It’s Last Call For Ribs and Brisket at Baby Blues BBQ in West Hollywood

West Hollywood barbecue mainstay Baby Blues BBQ is set to close on Sunday. The burgeoning mini-chain first opened in 2004, eventually launching outlets from Venice to West Hollywood to San Francisco and even Philadelphia.

A tipster writes in to say that Sunday night will be the final evening of service for the Santa Monica Boulevard location, which had been an anchor for the area years before the introduction of many of the newer, more popular restaurants nearby. The place kept a rustic and casual environment, with a pan-regional menu full of ribs, brisket, pulled pork, and sides. A rep for Baby Blues confirmed the Sunday shutdown, but did hint at a new future location for the restaurant somewhere else in the future.

As for what’s next at that site, there are a few intriguing possibilities. Some city paperwork filed earlier this summer suggests a project by none other than Dushan Zaric, the Employees Only cocktail bar co-founder who has been in Los Angeles for some time now, most recently helping to open Downtown’s Hotel Figueroa. It’s possible that Zaric and his team could be opening a Los Angeles outpost of Employees Only, but rumor has it there will be a different project on property: a bar called The Townsend.

The Townsend is a popular Austin bar that Zaric took over earlier this year, so there’s certainly an existing connection. That’s all unconfirmed at the moment though, and Eater reached out to Zaric and folks from The Townsend directly but did not hear back. Regardless, expect a final night of service for Baby Blues BBQ this Sunday, but don’t worry — Slab BBQ on West Third Street is opening soon enough.

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