Website ranks Springfield 4th best barbecue city in the country

Ralph Green, Springfield News-Leader
·2 min read
Gettin' Basted has a restaurant on South Glenstone Avenue in Springfield. It is one of the relative newcomers that has gained popularity in the city.
Gettin' Basted has a restaurant on South Glenstone Avenue in Springfield. It is one of the relative newcomers that has gained popularity in the city.

Springfield barbecue is officially on the map.

LawnStarter, a national lawn care website, ranked Springfield No. 4 last week on its list of the top 200 "Best BBQ Cities in America."

Springfield trails only St. Louis, Kansas City and Chicago at the top of the list, which the website says is based on 18 criteria, including "award-winning barbecue restaurants, experience hosting a 'master-level' competition, multiple barbecue festivals, and high ratings."

Springfield has many longtime barbecue restaurants, like Crosstown Barbecue and Buckingham, in addition to new favorites that have opened in more recent years like City Butcher, Gettin' Basted and Missouri Mike's.

Last year, Gettin' Basted took home the Grand Champion award at the annual Jack Daniel's World Championship in Tennessee, adding to previous awards like the Reserve Grand Champion at the American Royal in 2019, the 2018 and 2020 Kansas City Barbecue Society Team of the Year.

More: Gettin' Basted barbecue team wins big at Jack Daniel's World Championship in Tennessee

According to LawnStarter, Springfield is among the best in the country at hosting BBQ competitions.

Mike Hickman, owner of Missouri Mike's, said there are several good barbecue restaurants in the city, and that forces businesses to raise their quality to attract customers.

"I think what really has driven the Springfield market is that there's so much good competition, there's a lot of great shops in the area," Hickman said. "I think everyone is pushing hard because it's such a saturated market and that has really driven and reset the bar to a much higher standard than what we had five years or a decade ago."

Missouri Mike's recently opened a second location in Springfield near Battlefield Road and Glenstone Avenue. The restaurant is known for its barbecue meats and award-winning chicken wings. The original location is on West Chestnut Expressway.

Hickman told the News-Leader the two biggest keys to running a successful barbecue restaurant are service and food. Hickman said if you can deliver a quality product and have the service to back it up, restaurants can stick around for a long time.

Hickman said that he loved that Springfield came in 4th on LawnStarter's list, but said that means we still have three places to grab ahead of us.

Ralph Green is a business reporter with the Springfield News-Leader. Contact him at RAGreen@gannett.com, by phone: (417-536-4061) or on Twitter at RalphGreenNL

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Website ranks Springfield 4th best barbecue city in the country