Owensboro has the best Old Hickory is the place you want, but there's also like a week of bbq festival every year with dozens and dozens of cooking teams. You'll find pockets of bbq in Madisonville, Lexington, Louisville, etc.

The mutton and chicken and pork is long cooked, low and slow, over hickory wood, and the baste and sauce has a lot of vinegar in it that breaks down the tough meat and makes it super tender. It's not spicy like the US west or southwest, and doesn't have all the sugar that Kansas City bbq does.

It is very, very good.

Also, burgoo soup!