Help us get the doors open at Moo's Craft BBQ!
Donation protected
Hi everyone,
We are Andrew and Michelle Muñoz, the owners and chefs behind Moo’s Craft Barbecue in Los Angeles, California. We're beyond excited to share news with you all that our dream of opening our first brick and mortar restaurant in the heart of Los Angeles is finally coming true! We’ve been hustling and praying for this moment for so long, and finally, we have our very own permanent location to serve you BBQ more than just on Sundays. We can’t wait to dive in and share more details about our new space, but before we do for those of you who are just learning about us, we would like to share a little bit about who we are and how our small family business got started.
We are born and raised Angelenos from the San Gabriel Valley. We've been together for 24 years (high school sweethearts), been married 13 years and we have two sons, Diego and Andrew Jr. ages 7 and 9. Our passion for Texas style barbecue happened long before our underground backyard popup days. Various work trips to Texas for Andrew while at the time employed as an insurance underwriter sparked the passion. Every chance he could take when traveling to Texas for work, he would make sure to visit a new BBQ joint. Every trip back home he’d come back feeling inspired with trying to figure out the craft by smoking meats at home almost every weekend. The obsession became more real when we both took a trip to Austin and I got to experience what real Texas BBQ was first hand. It was like nothing we had ever experienced in southern California at the time. We knew we had to change that in Los Angeles!
Fast forward a few years later (February 2017) and after many trial and error backyard cooks and once we had developed our style of Texas BBQ, we had the wild idea of sharing our craft on the weekends, in our very own backyard in East L.A. with anyone interested in trying our food. We kept the menu simple, brisket, ribs, pulled pork, a few sides and some aguas frescas. Our little side hustle was by invitation only which grew primarily through word of mouth and social media (Instagram) as a platform to help spread the word. It wasn’t long before the word got out and our backyard was filled with people and we had lines down our driveway. It’s fair to say we outgrew our tiny backyard very quickly. That’s when we decided to move our craft out of our backyard and move to doing popups at breweries all around Los Angeles. Keep in mind, Andrew was still working a full time job in insurance. This little biz was something we did out of passion and a desire to introduce the Texas BBQ craft to L.A. Our business was growing so fast that towards the end of 2018, we decided Andrew would leave the insurance industry and together we’d pursue our passion of bringing authentic Texas style barbecue to Los Angeles with the goal of someday opening a restaurant.
We made the jump in January of 2019 and became resident vendors inside L.A’s premier open air food market, Smorgasburg on Sunday’s. Everything went great in our first full year as a business and we were riding the momentum into 2020 in hopes that we’d find our very own brick and mortar sometime within the year. Then March 2020 happened and as we all know everything everywhere came to a complete stop. Our Sunday market was forced to go on hiatus due to the global pandemic. Here’s where we say that we could have lost all hope at this point and gave up, but instead we kept our faith, pivoted and figured out a way to keep going. We made a decision to change our business model to online preorders and contactless curbside service from our commissary kitchen in DTLA. It was really the only way to try and keep our business above water without drowning during the pandemic.
Thankfully it has worked out and It’s all because of the support from our wonderful customers from the backyard to the present, our amazing team and the support from everyone in this incredible community, that Moo’s Craft Barbecue has been able to survive these wild times and keep our small family business going. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for ordering our food and keeping us busy so that we could keep going to make this dream a reality. You’ve been the biggest part of our journey in barbecue.
Now that we have finally found a permanent home for Moo’s, let’s talk about the space with the emphasis that this isn't just our restaurant, it's a restaurant for everyone! Our new home is located in Lincoln Heights, just minutes to DTLA and Dodger Stadium, GO BLUE! We have plenty of space for indoor (when fully permitted) and outdoor al fresco dinning. The city is historically one of the oldest neighborhoods in L.A. and by coincidence I lived a good part of my childhood only a few blocks away from the restaurant, which only makes this space that more special. The space is everything we could have dreamed of and more and just like in our backyard days, we want everyone that comes through our doors to feel at home while having a good time, enjoying good barbecue and knocking back some craft beers and wine with loved ones. We have put our savings along with support from close loved ones who believe in us to receive the keys to our brick and mortar. As you might expect, the costs associated with opening any type of business is expensive and this is even more true in regards to opening a restaurant.
We’ve started this Go Fund Me to raise donations to help get the restaurant ready, hopefully by late this spring. The money we are looking to raise will help us to purchase some equipment that we don’t currently own but have had the pleasure of using when we shared a kitchen commissary space. Funds donated will also go towards branding our building by painting and installing custom restaurant signage and various other restaurant startup costs. Every donation is greatly appreciated and will help us get closer to our goal in opening a restaurant and bringing central Texas barbecue to everyone in Los Angeles and beyond. Thank you all so much for taking the time to read our story and donating if you’re able to. If you are unable to donate at this time but would still like to support us, please share our Go Fund Me with others or visit us for some barbecue sometime. We can't wait to welcome everyone into our new home.
