Hurtado in Little Elm Shutters

After opening just last June, Hurtado Barbecue announced Tuesday, Feb. 7, the closing of its Little Elm location on Hardwicke Lane.

“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of our Little Elm location,” said owner Brandon Hurtado. “We gave it everything we had, but after being forced to close with severe water leaks and inclement weather in a very seasonal town, we unfortunately couldn’t recover.”

Facebook, as it is wont to do, had words. Many posters cited the city of Little Elm as unfriendly territory for small businesses, be it for the lack of a lunch crowd, toll roads or a host of other comments that if you start reading will suck you in like the mail room tube in Elf.

But Hurtado’s statement was pretty clear: problems with the building and some bad breaks in a “seasonal” town. 

Brandon Hurtado started smoking meats around 2018 as a side hustle at breweries in Arlington, eventually opening a brick-and-mortar in downtown Arlington at 205 E. Front St. The spot made Texas Monthly’s top 50 barbecue spots, and Hurtado opened a bar, Hayters, adjacent to the Arlington restaurant. Last October he opened a location in Fort Worth at 1116 Eighth Ave. All of those will remain open.