KANSAS CITY, Mo. — How many of Kansas City's barbecue restaurants would you say you've visited? Half of them? More than half?
Well, there's an app for that.
Visit KC is trying to help you up your barbecue number with its new app called the Kansas City BBQ Experience.
It includes pre-selected trails that eaters can follow to find places they may have never visited before. Every barbecue restaurant in the city is included.
41 Action News tested the “As Seen On TV” trail because it just seemed appropriate. The app says these are the spots visited by celebrity chefs and their cameras. The first stop was B.B.'s Lawn Side Bar-B-Q.
General manager Jimmy Nickle knows good barbecue, and he had some input on the app’s creation. He says the best thing about it is the sheer number of places it includes.
"We get asked all the time, the servers do constantly, ‘Where should I go next?’” Nickle said. “And they can probably rattle off 8 or 10, but not 100, so that's the cool thing about the app."
The trail continued to Pigwich, the restaurant connected to The Local Pig butcher shop, and continued to Q39. Patrons inside, including Kansas City Chiefs legend Neil Smith, love the idea of the app.
“You know, I have tried most of them because I have been here for over 27 years,” Smith said. “But there are a lot of new places that I have not, so I will definitely take that experience.”
"It would be a great way to compete with your friends and a good way to learn new places, and just really see what's out there in KC," Alexis Barbosa, another Q39 diner, said.
Visit KC released the app this week and says that it is rooted in the city’s pride for it’s most well-known food.
"We want you to post your pictures, we want you to check in when you go to restaurants, we want you to do all of that,” Toni Alexander, Communications Manager for Visit KC, said. “So other people can see what's happening in real time on the barbecue app."
Jill Silva, who co-hosts 41 Action News' food news podcast Chew Diligence and is a certified barbecue judge, says because the quality is high across the board, you have to be picky.
"I always say — think about burnt ends, think about the sides,” Silva said. “Think about the ambiance, think about who you're going with, think about if you need beer that night. All those things come into play."
The app aims to help with that, with links to menus, and tips from other diners. The last stops on our trail were in Kansas, at Woodyard BBQ in Kansas City, and R.J's Bob-Be-Que Shack.
The app also has options for you to take pictures of your food, including some barbecue-themed filters. Just search for the KC BBQ Experience wherever you find your favorite smartphone apps.
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