Wellll…this was a good news/bad news IOHO. Horn BBQ is skipping town to move into 3422 Mount Diablo Blvd, Lafayette (at Brown Ave.), having decided not to reopen in Oakland. The good news is, the location has a small parking lot. The bad news is, it’s the lot shared with our favorite Italian restaurant in CCCounty, Locanda Positano.
The new restaurant will bring Horn’s signature “West Coast barbecue” to Lafayette’s buzzy downtown for the first time, offering up brisket, beef and pork ribs, smoked turkey, wings and Horn-style Burnt Ends and the full lineup of sides, from mac and cheese to collard greens, cornbread and slaw.
The new location opens Dec 18, 2024.
– per EBay Times 18Dec2024
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I like BBQ, but we like Italian food a whole lot better – and with no parking along Mt Diablo Blvd., and extremely limited residential parking around that entire block, we’re not looking forward to the inevitable lines of BBQ fans invading what was an easy choice for lunch or dinner, even on weekends, to visit LP. But we’ll see how it goes…!
It looks like he’s going to keep the current Oakland location and this will be a second location. Good new for Lafayette folks. The current Oakland location doesn’t really have lines like the original location did.
Do you know why that is? We went a couple of weeks ago and was surprised that it wasn’t very busy at all. I am guessing there aren’t many people working in old Oakland these days with WFH?
I have no idea. Maybe it’s a chicken/egg thing where people don’t see a line so they don’t think it’s good lol. I’ve been to the OG and this one, and it is just as good as the OG.
Thx, brisket44, sorry I wasn’t more clear about my OP. Horn decided not to reopen the West Oakland original site that was damaged by fire, so he moved the BBQ operation to downtown Oakland, 464 8th St, Oakland (betw Broadway & Washington St).
I don’t think his announcement was so clear- lol - I saw someone asked him on Instagram and he clarified he was not shutting down the Downtown Oakland branch.
Agree, things got messy and weird, including lawsuits. So how did they expand when conventional loans probably a no go given the mess. I guess they got backing because expanding that fast seems like a jump. Just a guess who knows.
Have any of you actually eaten his bbq?
I’m a bit suspicious of the “acclaimed “ status. It seems his publicity is self perpetuating.
I’d like to be wrong.
I’ve had it 3-4 times, the brisket is indeed excellent, the ribs and chicken and sides are wildly inconsistent. His fried chicken place isn’t great and the burger place seemed like a poor concept that closed quickly. I’m not optimistic for any quality control with more than one branch.
I was determined to try it, and it was all right, but my order didn’t include fork, knife, spoon, nor sauce, which I think would have greatly improved the experience.
conference at the Oakland Convention center and ordered Horn BBQ to my hotel room.
