Multi-Level Barbecue Restaurant and Steakhouse Max’s Is Going Big in the Denny Triangle

Eater first reported on Max's, the upcoming project from Kurt Dammeier (file under: Beecher's, Liam's, Pasta & Co., Bennett's, Maximus/Minimus) a year and a half ago. Way back in the pre-Liam's days, we knew that Dammeier was planning a huge restaurant called Max's after his son, and that it would riff off of his food truck Maximus/Minimus:

"It's going to be a meat-centric restaurant where we cook with fire. We'll have smokers and wood grills and we'll have every kind of meat including seafood," Dammeier revealed last year. "Other than the fact that we'll have smokers, it's an homage to barbecue in the sense that all of the meat you buy will be by the pound and everything will be a la carte."

The project was initially slated to open last February, but now comes word via Eater's sister site Curbed that Max's, part of a 27,200-square-foot former auto shop at 2121 Westlake Ave., will be split into two-levels. Daily Journal of Commerce reports that a steakhouse will be on the lower level and a "roadhouse-style barbecue joint" will occupy the second floor. Offices for Sugar Mountain, the umbrella company for Dammeier's food company and Pure Food Kids Foundation, will move into the top two stories. A production bakery may also be in the works.