'Very important,' Tripadvisor wrote in a tweet on Thursday. 'we did not make those wild BBQ maps.'
As the statement from Tripadvisor noted, the list released by Chef's Pencil stated it used TripAdvisor data to"find out which cities are the best for enjoying a fantastic BBQ," and then"analyzed TripAdvisor ratings of all BBQ joints in the nation's top 75 largest cities and ranked the cities based on their average rating."
According to the Chef's Pencil list, 2,020 places offering BBQ on their menu that had at least 5 reviews were analyzed for the rankings.Robert Alexander/Getty The list ranked New Orleans as the No. 1 city in the U.S. for barbeque, which was given an average rating of 4.31 across 18 different restaurants. Oklahoma City was ranked as the second best city for barbeque with an average rating of 4.26.
Charlotte, North Carolina; Wichita, Kansas and Virginia Beach were all tied for the third with a rating of 4.25. Shortly after the list was released on Wednesday, it sparked controversy across social media, with people from their respective cities expressing distaste for the rankings.This must be a joke.