The Kansas City metro area has become a popular destination for a host of reasons — Taylor Swift’s boyfriend lives there, as does his good friend and teammate, Patrick Mahomes. Jason Sudeikis, who stars as the title character of the hit series “Ted Lasso,” lived and attended schools in the KC metro. But before its star turn in pop culture, Kansas City also was known for cattle drives, jazz and barbecue culture — and it’s that last bit that makes the city’s newest attraction a proper addition to its palmarès.

The Museum of BBQ opened April 12 in Crown Center shopping mall. It is a self-guided celebration of one of America’s favorite foods. The attraction features unique activities such as a “smoke” ring toss, a bean pit (filled with thousands of plastic beans), and a host of exhibits that tell the story not only about Kansas City barbecue, but also the styles of barbecue in Memphis, Texas and other barbecue powerhouses.

Journalist Jonathan Bender founded the museum. He’s been writing about the Kansas City food scene since 2007, when he first moved to KC. He’s been a judge at the American Royal World Series of Barbecue and was the food editor for Kansas City PBS where he created a 30-minute documentary called “Burnt Legend,” which traces the history of burnt ends, a staple of Kansas City barbecue.

“It was joyous to make,” Bender said. “I think it was such an interesting subject, and it was a real nice opportunity to dive into something that is so intrinsically Kansas City.”

Bender is accustomed to telling stories in different formats. He spoke to MEAT+POULTRY about telling the story of barbecue in 10 museum-quality installations.

Museum founder Jonathan Bender has written about the Kansas City food scene since 2007. (Source: Museum of BBQ)

MEAT+POULTRY: So here we are with a Museum of BBQ. How did you get that going?

Bender: I’d told stories in a couple different ways. At Kansas City PBS that kind of experimented with a podcast and the television show (a few of them) and I saw the different ways in which stories could be told, and had thrown kind of food centric events and saw what happens when people get together around food. And I was really both craving in-person interaction and thought “barbecue, almost more than any other subject really lent itself to communal gathering.” We think of barbecues as a way to celebrate big occasions or as an excuse to bring people together, right?

Whether that is in the backyard, for a giant political celebration. Historically, barbecuing and barbecues have kind of been at the center of so many important moments in people’s lives and that act of community — of bringing folks together — it really sparked the idea of what if we could tell the story of barbecue, but do it in a way that brought folks together through the experience of a museum, in this case.

And as I started to research it, there was no museum dedicated to barbecue in the world, which was really surprising to me. And so, that was intriguing; the idea that we could be the first to do it — particularly in Kansas City where there’s such a rich history and tradition of barbecue.

M+P: We heard the museum was opening in Crown Center. What made Crown Center, a shopping mall, the best location?

Bender: I loved the idea of multi-generational learning. So, I think one of the best aspects of this was getting to build something that could resonate with grandchildren and grandparents and have them both walk through the exhibit and either get the same thing or different things.

We built highly interactive installations by design. So, you can read about the process of dry brining or why certain spices matter in rubs. But you can also smell the components of rubs and try to guess them in the same room. So, we’re attempting to meet folks in a lot of different ways. But I thought the ability to directly reach families — because in part barbecue, honestly, is such a familial and generational experience. You’re learning from your grandma’s secret recipes, or your grandpa’s the one who is always out with a smoker in the backyard for the wee hours.

In addition, Crown Center I think is a place that so many visitors come to in Kansas City, that we saw the museum, and hope over time, it can kind of be a gateway to the Kansas City barbecue scene where you come in and we give you some of the foundational knowledge, we teach you a little bit about the history, and then honestly, hopefully you go out and eat a whole bunch of barbecue right afterwards if we did our job right. So, Crown Center just offered both of those options in a way that really seemed to fit our mission.

Visitors to the museum can learn about barbecue from informative displays, artwork, memorabilia and games. When they finish the tour, the gift shop holds a variety of souvenirs in the form of rubs, sauces and more. (Source: Museum of BBQ)

M+P: Talk about the challenges that you faced turning a huge regional and cultural phenomenon into a museum of exhibits.

Bender: One of the things is how do you create something that has enough information but isn’t overwhelming? We really had to strike a balance, I think, between creating a barbecue 101, if you will, but still going in depth in some areas to allow somebody who does competitive barbecue or knows a lot about barbecue, that they still feel like they are learning.

So, a good example of that to me is in the smoke room. We have our smoke ring toss, so it’s like the traditional carnival game, where you’re trying to get a ringer, but you’re throwing a ring onto the Junior Bull Roping heads. But right next to it is the scientific explanation for why a smoke ring matters or what happens to meat with the bark.

M+P: What kind of feedback are you getting?

Bender: It’s been really positive; that’s been the most affirming for me, I think. I love the look and feel of it, but without people, it’s empty… I want folks to be experiencing it and coming away with something from it. So, I think I’ve been delighted at folks who have come in from out of town to talk about the way that we talked about Memphis or Texas resonating with them, or you know, how it felt like we were able to capture some of the elements of those places and represent them.

In the Memphis room, there’s this 22-foot mural by Birdcap, who is a muralist out of Memphis. And it’s got references to music and the art scene and obviously the sort of legendary barbecue restaurants there. But it was a true art piece that ended up being immersive in a way that is different than some of the other panels.

M+P: Have you done everything that you want to do or is there more that the museum can teach people that hasn’t been installed yet?

Bender: I think for us 4,300 square feet is both a lot of space and not. So, I think there are certainly tons of additional stories [such as] the content that didn’t make it onto the walls. We built the exhibits in a modular fashion; it’s four-by-eight panels within a powder–coated steel frame. And we did that for a couple reasons: one it allows us to potentially swap out panels or update exhibits over time.

Two, it gave us the flexibility to kind of work through the flow as we were building out the museum, but I still see the museum at the heart or the start, and then I think there’s the ability for us to add events over time, to add additional stories to talk about, in depth, all the other places, right? Like we are kind of hitting on some of the main headquarters of barbecue, but there is the beautiful, rich traditions of barbecue in Alabama and Kentucky and Murfreesboro, Illinois. You know, I think there are so many other types of barbecue stories that we can tell.

Now, what format that looks like and where it is, I don’t know yet. But I love the idea of getting this place right first, and then allowing it to kind of exist at the center of that barbecue universe.