Looney's Smokehouse Barbecue: Best Barbecue in Northern California

On Father's Day, I had a virtual heart attack and I am just now beginning to recover.

My family and I were hunting for good barbecue and had no luck. Since we've moved here to California, we've tried a few places but nothing seemed to taste right. We're from North Carolina where barbecue is everywhere, and we're friends with a few Texans who know how to smoke a mean brisket. We had just about given up on finding some home-cooked barbecue until my wife turned on the television and saw a local business profile show that featured a barbecue place that opened up eight months ago. I glanced over and saw probably the largest beef rib I had ever seen in my life.

"Where is that? Because that's where I want to be on Father's Day."

And off we went to Looney's Barbecue Smokehouse on Father's Day.

The history of the place lies with the owner. His name is actually Ken Looney, so the barbecue place isn't a crazy name, but I thought he was crazy for opening up his first restaurant in Berkley, California. Berkley has more Indian and Pakistani restaurants on one strip than New York has McDonald's. Every other store is either vegetarian, organic, or some sort of garden, and Ken Looney decides to smoke meat right across from the stadium. "I just wanted to be closer to the college kids," he says. Soon after, Ken's got a modern-looking building full of meaty goodness and just waiting for football season to start since he's directly diagonal from the college stadium.

Ken tells me (and everyone else he comes across in his restaurant) that he was a nuclear submarine officer in the Navy for 10 years. All along the way he kept eating good barbecue and decided he would learn to cook it. He got the hang of it and experimented with sauces from all over like Kansas City, Texas, and the Carolinas. Then Ken one day decided he was going to open up his own restaurant and cooked what he liked. He had no prior business experience, no prior restaurant experience, but plenty of barbecue experience. And Looney's barbecue is no joke.