USA Today and 10Best.com are running an online contest to see who makes the best burgoo in Kentucky.
And the Owensboro-Daviess County Convention & Visitors Bureau is encouraging people to go online and vote for either Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn or Old Hickory Bar-B-Q.
“Anytime you can be on one of these lists like this, it’s good for the community,” Dave Kirk, the CVB’s destination management director, said Wednesday.
“We have the biggest burgoo pot,” he said of the giant kettle at Moonlite that has been driven in parades across the state in the past. “And we think we have the best burgoo.”
Kirk said, “Ole South Barbeque is good too. But they weren’t nominated.”
The list of nominees includes Boone Tavern, Berea; Bootleg Bar-B-Q, Louisville; Bully Barbeque, La Grange; Dave’s Sticky Pig, Madisonville; Doc’s BBQ Smokestack, Brandenburg; The Eagle, Louisville; Frankfort Avenue Beer Depot Smokehouse, Louisville; Firehouse Sandwich Stop at Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort; Harvest, Louisville; Keeneland, Lexington; Knockum Hill Bar-B-Que, Herndon.
Mark’s Feedstore, several locations; Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn, Owensboro; Old Hickory Bar-B-Q, Owensboro; Red Top BBQ, Guthrie; Shack in the Back BBQ, Fairdale; The Stave, Frankfort; Stella’s Kentucky Deli, Lexington; Talbott Tavern, Bardstown; and The Wood Shed, Hopkinsville.
“Anytime we have visitors from out of town — bus tour operators or travel writers — we take them out for barbecue,” Kirk said. “And we’re about to launch a campaign around barbecue in a week or two.”
Owensboro people are “very opinionated about their barbecue and burgoo,” he said. “We hope they’ll go online and vote.”
The web address is https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-burgoo-in-kentucky/
The website says people can vote once a day through 11 a.m. on Feb. 25.
The 10 winning restaurants will be announced on 10Best.com on March 8, it says.
People have to be at least 18 to vote.
Wednesday morning, Firehouse Sandwich Shop was in first place.
Old Hickory was at No. 4 and Moonlite, at No. 9.
In 2016, Owensboro’s International Bar-B-Q Festival placed third in a similar online contest.