Justin Fox Burks
Ribs. Pulled pork. Brisket. Memphis is synonymous with barbecue, so it should surprise no one that we’ve just ranked #1 on yet another national BBQ list (eat your heart out, Nashville).
A new report from Apartment Guide has named Memphis the #1 Best BBQ City in the US. As the home of barbecue nachos, fries, pizza, and even spaghetti, it’s clear that Memphis is the place to be if you’re a barbecue fanatic.
The Apartment Guide report ranked every U.S. city by the percentage of barbecue restaurants to all restaurants to determine the top 10 best barbecue cities in the country.
The study recognized 6,300 cities across the U.S. with at least one barbecue restaurant each (based on a database of more than 8 million commercially available business listings.) They then weeded out cities with less than 50,000 people and divided the number of barbecue restaurants by the total number of restaurants in each city to determine the percentage of barbecue establishments for each. The cities with the highest percentage of barbecue restaurants were then deemed to be the best barbecue cities in the country.
Memphis tops the list at #1, with the highest percentage of barbecue restaurants (12.09%), followed by Minnetonka, Minnesota, at #2 and DeSoto, Texas, at #3.
According to the report, “Not only does the River City have the highest ratio of barbecue restaurants in the nation, but it also has the third overall most barbecue joints behind only the much larger Houston and Chicago.” The report lists the world-famous Central BBQ, Payne’s, and Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous as quintessential examples of our city’s best ’cue.
So there you have it: Memphis might not be the biggest or most populous barbecue city, but we sure do take our barbecue the most seriously –– proudly touting roughly 142 total barbecue joints in the city limits alone.
Read the full report at apartmentguide.com.
