The Centurion Awards
The Kansas City skyline at night Photo: Lasse Fuss (CC BY-SA 3.0)
2025 Centurion Award winners

Best of Kansas City.

Burnt ends, more fountains than Rome, and jazz that never stopped swinging at 18th and Vine.

America's 37th-largest city · 521K people 5 verified winners · 2025 21 categories open
Award categories

The 2025 winners, by category.

Every winner below cleared the same published bar. Only winners are published — no rankings, no runner-up lists, no sponsored placements.

Restaurants · 4 winners · 2025

Specialty Shops · 1 winner · 2025

Every category in Kansas City

Categories open as their first winner is verified. If a category is still accepting nominations, the fastest way to open it is to put a business forward.

The market

Why Kansas City is worth the fuss.

Kansas City barbecue is a complete civilization: burnt ends invented here, sauce debates conducted with religious seriousness, and smokehouses from gas stations to temples. The city that gave America its barbecue vocabulary still writes new entries every year.

Jazz grew up at 18th & Vine, First Fridays fill the Crossroads, boulevards and fountains give the city its bones, and Sundays are red from September to January. KC’s character is midwestern warmth with a swagger it earned fair and square.

Kansas City, in short

What locals would tell you first:

Burnt ends 18th & Vine jazz City of Fountains Crossroads First Fridays Red Kingdom Sundays
How to use this guide

What “best” means in Kansas City.

This guide is built for people who want a better local signal than vote drives, paid badges, or anonymous directory rankings.

Each category starts with public evidence: years in operation, sustained online presence, a real customer track record, positive community sentiment, and recognition in the local community. Open a category to see the winner, the reasons it cleared the bar, and links back to the business itself.

Only winners are published. We don’t sell sponsored placements, publish negative verdicts, or let a business buy its way onto this list. The exact thresholds stay internal so the award can’t be gamed, but the methodology is public and applies the same way in every market.

Know a Kansas City business that deserves a serious look?

Nominate it for the next evaluation. Free, takes a minute, and nothing is ever published unless it clears the bar.

Nominate a business Read the methodology