Popular SLO barbecue restaurant closes doors after ‘almost 3 decades of amazing times’
Popular San Luis Obispo restaurant Mo’s Smokehouse BBQ permanently closed its doors on Monday after 28 years of operation downtown.
The restaurant announced the closure on Facebook, saying that, “after 28 years of serving the downtown community, as of today sadly our San Luis Obispo location will be closed.”
“We want to thank you for almost three decades of amazing times SLO,” the post concluded.
The announcement was met with sadness from longtime customers who bemoaned the sudden loss.
“What a bummer,” one person commented on the post. “Wish we’d have known ahead of time so we could have made one last run to town for lunch.”
“Best pulled pork and atmosphere in town,” another said.
Over the decades, the founding story of Mo’s has taken on the flavor of myth.
Mo’s opened in downtown San Luis Obispo in June 1994, replacing the long-time Assembly Line, according to Telegram-Tribune archives.
At the time, restaurant founder Larry Kowalski said he wanted to open a real Southern-style barbecue joint different from the Santa Maria-style barbecue more known along the Central Coast.
According to the often-repeated story, Kowalski “logged 4,000 miles through the Midwest and South, eating at about 70 barbecue restaurants along the way” before he developed the specific sauce recipe that would help cement the restaurant in locals’ hearts.
To develop Mo’s beloved barbecue sauce, “I spent hours and hours in the kitchen,” he told what was then the Telegram-Tribune in May 1996. “Finally by 3 o’clock in the morning ... I betcha I had ingested three or four (huge) cups of barbecue sauce.”
According to Kowalski, he came back to the kitchen the next morning, stuck his finger in the final mixture he had made and knew it was a winner.
“I said, ‘Man this is just perfect,’” Kowalski said in the Telegram-Tribune article, which detailed Mo’s Smokehouse BBQ’s win for best pork ribs at the 11th Annual Rib Cook Off that year. Kowalski died in 2008.
Mo’s Smokehouse BBQ’s address changed over the years before the restaurant ultimately ended up at 1005 Monterey St., where it replaced Hudson’s Grill.
In 1999, the company acquired Nick’s Place in Pismo Beach and opened its second location in the county.
According to its Facebook post on Monday, Mo’s Smokehouse BBQ will remain open at 221 Pomeroy Ave. in Pismo Beach. The company will also continue to offer catering.
Mo’s Smokehouse BBQ did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.
This story was originally published December 27, 2022 at 3:09 PM.
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