Posted by Michael Stern on August 29, 2009
Snead’s lists so many good things on its menu that it is impossible to sample all of them in one visit. To wit: beef and/or ham brownies, also known as burnt ends, which are the crusty, smoky chunks stripped from the ends and tips of the meat. Order a sandwich or a plateful. They aren't as soft as the ordinary barbecue, but they fairly explode with the flavor of meat and smoke.
Regular pork barbecue, cooked in kettle in a brick pit over hickory wood, is sweet and tender, sliced thin, without the punch of brownies but with a refined character. Beef brisket is shockingly fatless, and yet somehow supple and luscious, extra-good if you add some of Snead's fine sauce. Then there are log sandwiches, named for their shape: tubular mixtures of finely ground barbecued beef, pork and ham, all minced together and wedged into a long bun (or, if you wish, a round roll). The result is a salty, powerful melange vaguely reminiscent of a Maid-Rite sandwich -- not as potent as burnt ends, but in some long-term satisfying way, even more complex.
And did we mention hand-cut, freshly-made French fries? And four-star barbecued beans? And finely-chopped cole slaw, perfectly suited to salving a sauce-fatigued tongue?
Snead's is a wood-paneled roadhouse with a magnificent giant oak tree in the parking lot and laminated tables inside. The dining room has windows that look out onto what is still countryside, far from the downtown core. It's a long drive from the city, but Snead's is required eating for anyone who wants to savor pit-cooked excellence.
Overall: Worth driving from anyplace
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3 Meat Plate
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Burnt End Plate
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Ribs (slab)
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"Here is a half slab of meaty ribs, topped by golden french fries."
buffetbuster
"Brownies, aka burnt ends, are available from both hams and brisket. This close up is of beef brownies from my 3-meat plate. They radiate smoke flavor and are so tender that they seem to melt on the tongue into fatty essence of pit-cooked beef. And yet their exterior edges are crisp and crunchy. This may be the most luxurious meat on the planet."
Michael Stern
"A three-meat plate, with pork on the left and brownies on the right. In the center, under excellent French fries, are flaps of beef brisket. The beef in particular benefits from application of sauce, either mild (with the rubber band) or hot, which is really, really hot -- not unlike Arthur Bryant's tongue-searing stuff, but actually hotter."
Michael Stern
"Snead's sliced pork is shockingly tender and, unlike most thin-sliced barbecued meats, super-juicy. It has a subtle smoke bite that only amplifies the elegant taste of the long-cooked meat."
Michael Stern
"The door to my favorite of all Kansas City barbecues"
Michael Stern
"A happy pig is almost always the sign of good barbecue."
Michael Stern
