The crusted, caramelised tips of a beef brisket point, smoked low for 15 hours, hand-cubed and sometimes returned to the smoker. Sweet, smoky, fatty, the defining Kansas City barbecue plate.
Burnt ends started as the brisket scraps Arthur Bryant gave away at the counter on Brooklyn Avenue. Calvin Trillin's 1974 Playboy essay declaring Bryant's the single best restaurant in the world made Kansas City barbecue national news; the burnt ends became the proof-of-concept dish. Today every Kansas City BBQ joint offers them, made from the brisket point alone, sliced or cubed, with sauce on the side or worked into the bark.
5 editor picks for Burnt ends in Kansas City, ranked by editorial score. All Kansas City signature dishes · Burnt ends across every city.
Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que ★ 4.8
kck · 3002 West 47th Ave, Kansas City, KS 66103
Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que runs out of a working Shamrock gas station at 47th and Mission in Kansas City, Kansas, where the Stehneys opened in 1996 and invented the Z-Man sandwich.
Arthur Bryant's Barbeque ★ 4.7
18th-and-vine · 1727 Brooklyn Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64127
Arthur Bryant's on Brooklyn Avenue in Kansas City is the canonical BBQ address, with roots back to Henry Perry's 1908 pit and the Bryant family's takeover at the Brooklyn Avenue location in 1958.
Slap's BBQ ★ 4.7
kck · 553 Central Ave, Kansas City, KS 66101
Slap's BBQ on Central Avenue in Kansas City Kansas runs a competition-pitmaster operation since 2014 and sells out daily by mid-afternoon, ribs first.
Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue Freight House ★ 4.6
crossroads · 101 W 22nd St, Kansas City, MO 64108
Jack Stack's Freight House in Kansas City's Crossroads serves Russ Fiorella's family barbecue under 25-foot ceilings inside a converted railroad warehouse.
Q39 Midtown ★ 4.5
midtown · 1000 W 39th St, Kansas City, MO 64111
Rob Magee's Q39 on 39th Street in Kansas City applies a competition-circuit pitmaster's discipline to weeknight barbecue, with a full bar and table service.