Horn BBQ restaurant won’t reopen in West Oakland amid new legal troubles
Renowned barbecue pitmaster Matt Horn said the restaurant's recent woes "extend beyond the initial devastation" of a major fire that broke out there late last year.
OAKLAND — Amid brand-new legal troubles, the owner of Horn Barbecue said Thursday he would not reopen the popular restaurant at its West Oakland location, weeks after receiving $100,000 from Alameda County to help restore it.
In a social media announcement, renowned barbecue pitmaster Matt Horn said the restaurant’s recent woes “extend beyond the initial devastation” of a major fire that broke out late last year at the Mandela Parkway joint.
Specifically, he wrote, the restaurant site has since been plagued by squatters living in the building, plus “significant structural damage with the piping and electrical systems being stripped, our shipping container being vandalized (and) continuous theft and crime in the vicinity.”
“These occurrences, each an ordeal on their own, collectively have created an environment that, at this point, is untenable for us to operate in safely and effectively,” wrote Horn, who owns two other restaurants in Oakland: Matty’s Old Fashioned, which serves burgers, and Kowbird, known for its fried chicken.
Horn did not mention his legal troubles, which involve owing $167,000 to his former business partner for allegedly unpaid wages and $83,000 to his former meat distributor.
On Tuesday, the Alameda County court dealt Horn another blow, ordering him to pay $64,000 to Cooks Company Produce, a San Francisco-based distributor that had sought damages from Horn over a contract dispute.
Last month, attorneys for the former partner, David Kim, said Horn had been unreachable across many phone calls, letters to his addresses and attempts to visit him in person.
Besides the county money, Horn’s family also raised $130,000 from the public through a GoFundMe in the days after the fire. He said in a new update to the donation page that this may not be the end for his barbecue restaurant.
“Looking ahead, I am filled with optimism as we envision reopening Horn Barbecue in a new Oakland location,” Horn wrote in the update, posted Tuesday. “While we are currently in the process of finding and securing this new space, the prospect of welcoming you again fills us with excitement.”
It was not immediately clear Thursday if Horn has already received $100,000 in federal COVID-19 relief money from the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, which unanimously approved the funding in late February.
Reached on Thursday, Supervisor Nate Miley, the board’s president, said he’d check with the county’s legal counsel Donna Ziegler as to whether Horn is eligible to keep the cash.
Supervisor Keith Carson, who first proposed allocating the money to Horn from what remains of his $3.1 million share of American Rescue Plan Act money, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Horn previously declined to be interviewed about his legal woes, saying in a text message, which he unsent shortly afterward, “What does it matter if I address it or not? People believe whatever they want to. My character is sound and intact.”
At the time of last November’s fire, Horn had speculated that it was arson — actively targeted at him by criminals who earlier had tagged the West Oakland restaurant with graffiti.
On Tuesday, an Oakland fire spokesperson said the cause behind the building’s burning remained unclear, noting that “investigators continue to seek out witness testimony, additional surveillance footage, and evidence to provide more information” as to how it started.
This story will be updated.