Page 8 - October 2021 Issue

article courtesy of
The American Royal World
Series of Barbecue Makes
a Huge Comeback in
Kansas City
Sean Ludwig -
sean@nycbbq.com
Ryan Cooper -
ryan@bbqtourist.com
Last month, more than 450 competition BBQ teams from around the country made the journey to Kansas City for the 41st American Royal World Series of Bar- becue. The Royal, the largest annual KCBS competi- tion and largest barbecue event in the world, made a strong comeback after being canceled last
year due to the pandemic.
As it typically does, the Royal featured three days of activi- ties at the enormous
Kansas Speedway. Friday night played host to pri-
vate parties, fundraisers, and barbecue teams preparing for the week- end. Saturday featured public-facing events for BBQ fans and their fami- lies, alongside the Ameri- can Royal Invitational competition. Sunday
closed out the weekend with the huge American Royal Open competition, where anyone can take part.
On Friday night, the event
kicked off with dozens of small
and large parties. One party we
stopped by was the Pork N Boots fundraiser, where we enjoyed delicious bites from Kansas City-based Buck Tui BBQ, Night Goat Barbecue, and Plowboys BBQ. The Bullhorn BBQ team of Cypress, Texas and Blue Hat Crane team of Kansas City, Kansas won the award for American Royal Team Party of the Year (for a party we sadly missed). The Bullhorn and Blue Hat Crane crews also won the award in 2018 and 2019, showing they seriously know how to party.
Photos by Wai Chan
On Saturday, thousands of members from the general public came out for free BBQ meals, live music, corn- hole and other games, mechanical bull riding, sauce and rub samples, and other activities. Many of them
also had the chance to brush shoul- ders with barbecue pitmas-
ters and personalities throughout the day.
Another Saturday event was the official
induction ceremony of new members of the Barbecue Hall of Fame. The 2021 in- ductees to the Hall of Fame were Ollie Gates, Meathead Goldwyn, Rodney Scott, Lyttle Bridges Cabaniss, and Arthur Bryant. The event also honored the
2020 Hall of Fame in- ductees in person,
since last year’s event was canceled. A private
pre-induction celebration toasted the new Hall of Fame mem- bers and featured a room full of former inductees, in-
cluding Myron Mixon, Melissa Cookston, Tuffy Stone, Chris Lilly, Ardie Davis, Pat Burke, Paul Kirk, Carolyn Wells, and David Knight, with Ray Lampe (aka Dr. BBQ) playing host.
Saturday night, the American Royal Invitational win- ners were announced. Triple H BBQ from Illinois took home the top prize, beating out 185 talented teams.