With love and much gratitude,
The Muñoz Family
Los Angeles Times The 101
Food & Wine Best BBQ Restaurants in America
Los Angeles Times critics favorite LA BBQ restaurants
Los Angeles Magazine Best of LA 2020
Food & Wine Some of the Best Texas Barbecue is in Los Angeles
EATER LA
Insider Food
Man Fire Food Weekend BBQs The Cooking Channel
We are Andrew and Michelle Muñoz, the owners and chefs behind Moo’s Craft Barbecue in Los Angeles, California. We're beyond excited to share news with you all that our dream of opening our first brick and mortar restaurant in the heart of Los Angeles is finally coming true! We’ve been hustling and praying for this moment for so long, and finally, we have our very own permanent location to serve you BBQ more than just on Sundays. We can’t wait to dive in and share more details about our new space, but before we do for those of you who are just learning about us, we would like to share a little bit about who we are and how our small family business got started.
We are born and raised Angelenos from the San Gabriel Valley. We've been together for 24 years (high school sweethearts), been married 13 years and we have two sons, Diego and Andrew Jr. ages 7 and 9. Our passion for Texas style barbecue happened long before our underground backyard popup days. Various work trips to Texas for Andrew while at the time employed as an insurance underwriter sparked the passion. Every chance he could take when traveling to Texas for work, he would make sure to visit a new BBQ joint. Every trip back home he’d come back feeling inspired with trying to figure out the craft by smoking meats at home almost every weekend. The obsession became more real when we both took a trip to Austin and I got to experience what real Texas BBQ was first hand. It was like nothing we had ever experienced in southern California at the time. We knew we had to change that in Los Angeles!
Fast forward a few years later (February 2017) and after many trial and error backyard cooks and once we had developed our style of Texas BBQ, we had the wild idea of sharing our craft on the weekends, in our very own backyard in East L.A. with anyone interested in trying our food. We kept the menu simple, brisket, ribs, pulled pork, a few sides and some aguas frescas. Our little side hustle was by invitation only which grew primarily through word of mouth and social media (Instagram) as a platform to help spread the word. It wasn’t long before the word got out and our backyard was filled with people and we had lines down our driveway. It’s fair to say we outgrew our tiny backyard very quickly. That’s when we decided to move our craft out of our backyard and move to doing popups at breweries all around Los Angeles. Keep in mind, Andrew was still working a full time job in insurance. This little biz was something we did out of passion and a desire to introduce the Texas BBQ craft to L.A. Our business was growing so fast that towards the end of 2018, we decided Andrew would leave the insurance industry and together we’d pursue our passion of bringing authentic Texas style barbecue to Los Angeles with the goal of someday opening a restaurant.
We made the jump in January of 2019 and became resident vendors inside L.A’s premier open air food market, Smorgasburg on Sunday’s. Everything went great in our first full year as a business and we were riding the momentum into 2020 in hopes that we’d find our very own brick and mortar sometime within the year. Then March 2020 happened and as we all know everything everywhere came to a complete stop. Our Sunday market was forced to go on hiatus due to the global pandemic. Here’s where we say that we could have lost all hope at this point and gave up, but instead we kept our faith, pivoted and figured out a way to keep going. We made a decision to change our business model to online preorders and contactless curbside service from our commissary kitchen in DTLA. It was really the only way to try and keep our business above water without drowning during the pandemic.
Thankfully it has worked out and It’s all because of the support from our wonderful customers from the backyard to the present, our amazing team and the support from everyone in this incredible community, that Moo’s Craft Barbecue has been able to survive these wild times and keep our small family business going. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for ordering our food and keeping us busy so that we could keep going to make this dream a reality. You’ve been the biggest part of our journey in barbecue.
Now that we have finally found a permanent home for Moo’s, let’s talk about the space with the emphasis that this isn't just our restaurant, it's a restaurant for everyone! Our new home is located in Lincoln Heights, just minutes to DTLA and Dodger Stadium, GO BLUE! We have plenty of space for indoor (when fully permitted) and outdoor al fresco dinning. The city is historically one of the oldest neighborhoods in L.A. and by coincidence I lived a good part of my childhood only a few blocks away from the restaurant, which only makes this space that more special. The space is everything we could have dreamed of and more and just like in our backyard days, we want everyone that comes through our doors to feel at home while having a good time, enjoying good barbecue and knocking back some craft beers and wine with loved ones. We have put our savings along with support from close loved ones who believe in us to receive the keys to our brick and mortar. As you might expect, the costs associated with opening any type of business is expensive and this is even more true in regards to opening a restaurant.
We’ve started this Go Fund Me to raise donations to help get the restaurant ready, hopefully by late this spring. The money we are looking to raise will help us to purchase some equipment that we don’t currently own but have had the pleasure of using when we shared a kitchen commissary space. Funds donated will also go towards branding our building by painting and installing custom restaurant signage and various other restaurant startup costs. Every donation is greatly appreciated and will help us get closer to our goal in opening a restaurant and bringing central Texas barbecue to everyone in Los Angeles and beyond. Thank you all so much for taking the time to read our story and donating if you’re able to. If you are unable to donate at this time but would still like to support us, please share our Go Fund Me with others or visit us for some barbecue sometime. We can't wait to welcome everyone into our new home.
With love and much gratitude,
The Muñoz Family
Los Angeles Times The 101
Food & Wine Best BBQ Restaurants in America
Los Angeles Times critics favorite LA BBQ restaurants
Los Angeles Magazine Best of LA 2020
Food & Wine Some of the Best Texas Barbecue is in Los Angeles
EATER LA
Insider Food
Man Fire Food Weekend BBQs The Cooking Channel
Organizer
Andrew Munoz
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA
