Baker’s Ribs is moving from its location on Greenville, where it has been for 23 years, to a spot at Northwest Highway and Abrams.
Baker’s Ribs’ lease is up at the end of October, and then they’ll be moving due to a spike in the rent, although they don’t know exactly what that’ll look like yet, says manager Josh Gilley.
“We don’t know exactly when we’re moving, either,” Gilley says. “We know around October, but we don’t know if the new location is going to be done in time. We don’t know if we’ll do month to month after that or if we’ll have a little down time between this closing and the new opening. We’re still working that out.”
The new Baker’s Ribs location will be at 6516 E. Northwest Hwy., in the old Cha-Cha’s space near Abrams. Although it’s a little bittersweet to move, it’s kind of a “blessing in disguise,” Gilley says. “We kind of need it. We’ll get more room, bigger building, more parking.” The new location is going to be almost twice the size of the current one, and it’ll have amenities such as a drive-thru, a patio with seating for about 30, and a fried pie shop (right now they make the fried pies at their Deep Ellum location and then ship them over).
Plus, the Baker’s Ribs on Greenville is the only location the owner still pays rent on, Gilley says. At the new location the owner will probably be renting with the option to buy, allowing Baker’s Ribs to “get out of the rent game,” he says.
The new location will have the same “rustic cowboy” feel as the rest of the locations. “With the same weird stuff hanging on the wall,” Gilley says. Actually, they’ll probably move most of said “weird stuff” in the Greenville location to the location at Northwest and Abrams. “I’m still trying to figure some of this stuff out,” he jokes.
The Baker’s Ribs in Deep Ellum was the original location. It began on Buckner and then moved to Deep Ellum, where it has been for 26 years. The one on Greenville has been there for more than 23 years, and they hope to be in the new location for many more, Gilley says.
