Henry Perry
Barbecue, Garment District, Jazz era, trolley-barn BBQ
Henry Perry was a Tennessee native who sharpened his culinary chops in steamboat kitchens before arriving in Kansas City in 1907. He sold his special smoked meats out of a stand in a Garment District alley, catering to the swell of factory laborers in what was then the second-largest garment district in the nation. Perry’s popularity grew and he spent the Jazz Era catering to Kansas City’s most notorious in a trolley barn on 19th and Highland. His protégées would go on to open Kansas City’s barbeque staples Arthur Bryant’s and Gate’s.