Kansas City Style Preferred Over St. Louis Style by 2-to-1 Margin

Low and slow? Sauce on the side? As summer rolls around, Americans across the country will fire up their grills and smokers. In Missouri, barbecue holds a special place in popular culture, with the state’s two largest cities each having a distinct style of barbecue. But which style do Missourians prefer?

In February 2025, the SLU/YouGov Poll asked 900 likely Missouri voters which regional style of American barbecue was their favorite. Kansas City style came out on top, with 41 percent of voters selecting it as their favorite barbecue style, more than double the 17 percent who favored St. Louis style.

Kansas City style barbecue sauce has a sweeter, tomato base, according to Dan Brewer, assistant professor of nutrition and dietetics at Saint Louis University, and the head chef at SLU’s Fresh Gatherings Café and Farm. In that role, Brewer leads a team of students to create fresh meals from scratch each day, working with Missouri farms and vendors. He noted that St. Louis sauce has a bit more vinegar to it.

“I don’t know that I think the big difference is in the sauce,” Brewer said. “One of the biggest distinctions in barbecue is whether the sauce was meant to be on the meat while it cooks or whether it is more on the side as an accompaniment.”

Texas style, known for its rubs and a minimalist approach to sauce, was the favorite of 10 percent of Missouri voters. Nine percent chose Memphis style, which is like St. Louis style and is less sweet than Kansas City but sweeter than Carolina barbecue. Carolina-style barbecue was preferred by just 2 percent of voters. Five percent of voters said they did not like barbecue at all, while another 3 percent indicated a preference for “Another style of barbecue.”

“It is clear Kansas City style is Missouri voters’ favorite, and it is a rare bipartisan position in this red state,” said Steven Rogers, Ph.D., SLU/YouGov Poll Director and associate professor of political science at Saint Louis University. “Forty-two percent of each Missouri Republican and Democratic voters said Kansas City style was their favorite.”

Kansas City voters overwhelmingly favored their hometown barbecue, with 77 percent selecting Kansas City style as their favorite. In fact, only one poll respondent of the 192 from Kansas City said St. Louis style was their top choice. Kansas City style was also the most popular barbecue across every Missouri region except St. Louis. In St. Louis, 42 percent of voters preferred St. Louis-style barbecue, while 19 percent said Kansas City-style was their favorite.

Brewer noted Kansas City’s long tradition of barbecue excellence, stemming in part from the city’s meat-packing history. Kansas City barbecue also tends to be cooked slowly in a smoker, whereas St. Louisans favor grilling their meat with a smoked finish.

“Anything cooked on the grill takes on another quality,” he said. “Baked beans are super delicious and satisfying with the right sauce on the grill.”

Barbecuing evokes a sense of community, Brewer said, noting the humanistic quality of grilling something over a fire and sharing a meal with others.

Kansas City style was the top choice across nearly every major demographic group, including gender, age, race, income, and education level. St. Louis style consistently ranked as voters’ second favorite, except among 18- to 29-year-olds, who preferred Texas style over St. Louis style by a margin of six percentage points.

Poll results with demographic and regional breakdowns of survey results

Methodology and Funding

YouGov interviewed 900 likely Missouri voters between February 8 and March 2, 2025. The YouGov panel, a proprietary opt-in survey panel, is comprised of 3.1 million United States residents who have agreed to participate in YouGov Web surveys. Using their gender, age, race, and education, YouGov weighted the set of survey respondents to known characteristics of Missouri voters from the American Community Survey (ACS) public use microdata file, public voter file records, the 2020 Current Population Survey (CPS) Voting and Registration supplements, the 2020 National Election Pool (NEP) exit poll, and the 2020 CES surveys, including demographics and 2020 presidential vote. The margin of error for the weighted data is 3.64%. 

The February 2025 SLU/YouGov Poll was funded by the PRiME Center in SLU’s School of Education.

About YouGov

Saint Louis University has partnered with YouGov to conduct its annual survey of Missouri voters. YouGov conducts surveys for multiple academic institutions and is the primary, trusted survey firm for media organizations, including CBS News and The Economist. An independent Pew Research Center study of online survey firms in 2016 further concluded that YouGov “consistently outperforms competitors.”

About Saint Louis University

Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic research institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers more than 15,300 students a rigorous, transformative education that challenges and prepares them to make the world a better place. As a nationally recognized leader in research and innovation, SLU is an R1 research university, advancing groundbreaking, life-changing discoveries that promote the greater good.