Most mornings, Ollie Gates, the 93-year-old patriarch of a Kansas City barbecue dynasty, drives himself to the Gates Bar-B-Q location on Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard and sits down in an office just steps from the counter.
There, he watches video feeds from the local chain’s five Missouri and Kansas locations on an iPad, occasionally picking up a cordless microphone to dispense advice through speakers in each kitchen, like a voice of God. On weekends, when the restaurant closes at midnight, he often stays until 2 a.m., late enough to lock the doors.
For many Americans, Kansas City barbecue — best known for brisket, burnt ends, ribs and a thick, ketchup-based sauce — is barbecue. Credit (or blame) supermarket sauces like KC Masterpiece, the smoky-sweet brew that shaped a generation’s perception of the genre.
“Kansas City-style sauce is what a lot of Americans have considered the classic American barbecue sauce, at least until recently,” said Robert Moss, the South Carolina-based author of “Barbecue: The History of an American Institution.”
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