Smoke BBQ + Skybar — an east-of-downtown nightspot known for its rooftop hip-hop parties and bold expansion plans — quietly filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation last year.
The decade-old business owes nearly $2.7 million to creditors including the IRS and the U.S. Attorney General’s Office, its Nov. 20, 2024 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas shows. The document lists no major assets held by the company and values its total holdings at $50,000 or less.
In Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases, a court comes up with a plan to sell off a business’ assets so creditors can be paid back some of what they’re owed. Unlike a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, Chapter 7 cases typically resolve with the company being dissolved.
The filing, first reported on by online news outlet MySA, comes as Smoke BBQ owner Adrian Martinez and his company multiple lawsuits in Bexar County District Court from creditors seeking to recover money. Among those is a petition from the city, the county and North East ISD seeking to recover a total of $12,000 in taxes owed on a now-shuttered Smoke BBQ location near Stone Oak.
Martinez opened a two-story Stone Oak location, a Corpus Christi satellite and a River Walk barbecue spot called House of Smoke during a 2022 flurry of expansion activity. Those ventures have since shut down, online records show.
Rooftop parties
Smoke BBQ’s 13,000-square-foot downtown restaurant and club is appraised at more than $2.2 million, according to Bexar County records. The building doesn’t appear to be listed as an asset in the Chapter 7 filing since property records show it’s owned by an entity called Flores Living Trust.
Smoke BBQ attracted media attention with its rapid expansion and a series of rooftop events that featured hip-hop artists including 50 Cent and Nelly.
The restaurant and club also made news in summer 2024 when Jasper High School volleyball coach Ayden Burt, 28, was struck and killed by a stray bullet just after midnight while sitting on its rooftop patio. Management later made adjustments to its building and said it would stop hosting live concerts in an effort to avoid future incidents.
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