Kansas City barbecue is defined by the sauce - thick, sweet, tomato-based, applied to everything. The style emerged from the stockyards that once processed cattle from across the Great Plains, providing cheap cuts that slow smoking transformed into delicacy. Arthur Bryant's, Gates BBQ, Joe's Kansas City, and Q39 represent different approaches to the same basic religion. The burnt ends - the crusty, fatty points of brisket, cubed and sauced - are KC's signature item. The debates are theological: which restaurant, which sauce, which sides. The answers are personal; the importance is universal.

Kansas City's jazz heritage emerged from the Pendergast era, when political corruption kept clubs open 24 hours and musicians from everywhere gathered to play. Count Basie developed his style here; Charlie Parker was born and raised here; the 18th and Vine district was center of Black Kansas City culture. The American Jazz Museum occupies that intersection now, preserving history in a neighborhood that declined after integration allowed Black residents to move elsewhere. The Mutual Musicians Foundation still hosts after-hours jam sessions on weekends - the only surviving direct connection to the all-night sessions of the 1930s.

The Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl IV in 1970 and then nothing for 50 years - five decades of playoff losses, near-misses, and the certainty that championship teams were what happened elsewhere. Patrick Mahomes changed everything: Super Bowl wins in 2020 and 2023, suddenly the NFL's premiere franchise, Arrowhead Stadium's noise relevant again. The championship drought's end was cathartic in ways non-sports fans find baffling. Kansas City had been telling itself it was world-class; the Lombardi trophies finally provided evidence.

Kansas City claims to have more fountains than any city except Rome - over 200, counting public and private. The claim is unverifiable and possibly false, but the fountains are real: the Country Club Plaza's Spanish-style fountains, the Mill Creek Park fountain, the Crown Center cascades. The fountain obsession dates to the 1920s, when civic leaders decided Kansas City needed a distinctive character and chose water features. The result is a city where fountains appear unexpectedly, where the plaza hosts an annual lighting ceremony, where the fountain myth has become as important as the fountains themselves.

Kansas City is served by Kansas City International Airport (MCI). The Country Club Plaza, opened in 1923 as America's first suburban shopping center, offers Spanish-style architecture and endless fountains. The National WWI Museum and Memorial provides excellent exhibits and tower views. The Crossroads Arts District concentrates galleries and restaurants. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is free and excellent. Barbecue requires multiple meals: Joe's Kansas City for burnt ends, Arthur Bryant's for history, Q39 for modern interpretation. The American Jazz Museum at 18th and Vine provides context. The experience rewards appreciation for Middle American pride - a city that knows it's not coastal and doesn't care.