Who has the best BBQ in the nation? LawnStarter shares its rankings - Memphis is not No.1

Which city is the best barbecue city in America? Any Memphian will tell you it’s Memphis. We are home to the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest for a reason.

According to LawnStarter however, Memphis ranks number fourth.

LawnStarter ranked 2023’s Best BBQ Cities in America. The ranking was announced last week.

Kansas City, Missouri, ranked number one on the 2023 list, followed by St. Louis and Kansas City, Kansas, in the number two and three spots, respectively.

Lawnstarter compared the 200 biggest U.S. cities based on five categories. They looked at access to barbecue vendors, consumer ratings, competition awards, and the number of barbecue festivals, among 20 total metrics.

How did Memphis stack up in some of the key metrics? Here were the results:

• Barbecue Vendors per 100,000 Residents - 12^th place

• Average Number of Reviews per Barbecue Vendor - 6^th place

• Winners in Top 25% of Past 3 Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Contests - 3^rd place

• Number of KCBS "700 Club" Members - 2^nd place

• Hosts KCBS-Sanctioned National/Global Barbecue Competition - 1^st place

Curious how Memphis compared with other Tennessee cities?

Nashville was ranked 9th, Knoxville 16th, Chattanooga 28th, Clarksville 71st and Murfreesboro 94th.

LawnStarter is all about lawn care and landscaping, but the site also publishes studies on topics ranging from Best Cities for Fast Food to Best Cities for Naked Biking.

While they might be experts on the lawns, this Memphian thinks they got the number one city for this list wrong. They have obviously never been to a Memphis barbecue joint!

Top 10 best barbecue cities in 2023

Lawnstarter ranking includes 200 cities, but here are the top 10.

• Kansas City, Missouri

• St. Louis, Missouri

• Kansas City, Kansas

• Memphis

• Houston, Texas

• Orlando, Florida

• Springfield, Missouri

• Omaha, Nebraska

• Nashville

• Richmond, Virginia

The Austin-American Stateman contributed to this story.

Jennifer Chandler is the Food & Dining Reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at [email protected] and you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @cookwjennifer. 

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This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: How Memphis ranked on LawnStarter's Best BBQ Cities in America