Hollywood comedians/actors Cedric the Entertainer (“Barbershop”) and Anthony Anderson (“Blackish”) have teamed up to open a fast-causal barbecue restaurant together in Los Angeles. AC Barbeque, which just opened last week, serves familiar Southern barbecue fare at a storefront inside the Westfield Century City outdoor mall.
The restaurant is an extension of the real-life best friends’ on-screen adventures as seen on their A&E/Hulu TV show, “Kings of BBQ”, where they take a culinary road trip to discover the best barbecue secrets. “Kings of BBQ,” in turn, was a TV spinoff of their retail brand, AC Barbeque, which sells sauces, rubs, grilling tools, and more.
“The transition was easy — Ced and I had the idea of developing seasonings and sauces for our BBQ lifestyle line and the television show was a byproduct of that,” Anderson said. “It was a natural evolution. We wanted to document two friends creating a national company in a space where there wasn’t a face that looked like ours. Starting with rubs, sauces, food trucks, and eventually restaurants. We used what we’ve learned in Hollywood to propel us to success.”
Now Cedric and Anderson are both taking on restaurant ownership for the first time in partnership with Planet Hollywood owner Robert Earl. AC Barbeque will offer such dishes as Riverfront Ribs (a full rack of St. Louis-style ribs), AC Chopped Brisket, Anderson’s Smoked Chicken, Keep ‘Em Comin’ Chicken Wings (fryer-finished smoked chicken wings), and barbecue platters, co-created by executive chef Burt Bachman.
“The idea that you have to produce it from top to bottom is very similar to a TV show,” Cedric the Entertainer said. “You’ve got to start with the basics which is the food itself, or a script for the TV and then you’ve got to put together the right staff – you’ve got to find a great chef and good people to run the front of the restaurant so this is your cast that you’re putting together and then you’ve got to have a premiere, open it up and bring it to the people and let them decide.”
AC Barbeque started off as a celebration of family traditions, Black excellence, and backyard cookouts. Before opening the first full-fledged location, Cedric and Anderson opened a campus kitchen at Jackson State University, and then this spring, the restaurant launched its first food truck at Howard University.
Moving forward, the two business partners hope to open more AC Barbeque locations and eventually franchise the business, with both fast-casual and full-service dining locations.
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