2025 Centurion Award winner
Gates Bar-B-Q
Best Barbecue Sauce in Kansas City · Kansas City, MO
Best Barbecue Sauce in Kansas City · Kansas City, MO
Gates Bar-B-Q, founded in 1946, is the other pillar of Kansas City barbecue, famous as much for its sauce — sweet, tangy, and sold in grocery stores nationwide — as for its ribs and burnt ends. The counter greeting, a shouted 'Hi, may I help you?', is a KC ritual in itself.
Grown from a single storefront at 19th & Vine into a family of Kansas City restaurants, Gates has kept the Gates family recipe and its brisk, order-at-the-counter energy for nearly eighty years.
Each Centurion Award is a dated record tied to one year’s evaluation — earned annually, never carried over. Open a year for the full citation and verification details.
Awards run one calendar year and renew only if the business clears the bar again. Selection is by published criteria, never for sale.
Visit Gates Bar-B-Q
This page is the standing record for Gates Bar-B-Q (2025). It was not bought, voted on, or sponsored — only winners are published, and an award that stops holding up is revoked, not quietly removed. For hours, bookings, and live reviews, go straight to the business itself.
If you’ve put in the years, you may already clear the bar. Evaluation is free, private, and never for sale.