{"id":360525,"date":"2026-06-14T17:08:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T17:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/360525\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T17:08:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T17:08:42","slug":"famous-chef-came-home-to-open-bbq-joint-his-fresno-restaurant-closed-within-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/360525\/","title":{"rendered":"Famous chef came home to open BBQ joint. His Fresno restaurant closed within months"},"content":{"rendered":"

Horn Barbecue<\/a> in Fresno has closed.<\/p>\n

The restaurant is locked up tight with a \u201cnotice to vacate\u201d posted on the door.<\/p>\n

The highly lauded barbecue spot that opened in January in Granite Park near Ashlan and Cedar avenues with long lines was a homecoming for Fresno native Matt Horn.<\/p>\n

Considered a rising star in the culinary world, Horn and his Horn Barbecue in Oakland earned a James Beard Award nomination and was the first Black-owned barbecue restaurant in the country to receive a Michelin\u2019s Bib Gourmand award.<\/p>\n

But troubles at his Bay Area restaurants appear to have followed him to Fresno. There are claims of unpaid wages<\/a>, a fire that destroyed the Oakland restaurant being investigated as arson<\/a>, and the closure of all but one of his restaurants.<\/p>\n

The downtown Oakland restaurant<\/a>, which replaced the one that burned, is still open.<\/p>\n

The Fresno Horn Barbecue<\/p>\n

In Fresno, a passerby said a sign went up on the Fresno Horn Barbecue May 18 saying it would reopen, but it never did and the sign was later removed.<\/p>\n

The legal notice on the door, a pre-cursor to formal legal eviction, gives the restaurant until 6:01 a.m. June 17 to leave the premises.<\/p>\n

The landlord and the attorney representing them did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment about the situation. Notices to vacate can be served for unpaid rent or other reasons the landlord cites to cancel the rental agreement.<\/p>\n

The Bee reached out to Horn and his spokesman about the closure Thursday morning. The spokesman said he would share a statement from Horn, but it hadn\u2019t arrived several hours later.<\/p>\n

In March, The Bee reported that several employees said they weren\u2019t getting paid<\/a> and had quit. They said managers had asked workers for mobile payment account information, such as Zelle or Cash App, to pay them.<\/p>\n

Two people had filed unpaid wage claims with the State of California at the time. Thursday, unpaid wage claims against Horn Barbecue in the Fresno area had jumped to 12.<\/p>\n

In total, 23 claims have been filed relating to restaurants in Oakland and the Sacramento area, with four of them closed, settled or dismissed.<\/p>\n

Horn Barbecue once had a location in Old Town Elk Grove, but it was repossessed by its landlord<\/a> in January, less than a year after opening.<\/p>\n

In March, a representative of Horn told The Fresno Bee that the payment difficulties in Fresno were temporary because the restaurant\u2019s opening was delayed. The restaurant was spending money without taking any in, said Seneca Scott.<\/p>\n

\"Fresno<\/p>\n

Fresno native and acclaimed barbecue chef Matt Horn checks on barbecue meats on the smokers at Horn Barbecue on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

(CRAIG KOHLRUSS\/ckohlruss@fresnobee.com)\"The<\/p>\n

The landlord has posted a notice to vacate by 6:01 a.m. June 17 is posted on the door of Horn Barbecue in Fresno. It\u2019s a pre-cursor to a formal eviction notice.<\/p>\n

\"Lunchtime<\/p>\n

Lunchtime visitors wait in line at the counter inside Horn Barbecue in Fresno’s Granite Park shopping center on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. The long-anticipated barbecue restaurant opened on Tuesday, Jan. 20.<\/p>\n

\"Various<\/p>\n

Various barbecue meats including a large beef rib, pork ribs, pulled pork, chicken, hot link and turkey breast sit on a platter at Horn Barbecue which opened in Fresno’s Granite Park on Jan. 20, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"Fresno<\/p>\n

Fresno native and Horn Barbecue founder Matt Horn sits with a selection of barbecue meats and sides at his new restaurant at its opening in Fresno’s Granite Park shopping center on Jan. 20, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Horn Barbecue in Fresno has closed. The restaurant is locked up tight with a \u201cnotice to vacate\u201d posted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[18422,112,114,113,66761,75462,1457,3454],"class_list":["post-360525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-barbecue-restaurant","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-horn","tag-matt-horn","tag-restaurant","tag-the-fresno-bee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}