Your guide to the 2010 American Royal

Forget Opening Day. The time to take off work is tomorrow — the first public day of the 2010 American Royal Barbecue. More than 500 barbecue teams are arriving as you read this, to set up their smokers and gear in the hopes of walking away with an oversized $10,000 check and the title of Grand Champion.

But for those of us who aren’t strapping on the aprons this weekend, there’s still a lot of barbecue to enjoy. Fat City checked in with the Kansas City Barbecue Society’s Ardie Davis — he’ll be the guy in the bowler hat swearing in the judges — to guide you through the massive event that more than 70,000 people attended last year.