Most of the time, no one really remembers a restaurant 10 or 20 years after it closes. Flint’s Barbecue, a Bay Area legend in the art of finger-licking sauce and slow-smoked meats, is the exception that proves the rule: Even though the restaurant’s heyday was back in the 1970s and ’80s, old-timers in Oakland will still talk your head off about that ’cue to this very day.
That legacy is why folks were so excited when Crystal Martin, the granddaughter of Flint’s founder Willie Flintroy, revived the family business back in 2019, albeit mostly in the form of occasional pop-ups. And it’s why each of those pop-ups has been a sold-out, line-around-the-block affair.
In fact, Martin says she’s thinking about limiting the pop-up to a once-a-year tradition. These days, most of her business comes from catering and private events, and she doesn’t want the pop-ups to detract from her search for a more permanent brick-and-mortar home for Flint’s.
That search has mostly been a disappointment. Martin’s original plan, to open in the original West Oakland Flint’s location on San Pablo Avenue, fell through. Then, the restaurant had a short-lived stint at a ghost kitchen facility in North Oakland. Apart from that, she’s looked at a string of locations that are way too expensive for her and her sisters to afford. “I’m beginning to get discouraged,” Martin says.
