UPDATE: Baby Blues BBQ, originally set to close on Sunday, already has shut down. The restaurant has a closed sign on its front door.
Baby Blues BBQ, the go to place for barbecue in West Hollywood, is closing on Sunday.
The closing, first reported in Eater Los Angeles, will leave WeHo without a barbecue-focused restaurant.
Baby Blues BBQ opened in 2004 and grew to become a small chain with locations in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Venice as well as WeHo, where it is located at 7953 Santa Monica Blvd.
Its menu included a variety of barbecue types including Memphis ribs, baby back ribs, a Texas-style beef brisket and a North Carolina-style pulled pork. It also is one of the few if not only places in West Hollywood where one can find collard greens on the menu.
WEHOville was unable to reach anyone at Baby Blues for a comment. But Eater LA reports that Baby Blues may be opening at a new location in Los Angles. Eater LA also reports that the West Hollywood location may be replaced by The Townsend, an iteration of a bar in Austin, Tex., run by Dushan Zaric. Zaric also is co-founder of the Employees Only bar in New York City.
Zaric in his early days was a bartender at Pravda, a very popular bar in New York City.
It was excellent. Very good ribs, excellent slaw and macaroni. They delivered.
I recall the owner saying that he had to have valet parking for his lot. Rent was high. WEHO put them through the usual bureaucratic rigamarole.
Of course with hot shot lobbyists, WEHO swept in Laurel Hardware’s opening with no parking available. Pay to play?
What else can you excpect from the white folk who are on the WEHO council and manage this so-called diverse “creative city.”
Well, I was going to try and catch it for lunch or happy hour one last time, but then they suddenly close after announcing Sunday as their last day? That’s a real shame. I did think it was overpriced, but I would like to have went one last time.
Bludso’s is better, and more reasonable. It is not far away, on La Brea, right below Melrose.
When it first opened, the food was amazing (although pricey). Then the food went downhill quickly. The meat was dry and even sauce can’t help that. Never ate there again after that at those prices.
They had THE ABSOLUTE BEST Mac-n-cheese, pulled pork sandwiches, and ribs. Easy-going efficient servers, and a laid-back, no-pretense, funky atmosphere. Good prices (compared to most other WeHo eateries. I’m VERY much going to miss them.
No surprise no nice sigg of “thanks”. Opportunists operate this way and many of them are lured to Weho. $25-$37 for a dinner of barbecue tells you all you need to know. In the South where there is great BBQ, it’s always the cheapest spot in town that does business in droves. Apparently the owners never thought about that. Bon Voyage!!
They are already closed with a crudely written sign that simply says CLOSED in a black marker. Seems a good business person would have put up a nice message thanking patrons for their business and inviting them to their Venice location. So strange.
One of the few restaurants left that folks of modest means could still afford to eat at in this city that is increasingly forgetting and dispossessing its roots and ignoring its working class and fixed-income poor in order to cater to deep-pocketed predatory real estate speculators who lavish campaign contributions to those who will give them a pass while giving empty promises to the citizens to whom they are supposed to be responsible. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the rents go up, and the band plays on as if everything is hunky-dory. What a shame. It was… Read more »
Lots of names have graced, or disgraced, the building over the years. La Fabula, Victor Hodd’s, Boy Bait, Reel Inn, Confete, Cha Cha Cha Tapas among them.
But parking has always been an issue as long as there was an active club west of it, not that I am praising the food or environs in any of the above mentioned places.
Maybe the whole block will be demolished and one good project will replace it.
I am very disappointed, yes maybe not the best BBQ in L.A. but a great place to sit and have a nice drink/meal without dealing with the “Hollywood” BS. You could actually have a conversation with the other people at the bar – how strange is that. Maybe WeHo needs another “Catch” so I have to go buy a new $1000 outfit just to have dinner at place I have to beg to let into. SMH
bring back la fabula ! … lot’s of fun in it’s day.
Money controls everything. I personally thought this place had great food, but rarely ate there because I thought it was very overpriced. $25-$37 for a dinner entree. Lunch was a better deal, as was happy hour. I miss Zeke’s, next to Target. That place had great food, and was reasonable. They also delivered.
I never understood this restaurant. It’s ratty, torn furniture and funky, dive vibe did not compute. Plus, I didnt think the menu was all that enticing. To me, no great loss. BTW – As a long time resident, there have been numerous restaurants located st this site. Surely another and far better establishment will replace it.