The team behind San Diego's hit Italian restaurant group, Buona Forchetta, will set its eyes on homemade barbecue in 2019 with the opening of Carbón, a Texas-style BBQ house and beer bar.
Italian native Matteo Cattaneo opened his award-winning Buona Forchetta in San Diego's South Park neighborhood in 2013 and has been packing the house since day one. In March 2017, the company opened an offshoot dubbed Officine Buona Forchetta in Liberty Station, which coincided with the announcement of an incoming, 1,100 square foot Encinitas branch, which "soft" opened last month. Also opened last month is Enoteca Buona Forchetta - an Italian bodega and bistro that sits two doors down from the company's flagship South Park restaurant. There is also a Coronado offshoot being installed within the space that long housed El Cordova Garage, tentatively dubbed "Garage Buona Forchetta," anticipated to open in late 2019. Buona Forchetta ownership also has plans for a non-profit breakfast-centric restaurant in the former Rebecca's coffee space at 3015 Juniper Street in South Park.
Carbón will offer a menu centered around smoked meat and beer. The new restaurant will be managed by barbecue-aficionado and longtime friend of Catteneo, Antonio Kawage, who previously worked as an executive in the energy and finance industry, as well as as a race instructor for the Porsche Club of America. Like San Diego's popular Grand Ole BBQ y Asado, which is located less than a mile away from the site of Carbón, the menu will be based around central Texas-style barbecue and traditional comfort food sides.
Carbón hopes to open by summer 2019 at 2314 30th Street in San Diego's South Park.
