Gary Berbiglia

Gary Vincent Berbiglia (November 21, 1946 – April 19, 2019) was a Kansas City restaurateur and a steward of one of the city’s most storied institutions. In March 1983 he and Bill Rauschelbach reopened Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque following the death of pitmaster Arthur Bryant, and Berbiglia helped carry the legendary restaurant — and the Henry Perry barbecue lineage it embodies — into its next generation. A longtime figure in the local hospitality community, he served as president of the Greater Kansas City Missouri Restaurant Association in 1980.

Biography

Gary Berbiglia spent much of his life in and around the Kansas City restaurant business. In 1980 he served as president of the Greater Kansas City Missouri Restaurant Association, reflecting a standing among his peers in the local hospitality trade.¹

Namesake pitmaster Arthur Bryant died on December 28, 1982, at age 80.² In March 1983, Berbiglia and Bill Rauschelbach reopened Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque at 1727 Brooklyn Avenue — the address the restaurant had occupied since 1958, and the one Calvin Trillin had made nationally famous — pledging to preserve its barbecue style and recipes.¹³ Under the Berbiglia–Rauschelbach ownership, Arthur Bryant’s continued as a national barbecue destination and a working monument to the Henry Perry lineage of Kansas City barbecue. He was also co-owner of Joe’s Barn in Stanley, Kansas.¹

A lifelong Kansas City–area resident — living in Lenexa, Kansas at the end of his life — Berbiglia died on April 19, 2019, at age 72; he is buried at Floral Hills Cemetery in Kansas City.¹ His decades of stewardship are part of why Arthur Bryant’s remains a continuous link to the origins of the Kansas City barbecue tradition.

Legacy

Berbiglia represents a type of Kansas City figure easy to overlook in the city’s food history: not the founder whose name is on the sign, but the steward whose care kept an institution alive across generations. His tenure bridged the Bryant family era and the modern life of one of America’s most famous barbecue restaurants.

See also

• arthur-bryants-barbeque
• bill-rauschelbach
• henry-perry

Sources

Footnotes

1. Gary V. Berbiglia obituary, The Kansas City Star / Legacy.com and Dignity Memorial (2019) — born November 21, 1946; lifelong KC resident (of Lenexa, KS); co-owner of Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque and Joe’s Barn (Stanley, KS); president of the Greater Kansas City Missouri Restaurant Association, 1980; died April 19, 2019, age 72; buried Floral Hills Cemetery, Kansas City. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/kansascity/name/gary-berbiglia-obituary?id=4505412 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. “This Day in History: Barbecue Hall of Famer Arthur Bryant dies at age 80,” KCTV5 — Arthur Bryant died December 28, 1982. Corroborated by Kansas City Public Library, “Death of a Legend.” ↩

3. “Arthur Bryant’s,” Wikipedia — restaurant at 1727 Brooklyn Avenue since 1958; ownership passed to Bill Rauschelbach and Gary Berbiglia (reopened March 1983) after Arthur Bryant’s 1982 death; the Rauschelbach family held the restaurant until its 2022 sale. ↩