beans are the best. I normally don’t eat baked beans but I eat them every time I come here,” she said.

Watch Part 3 of How to Eat Kansas City Barbecue Like an Expert, for more tasting notes as well as recommendations from Gates’ regulars who are very passionate about their picks. Check out Part 2 of this series for a taste of Arthur Bryant’s, and if you missed Davis’ barbecue wisdom be sure to watch Part 1.

In the last installation of How to Eat Kansas City Barbecue Like an Expert, I head across the state line to the winner of The Star’s Barbecue Bracket: Joe’s for the Z-Man sandwich. Click here to watch Part 4.

How to Eat Kansas City Like an Expert is part of our Guide to the City of Fountains. If you or someone you know is new to Kansas City or you want to get to know more about your hometown, sign up below for the City of Fountains newsletter!