BBQ Joint Wexler's Slated to Open Next Week in Jackson Square

Aidin Darling Design

A modern take on brontosaurus ribs?

BBQ fever has faded a bit in Manhattan, but San Francisco is poised to get the bug, and soon. Following a spate of city inspections, it looks like Friday, June 12, will be opening day for Wexler's. I know, right? The name suggests some old-school drugstore, not a snarly barbecue joint. In fact, the name pays tribute to owner Matt Wexler, a former manager at Levende Lounge and for the PlumpJack Group, who snagged the old Les Amis space (568 Sacramento at Leidesdorff) last year. Chef Charlie Kleinman, who led the kitchen at Fish & Farm, is in charge. He's mapped out a Cali-tinged menu that's reportedly very un-joint-like, with a focus on dry rubs. Plans call for pulled-lamb sandwiches, a daily smoked meat special, possibly even something involving the whole pig. The chef checked out Austin to pick up tips from West Texas pitmasters. We figure the restaurant's sleek Modernist bones (by S.F. firm Aidin Darling Design, of Bar Bambino fame) will make it pretty much the opposite of some sawdust-on-the-floor 'cue shack: No sauce-stained picnic tables with grease-filmed squeeze bottles, but an undulating wood canopy that hints at an animal skeleton as reimagined by M. C. Escher. Trippy.