In 1908, he began serving smoked meats to workers in the Garment District in Downtown Kansas City from an alley stand.
[2] He then moved his stand, "Perry's Barbecue", to 17th and Lydia in the inner city neighborhood of 18th Street and Vine.
Customers paid 25 cents for hot meat smoked over oak and hickory and wrapped in newsprint.
Perry's menu included such barbecue standards of the day as beef and wild game such as possum, woodchuck, and raccoon.
[1] On March 22, 1940, at 5:55 A.M., Perry died in Kansas City due to pneumonia and complications from an infection.