Neighbors, Officials Say Barbecue Stand Is the Pits

When the cooks at Flint’s Bar B-Q in Oakland get to grilling barbecued chicken, pork ribs and sausage links, you can smell the food a mile away.

And that’s the problem. The odors are so strong that neighbors are up in arms, and local officials have cited the small family owned eatery for air pollution.

“It smells like dead bodies, like burnt flesh,” complained Joseph Vetter, 76, who has lived half a block from the north Oakland take-out shop since it opened 12 years ago. “We have to burn incense to get the odor out of the house. We have to close our windows so we can sleep at night.

“When they barbecue, it’s hell.”

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District cited the food outlet last week after receiving complaints from homeowners like Mary Allen, who said she goes through about one can of air freshener a week. The long-simmering problem has become more than she can take, Allen said.

Odor Is ‘Terrible’

“I’m an asthmatic,” she said. “When I smell this odor . . . I can hardly breathe. It’s terrible.”

Not everyone objects to the aroma. Green Duncan, 66, a retired construction worker who lives next door to Flint’s, described the smell as “beautiful.”

“I love the smell of the food,” he said. “People come here, they say, ‘We smelled this barbecue and we just had to get here.’ If you’re not hungry, you’ll get hungry. That’s the truth of it.”

Nonetheless, Flint’s manager, Marilyn Flintroy, said the owners are doing what they can to curb the problem. Workers spent five or six hours cleaning out the smoke stack, she said. Other measures also are being considered.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do next,” she said.