Museum of BBQ — Attraction in Kansas City

Tucked into the back of the Crown Center Mall is one of Kansas City’s tastiest hidden treasures 🍖🔥 — the Kansas City Museum of BBQ! While there’s no food on site, don’t let that fool you. You’ll leave full of BBQ knowledge, saucy stories, and a newfound appreciation for the smoky soul of KC’s culinary heritage 🧠🍗

From the moment we walked in, the staff welcomed us like long-lost cousins at a cookout 🧂 We chatted all things BBQ—local hotspots, favorite flavors, and legendary sauces. These folks know their brisket from their burnt ends and are more than happy to share it 🐄💬

The museum is packed with interactive exhibits and mouthwatering history 🏛️🔥 Our teens came along and—even with their dad cracking BBQ puns the whole way—they had a blast. (He may or may not have said “I’m just here to meat some history” 😅) The highlight? A full-on baked bean ball pit—yep, it’s as ridiculous and glorious as it sounds. I dove in like it was a pool of pork and needed a rescue team of teenagers to pull me out 🫘💪

It’s not just fun—it’s also thoughtfully curated and surprisingly fascinating. From regional sauce styles to pitmaster legends, the museum brings BBQ’s backstory to life 🌎📖

Don’t skip the gift shop! We left with arms full of rubs, sauces, and grill-day goodies 🛍️ If you’re a backyard BBQ boss or just saucy at heart, it’s a great spot to stock up.

Pro tip: It’s tucked away inside the mall, so keep walking past the usual shops—once you find it, you’ll know you’ve struck gold 🏆

No plates served, but plenty of flavor to chew on 🍽️🔥

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We had an amazing time at the Museum of BBQ! We arrived about 20 minutes before closing time and they were gracious enough to let us in. By the way they close at 6 PM during the week as most of Crown Center does.

The staff here was amazingly kind and gracious, and gave us tokens to experience different things inside the exhibit. This is a very comprehensive museum, covering the beginnings of barbecue and how it developed across the country.

You can learn about all of the different regions, different sauces, and all the different kinds of meat that are used and where the different cuts are on the animals.

They have an amazing retail section with all the sauces and rubs you could dream of.

Plan on 30 minutes to an hour to see everything and do everything especially if you have children.

This is a wonderful addition to our city where barbecue is such a part of the fabric of life and it was a joy to be here...

The exhibits do a great job of explaining the history, science, and philosophy of different meats, techniques, types of wood, and sauces from all over the country. I would post pictures, but I don’t want to give too much away. You can tell they put a lot of work into it!

Tickets are extremely reasonable, parking is cheap/free, there are lots of other shops and things to do nearby, and the shop area has a great variety of souvenirs, sauces, and rubs.

The staff are really great as well. We were in from out of town and didn’t realize how many things would be opening late on a Sunday, but when the owner came in to open up, he let us in early. They’re really passionate and knowledgeable about BBQ as well. We talked about different sauces and places to eat around KC, and a few places we had been in other parts of the country. They had lots of great recommendations. It was a really...