Four-Alarm BBQ

Here's a sad bit of news. Every year, many of those who attend the Comic-Con International in San Diego have enjoyed a meal or two at a glorious "dive" called the Kansas City Barbecue Company, directly across from the Hyatt. It was always fun to go there, eat ribs and other messy things — their chicken sandwich was one of my favorite meals anywhere — and savor the happy atmosphere. The restaurant even famously appeared in a movie: The bar scene in Top Gun was filmed there.

All the past tense in the above paragraph is because the Kansas City Barbecue Company was barbecued on Thursday. A fire broke out in its cooking pit that afternoon and within minutes, the place was gone. Here are the grim details. Fortunately, no one was injured.

The owners say they're going to rebuild but it will obviously not be in time for this year's convention. And I'm afraid it won't ever be the same. They'll probably spoil the new version by making it nice. Here's a video link to news coverage.