CLICK HERE for KC's famous #BBQBible!
CLICK HERE for KC's famous #BBQBible!
FLYOVER
COUNTRY
IS A MYTH
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FCS: Best of 2025
“The thing all writers do best,” Alan Dean Foster once wrote, “is find ways to avoid writing.” At the last minute, the Fountain City Superlatives for 2025 are finally here. As I look back on the year that was, and ahead to the year that will be, it is important to remember that this yearly feature is about recognizing places that are NEW TO ME. The places listed are not necessarily brand new or the very best in KC for their given category. Instead, they were just the best thing I tried in 2025 that I had not tried prior.
Best in Dough!
A donut can be whatever it needs to be. The only limit is the imagination. Coming in many shapes and sizes, the possibilities for toppings and fillings feel endless. In Kansas City, donuts cast a wide net. A diversity of offerings from a wide spectrum of purveyors. In honor of National Donut Day, I celebrated the best of each variety.
Devan’s (Double) Dozen: Burger Edition, Part II
You’ve waited for it. You’ve anticipated it. Now, it’s here: my list of the Top 12 burger spots in Kansas City. As much as soul food likes to claim the comfort food title, for me, nothing beats a cheeseburger, fries, and a shake. So if you’re hunting for the best burgers in Kansas City (based on taste, quality, and value), you’re in the right place. This is the definitive list of KC’s best local burgers; at least, according to me.
Devan’s Dozen: Donut Edition
Donuts are a heap of wistfulness, deep fried in nostalgia, and glazed with childlike innocence. They have a way of transcending time and space to transport a person unlike any other food. There’s just something about donuts that makes everyone a kid again. And everyone has their favorite types and flavors. After over a decade of searching for the city’s best donuts, I decided to finally do a Devan’s Dozen for that food which a dozen comes most natural. These are KC’s best local donut shops.
Devan’s Dozen: (Pork) Ribs Edition
When it comes to barbeque, I consider few meats more luxurious than a properly smoked pork rib. Given the wide range of ribs present in KC, from the truly great to the utterly inedible, I decided to rank the 12 best slabs of ribs in the city. But first, I laid out my own 4 C’s as it relates to ribs for explaining what one should look for in a truly great rib. After all, every single great rib has one key characteristic in common.
The KC “BBQ Bible” (KS)
Setting out to try every single Kansas City barbeque spot, it can be easy to know where you start, but where does one finish? There’s no set checklist of every BBQ joint in the metro. There’s no order guide of what you must, and mustn’t get! That is, there wasn’t. As I recorded my own decade-long pilgrimage through the Q Capital, one friend joked this was a “BBQ Bible”. Not only did I confirm it, I got a little carried away with the concept.
Part 2 / 2 explores the 5 Kansas counties that comprise KC.