LAFAYETTE, CALIFORNIA – If you love a good brisket plate or a rack of ribs, it has been a rough stretch in the 925.
Over the past year, several barbecue spots (and BBQ-adjacent places that leaned heavily on smoked meats) have either shut down, gone dark, or been forced into sudden closures.
Based on the emails and comments we’ve received here at the Bay Area Telegraph, lots of locals are wondering “Are our BBQ places somehow cursed?”
Spoiler alert: probably not. But it’s a tough type of restaurant to run successfully here. That said, several local places have been pulling it off for years or decades.
The talk of a curse started after the sudden, apparent closure of Horn BBQ in Lafayette.
Although the company hasn’t yet formally confirmed it, locals have been telling us since early 2026 that Horn is in effectively shut down, and we’ve noted construction notice signs on the front of the restaurant.
That closure stings, because Horn’s move to Lafayette was a high-profile win for the city’s culinary scene. Though it was pricey and waits were insane, the food here was amazing.
It also hurts because the list of restaurants in the same space on Mount Diablo Blvd reads a bit like the Swamp Castle scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
For over a decade, the building successfully hosted Bo’s BBQ, a beloved local institution. When Bo’s shut down, each successive restaurant stayed for a shorter and shorter time.
Boneheads BBQ, which came after Bo’s, lasted for around 7 years and made tasty, intensely-smoky BBQ.
When it closed in 2023, All the Smoke came into the space and made it work for almost two years. Horn, assuming it has indeed closed now, lasted less than one.
Simultaneously, Dad’s BBQ opened in Rossmoor and also lasted under a year. And down in Dublin, Lucille’s BBQ–a chain but a tasty one–also closed.
The string of Lafayette closures was enough to have people asking whether the specific building housing Bo’s/Boneheads/All the Smoke/Horn was cursed.
But the whole scene felt okay. Our readers continuously pointed at Slow Hand BBQ over in Pleasant Hill as proof that things would be alright.
Then, it burned down.
I was on the scene after that tragic fire. The entire place was gutted, with the innards of the restaurant poured out onto the pavement, awash in white firefighting foam. I’m told that multiple adjacent businesses were also destroyed in the fire.
The turnover at Horn’s location, the failure of Dad’s BBQ, and then the fire at Slow Hand got people really spooked.
So is the Great and Terrible BBQ Curse of the 925 a real thing?
Probably not. Barbecue restaurants are tough to run under any circumstances. The food is hard to cook right and requires hours of prep time, yet people expect it to be fairly cheap and casual.
Barbecue restaurants also require massive, specialized smokers. When one place goes under, a new BBQ restaurant pretty much has to move in–otherwise, there’s nothing to do but yank out the gigantic set of kit that’s needed to properly smoke meats.
The issue is that if one restaurant goes under, and another similar restaurant ends up moving into the same space to make use of the massive equipment, that risks repeating the challenges that put the first place under.
And making BBQ food is risky. You’re dealing with live fire, burning continually, indoors, often with little to no supervision. I spoke to ConFire right after Slow Hand’s Pleasant Hill location burned down, and they immediately ruled it an accident.
The restaurant’s indoor brick smoker simply went ablaze and couldn’t contain its fire any longer, ConFire’s investigators suspect.
Horn’s former Oakland location also burned down, although that was reportedly ruled arson–a different matter entirely.
The biggest argument against a BBQ curse is the fact that multiple restaurants have been making BBQ food in the 925, often for years or decades.
Slow Hand has a second location in Martinez which remains open. The restaurant has publicly asked its fans in the Lamorinda and PH/WC areas to make the trek to Martinez to help see them through their recovery from the fire.
I love Hazy BBQ down in Danville.
It succeeds by turning BBQ into a family friendly scene with a bright interior, lots of big tables, an outdoor patio, and food that attracts big groups–the kind of place a family might dine together or a Little League team might visit after a game.
Our readers have also written into share their favorite long-time spots. Back Forty in Pleasant Hill gets some love, as does Kinder in Walnut Creek across from Heather Farm, Sauced in both WC and Livermore, and the Original Hick’Ry Pit by the Kaiser Hospital in WC.
One local even wrote that if he was going to shuffle off this mortal coil (my words, not his), his last meal would be at Back Forty. High praise.
So BBQ does indeed work here. But it’s a risky business. And once a specific location struggles, other restaurants opening in the same spot may struggle, too.
That’s all the more reason to support the BBQ places we still have. And perhaps pour out a bit of sauce, or set aside a sacrificial hunk of brisket, in deference to the curse.
You know, just in case.
