A look at the barbecue served at Gates Bar-B-Q in Kansas City and at Hutchins BBQ & Catfish in McKinney, Texas.
It’s the middle of August and the start of football
season is just a couple of weeks away. Time
enough for one last barbecue road trip. . .
Gates Bar-B-Q
I had eaten at the legendary Arthur Bryant’s BBQ years
ago when I was on a business trip to KC.
I had hoped to eat there again on this trip, but they had a long line on
a Sunday afternoon and my wife and I were unwilling to stand around in the heat
for an hour. We drove by two other
barbecue restaurants only to discover they each had a wait of an hour or
so. We had almost given up when we
spotted Gates Bar-B-Q at 32nd Street and Main.
I ordered their mixed plate: ribs, beef, and ham
served with a side of French fries. As
they prepared my plate, I knew I was in trouble when I saw all the meats had
been drowned in sauce and buried in fries.
The ribs were meaty, but any flavor they might have had was completely
overwhelmed by the sauce. I have no idea
what kind of beef I was served, but it certainly had no resemblance to smoked
brisket served in Texas. Despite being
sliced tissue paper thin, it had to be cut with a knife. It had no real flavor (except for the sauce) and
was pretty lifeless. To say the beef
could have been from Arby’s is an insult to Arby’s. The thin slices of ham not drenched in sauce
had a nice, sweet flavor, but could have come from any good local deli.
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| Somewhere under the fries and sauce is what passes for barbecue |
My wife ordered their half chicken. It too was swimming in sauce. Without any smoky flavor, it might have been
cooked in an oven. We did not want to
get sauce all over their floor, but thought if we dropped the chicken it might
well bounce back up to the table.
My friends had said that Gates is one of the top four
or five barbecue joints in Kansas City. Gates
is really proud of their “award winning” sauce and pour it over
everything. When the best thing I can
say is that their French fries and pickles are good, I won’t be recommending
Gates to any of my Texas friends.
This barbecue gets my lowest rating: no Hook ‘Ems!
Hutchins BBQ & Catfish
As we made our way back into Texas, our first stop was
in McKinney. I had heard good things
about Hutchins BBQ & Catfish and they are rated on Texas Monthly’s Top 50
list, so I had to give them a try. We got
to their restaurant at 1301 North Tennessee around 10:30 AM, a half hour before
they opened, and were the only car in the parking lot. A line started forming at about 10:50 and we
got in it. By the time Hutchins opened,
the parking lot was full and the line wrapped around the front of the
building.
I ordered my usual half pound of moist brisket (nice,
thick slices) and a couple of pork ribs which were swabbed down just before
cutting. For those people dining in, they offered complimentary peach cobbler
and banana pudding. I got a big scoop of
the cobbler. My wife ordered the lean
brisket and some ribs. She also got a
side of fried okra and a ladle full of what looked like sauce. The moist brisket was outstanding: tender,
tasty outer bark, and a deep smoky flavor. I stole a bite (or two) of my wife’s
lean brisket. It was very good, but just
a little dry. The ribs were big and
meaty, the meat easily pulling from the bone.
It turns out they had a squeeze bottle of their sauce on the table. A red sauce that tasted of vinegar with a
spicy kick. What my wife had gotten
wasn’t a sauce, but rather an au jus made from the meat drippings with a taste
of brown sugar and garlic added. Oh my
goodness. . . The brisket was delicious
without it, but a chunk of meat dipped in that au jus was absolutely incredible. Oh and by the way, the okra and peach cobbler
were also good.
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| Texas barbecue |
After we finished eating, I was treated to a guided
tour of the pits and the kitchen by a wonderful young man named Wayne. He showed me their industrial strength
smokers and gave me a peek inside. When
he opened the door, we were enveloped in thick smoke. He told me they use oak for smoking their
briskets and pecan for smoking everything else.
Unlike what I can get from the grocery store, they use nothing but high
quality, aged briskets and smoke about sixty a day during the week and around a
hundred on weekends. Someone is keeping
an eye on the pits 24/7. Every piece of
meat goes through several quality checks before it ever makes it to the cutting
board. If a brisket doesn’t meet their
standards, it’s pulled off the line and goes into their chopped beef. Wayne’s pride in his staff and product shone
like a bright flood light. As a parting
gift, he gave me a sample of their burnt ends: delicious outer crust, fat fully
rendered, and oh so juicy. Wowzer. . .
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| Wayne of Hutchins BBQ |
Don’t let the name Hutchins BBQ & Catfish fool
you. When they first opened in 1978, a
lot of catfish was sold in the north Texas area. But as the barbecue revolution has spread
across the state, they are concentrating on serving outstanding que every
day. They are doing some
remodeling. They have built out a large
new dining area (not yet opened), expanded the kitchen, and added new smokers. They are going to need all that to satisfy
the hungry masses who will be lining up every day. Wayne told me the staff gathers together each
morning to pray and give thanks for their many blessing. I responded that we the customers are truly
blessed to be able to eat their great food.
Hutchins BBQ – super people serving tremendous
barbecue.
This barbecue gets my highest rating: two Hook ‘Ems!
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