In a nondescript building along Oakland’s San Pablo Avenue, culinary magic happens daily as pitmasters transform humble cuts of meat into transcendent barbecue that draws devoted pilgrims from across the Golden State.
Horn Barbecue stands as California’s answer to the iconic smoke joints of Texas and the Carolinas, yet with a distinct Bay Area soul that makes it something entirely its own.
The simple gray exterior with white lettering offers no hint of the sensory explosion waiting inside, making the discovery all the more delightful for first-timers who stumble upon this smoked meat sanctuary.
You can smell it before you see it – that intoxicating aroma of oak smoke and rendering fat that triggers something primal in your brain, a reaction honed by thousands of years of human evolution around fire…