Matt Horn, the James Beard-nominated pitmaster who made a name for himself on the California barbecue scene, has closed his last restaurant.<\/p>\n
Horn Barbecue is permanently shuttered at its location at 464 8th St. in downtown Oakland. The San Francisco Chronicle confirmed the shutdown<\/a> through Horn\u2019s spokesperson, who indicated that the chef decided not to renew the lease.<\/p>\n The restaurant seemed to have operated in an on-again, off-again status for the past couple of months. One reviewer on Google Maps<\/a> wrote three weeks ago: \u201cI got the recommendation from the Michelin website and checked the opening hours on Google. It said it was open, I drove 40 minutes and it was closed. Neither website mentioned it. Absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n That experience appears to have been fairly typical of late, with other online reviews complaining about unannounced closures. The site Berkeley Eats actually interviewed a homeless man camping in the restaurant\u2019s doorway, who reportedly said<\/a>: \u201cIt\u2019s out of business. All this man\u2019s places have gone out of business.\u201d<\/p>\n The chef and his Horn Barbecue had earned a James Beard Award nomination. His restaurant was the first Black-owned barbecue eatery in the U.S. to receive a Michelin Bib Gourmand award.<\/p>\n But his small empire of restaurants has been extinguished, one joint after another, as a plethora of problems struck. There are lawsuits regarding allegations of unpaid wages<\/a>. A fire that destroyed one of his Oakland restaurants was investigated as possible arson, according to the Fresno Bee<\/a>.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, a location of Horn Barbecue in Lafayette<\/a> was mysteriously evicted by the Contra Costa Sheriff\u2019s Office. It has since been replaced with a different barbecue restaurant.<\/p>\n